Curriculum Center: Suggestions for ESL Readers

The Great Queen controls everyone. Zach, Alice, and Poppy go on one last adventure to stop the Queen. As their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen.

Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the plane he is in crashes. Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian woods with only a jacket and the hatchet his mother gave him.

A boy and his elephant escape into the jungle when the Viet Cong attack his village immediately after the Vietnam war.

Shauzia has escaped her bad life in Kabul, only to end up in a refugee camp in Pakistan. This is a powerful story of a girl who tries to take control of her own life.

Sam Gribley is unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Mountains to live in the woods. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness.

When adventurous detectives Cass and Max-Ernest discover something new, they accidentally stumble upon a mystery surrounding a dead magician's diary.

Adjusting to life in the United States is not easy for Fadi's family, and the chance of locating his sister Mariam in Afghanistan seem slim. When a photography competition with a grand prize trip is announced, Fadi sees his chance to return to Afghanistan and find his sister.

Some sisters are good friends and some are not. Karen is beautiful and has lots of male friends, but she can be very unkind to her sister Marcia.

This book tells the true stories of survivors. In the Antarctic cold or the Sahara Desert heat, in the wide Atlantic Ocean or a small Rwandan bathroom, these people have gone through terrible things - but have lived.

A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will.

Take a look at ten crucial days in Abraham Lincoln's life, including a tragic loss, protest of an unjust war, a president who learns the most difficult decisions are made alone, and a promise to everyone that America's salves will be free.

Agatha Christie was an English crime novelist and short story writer, but what was she like? Was her life quiet and unexciting, or was it full of interest and adventure like her stories? Was there a mystery in her life too? Find out in Woman of Mystery.

Coretta Scott King dreamed of finding a place where people were treated equally. This biography tells how she joined her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead protest marches and stand up to prejudice and violence.

Malcom X was a Muslim minister who worked for human rights. He was a complex man who participated in some important events in history.

Find out about 10 important days in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. Find out about a march, a demonstration for human rights for all Americans, and a speech that is important to people around the world.

Frankie Parsons is a talented kid with a weird family. Only Ma, who never leaves home, takes Frankie seriously. But then Ma causes the most troubling question of all.

David has recently lost his mother in an accident. Primrose lives with her unstable mother. They become friends, and help each other with the problems in their lives.

Cara never thought to worry about a fire. And one night while she's sleeping at a friend's house, her house catches fire, and her mother and younger sister are both killed.

John and Lorraine made a prank phone call to a stranger named Angelo Pignati. Then overnight, they befriended the old man. But now Mr. Pignati is dead.

Marty Preston loves to spend time up in the woods behind his house. One day Marty sees something on the road near the old school. It was a young dog. This is where his trouble began.

Mitch Albom rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Mitch visited with him every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class" with lessons on how to live.

Addie just wants to be normal. But her mother makes that difficult. Addie never stops hoping that one day that will change.

ugust Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid--but his new classmates can't get past Auggie's extraordinary face. Beginning from Auggie's point of view and expanding to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others, the perspectives converge to form a portrait of one community's struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

Tintin finds a model ship at the Old Street Market. Only it isn't any model ship--it is a piece of a puzzle!

Alice can't believe it when a white rabbit wearing a coat and carrying a watch runs by her. She chases after him and into a strange land.

Things have been going badly for the three Baudelaire children. Their trouble begins one day when they find out that their parents died in a fire that destroyed their whole house.

Winn-Dixie is Opal's big, ugly, happy dog. Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal begins to feel better about her mother leaving years before.

Harry lives in a tiny closet under the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years. But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by an owl messenger.

Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys dig holes five feet wide and five feet deep.

Katniss Everdeen lives alone with her mother and younger sister. She is forced to represent her district in a fight to the death called the Hunger Games.

While trying to save a friends life two children find another world. But an evil witch wants to stop them.

Mary Poppins is an unusual nanny. When she arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane life at the Banks house is never the same.

Ponyboy knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop. And he knows that he can count on his friends. But one night that changes forever.

Captain Jack Sparrow is a pirate. Captain Barbossa steals his ship, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the governor's beautiful daughter, Elizabeth.

