Reading+Recommendations

= Need help finding AR books? Here are Ms. Strickland's recommendations: =

**Maniac McGee** by //Jerry Spinelli// 

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//Maniac Magee //has received numerous awards, including the 1991 Newbery Medal. And, it’s no wonder! It is a gripping tale that can be read as realistic fiction, the retelling of a legend, and/or a modern view of race relations. =====

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This story centers around an amazing character, Maniac McGee. Born with the name Jeffery Lionel McGee, Maniac McGee was orphaned at a young age and forced to live with his aunt and uncle. After running away at the age of eight, Maniac McGee’s life forever changed, and so did the lives of all those he met. Thus a legend was born. Maniac could do anything and everything. He could live on his own and take care of himself as he traveled from town to town, and from place to place. He could run faster than anybody, even dogs. He could hit a homerun off the best pitcher in the neighborhood. He could also untie any knot, no matter how tangled or snarled. But, can he successfully confront and overcome the racial tensions that divide the kids in the town of Town Mills? Will he be able to bridge the racial gap that divided the East Side from the West Side? Will he ever find a permanent home for himself? All of these questions and more will be answered in this comedic, yet poignant, novel. =====

Worth 7 AR points
==== It is August of 1743, and fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook is busy helping her grandfather, widowed mother, and a freed slave named Eliza run a coffeehouse in bustling Philadelphia. It’s business as usual until a serving girl suddenly dies from yellow fever. The fever quickly spreads throughout Philadelphia, the biggest city in the U.S. at the time. People are dieing left and right, and those who are still healthy are trying to flee the city in droves. Before young Mattie fully understands what is happening, her own mother is stricken with fever. As such, she and her grandfather attempt to leave for the countryside, but both fall ill before they arrive. Luckily, they both survive, and after being nursed back to health in a makeshift hospital, they both return home to find the premises deserted and the city in complete chaos. Determined not only to survive but also to rebuild the family business, Mattie faces food shortages, looters, the death of her beloved grandfather, and anxiety over her mother’s fate. You’ll have to read this book in order to find out once and for all what ends up happening to Mattie! This book does a fantastic job of portraying such a terrifying time in American history. In fact, the text includes an appendix that offers additional information on both the medical and burial practices of the period as well as several events and organizations depicted in the book. ====



**The Last Dog on Earth** by //Daniel Ehrenhaft//

Worth 8 AR points
==== Logan Moore is angry at the world. He hates everyone and everything, especially his stepfather Robert. Not only is Robert physically abusive, he wants to change Logan into something he is not. In an effort to make Logan more responsible, and more like Devon Wallace (another person he hates), Robert forces Logan to get a dog. But, he doesn’t get just any dog. He goes to the pound and picks the ugliest, mangiest, meanest dog he can find. Luckily, this is the only dog that isn’t getting sick. You see, many pet dogs across America are becoming violent and attacking their owners. So, all dogs are being hunted down and shot. Jack, however, is immune due to early exposure and may hold the key to a cure--if only she and Logan can survive! ====