Vineland Public Library Children's Department
Recommended Books for Book Reports
Booklists, Grades 3 and up

• Alexander, Lloyd, The Black Cauldron. Taran embarks on a quest announced by Prince Gwydion to snatch the black cauldron from the evil kingdom of Arawn, Lord of the Land of Death. Taran learns braggarts can become heroes and mighty kings can turn traitor. Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• Babbitt, Natalie, Tuck Everlasting. Winnie’s adventures with the Tuck family involve kidnapping, murder and a jailbreak. All because she has stumbled onto their secret, if you drink the water from their spring, you will never grow any older. Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade

• Boston, L. M., Children of Green Knowe. Tolly comes to live with his great-grandmother at Green Knowe, her ancestral mansion in the English countryside. He meets some children from Green Knowe’s past (ghosts?) who help him break a curse on the house. Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade

• Cassedy, Sylvia, Behind the Attic Wall. Maggie, a rebellious twelve-year-old is sent to live with two elderly great-aunts, who are horrified by her behavior. Behind the attic wall she finds two dolls that are alive and lead her into their world. Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• Conrad, Pam, Stonewords. Zoe discovers that her house is occupied by the ghost of an eleven-year-old girl, who carries her back to the day of her death in 1870 to try to alter that tragic event. Reading Level: 5th - 9th grade

• Cooper, Susan, The Boggart. After visiting the castle in Scotland which her family has inherited and returning home to Canada, twelve-year-old Emily finds that she has accidentally brought back with her a Boggart, an invisible and mischievous spirit with a fondness for practical jokes. Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade

• Cooper, Susan, The Dark is Rising. On his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers that he is one of the "Old Ones," those who have special powers and a primary role in the battle of good against evil. The power of the dark is on the rise. During the twelve days of Christmas, Will must learn to use his gifts to defeat the forces of evil and save his sister. Reading Level: 4th - 7th grade

• Eager, Edward, Half Magic. Three sisters, a brother and widowed mother made up the family. Jane the eldest, found a magic coin which granted half of any wish. If you wished to become invisible, you only became transparent, there were a few problems involved. Reading Level: 4th to 6th grade

• Farmer, Penelope, Charlotte Sometimes. When Charlotte awakens on her second day at boarding school she is horrified to discover that everything was different than the night before. She has slipped forty years back in time and has taken the place of a girl named Clare. Thus begins their strange adventures, each girl spending every other day in a different time and life. Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade

• Hunter, Mollie, A Stranger Came Ashore. Is Finn Larson really the only survivor of a shipwreck? Or is he really a "seal man" come to steal Robbie’s sister away? The folklore of the Selkies and the customs of the islands are woven into this struggle between good and evil, as Robbie tries to get help against magical powers from the wizard. Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• Key, Alexander, The Forgotten Door. One moment Little John is looking at the stars, he takes a step backwards and finds himself in another world where the people are different from himself. They can’t communicate with animals or each other using just their minds the way he can. And worst of all, he can’t remember where he came from, so how is he to get home? Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• Lively, Penelope, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. Workmen getting an English cottage ready for its new tenants break an old bottle and let loose the spirit of Thomas Kempe, a sorcerer whose mortal remains have been buried since 1639. When the Harrisons move into the house strange things begin to happen and James is accused of everything the ghost actually does. Reading Level: 4th- 6th grade

• Lunn, Janet Louise, The Root Cellar. Rose, a twelve-year-old orphan, sent to live with distant relatives in Canada, is unhappy in her new home. When she goes down into the old root cellar she finds she has traveled back in time to Civil War days. Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• McKinley, Robin, The Hero and the Crown. The daughter of a "witchwoman" tries to win people’s trust. After studying her mother’s recipes, Aerin sets out to gain the Hero’s Crown. On the way she fights dragons, meets a wizard, and battles an evil mage. Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• Norton, Andre, Lavender-Green Magic. When their father is MIA in Vietnam, the Wade children move in with their grandparents so their mother can return to work as a nurse. Holly is horrified. Not only has her whole world collapsed, but her grandparents live in a junkyard! But when she and her twin brother and sister, Crockett and Judy, begin to explore their new home, they find a secret house which transports them to Colonial America and a feud between two powerful witches. Reading Level: 4th - 7th grade

• Norton, Mary, The Borrowers. The story of a tiny family that lives in an apartment under the grandfather clock in an old English country house. Arrietty puts the family in danger by making friends with a human boy who has moved to the house for his health. Reading Level: 3rd - 6th grade

• Pearce, Philippa, Tom’s Midnight Garden. While his brother recovers from an illness, Tom is sent to stay with an aunt and uncle. Their apartment offers little for him to do until he discovers that when the grandfather clock strikes thirteen, the parking lot in back becomes a beautiful garden from the 1890’s. Reading Level: 4th - 7th grade

• Peck, Richard, The Ghost Belonged to Me. Although he tries to avoid her, thirteen-year-old Alexander becomes involved in a ghost mystery with Blossom Culp, his neighbor, classmate and ghost. Reading Level: 5th grade and up

• Tolkien, J. R. R., The Hobbit; or There And Back Again. Bilbo, a respectable, home-loving hobbit, is quite happy to stay at home until he meets the wizard, Gandolf, and is enticed/cajoled/encouraged into an adventure in which he becomes an "Expert Treasure Hunter" after encountering many monsters and dangers in search of gold. Reading Level: 4th grade and up

• Winthrop, Elizabeth, The Castle in the Attic. William is so upset when he learns his nanny, Mrs. Phillips, is returning to England, that he shrinks her to the size of the toy knight in her inherited wooden castle. To bring her back, William must become tiny himself and accompany Sir Simon, the knight, on an adventure to overthrow a wicked magician who long ago took the throne of Sir Simon’s kingdom. Reading Level: 3rd - 6th grade