Captain Jack Sparrow is back in a new adventure. This time, he is looking for a chest that belongs to the terrible Captain Davy Jones. But Davy Jones has other plans.

Lord Cutler Beckett thinks that pirates are very bad for business. He wants to take command of the oceans. Captain Jack doesn't agree.

Private James Ryan is missing. Captain John Miller and his men go to look for him. They must bring him home. But how many will survive the mission?

The Tuck family can never die. Is this a blessing or a curse?

Life is hard for ten-year-old Bud. He is a motherless boy on the run, but his luck may soon change.

Eleven-year-old Nellie Lee Love writes in her diary the events of 1919, when her family moves from Tennessee to Chicago, hoping to leave the racism and hate of the South behind.

As much as Glory wants to turn twelve, there are times when she wishes she could turn back the clock a year. Jesslyn, her sister and former friend, no longer has the time of day for her now that she'll be entering high school.

These 54 poems capture the different voices that bring life to the poet's beloved hometown of Harlem, New York.

The House on Mango Street is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, deciding who and what she will become.

The untold story of Thomas Jefferson's slave children by one of his slaves. While they do get special treatment, they are still slaves, and are never to mention who their father is.

An inspiring story of a little Danish girl's bravery when Nazis threatened her best friend's safety.

This is the tale of Billie Jo's struggle to survive during the dust bowl years of the Depression. With great courage, she learns to deal with loss.

The story of a boy, his clarinet, a dog, and a hurricane. When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, Saint goes on a journey to rescue his loved ones.

When Wesley Boone writes a poem for his high school class, some of his classmates want to read their poems too. Soon, they are all reading their poems every week. One by one, the students are starting to think about themselves in new ways.

Here are the sights, sounds, and smells of Latino culture in America written in both English and Spanish.

Dizzy in Your Eyes is a collection of fifty poems about love and how it makes us think.

This is a collection of American poet, Emily Dickinson's greatest poems. They are loving and sweet, dark and fearful. They focus on people and nature.

After the death of his father and moving to a new town, Keith feels like an outsider. When he starts listening to Jimi Hendrix's music, he learns about himself and his father.

This is a collection of poems written by people from many cultures and backgrounds. They are about love, broken hearts, and crushes.

His talent was limitless, his death was tragic. Here are Tupac's most honest and intimate thoughts written through the art of poetry.

Tell the World is a wonderful collection of poems by teens who have been in national literature workshops just for youths.

The darkness--and the goodness--in the lives of the young men in Chicago cries out in this poetry.

Jessie and Evan are opposites about keeping secrets. Evan thinks some things (his poetry) are private. Jessie believes scandal makes good news. When candy hearts appear in Class 4-0, reporter Jessie tries to find out all of the class crushes.

Nina and Dragan are in love, so deeply in love, but they live in the wrong place, at the wrong time ... All love stories have moments of happiness, pain, misunderstanding, laughter, and sometimes great sadness. But love almost always finds a way.

Rogerson Biscoe, with his green eyes and dark curly hair, is absolutely dreamy. Before long, Caitlin is helpless to him. And when he starts to hurt her, she's in too deep to get herself out.

Katherine and Michael can't get enough of each other. Their relationship is special: sincere, intense, and fun all at the same time. They haven't been together all that long, but they know it's serious.

Two brothers are building a haystack, but thinking about other things: young women and love. There are angry words and then a fight between the brothers. But the work goes on, visitors come and go, and the long hot summer day slowly turns to evening.

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good and everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer.

Baseball Crazy is a diverse collection that all sports fans will love, from the most loyal old-timers to the newest rookies. Batter up!

Some call it futball, some call it soccer, and to others it's 'the beautiful game'. By any name, it's a sport with some fascinating stories.

A stirring tribute to sports legendary heroes, infamous owners, low pay, and long bus rides that made up the African American baseball leagues.

Willie Weaver used to be a hero. Now he's nothing. Willie is a top star during a legendary baseball game. But then a freak accident causes him to lose his talent.

Ben McBain is every football team's dream player. He's a jack-of-all-trades guy that can handle almost any position. When the game is on the line, Ben's number is the one being called for the final play.

Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat along with aspirations of leading his team all the way to the Little League World Series. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life.

Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other... until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives.

An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference is a complex and inspirational story about the Fugees, a youth soccer team made up of diverse refugees from around the world, and their formidable female coach, Luma Mufleh.

Pass! Shoot! Swish! An all-star team of Young Adult authors scores spectacularly with an action-packed anthology about street basketball.

Eight stories from both boys and girls include tales of dodge ball, wrestling, track, softball, and even ballet. Kids will relate to the struggling non-jocks as well as the athletes who take the trophy home.

Come step back in time to witness the best of the best Negro League players take each other on in one of the most fascinating All-Star ballgames in American history.

A biography that balances Robinson's life and significance on and off the baseball diamond.

It's the last swimming season for Walker, Nortie, Lion, and Jeff, and their coach is building their self-discipline in a grueling four-hour-a-day test of stamina designed to bring them to the outer edge of their capabilities.

Life in Tangerine isn't easy for Paul, until he joins the soccer team at his middle school. With the help of his new teammates, Paul begins to discover what lies beneath the surface of his strange new hometown. And he also gains the courage to face up to some secrets his family has been keeping from him for far too long.

A salty, wrenchingly honest collection of stories set on one block of 145th Street. Some of these stories are private, and some are the ones behind the headlines. In each one, characters jump off the page and pull readers right into the mix on 1-4-5.

Welcome to America Street, where every story is as vital and unique as the friends, neighbors, and relatives we encounter every day. Here are fourteen stories about young people told by some of America's best storytellers.

Hawker and Jude work for the European Department of Intelligence. They think fast, they move fast, and they learn some very strange things. They go all over the world, asking difficult questions in dangerous places, but they don't always find the answers.

This is a collection of short stories about adventures on trains. Strange, wonderful, and frightening things can happen on trains – and all of them happen here.

Everybody has bad dreams. Horrible things move toward you in the dark, things you can hear but not see. Then you wake up, in your own warm bed, and turn over and go back to sleep. In these stories by Edgar Allen Poe, death whispers at you from every dark corner, and fear can send you mad.

In these short stories Naomi Shihab Nye proposes that no matter how great the divide between friends, siblings, life and death, classmates, enemies, happiness and misery, war and peace, breakfast and lunch, parent and child, country and city, there is, in fact, no long distance. Not anymore.

If you find a locked room in a lonely inn, don't try to open it, even on a bright sunny day. If you call a dead man from his grave, don't expect to sleep peacefully again. Read these five ghost stories by daylight, and make sure your door is locked.

Everyone is afraid of something. But for those with phobias, that fear is exaggerated: the throat tightens; the heart races. The ten stories in this anthology all present people with debilitating anxieties.

In the game of love, young men and women weigh what they need from the opposite sex against what they need to find in themselves. This popular short story collection, including two never-before published entries, gives teens a chance to witness the outcomes of 12 unique trysts.

Winston Smith lives in a society where the government controls people's lives every second of the day. Alone in his small, one-room apartment, Winston dreams of a better life. Is freedom from this life of suffering possible? There must be something that the Party cannot control - something like love, perhaps?

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius-and, above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn't know what he's taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit.

The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she's sure it holds a secret that will save the city.

A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit.

Victor Frankenstein learns the secret of producing life, and so, by putting together parts of various corpses, he creates The Monster. The Monster is huge and deformed, but he means no harm to anyone--until constant ill treatment drives him to murder and revenge.

Jonas's world is perfect. There is no war or fear of pain. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

It takes a graveyard to raise a child. Nobody Owens, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead.

After finding a handmade field guide in the attic of the old mansion they've just moved into, Jared, his twin brother, and their older sister, discover that there's a magical and maybe dangerous world existing parallel to our own-the world of faerie.

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license- for turning pretty. In Tally's world turning sixteen brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive "pretty".

At first, nobody seems to take much notice of the balls of fire heading from Mars to Earth. But the fireballs turn out to be spaceships filled with aliens from Mars! And when the Martians turn their terrible machines against the humans, it's all out war. Can humankind survive? Or will the creatures from Mars take over the world?

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.