Kids Book Index
Stacy Dekeyser
Set in 1948, this novel follows twelve-year-old Nikko Spirakis, who loves baseball and wants to become batboy for a local minor league team. His plans are complicated by the expectations of his immigrant parents and by Tank, a 2,580-pound rhinoceros living beyond the right-field fence of the neighborhood ballpark beside the city zoo. Nikko also plays pickup games with other neighborhood boys.
This book appears on 1 reading list across 1 edition.
The Bridge HomePadma VenkatramanViji and her sister Rukku leave home to escape their abusive father and find themselves living on the streets in India. There they meet Muthu and Arul, two other unhoused children. The four work together to earn money for food and try to improve their circumstances. Told as a letter from Viji to Rukku, the story considers friendship, survival, and the different forms family can take when illness threatens their fragile world.All readersLexile Text Measure 680LATOS Book Level 4.4On the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's PoemsDavid BowlesTwelve-year-old Güero is a red-haired, freckled Mexican American boy growing up near the Mexican border. People call him Güero based on his appearance, but his life includes family traditions, friends known as Los Bobbys, and his own interests. As he navigates seventh grade and the difficulties of growing up on the border, his English teacher helps him discover writing poetry as a way to cope.All readersOn the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details
A Wolf Called WanderRosanne ParrySwift is a young wolf living with his mountain pack, where he learns to hunt, competes with his siblings for rank, and helps watch a new litter of cubs. A rival pack attacks, scattering his family and leaving Swift alone. He travels about a thousand miles across the Pacific Northwest in search of a new home, facing forest fires, hunters, highways, and hunger along the way. The novel is based on the story of wolf OR-7.All readersLexile Text Measure 670LATOS Book Level 4.3On the same reading list for the same age or grade groupView book details