#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The first selection for our 2025-2026 School Year is Flush by Carl Hiaasen.

A hilarious, high-stakes adventure involving crooked casino boats, floating fish, toxic beaches, and one kid determined to get justice. This is Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder! 

You know it's going to be a rough summer when you spend Father's Day visiting your dad in the local lockup.

Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor–which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can't prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah's dad is stuck in the clink.

Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally . . . somehow. His allies may not add up to much–his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate–but Noah's got a plan to flush this crook out into the open. A plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.

Our first meeting date is Thursday, August 28th from 7:30-8:00 AM. We will receive our copies of the book at that time. Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Farmer (8th Grade), or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

We will meet Tuesday, October 7th at 7:30 AM to discuss this book.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The fifth selection for our 2024-2025 School Year is Slider by Pete Hautman.

Genre: Realistic- DESCRIPTION: David can eat an entire sixteen-inch pepperoni pizza in four minutes and thirty-six seconds. Not bad. But he knows he can do better. In fact, he’ll have to do better: he’s going to compete in the Super Pigorino Bowl, the world’s greatest pizza-eating contest, and he has to win it, because he borrowed his mom’s credit card and accidentally spent $2,000 on it. So he really needs that prize money. Like, yesterday. As if training to be a competitive eater weren’t enough, he’s also got to keep an eye on his little brother, Mal (who, if the family believed in labels, would be labeled autistic, but they don’t, so they just label him Mal). And don’t even get started on the new weirdness going on between his two best friends, Cyn and HeyMan. Master talent Pete Hautman has cooked up a rich narrative shot through with equal parts humor and tenderness, and the result is a middle-grade novel too delicious to put down. 

We are meeting Thursday, April 17th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book. This is our last selection for the school year.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The fourth selection for our 2024-2025 School Year is Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly.

Genre: Realistic- DESCRIPTION: Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister Gen is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so that he can concentrate on basketball. They aren’t friends, at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well, and no one’s life will ever be the same. 

Winner of the 2018 Newbery Medal!

We are meeting Thursday, February 27th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The third selection for our 2024-2025 School Year is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.

Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. In a spellbinding, touching, funny account, Sam learns to live off the land and grows up a little in the process. Blizzards, hunters, loneliness, and fear all battle to drive Sam back to city life. But his desire for freedom, independence, and adventure is stronger. No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons.

Jean Craighead George, author of more than 80 children's books, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves, created another prizewinner with My Side of the Mountain--a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book, and a Hans Christian Andersen Award Honor Book.

We are meeting Tuesday, January 14th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The second selection for our 2024-2025 School Year is Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy.

Winner of the Christopher Medal and a "heart-wrenching" Al Roker's Book Club selection on the Today Show.

Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Taliban have been driven from Afghanistan; a good relationship with her hard stepmother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided for her--"Inshallah," God willing. Then she meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan poetry she taught her late mother. And the Americans come to her village, promising not just new opportunities and dangers, but surgery to fix her face. These changes could mean a whole new life for Zulaikha--but can she dare to hope they'll come true? 

We are meeting Thursday, November 21st at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The first selection for our 2024-2025 School Year is A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin.

The summer Hattie turns 12, her predictable small-town life is turned on end when her uncle Adam returns home for the first time in over 10 years. Hattie has never met him, never known about him. He's been institutionalized; his condition involves schizophrenia and autism.Hattie, a shy girl who prefers the company of adults, takes immediately to her excitable uncle, even when the rest of the family -- her parents and grandparents -- have trouble dealing with his intense way of seeing the world. And Adam, too, sees that Hattie is special, that her quiet, shy ways are not a disability.

Our first meeting date is Tuesday, August 27th from 7:30-8:00 AM. We will receive our copies of the book at that time. Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

We are meeting Thursday, October 3rd at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The fifth book selection for our 2023-2024 School Year is Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker.

In this 2020 Newberry Honor Reciepent, the haunted season has arrived in the Antler Wood. No fox kit is safe.

When Mia and Uly are separated from their litters, they discover a dangerous world full of monsters. In order to find a den to call home, they must venture through field and forest, facing unspeakable things that dwell in the darkness: a zombie who hungers for their flesh, a witch who tries to steal their skins, a ghost who hunts them through the snow, and other things too scary to mention.

Featuring eight interconnected stories and sixteen hauntingly beautiful illustrations, Scary Stories for Young Foxes contains the kinds of adventures and thrills you love to listen to beside a campfire in the dark of night. 

