Batt School for International Leadership
Intermediate Grades Book List
Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting
Train to Somewhere imagines a journey on one of the many “Orphan Trains” that, between the mid‑1850s and the late 1920s, brought children from New York City orphanages to adoptive families in the West.
Dear Whiskers by Ann Whitehead Nagda
Jenny is discouraged when her pen pal turns out to be a new student from Saudi Arabia who does not speak English very well.
The Year of the Panda by Miriam Schlein
Lu Yi wonders why a daxiong mao (giant panda) has come down from the mist‑shrouded mountains. Then he and his father discover a dead panda which has left behind a baby. Lu Yi rescues the orphan, and with the help of his family, cares for it.
The Drinking Gourd by F.N. Monjo
When he is sent home alone for misbehaving in church, Tommy discovers that his house is a station on the underground railroad.
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jean Birdsall
Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade by Barthe DeClements
A fifth grade class, repelled by the overweight new student who has serious home problems, finally learns to accept her.
Henry and the Kite Drag by Bruce Edward Hall
The Skirt by Hary Soto
Miata Ramirez has a problem: she forgets things. This particular Friday afternoon, she has left her folkl orico skirt on the school bus, and she is supposed to dance in it on Sunday.
Top Secret by Marc Simont and John R. Gardiner
Eight‑year‑old Henry lives in New York City’s Chinatown, the “three tiny streets” next to the Little Italy neighborhood. He and his friends love to visit the kite maker, Grandfather Chin, to help him paste and paint the kites, which Grandfather Chin flies from his roof in dramatic swoops, sometimes chasing pigeons. Some boys from Little Italy begin to throw rocks that destroy the kites. Henry wants to fight, but Grandfather Chin prefers to resist quietly by continuing to fly kites of increasing glory.
Thunder Caveby Roland Smith
After his mother is killed in a jogging accident and his stepfather decides to ship him off to live with relatives in Nebraska, 14‑year‑old Jacob Lansa opts to travel to Kenya in search of his father, a wildlife biologist tracking elephant herds.
The Liberation of Gabriel Kingby K.L. Going
In a small town in Georgia in 1976, Gabe King, who is white, and his friend Frita Wilson, who is African American, take on a special project. Gabe is determined not to go to fifth grade in the fall, in the “big kids” wing of the school. Gabe will be one of the smallest students, and at the mercy of bullies Duke Evans and Frankie Carmen. Frita, however, has determined to use the summer to liberate her friend from his fears and make sure he moves up with her.
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Eleven‑year‑old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she’s disliked them all. She has a county‑wide reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanageable. So when she’s sent to live with the Trotters ‑‑ by far the strangest family yet ‑‑ Gilly decides to put her sharp mind to work. Before long she’s devised an elaborate scheme to get her real mother to come rescue her.
Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Bartone
Bartone deftly vivifies a slice of American history‑‑and the immigrant experience‑‑in this touching story of a boy’s quest to win his sick father’s respect. In New York City’s Little Italy at the turn of the century, Peppe must support his eight sisters and cantankerous father.
Samuel’s Choice by Richard J. Berleth
Berleth describes in simple, undramatic language the story of Samuel, a black 14‑year‑old who belongs to a Dutch Tory in 1776 Brooklyn and whose life is one of heavy labor. He longs for freedom, and his flagging courage is renewed by his fiery friend Sana, a fellow slave.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, 11‑year‑old Parvana has rarely been outdoors. Barred from attending school, shopping at the market, or even playing in the streets of Kabul, the heroine of Deborah Ellis’s engrossing children’s novel, The Breadwinner, is trapped inside her family’s one‑room home. That is, until the Taliban hauls away her father and Parvana realizes that it’s up to her to become the “breadwinner” and disguise herself as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother. Set in the early years of the Taliban regime, this topical novel for middle readers explores the harsh realities of life for girls and women in modern‑day Afghanistan.
