Dayton Metro Library - Kids Info4U

As the lone "young lady" on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious. READING LEVEL: 5.3

Presents the journal of a sixteen-year-old girl whose family operates a stop on the Underground Railroad. READING LEVEL: 4.8

A young boy who has no identity nor memory of his past washes ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of fantastic adventures. READING LEVEL: 5.1

When a boy and girl are drowned in the Blackwater River, thirteen-year-old Brodie must decide whether to confess that he may have caused the accident. READING LEVEL: 3.6

The life of a thirteen-year-old Harlem black boy on his way to becoming a confirmed heroin addict is seen from his viewpoint and from that of several people around him. READING LEVEL: 5.6

Stripped and marooned on a small island by their fellow campers, a boy and a girl form an uneasy bond that grows into a deep friendship when they decide to run away and disappear without a trace. READING LEVEL: 3.9

Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town. READING LEVEL: 4.9

Helen fears that lack of improvement in her reading may leave her stuck in the sixth grade forever, until a good teacher recognizes her reading problem. READING LEVEL: 4.3

In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them. READING LEVEL: 4.7

While journeying to Zimbabwe, eleven-year-old Nhamo struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits. READING LEVEL: 5.1

Natalie, who lives in the large hotel managed by her father, has a dangerous friendship with Tulip, the wildly uncontrollable girl on a neighboring farm. READING LEVEL: 4.4

When his class of underachievers is assigned to spend three torturous weeks taking care of their own "babies" in the form of bags of flour, Simon makes amazing discoveries about himself while coming to terms with his long-absent father. READING LEVEL: 4.9

Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War. READING LEVEL: 5

When Marjan, a thirteen-year-old crippled girl, joins the Sultan's harem in ancient Persia, she gathers for Shahrazad the stories which will save the queen's life. READING LEVEL: 4.6

In 1943 twelve-year-old Rex sees his quiet New Zealand village dramatically changed by the arrival of a black American soldier on leave from the war. READING LEVEL: 3.9

Sheltering an escaped prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a twelve-year-old girl in Arkansas. READING LEVEL: 7

Teenage Holland and her younger sister Geneva, having always lived under the shadow of siblings who died before they were born, struggle to establish separate identities and escape from the oppressive weight of their parents' continuing grief. READING LEVEL: 5

African American folktales, fairy tales, and true tales. READING LEVEL: 4.6

As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M.C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love. READING LEVEL: 4.4

Already a leader in New York's underground world of homeless children, Buddy Clark takes on the responsibility of protecting the overweight, emotionally disturbed friend with whom he has been playing hooky from eighth grade all semester. READING LEVEL: 5.1

After rescuing an adolescent girl from the sea, researchers learn she has been raised by dolphins and attempt to rehabilitate her to the human world. READING LEVEL: 3.4

As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington state in 1899. READING LEVEL: 4.8

Thirteen year-old Aremis Slake, hounded by his fears and misfortunes, flees them into New York City's subway tunnels, never again--he believes--to emerge. READING LEVEL: 6.4

Growing up in Saitter, Louisiana, in the 1950s, twelve-year-old Tiger Ann struggles with her feelings about her stern, but loving grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her good friend and neighbor, Jesse. READING LEVEL: 4.6

During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world. READING LEVEL: 4.5

Determined to find his father who has been lost in a storm, a young boy and his Eskimo friend brave wind storms, starvation, wild animals, and wild men during their search in the Canadian Arctic. READING LEVEL: 4.9

Odge Gribble, a young hag, accompanies an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on their mission through a magical tunnel from their Island to London to rescue their King and Queen's son who had been stolen as an infant. READING LEVEL: 4

When the peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy. READING LEVEL: 5.6

Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents. READING LEVEL: 4.7

Because she suffers from extreme shyness, Anna retreats into herself and her secret rooms where she attempts to remain hidden from the outside world. READING LEVEL: 5

Shipwrecked after a vicious storm, fourteen-year-old John Spencer attempts to save his father and himself while also dealing with an evil secret about the English coastal town where they are stranded. READING LEVEL: 4.2

When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance. READING LEVEL: 3.6

Desta and the other members of her Falasha family, Jews suffering from discrimination in Ethiopia, finally flee the country and attempt the dangerous journey to Israel. READING LEVEL: 7

Forbidden by her father to indulge in music in any way, a girl on the planet Pern runs away, taking shelter with the planet's fire lizards who, along with her music, open a new life for her. READING LEVEL: 6.8

New to 116th Street in New York, a young boy soon makes friends and begins a year of unusual experiences. READING LEVEL: 4.8

In claiming as his own the magnificent black pearl he finds, a sixteen-year-old youth enrages the sea devil whose legend says is its owner. READING LEVEL: 5.4

A Jewish girl and the daughter of a Nazi have been best friends since they started school, but in 1938 the 13-year-olds find their close relationship difficult to maintain. READING LEVEL: 4.4

A fourteen-year-old Eskimo boy who feels assailed by the modernity of his life takes a 1400-mile journey by dog sled across ice, tundra, and mountains seeking his own "song" of himself. READING LEVEL: 5.2

After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce. READING LEVEL: 5.7

To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done", especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter. READING LEVEL: 4.4

The story of a young boy's love for two hunting dogs and his coming of age in Oklahoma in the 1930's. READING LEVEL: 4.9

A collection of short stories about Mexican American youth growing up in California's Central Valley. READING LEVEL: 5

In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft. READING LEVEL: 5.7

Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need to survive. READING LEVEL: 5.7

When fourteen-year-old Drew and her mute younger brother come to live with their father's estranged relatives after their parents' sudden death, they discover that the house is haunted by ghosts and a deadly family secret. READING LEVEL: 4.9

Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone. READING LEVEL: 6

After the Pearl Harbor attack an eleven-year-old Japanese-American girl and her family are forced to go to an aliens camp in Utah. READING LEVEL: 5

A fictionalized autobiography in which eight-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II. READING LEVEL: 4.7

After an air raid, a group of English children find a German machine gun and hide it from adults who are looking for it. READING LEVEL: 6

Allegra spends her twelfth summer practicing a Mozart concerto for a violin competition and finding many significant connections in her world. READING LEVEL: 5

Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom. READING LEVEL: 5.5

Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland. READING LEVEL: 4.6

After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left. READING LEVEL: 4.9

Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. READING LEVEL: 5

In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world. READING LEVEL: 6

Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President. READING LEVEL: 7.7

While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack. READING LEVEL: 5.8

With fighting erupting around his Kansas farm, 16-year-old Jefferson Davis Bussey can hardly wait to join the Union forces. When he infiltrates Colonel Watie's Confederate camp as a spy, he discovers the enemy is much like himself -- only fighting for a different cause. READING LEVEL: 6.1

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. READING LEVEL: 5.7

Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North. READING LEVEL: 7

Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity. READING LEVEL: 5.7

Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches. READING LEVEL: 5.5

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself. READING LEVEL: 4.6

A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand. READING LEVEL: 5.7

Recommended Books for Sixth Grade