We are meeting Tuesday, April 16th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The fourth book selection for our 2023-2024 School Year is Rules by Cynthia Lord.

This 2007 Newbery Honor Book is a humorous and heartwarming debut about feeling different and finding acceptance.

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life, which is nearly impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She has spent years trying to teach David the rules - from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public" - in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? 

We are meeting Tuesday, March 5th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The third selection for our 2023-2024 School Year is Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

Meggie lives a quiet life alone with her father, a book-binder. But her father has a deep secret - he posseses an extraordinary magical power. One day a mysterious stranger arrives who seems linked to her father's past. Who is this sinister character and what does he want? Suddenly Meggie is involved in a breathless game of escape and intrigue as her father's life is put in danger. Will she be able to save him in time? 

We are meeting Tuesday, January 16th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The second selection for our 2023-2024 School Year is Stargirl.

From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of "Stargirl, Stargirl." She captures Leo Borlock's heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal.

In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

We are meeting Tuesday, November 14th at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

#BulldogsRead will meet every six to eight weeks to read and discuss books. The first selection for our 2023-2024 School Year is Restart.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Gordon Korman harkens back to his No More Dead Dogs days in this stand-alone that takes a tone more serious than you've ever seen from him before. A boy who's been a bully and hanging out with the wrong friends gets a new start after a memory-loss-inducing accident. But can someone really change who he is, or will the old him merely come back over time?  Meet the Author - Youtube video link

Our first meeting date is Thursday, August 31st from 3:45-4:30 PM. We will receive our copies of the book at that time. Please listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may also see Mrs. Doonan (LC), Mrs. Chase (8th Grade) or Mrs. Ritchie (6th Grade) with any questions.

We are meeting Tuesday, October 3rd at 7:30 AM in the Learning Commons to discuss this book.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

https://www.pammunozryan.com/esperanza-rising/

from Scholastic Books

Esperanza has lived a privileged life in post-revolutionary Mexico, but her luck changes when her father is murdered by bandits. The family ranch falls into the hands of her heartless uncle, who wants to marry Esperanza's mother and send Esperanza away.

To escape this fate, Mama, Esperanza, and their three faithful servants flee to California. After a long trip on a dirty train, they arrive at a migrant workers camp. The squalid, overcrowded cabin Esperanza and Mama must live in is more like a horse stall than a home, and Esperanza is miserable.

Then an intense dust storm strikes and Mama becomes very sick. Even though she's too young, Esperanza will have to work in the fields to earn money to pay for Mama's medical bills. The labor is backbreaking, and Esperanza lives in constant fear of being caught and sent back to Mexico. Fortunately, her will is strong, and so is the community she is growing to love.

But the risks keep mounting. A dangerous workers' strike looms, and Esperanza faces prejudice everywhere she turns. Can she endure her grueling new life? Will her mother recover?

The human spirit is dealt some harsh blows—but refuses to die—in this powerfully written book about struggle, survival, and family. 

Our meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 27th from 

7:30-8:00 AM  in the Learning Commons.

Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

A New York Times Bestseller

In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family.

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read. 

Our meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 2nd from 

7:30-8:00 AM  in the Learning Commons.

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Hannah is tired of hearing about the Nazis during the Holocaust, but when she opens the door for Elijah at the Passover Seder, she is transported in time to 1940s Poland, where she is captured and put in a death camp. A girl named Rivka befriends her, teaching her how to fight the dehumanization of the camp and hold onto her identity.

Our meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 5th from        3:45-4:30 PM in the Learning Commons.

Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Every year the people of the protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise swamp monster and a perfectly tiny dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. One year Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling an ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. But as Luna's 13th birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge, with dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, a young man from the protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Deadly birds with uncertain intentions flock nearby. A volcano, quiet for centuries, rumbles just beneath the earth's surface. And the woman with the tiger's heart is on the prowl. Highly acclaimed author Kelly Barnhill has written an epic coming-of-age fairy tale destined to be a modern classic.

#BulldogsRead will meet each nine weeks to read and discuss books. The first selection is the 2022 Newbery Award Winner, The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. After Earth is hit by a comet and doomed to die, Petra and her family are among the few chosen to journey to a new planet. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to the new planet, and discovers that she is the only one of the colonists who remembers Earth. She alone carries the stories of humanity’s past, and with them, any hope for the future. 

Members will vote on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th nine weeks book selections. Our first meeting date is Tuesday, August 23rd from 3:45-4:30 and listen to the morning announcements for additional information. Students may see Mrs. Doonan with any questions.