United Through Reading Recommended Books

Action, Adventure and Mystery

Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride
by Kate Dicamillo

Maybe you got to know Mercy, that free-spirited porcine wonder, in her first easy chapter book, Mercy Watson to the Rescue, which describes what happened the night Mr. and Mrs. Watson's bed broke and Mercy ran off to find some sugar cookies and inadvertently saved the day. Kate... Read More

My Father's Dragon
by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Elmer Elevator braves Wild Island to save an overworked baby dragon in Ruth Gannett's clever and humorous 1948 adventure. A talking alley cat persuades Elmer to undertake a journey to a dangerous island. He packs wisely: filling his father's knapsack with chewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, a handful of... Read More

Sunny Boy!: The Life and Times of a Tortoise
by Candace Fleming

Always longing for a quiet life, Sunny Boy, a tortoise, recounts his life saga, from almost becoming turtle soup in New York City to being taken in by a mild-mannered horticulturist, Pelonius Pimplewhite. Since "men do not live as long as tortoises," Sunny Boy stays on in the family as... Read More

The Case of the Gasping Garbage
by Michele Torrey

Meet Doyle and Fossey, science detectives, in their first lively collaboration, a series of four pithy science mysteries. Fifth grader Drake Doyle, scientific genius, and his nature-loving lab partner, Nell Fossey, take on four tough cases. There's the "huge-giant-bloodsucking-monster" in a classmate's garbage can, a save-the-frogs campaign, a truck wedged... Read More

The Houdini Box
by Brian Selznick

Awed by the feats of escape artist Harry Houdini, ten-year-old Victor aspires to be a magician, too. When he was eight, Victor read about Houdini's escape from an iron milk can in under twenty seconds. Locking himself inside his grandmother's trunk, Victor was unable to duplicate Houdini's success, and his... Read More

Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation (Ike LaRue series)
by Mark Teague

We first met hypochondriac, serial exaggerator, and kvetcher, Ike LaRue, Mrs. LaRue’s melodramatic black and white terrier, when he was “imprisoned” at the posh Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy, where he had been sent for a two month term in Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School. In this,... Read More

Julian Rodriguez: Episode One: Trash Crisis on Earth
by Alexander Stadler

"OUTRAGEOUS! That is the only word that can possible describe the treatment I have received on this pathetic little planet!" In a hilarious graphic novel-ette, drawn in jumpy black line with light and dark green highlights, meet the wronged narrator, Julian Rodriguez, as he pounds away on his computer keyboard... Read More

The Knights of the Kitchen Table (Time Warp Trio series)
by Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Lane Smith

Want your children to find the fun in history? Have them travel back in time with the “Time Warp Trio” series. Sure, it’s been a hit on the Discovery Kids Channel on TV, but the wacky books came first, and they’re still a riot. In this very first book of... Read More

365 Penguins...
by Jean-Luc Fromental

Coming soon, reviews on books we love, such as:365 Penguins, by Jean-Luc Fromental, illustrated by Joelle JolivetCheck back soon for these reviews, discussions, excerpts and special offers!... Read More

Peggony-po: A Whale Of A Tale
by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Illustrated by Brian Pinkney

After a monster of a whale named Cetus snaps Galleon Keene's whaling boat in two with his enormous teeth and bites off the whaler's leg to boot, Galleon floats to safety on a hunk of driftwood. Knowing he’ll never be fit to go a-whaling again, the lonely man carves himself... Read More

Roxie and the Hooligans
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger

Whenever Uncle Dangerfoot, the world adventurer, comes to visit, nine-year-old Roxie Warbler sits at his feet hanging on every word of his hair-raising stories. She has virtually memorized the text of that famous book, Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pitfalls and How to Survive Them, written by her uncle’s... Read More

Shredderman: Secret Identity (Shredderman series)
by Wendelin Van Draanen, Illustrated by Brian Biggs

Now that he is in fifth grade, Nolan Byrd—called Byrd-the-Nerd by his arch enemy, his lying, cheating, stealing, bullying classmate, Bubba— would love to do something about Bubba. Problem: Nolan is half Bubba's size, and, as he says, "I don't exactly want to die in elementary school." Nolan's teacher, Mr.... Read More

The White Elephant
by Sid Fleischman, Illustrated by Robert McGuire

On a summer day in old Siam (now called Thailand), "hot as an oven with its doors flung open," Run-Run, a young orphan boy, is returning from clearing tree stumps on the hillside with his 50-year-old elephant Walking Mountain. When the elephant sprays a trunkful of river water and splashes... Read More