The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
By Kate Dicamillo
Read in 6th Grade
Edward Tulane is a beautiful china doll, kindly cared for by a girl who loves him dearly. But he doesn't return her adoration. He simply sees her as the one who takes care of him, and so he finds her ok. Then one day, he is thrown off of a ship, and is adrift at sea for many days, until he is fished out by a poor fisherman. He lives a far less elegant life, but he is grateful to be alive. Then one day, the couple's daughter, a mean girl who regards Edward with contempt, throws him away. And here, he begins to feel. Sharp pain at leaving his friends. He is picked up from the dump by a hobo, whom he travels with for a long time, now battered and just a vestige of what he was. Then, of course, everything changes again. The hobo is caught on a train by a policeman, who throws Edward out. And his heart cracks just a little more.

The Alchemist

The Alchemist
By Paulo Coelho
Read in 8th grade
A shepherd boy roams the plains and hillside of Europe. He is a town one day when he decides to see a fortune teller. She tells him that a treasure awaits him, and another man he meets gives him instruction to go to the Egyptian pyramids to follow his Personal Legend. Upon arriving in Africa, he is immediately struck by misfortune, losing all his money. However, the omens intervene, and he finds himself working for a crystal merchant to make money. He learns to read the omens while he is in Africa, making a fortune and incidentally joining a caravan to Egypt. On the way, he stops in the oasis of Al-Fayoum because of a tribal war. He meets his true love, Fatima there. However, he is drawn away from her to complete his Personal Legend by the Alchemist, the fabled man who can live forever and turn lead into gold.

Strike

Strike
By D.J. Machale
Read in 8th grade

Book 3 in series

Book 1!

Book 2!

A Civil War between the Air Force and Navy. But it isn't what it seems. The Air Force, with ridiculous technology and supplies, is wiping out the entire population of the Earth, and while SYLO is fighting a losing battle to try to save the Earth. Meanwhile, Tucker and his friends are captured by the Air Force while trying to get at a "Gate to Hell" in a desert military camp. There, they are degraded and labeled "primitive" along with many other prisoners. One day, a SYLO attack gives them the chance to see what the Gate to Hell truly is. They find a portal through time. But it isn't a true portal because of the "you can't change the past and there is a new timestream and blah blah blah". The portal goes 300 years in the future, and was created by an atomic blast inside the dome which caused stuff to move faster than the speed of light. However, the future they find has been decimated by climate change.

The Bean Trees

The Bean Trees
By Barbara Kingsolver
Read in 8th Grade
Marrieta, Missy for short, lives in a small, rundown Kentucky town. She has never met her father, for she was an "accident", and her father left her mother. She has a job at the local hospital and promises that one day, she'll get a used car, leave, and settle down wherever she ends up. Then, the day finally comes for her to leave, and she travels west. As she goes through Oklahoma, her car breaks down and forces her to stop for the night. She goes to a diner, where an Indian woman implores her to take a baby. Having no choice(for the baby was left in her car seat) she names her Turtle and continues to Arizona, where she stops. There, she begins on the job of figuring Turtle out. She settles down with a single mother named Lou Ann, who has been abandoned by her husband. There, she takes care of Turtle, who had been abused. She also learns that her friend/employer, Mattie, runs a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, where she meets Esperanza and Estevan, who have had their share of heartbreak. They all become close friends, when one day, Turtle is nearly assaulted.