| 2004 - 2005 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book List |
 |
Agnes Parker...Girl in Progress
by
Kathleen O'Dell
As she starts sixth grade, Agnes faces challenges with her old best friend, a wonderful new friend, a longtime bully, and herself |
 |
Alia Waking
by Laura Williams McCaffrey
Alia and her best friend Kay long to join the Keentens, a sisterhood of warrior women, but after a punishment caring for captives, Alia begins to question everything that once was certain in her life.
|
 |
Brainboy and the DeathMaster
by
Tor Seidler
When Darryl, a twelve-year-old orphan, is adopted by a technology genius, he finds himself the star of his very own life-threatening video game. |
 |
Colibri
by Ann Cameron
Kidnapped when she was very young by an unscrupulous man who has forced her to lie and beg to get money, a twelve-year-old Mayan girl endures an abusive life, always wishing she could return to the parents she can hardly remember. |
 |
Facing the Lion: Growing up Maasai on the African Savanna
by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton
A member of the Maasai people describes his life as he grew up in a northern Kenya village and traveled to America to attend college. |
 |
For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Despite the horrors of World War II, a French teenager pursues her dream of becoming an opera singer, which takes her to places where she gains information about what the Nazis are doing - information that the French Resistance need. |
 |
Gifts from the Sea
by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
Quila and her father, living alone in a remote Maine lighthouse in the 1850s, find their lives profoundly changed when a baby washes ashore and they decide to keep her as part of their family. |
 |
Grape Thief
by Kristine Franklin
In 1925, in a small Washington State community made up of families from different ethnic backgrounds, twelve-year-old Cuss tries to stay in school as he watches those around him struggle with various financial difficulties. |
 |
Gregor the Overlander
by Suzanne Collins
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving people, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.
|
 |
Hear the Wind Blow
by Mary Downing Hahn
With their mother dead and their home burned, a thirteen-year-old boy and his little sister set out across Virginia in search of relatives during the final days of the Civil War. |
 |
How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme Sports
by Gary Paulsen
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel. |
 |
In Defense of Liberty
by Russell Freedman
Describes the origins, applications of, and challenges to the ten amendments to the United States Constitution that comprise the Bill of Rights.
|
 |
Locomotion
by Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school. |
 |
Minn and Jake
by Janet S. Wong
Fifth-grader Minn, the tallest girl in school, begins a rocky friendship with Jake, a new student who is not only very short, but is also afraid of the worms and lizards that Minn likes to collect. |
 |
Olive's Ocean
by Kevin Henkes
On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer. |
 |
Prairie Whispers
by Frances Arrington
Only twelve-year-old Colleen knows that her baby sister died just after she was born and that Colleen put another baby in her place, until the baby's father shows up and makes trouble for her and her family on the South Dakota prairie in the 1860s.
|
 |
Rodzina
by Karen Cushman
A twelve-year-old Polish American girl boards an orphan train in Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery. |
 |
Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois
by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
Introduces the life of renowned modern artist Louise Bourgeois, who is known primarily for her sculptures.
|
 |
Sahara Special
by Esme Raji Codell
Struggling with school and her feelings since her father left, Sahara gets a fresh start with a new and unique teacher who supports her writing talents and the individuality of each of her classmates. |
 |
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
by Ron Koertge
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss.
|
 |
Strange Mr. Satie
by M.T.
Anderson
Introduces the life of the French composer, Erik Satie, who spent his entire career challenging established conventions in music.
|
 |
Sword off the Rightful King
by Jane Yolen
Merlinnus the magician devises a way for King Arthur to prove himself the rightful King of England - pulling a sword from a stone, but trouble arises when someone else removes the sword first. |
 |
Tadpole
by Ruth White
In rural Kentucky in 1955, Serilda Collins, single mother of four lively girls, discovers that her orphaned nephew is being subjected to brutality. |
 |
The Ballad of Sir Dinadan
by Gerald Morris
Though he would rather pursue his talent as a musician, eighteen-year-old Dinadan is forced to follow his older brother Tristram's path and become a knight. Set at the time of King Arthur. |
 |
The City of Ember
by Jeanne
DuPrau
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a messenger, to run to new places in her beloved but decaying city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
|
 |
The Conch Bearer
by Chitra B. Divakaruni
In India, a healer invites twelve-year-old Anand to join him on a quest to return a magical conch to its safe and rightful home, high in the Himalayan mountains. |
 |
The Daring Nellie By: America's Star Reporter
by Bonnie Christensen
Introduces the life of Nellie Bly, who, as a "stunt reporter" for the New York World newspaper in the late 1800s, championed women's rights and traveled around the world faster than anyone ever had.
|
 |
The River Between Us
by Richard Peck
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois. |
 |
The Tale of Desperaux
by Kate DiCamillo
The adventures of Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
|
 |
The Woods Scientist
by Stephen R.Swinburne
A devoted nature lover and animal tracker, Sue Morse shares her knowledge and love of some of the creatures that inhabit America's woodlands. |
