Mrs. Cook’s Book TalkMrs. Cook’s Book Talk

Quick ReadsQuick Reads

Don’t you dare read this, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Peterson

• In the journal she is keeping for English class, sixteen-year-old Tish chronicles the changes in her life when her abusive father returns home after a two-year absence.

• AR level 4.9 / pts. 4 • 108 p• Realistic Fiction

The House on the Gulfby Margaret Peterson Haddix

• Sixteen-year-old Bran arranges a house-sitting job for the summer, but he starts acting strangely after his family moves in, and his twelve-year-old sister, Britt begins to suspect they are not supposed to be there.

• AR level 4.9 / pts. 8 / 208 p.• Mystery

Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

• When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a 1996 tourist site under unseen observation by heartless scientists, and it’s up to Jessie to escape the village and save the lives of the dying children.

• AR level 4.8 / pts. 7 / 184 p.• Mystery

Soup by Robert Newton Peck

• The adventures and misadventures of two boys, Soup and Rob, growing up in a small Vermont town.

• AR level 4.4 / pts. 2 • 96 p.• Realistic Fiction

Pictures of Hollis Woodsby Patricia Reilly Giff

• A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.

• AR level 4.4 / pts. 5 / 166 p.• Realistic Fiction

Coming Homeby Lauren Brooke

• Amy’s mother founded Heartland, a place for healing traumatized horses, but Amy, who inherited her mother’s skills with horses, must continue her work after an accident on a stormy night kills her mother.

• AR level 4.3 / pts. 4 / 140 p.• Inspirational

On My Honorby Marion Dane Bauer

• When his best friend drowns while they are both swimming in a treacherous river that they had promised never to go near, Joel is devastated and terrified at having to tell both sets of parents the terrible consequences of their disobedience.

• AR level 4.7 / pts. 2 / 90 p.• Realistic Fiction

After the Stormby Lauren Brooke

• Although she is still in pain from her mother’s death, Amy must use all her skills with horses to help Spartan, the animal they were trying to rescue the night her mother was killed.

• AR level 4.3 / pts. 5 • 171 p.• Inspirational

The Green Bookby Jill Paton Walsh

• As their small stock of essential supplies dwindles, a group of refugees from earth struggle to make their strange new planet provide life’s necessities.

• AR level 5.5 / pts. 2• 69 p.• Science Fiction

Breaking Freeby Lauren Brooke

• Pegasus, the only link to Amy’s past, is growing weaker and Amy will try everything to nurse him back to health and keep Heartland together, but it will take all of Amy’s courage to avoid living in the shadow of her mother.

• AR level 4.6 / pts. 4 / 148 p.• Inspirational

The Hundred Dressesby Eleanor Estes

• None of her classmates pay much attention to Wanda Petronski, a Polish-American girl, until she announces she has 100 dresses in her closet. Everyone laughs and teases her so much that she stops coming to school. Then, her classmates discover she really does have 100 dresses and discover something about teasing and themselves.

• AR level 5.4 / pts. 1 / 80 p.• Inspirational

A Blue-eyed Daisyby Cynthia Rylant

• Relates episodes in the life of eleven-year-old Ellie and her family who live in a coal mining town in West Virginia.

• AR level 4.6 / pts. 2 • 99 p.• Realistic Fiction

Ellen Fosterby Kaye Gibbons

• Growing up in a small Southern town, eleven-year-old Ellen Foster has already learned some of life’s most difficult lessons. Abused by her drunken father and cruel grandmother, she searches for a safe place to live.

• AR level 4.7 / pts. 6 / 146 p.• Inspirational