Winter break reading list

Here are a few reading suggestions for you to explore over winter break. Take a look at past vacation reading lists on the OWS website and also explore my profile on Goodreads where I've sorted nearly 500 recommended books by genre and age level.

Picture books:

Albert by Donna Jo Napoli (A man learns from two birds what it really means to be alive.)

Cannonball Simp by John Burningham (An endearing story about a homeless dog.)
The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket (Love clever word play? There are puns galore in this delightful orchestral mystery!)

Forty Fortunes: A Tale of Iran by Aaron Shepard (Good fortune comes to a clever man who outwits a band of thieves.)

The Ghost Catcher by Martha Hamilton (A humorous Bengali trickster tale about a barber who fools a passel of ghosts.)

Shin’s Tricycle by Tatsuharu Kodama (The deeply moving true story about a young victim of the bombing of Hiroshima.)

Tadpole’s Promise by Jeanne Willis (A delightfully wry tale with a surprise ending!)

Chapter books:

Elementary
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell (Magical rodents help save a young girl from the clutches of her wicked nanny!)

Brendan Buckley’s The Universe and Everything In It by Sundee Tucker Frazier (By a local author and set in the Seattle area, this is a heartwarming family tale with a strong boy as the main character.)

King of the Cloud Forests by Michael Morpurgo (Exciting wilderness adventure story about a boy who is rescued in the Himalayas by a tribe of Yeti.)

Elementary/middle school
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love by Lauren Tarshis (In her second book, quirky and original middle school student Emma Jean Lazarus tackles the concept of love.)

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages (Dewey Kerrigan joins her father in Los Alamos, where he is working on a secret gadget that will end World War II in this tale of friendship, family and secrets.)

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (This, the third Grandma Dowdel story, brings more hilarious hijinks from life in small town Illinois.)

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy (Moving tale based on the actual experiences of the author's mother-in-law who was one of only 12 children to survive the Holocaust while hiding in the Lodz ghetto.)

Middle/high school
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen (Boys, love, friends, school, family... Auden tackles it all during the summer after high school graduation in this engrossing work of chick lit for teens.)

The New Policeman by Kate Thompson (What if time were really running out? A boy bargains with the fairies after he heads to the land of Tír na n'Óg in this wonderful Irish fantasy.)

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Historical fiction based on the adventures of the author's great-grandmother. A 16-year-old orphan girl sets off to homestead all on her own in the Montana wilderness.)

Nonfiction:

Ain’t Nothing But a Man by Scott Reynolds Nelson (An historian explains how he unraveled a real life mystery in this gripping tale of detective work!)

Four Pictures by Emily Carr by Nicolas Debon (A beautiful cartoon version of the life of a noted Victoria, BC artist.)

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka (Imagine growing up in a house filled with six boys! Read this laugh out loud funny memoir by America's Children's Laureate and you will never again wonder where his wacky sense of humor came from!)

My Librarian Is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World by Margriet Ruurs (The titles says it all! Filled with color photographs and fascinating tidbits, you won't look at your local library the same way again!)

Open Wide: Tooth School Inside by Laurie Keller (Who knew teeth could be so much fun?)

Sea Queens: Women Pirates Around the World by Jane Yolen (Ahoy, matey! If you love pirates and adventure on the high seas, do not miss this collection of stories about some courageous and infamous women.)