Kent District Library - Information. Ideas. Excitement!

Recommended Reading

Explores the various factors which led many of Germany’s young people to pledge their loyalty and support to the dictator and join the Hitler Youth during his rise to power.
Lexile Level: 1050
Guided Reading Level: Y

Provides the first-hand factual account of the six-year-old student who made history by having been one of the first black children to attend an all-white, segregated school in the 1960s.
Lexile Level: 860
Guided Reading Level: W

In this memoir, a young African American writer describes growing up in Brooklyn with her mother and little brother as a member of the post-Civil Rights generation.
Lexile Level: 950
Guided Reading Level: NR

The British writer recounts humorous and memorable events from his childhood, including summer vacations in Norway and an English boarding school.
Lexile Level: 1090
Guided Reading Level: T

Making a pact to stick together through the rough times in their impoverished Newark neighborhood, three boys found the strength and determination to work through their difficulties in order to make their dreams come true by completing high school, getting through college, and attending medical school together.
Lexile Level: 860
Guided Reading Level: W

A reflection of special childhood moments in ten writer’s lives demonstrates the similar, different, and life-changing experiences of children during various time periods and includes individual explanations of how they discovered the path toward becoming writers.
Lexile Level: 850
Guided Reading Level: U

The reminiscences of Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Frank family in Amsterdam during the Second World War, presents a vivid story of life under Nazi occupation.
Lexile Level: 920
Guided Reading Level: NR

The author traces the boyhood enthusiasm for rockets that eventually led to a career at NASA, describing how he built model rockets in the family garage in West Virginia, inspired by the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik.
Lexile Level: 900
Guided Reading Level: NR

Discusses the life and many specific achievements of forensic anthropologist Diane France.
Lexile Level: 950
Guided Reading Level: Y

A child’s-eye view of the fear, hardship, and persecution of the Chinese Cultural Revolution recalls the political reign of terror that led to the persecution of the author’s family, her father’s arrest, and her own struggle to choose between family loyalty and her future.
Lexile Level: 780
Guided Reading Level: Z

The author discusses how her military family encouraged her to fight the tradition of the corps and Southern culture, and endure the hardship of military life to become The Citadel’s first female graduate.
Lexile Level: 1060
Guided Reading Level: NR

The author relates his experiences growing up in Harlem, the home of Sugar Ray Robinson and Langston Hughes, in the 1940s and 1950s.
Lexile Level: 970
Guided Reading Level: X

Describes six years in the life of a daring and resourceful Polish Jewish boy and his family, who survived the Holocaust by using false papers and posing as Catholics.
Lexile Level: 920
Guided Reading Level: NR

An award-winning biographer paints a vivid picture of John Lennon’s life, from his tumultuous childhood in London to his rock-n-roll career writing, recording, and performing music with the Beatles, revealing how he struggled to come to terms with fame, marriage, and his artistic mind.
Lexile Level: 1010
Guided Reading Level: NR

Offers an in-depth look at the life and music of this celebrated song writer and singer who performed songs from the late 1920s to the 1950s about daily life, racial equality, and the working man’s world in America.
Lexile Level: 1020
Guided Reading Level: Z

Stewart, Winston, and their new adopted Russian-American sister pool their money to buy their gramma, Miss Eula, an Easter bonnet, but they come up short and must think of an innovative way to earn the money.
Lexile Level: 650
Guided Reading Level: N

At first, Trisha loves school, but her difficulty learning to read makes her feel dumb, until, in the fifth grade, a new teacher helps her understand and overcome her problem.
Lexile Level: 650
Guided Reading Level: M

During a scarlet fever epidemic one winter in Michigan, a Jewish family helps make Christmas special for their sick neighbors by making their own Hanukkah miracle.
Lexile Level: 630
Guided Reading Level: M

An account of the tragic fate of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust is set against a chronicle of the roots of Nazi anti-Semitism, Hitler’s rise to power, World War II, and the Nazi program of extermination.
Lexile Level: 970
Guided Reading Level: NR

With all the warmth, humor, and drama of his best-selling fiction, a Newbery medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood in Norristown, Pennsylvania, which includes in his first kiss, first punch, and first trip to the principal’s office.
Lexile Level: 980
Guided Reading Level: U

Surveys the history of the relationship between wolves and humans, considers their part in the ecosystem, and describes the movement to restore them to the wild.
Lexile Level: 1050
Guided Reading Level: R

The author recalls her experiences when she and her mother were hidden from the Nazis by a Gentile couple in Lwow, Poland, during World War II.
Lexile Level: 910
Guided Reading Level: S

Tells the story of one Japanese-American family’s experiences in an internment camp in Utah during World War II.
Lexile Level: 1280
Guided Reading Level: NR

The narrative of a boy who lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald provides a short and terrible indictment of modern humanity.
Lexile Level: 590
Guided Reading Level: Z