The Frog Wore Red Suspenders
Jack Prelutsky Greenwillow Books, c2002

A great book of poetry. The Little Brown Toad is my grandkids favorite....we love reciting it together.
Use for atlas lessons since most poems are about a location in the USA
Dear Levi Letters from the Overland Trail
Elvira Woodruff Yearling,c1994 119 pages.

Set in 1851, Austin tells about his wagon train trip across the Overland Trail to his brother Levi through letters he writes. Austin is going west to take over their father's claim . Not all the stories have happy endings. Enough adventure for to keep 2nd -4th graders interested. A good historical fiction read to accompany westward expansion lessons.
The Bronze Pen
Zilpha Keatley Snyder Atheneum c2008 200 pages
Audrey Abbot enters a magical cave and is given a bronze pen by an old woman who tells her to "use it wisely and to good purpose". Audrey shares the secret of the bronze pen with Lizzie, her best friend, and together they teat its powers.
A fantasy for grades 3-5
Francie
Karen English, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, c1999 Coretta Scott King Honor Book
199 pages.
Francie her mother and younger brother, Prez, are waiting in Alabama for their father who is working in Chicago to send for them. Francie must work for wealthy white families as she struggles with her place in the world and waiting for her father to keep his promises. Francie tries to help the boy she was tutoring escape arrest and puts the black community in danger. A good read detailing the pre Civil -rights era.
Grades 3-6
Gib Rides Home
Gib is an orphan around the early 1900's. He realizes the older he gets the less likely he will be adopted. But he also finds out that most older boys are "farmed out" for cheap labor. This is his story of his "adoption" and the home he finally finds of his dreams.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Zulu priest, Stephen Kumalo leaves his South African village to find out the fate of his son and his sister in the city of Johannesburg. He tries to bring his family back from the brink of destruction. This book was written before the apartheid laws were in place in South Africa. Racial tension dominates the book. A story of great love and compassion that braces both sides of the races.

Red Blade and the Black Bear by Virgina F. Voight

An Indian boy befriends an orphaned cub and the bond between them grows stronger as each has the chance to save the life of the other.