Easy Fiction

230 pages

Robinson Crusoe is ship-wrecked and must learn to survive on his own. After 24 years alone, he sees a human footprint in the sand...

Leslie's Materials

125 pages

Rosario Gomez gave up gang life after his brother was killed in a street fight. A turn of events lead him back to take actions against his enemies, who will not rest until they've settled the score against him.

182 pages

Funny and poignant, this 2001 Newbery Honor novel captures life in a quirky Southern town as Opal and her mangy dog, Winn-Dixie, strike up friendships among the locals.

Gail's Book Review

121 pages

Amanda Moss was always told her parents were killed in a car crash. She goes on a journey to find out the truth of her past and learns some unpleasant truths about her family. She also learns that you can love and hate someone at the same time.

131 pages

In the second book this mystery series, Peter Strand is asked to investigate a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization. Peter soon finds evidence of murder and he's drawn deeper into a murky mystery.

157 pages

A murder at a small apartment building in San Francisco's Chinatown, prompts the absentee owner to hire Chinese American Peter Strand. Finding out which tenant is the murderer exposes the secrets of the Blue Dragon and brings Strand face-to-face with a few ghosts of his own.

87 pages

This novella expresses the power of family secrets. Nan Ryan is living by herself when a handsome workman looks to Nan to help unravel the mystery of the previous residents' disappearance.

Rukmini's Book Review

When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs. Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life - how to work in harness, how to stay alive, and how to fight. Because when a dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.

110 pages

Based on the true story of the ‘chicken farm murder’ in December, 1924. Norman Thorne was found guilty of the murder of Elsie Cameron, but even at the time of his execution there were doubts about his guilt.

128 pages

Connie Suarez is a maid and tries to help her co-worker Maria, an illegal alien from Colombia, who is the prime suspect her boss's murder. The question now is, will Connie be able to clean up the mess that Maria is in without getting killed herself?

130 pages

Sandra Sinclair, recently widowed, discovers her new husband, Joe, is seriously abusive. Suspecting Joe murdered his first wife, Sandra and her daughter prepare to live off the grid. But when Joe tracks them down, she must come up with a contingency plan of her own.

70 pages

The year is 1920, and all of Mexico is at war with itself. Carlos kidnapped by a gang. Weeks later, the rebels and Carlos ride into the town of Rosita. Is Carlos a brave man or a coward? It is a question that takes him a lifetime to answer.

262 pages

Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico, but a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression. Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances.

Connie's Book Review

116 pages

Dee loves her children very much, but now they are all grown up, shouldn't they leave home? Until then, all three are happy at home. When a crisis occurs, Dee decides things have to change for the whole family...whether they like it or not.

177 pages

Alicia is part of a Peruvian tribe, the Isabo. She is baffled when two old white ladies come to her village-- everyone makes a fuss. She eventually is drawn in too; however, they don't understand the Isabo. Someone needs to set them straight. And that someone, surprisingly, is Alicia.

181 pages

After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.

"Our book, HATCHET, was a winner, meaning that it inspired a lot of great discussion, and it was a real page turner. Highly recommended for other classes. " - Andrea

116 pages

The year is 2147. Prisoners are encouraged to walk through the Innocence Device, a machine that can determine innocence or guilt through immediate freedom or death. When they discover the machine is rigged, the prisoners riot and take over the prison.

262 pages

Ha and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. This is the moving story (told in verse) of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

99 pages

Working as a governess, Jane Eyre meets the mysterious Mr. Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls at night. What is the sinister secret that threatens Jane and her new found happiness?

149 pages

Based on the author's personal experiences, this is the moving story of one girl's struggle to remain brave during the Japanese internment of World War II. In a bleak and dusty prison camp, 11-year-old Yuki and her family experience both true friendship and heart-wrenching tragedy.

