KDL Recommends

Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
Lexile Level: 780
Guided Reading Level: W

After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.
Lexile Level: 910
Guided Reading Level: NR

Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of James Town, where he must quickly learn to distinguish between friend and foe.
Lexile Level: 820
Guided Reading Level: U

In alternating passages, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, established in 1879 to educate Native Americans, as they try to assimilate into white culture and one of them is falsely accused of stealing.
Lexile Level: 1000
Guided Reading Level: W

Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in medieval England, tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical.
Lexile Level: 850
Guided Reading Level: NR

A young apprentice silversmith growing up in Boston during the Revolutionary War becomes involved with famous patriots.
Lexile Level: 840
Guided Reading Level: Z

When a terrible blight attacks Ireland’s potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan’s courage and ingenuity help her family and neighbors survive.
Lexile Level: 600

After the Communists take over Cambodia and her family is torn from their city life, twelve-year-old Nakri and her older sister attempt to maintain their hope as well as their classical dancing skills in the midst of their struggle to survive.
Lexile Level: 1020
Guided Reading Level: W

As a new African-American sophomore at an exclusive, all-white boarding school, fifteen-year-old Rob Garrett is witness to the persecution of another student with bad acne who is also Jewish.
Lexile Level: 990
Guided Reading Level: Y

Helping support her struggling family by working all day in a hot, noisy cotton mill, ten-year-old Rebecca Putney fears losing her job when poor working conditions and lowered pay result in employee protests.
Lexile Level: 600

In 1804, fifteen-year-old Jacky Faber heads back to sea where she gains control of a British warship and eventually becomes a privateer.
Lexile Level: 1000
Guided Reading Level: NR

When Thomas Peaceful’s older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself.
Lexile Level: 860
Guided Reading Level: X

Based on the actual kidnapping of Inuit Eskimos by seventeenth-century traders, the story centers on Osuqo, an Inuit, and Christine, a Norwegian servant forced to guard her.
Lexile Level: 840
Guided Reading Level: NR

In the 1860’s, Bright Morning, Running Bird, and their Navajo kinsmen are forced to abandon their homes after Spanish soldiers destroy their crops.
Lexile Level: 820
Guided Reading Level: T

During the Nazi occupation of France, Monique’s mother hides a Jewish family in her basement and tries to help them escape to freedom.
Lexile Level: 430
Guided Reading Level: NR

In a true story, Pinkus Aylee, a black Union soldier, finds Sheldon Curtis left for dead and carries him home to be tended by his mother, but when the two boys attempt to rejoin the Union troops, they are captured and sent to Andersonville Prison.
Lexile Level: 590
Guided Reading Level: S

Determined to live her own life free of the controls of any man, Sara Louisa Wheelock disguises herself as a man and sets off from her home in Michigan to fight as a soldier in the Civil War.
Lexile Level: 680
Guided Reading Level: NR

In 1798 Rebecca, a young settler in the Ohio territory, meets the Shawnee chief called Tecumseh whom she grows to love and then must choose a future on her family homestead or one with the man she loves.
Lexile Level: 540
Guided Reading Level: NR

Having befriended Lizzie, a young girl who lives on an island community founded by former slaves, Turner begins to experience many disapproving looks from those in the community, yet it doesn’t change the way he feels and even makes him more determined to stand with her when developers make a shady deal to push Lizzie and her people off their island home.
Lexile Level: 1000
Guided Reading Level: Y

The 1653-1654 diary of a fourteen-year-old Pocasset Indian girl, destined to become a leader of her tribe, describes how her life changes with the seasons, after a ritual fast she undertakes, and with her tribe’s interaction with the English “Coat-men” of the nearby Plymouth Colony.
Lexile Level: 1050
Guided Reading Level: V

In Restoration London, sixteen-year-old Meg Moore, a self-proclaimed bookworm who spends her days with the authors and poets who visit her father’s bookstore, learns the power of the written word when she pens a harsh letter that leads to the capture of her best friend’s brother.
Lexile Level: 950
Guided Reading Level: W

In 1942, seven-year-old Emi and her Japanese-American family are forced to leave their home, a situation that becomes even more devastating when she loses a precious gold bracelet, a gift from her best friend.
Lexile Level: 710
Guided Reading Level: R

Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel Sheridan is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor’s identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents’ mission hospital.
Lexile Level: 900
Guided Reading Level: X

A surprisingly diverse crew accompanied Lewis and Clark on their famous journey across the continent, including a hunter, a fiddler, a chatty kid, a slave, a drunkard, and the teenage Sacagawea—this exciting story is told through the voices of those fourteen people who set off on an unknown adventure.
Lexile Level: 850
Guided Reading Level: NR