Mrs.+Burgey's+Picks

These are some of my favorite books...

Adventure/Fantasy

 Level 5.5 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone  by J. K. Rowling

 Level 4.6 Annie’s Adventures The Sisters 8 Book 1  by Lauren Baratz-Logsted On New Year’s Eve, the octuplets-Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and Zinnia-discover that their parents are missing, and then uncover a mysterious note instructing them that each must find her power and her gift if they want to know what happened to their parents.   Level 3.9  The Golly-Whopper games  by Jody Feldman Twelve-year old Gil Goodson competes against thousands of other children at extraordianary stunts, puzzles, and more in hopes of a fresh start for his family. 

 Level 5 The City of Ember  by Jeanna DuPrau In the city of Ember, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.   Level 4.7 <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The Lightning Thief <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Rick Riordan Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control his temper, learns the truth from his mother that his father is the Greek god Poseidon, and is sent to Camp Half Blood where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter of Athena who join him in a journey to the Underworld to retrieve Zeus's lightning bolt and prevent a catastrophic war. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.8 <span style="color: #26c8c9; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> Gregor the Overlander <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">by Suzanne Collins When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving humans, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 6 <span style="color: #730080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Magyk <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Angie Sage Jenna learns that she is a princess found as a baby by the man she believed was her father and now she and Septimus, who was taken at birth by the midwife, are being threatened by the evil wizard, DomDaniel who intends to finish off the entire royal line. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 5.6 <span style="color: #e8599b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Igraine the Brave <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Cornelia Funke <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Igraine, a 12 year old girl, dreams of becoming a famous knight. Greedy Osmund’s got a dastardly plan to capture Pimpernal Castle and steal the singing magic books that belong to Igraine’s mom and dad who have misspoken a spell and have turned themselves into pigs. Will she be able to face her fears and find the courage to save the day-and the magic books? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.8 <span style="color: #db7648; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Magical Kids: The Smallest Girl Ever and The Boy Who could Fly <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Sally Gardner Two stories about children who, after enduring difficulties in life, develop magical powers that improve their lives immeasurably. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.3 <span style="color: #712828; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> Nightmare at the Book Fair <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Dan Gutman When fifth-grader Trip Dinkleman, who does not like to read very much, is hit on the head by a heavy box and becomes a character in a series of different books-from a sports story to a science fiction novel to an adventure tale-his view of reading is changed forever. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #ba31d3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Adventure/Fantasy/ <span style="color: #da4444; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Romance

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 6 <span style="color: #1b2ac0; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Bella at Midnight <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Diane Stanley Bella's peasant life is changed when her real father, a knight who abandoned her when she was a baby, comes and reclaims her, moving her to his home where she lives with a resentful stepmother and two horrible stepsisters and learns about a plot to kill her friend, Prince Julian. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #cf825e; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Animals

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 5.6 <span style="color: #3abce4; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Gully’s Travels <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Tor Seidler Gulliver, a Lhasa apso, has a happy life with his master, Professor Rattigan, in a Manhattan apartment. His diet consists of his favorite flavor of canned dog food, he and his master travel to Paris every summer, and his walks around Washington Square are the perfect distance for his short legs. However, his life suffers a dramatic change when his master gets engaged to his French girlfriend, who is allergic to dogs. Gulliver, now Gully, moves to Queens and lives with the family of Carlos, the doorman at his previous building, where he is served dry food and shares a home with three other dogs, a talkative gerbil, and an eight-year-old girl. Gully can't understand why his professor has deserted him, so he travels on his own to Manhattan and to Paris, discovering along the way that a loving home means more to him than luxuries. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #e62d85; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Funny

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.6 <span style="color: #e76732; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Knucklehead <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Jon Scieszka Tall Tales and mostly true stories about his own childhood <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="color: #c359f3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Mystery

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4 <span style="color: #eb52d6; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Sammy Keyes <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Wendelin Van Draanen Exciting mysteries starring the feisty and funny, smart and spunky seventh-grade ace detective, Samantha Keyes. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.4 <span style="color: #3eea41; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Sherlock Files the 100-year-old secret <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Tracy Barrett Xena and Xander Holmes, an American brother and sister living in London for a year, discover that Sherlock Holmes was their great-great-great grandfather when they are inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Famous Detectives and given his unsolved casebook, from which they attempt to solve the case of a famous missing painting. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.8 <span style="color: #e4d69b; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Masterpiece <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Elise Broach After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together to help recover a Durer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 5.2 <span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Ghost Soldier <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Elaine Alphin Alexander, in North Carolina while his father decides whether to remarry and move there, meets the ghost of a Confederate soldier and helps him look for his family. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #7ba343; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Poetry

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.5 <span style="color: #50aec3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Love That Dog <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Sharon Creech A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poems. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #dd557c; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Romance

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.9 The Wedding Planner’s Daughter <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Coleen Paratore Willa, a romantic girl who wants a father, tries to find a husband for her mother, Cape Cod's most popular wedding planner. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #eccd74; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Spooky

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 4.2 The Old Willis Place <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Mary Downing Hahn Tired of the rules that have bound them ever since "the bad thing happened," twelve-year-old Diana ignores her brother's warnings and befriends the daughter of the new caretaker, setting in motion events that lead to the release of the spirit of an evil, crazy woman who once ruled the old Willis place. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Level 5.6 <span style="color: #bd3d3d; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Stolen <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> by Vivan Vane Velde The same day that the villagers finally hunt down a witch with a reputation for stealing children, a 12 year old appears in the woods with no memory of her past. Is there a connection between the girl who doesn’t know who she is, and the girl the witch stole six years earlier? A story with many twists and turns, ending with a shocking revelation that finally resolves the mystery of the girl with no memory.