Carol's Vocabulary and Review Questions

111 pages

Jurgis Rudkis works in a meat factory during the Industrial Revolution. Through Jurgis's story, the author describes the horror of working in the meat industry and the exploited lives of immigrants during this time.

107 pages

Mother Angelique runs a shelter for people experiencing homeless. Strange things begin to happen whenever Jamal, an eight-year-old, is around, and Mother Angelique is forced to admit that the world may contain stranger truths than her faith can explain.

115 pages

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way.

94 pages

Charlie D is the host of a successful late-night radio call-in show. His listeners reveal much about themselves, confident that he can save them. This story covers two hours on his show, during which he must both discover the long-time listener who is killing the people who trust him.

186 pages

Lupita and her big brother, Salvador, must smuggle themselves into the U.S. to support their mother and young siblings. A new language, hard labor, and the constant threat of la migra -- the immigration police--make every day a difficult challenge. But for feisty Lupita, there is always hope for a better manana -- tomorrow.

119 pages

Missy finds herself questioning the certainties she's lived with her whole life when everything gets turned upside down--she loses her job, catches her husband making out with the neighbor and is briefly taken hostage by a young man who robs the local cafe.

210 pages

Edward Tulane, a china rabbit, becomes lost from his owner. He goes on a journey revealing that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.

120 pages

When Colonel Protheroe is found murdered in the vicar's study, it seems that almost everyone in the village of St. Mary Mead had a motive to kill him. Miss Marple needs to use all her powers of observation and deduction to solve the mystery.

79 pages

Lizzie is dead - she just doesn't know it. Why does everyone ignore her when she needs a little sympathy? She has been in an accident, after all. Before Lizzie crosses to the other side, she'll get her chance to stage the closing scene of a lifetime.

104 pages

On the anniversary of her mother's death, Rhonda receives a mysterious package in the mail. And it's from her deceased mother! While the package from her mother wasn't what she expected, Rhonda realizes it's a bigger gift than she ever imagined.

Linda's Book Review

36 pages

Othello is a successful and celebrated hero. He lives in a world that seems to be tolerant, but when he marries his love, Desdemona, his best friend Iago helps to turn Othello into an object of envy and mistrust.

Tommy, a shy seventeen-year-old, experiences racism in Toronto. A group of young men bully him, and Tommy commits an act of revenge against the group's ringleader.

87 pages

Anthony & Carole are mending their marriage, spending a week in Greece. For widowed Jessica, it's the longest she's ever gone without visiting her husband's grave. However when the flight doesn't go according to plan, they learn important lessons about themselves.

90 pages

John Blaine is a private detective who works Dublin's mean streets. Now, hired to bring home a stray daughter of the rich, he takes the girl's side against her powerful father, and suffers for it.

78 pages

A retired police detective tells a story from his family's history. This is his story... A stormy sea has thrown a ship onto the rocks. When young Will Murdoch and the local priest examine the bodies, they discover gold and diamonds. They suspect that the shipwreck was not responsible for all of the deaths.

102 pages

When the Civil War began in June 1861, Charley Goddard enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was 15. When he entered the service he was a boy. When he came back he was different; he was only 19, but he was a man with "soldier's heart," later known as "battle fatigue."

131 pages

When detective Rick Montoya returns to the city, he discovers his apartment goes up in flames. Rick watches covertly as the police remove two bodies. Then his estranged wife arrives at the scene of the fire. The questions mount up, along with the suspects.

105 pages

Rick Cooper is on the run in the California desert when he meets Gladys Ryan, an eccentric widow, and her dog Bucky. After a deal between Rick and Gladys goes bad, Rick kills Gladys and no one seems suspicious. Rick seems to have it all figured out...except what to do with Bucky...

121 pages

Twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger in Florida. On the same day, he meets Sistine Bailey, a girl who shows her feelings as readily as Rob hides his. As they learn to be friends, Rob and Sistine prove that some things - like memories, and heartaches, and tigers - can’t be locked up forever.