To Walk the Sky Path by Phyllis Naylor
Billie Tommie, a ten‑year‑old Seminole Indian, lives with his family in a chickee on a mangrove island in the Florida Everglades. Billie is the first in his family to attend school. Now he walks in two worlds‑‑the traditional world of his ancestors and the modern world of teachers, tourists, and schoolmates.
A Doctor Like Papaby Natalie Kinsey‑Warnock
Margaret’s dream of becoming a doctor like her father is put to the test in 1918 in rural Vermont.
Golem by David Wisniewski
Elaborately composed cut‑paper spreads give a 3D, puppet‑show‑like quality to a retelling of a Jewish legend.
The Missing Gator of Gumbo Junction by Jean Craighead George and Myron Uhlberg
Anna’s Blizzard by Alison Hart
Anna Vail, 12, lives in a sod house on the Nebraska prairie in 1888. She enjoys farm chores and riding her beloved pony, Top Hat, but feels clumsy and out of place at school. When an unexpected blizzard traps her class in their one‑room schoolhouse, it’s up to Anna and Top Hat to lead everyone to safety.
The Secret School by Avi
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Harriet is determined to become a famous author. In the meantime, she practices by following a regular spy route each day and writing down everything she sees in her secret notebook. Her life is turned upside down when her classmates find her notebook and read it aloud.
The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos
Joey Pigza is a young boy who has ADD and is hyperactive. Joey has good intentions but everything he does turns disastrous.
The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
A young boy arrives at an old country house in the midst of a flood and discovers that it is inhabited not only by his great‑grandmother, but by a host of half‑seen children‑‑inhabitants of the manor from centuries past.
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweilerby E.L. Konigsburg
Nory Ryan’s Song byPatricia Reilly Giff
Nory Ryan’s family has lived in Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, and getting by. Every year Nory’s father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing. Times are never easy in Maidin Bay, but this year, a terrible blight attacks potatoes. No crop means starvation. Twelve‑year‑old Nory must summon the courage and ingenuity to find food, to find hope, and to find a way to help her family survive.
Honeysuckle House by Andrea Cheng
Born in Cincinnati, Sarah, 10, is Chinese American, but she doesn’t speak Chinese and doesn’t want to. She’s furious when the teacher expects her to take care of the new kid, Ting, who has just arrived from Shanghai. Ting, who does know a little English, wishes she were back home, far from people who mock her accent and appearance. Told in the girls’ alternating voices, this novel is certainly a friendship story, but it moves beyond the usual immigration‑assimilation scenario to show the cultural differences across generations and inside families.
Discovery at Flint Springsby John R. Erickson
The Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele
The Raft People live in darkness and travel a circular journey on an underground river. One boy finds his way outside and tries to learn as much as possible so he can ultimately lead his people to the Better Place.
The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff
Dominic, a lonely orphan boy, is accidentally left behind on a fifth‑grade school trip to Ellis Island. Wandering at night through the museum, he listens to the narratives of immigrants in the exhibit and is shocked when one of the voices addresses him, telling him about life in Italy. Exhausted, Dominic falls asleep, and finds himself transported to the same village the narrator was telling him about, a place in southern Italy, where the immigrant and his two brothers teach Dominic what it’s truly like to be hungry and poor.
Angel on the Squareby Gloria Whelan
In Angel on the Square, a young girl joins Russian Tsar Nikolai II, Empress Alexandra, and their children when her mother becomes one of the empress’s ladies‑in‑waiting. Katya Ivanova, as companion to the Romanov children, has an insider’s view of the crumbling of tsarist Russia from 1913 to 1918.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
In this chilling beginning to The Wolves Chronicles, two little cousins are left in the care of an evil governess. They escape and travel 400 miles to London with their friend Simon and his geese.
My Name Is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada
Third‑grader Maria Isabel, born in Puerto Rico and now living in the U.S., wants badly to fit in at school; and the teacher’s writing assignment, “My Greatest Wish,” gives her that opportunity.
Free the Children: A Young Man Fights Against Child Labor and Proves that Children Can Change the World by Craig Kielburger
(The) Cay by Theodore Taylor
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