Bellingham Middle School Teacher Links

	All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriott (May pick any from this series). A country veterinary surgeon describes the joys and trials of his profession and recalls his early career and experiences with his unique clientele. Audio
	Apollo 13 – Jim Lovell. - Recounts the four-day ordeal of Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swaggert and the dramatic struggle to bring back to Earth the tiny lunar module spacecraft into which they were forced to retreat when their main ship was damaged.
	Catalyst - Laurie Halse Anderson. Kate Malone is a successful teen who is eagerly awaiting her acceptance from her dream college, yet when her neighbor's home is destroyed and she is forced to share a room with her enemy, Kate finds herself having to reevaluate her life as the tension in her home gets out of control. Audio
	Chocolate War, The - Robert Cormier. A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies. Audio
	Code Orange - Caroline Cooney. While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City.
	Deathwatch - Rob White. An exciting novel of suspense, based on a fight to the finish between an honest and courageous young man and a cynical business tycoon who believes that anything can be had for a price. Audio *Recommended by Mr. Roy
	Drive: The Story of My Life - Larry Bird. The basketball superstar recounts his tragedies--from his father's alcoholism and suicide to his own failed marriage--and triumphs.
	The Farthest Shore - Ursula K. LeGuin. The second book in LeGuin's fantasy series finds a mature Sparrowhawk sailing on a journey to find the cause of the evil disturbances in the world of Earthsea. (Any title from the Earthsea series is acceptable). Winner of the National Book Award. Audio
	Flush - Carl Hiaasen. With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the waters around their Florida Keys home. Audio *Recommended by Mrs. Perry.
	Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry. In a future world reminiscent of that in The Giver, disadvantaged orphan Kira utilizes a seemingly magical talent to keep herself alive in a savage society that shuns and discards the weak, while she struggles to find truth. This is the second book in the Giver trilogy; The Messenger is the final title. Audio
	Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The - Douglas Adams. Escaping Earth just before it is demolished to make way for a new galactic highway, reluctant galactic traveler Arthur Dent embarks on a series of off-beat and occasionally extraterrestrial journeys, accompanied by a variety of unusual companions. Audio
	Homecoming - Cynthia Voigt. Abandoned in a parking lot by their mother, who left them with a bag of sandwiches and the address of a distant great-aunt, Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy Tillerman embark on an arduous and eventful journey. Audio
	Kon Tiki - Thor Heyerdahl. Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure -- a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage.
	Last of the Mohicans, The - James Fenimore Cooper. Hawkeye, a scout, leads a small band of Americans fleeing from the British and their Indian allies in the French and Indian War. Audio
	Last Shot - John Feinstein. After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being blackmailed into throwing the final game. *Recommended by Mrs. Kampersal. Audio
	Messenger - Lois Lowry. In this novel that unites characters from "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue," Matty, a young member of a utopian community that values honesty, conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain or understand. Final title in the Giver trilogy. Audio
	Nory Ryan's Song - Patricia Giff. When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan's courage and ingenuity help her family and neighbors survive. Audio
	October Sky - Homer Hickam. The author traces the boyhood enthusiasm for rockets that eventually led to a career at NASA, describing how he built model rockets in the family garage in West Virginia, inspired by the launch of the Soviet satellite "Sputnik".
	The Once and Future King - T. H. White. Describes King Arthur's life from his childhood to the coronation, creation of the Round Table, and search for the Holy Grail.
	The Pigman - Paul Zindel. A teenage boy and girl, high school sophomores from unhappy homes, tell of their bizarre relationship with an old man.
	The Princess Bride - William Goldman. Presents the timeless love story between a farm boy named Westley and the beautiful Princess Buttercup. Audio.
	Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life - Tracy Gold. Tracey Gold was well known to television audiences in the 80s as the wholesome teenage sister on the long-running series Growing Pains. But behind the smiles Tracey was fighting the battle of her life--a serious eating disorder.
	Shadowmancer - G. P. Taylor. Craving power and wealth, vicar Obadiah Demurral enlists the powers of darkness and uses his powers as a shadowmancer, a sorcerer who commands the souls of the dead, to become all-powerful, and Raphah, a young wizard who has come to reclaim a priceless stolen artifact, is the only one with the hope of defeating Demurral and his demonic forces. Audio
	Shattered Mirror - Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. As seventeen-year-old Sarah, daughter of a powerful line of vampire-hunting witches, continues to pursue the ancient bloodsucker Nikolas, she finds herself in a dangerous friendship with two vampire siblings in her high school.
	Stickfigure - Lori Gottleib. Living in Beverly Hills in the 1970's, an eleven-year-old girl faced the pressures of her environment to be perfect in weight and presentation, yet when things got out of control, she needed help to return to normal and get a hold of her life once more.
	Stormbreaker - Anthony Horowitz. After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6. *Recommended by all boys who have read this series!! Audio
	Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein. Valentine Michael Smith, born and raised on Mars, arrives on Earth stunning Western culture with his superhuman abilities. Audio
	Throwing Like a Girl – Weezie Kerr Mackey. After moving from Chicago to Dallas in the spring of her sophomore year, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that joining the softball team at her private school not only helps her make friends, it also provides unexpected opportunities to learn and grow.
	To Be A Slave - Julius Lester. A compilation, selected from various sources and arranged chronologically, of the reminiscences of slaves and ex-slaves about their experiences from the leaving of Africa through the Civil War and into the early twentieth century. A Newbery Honor Book. Audio
	Wednesday Wars - Gary D. Schmidt. During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns muchof value about the world he lives in.During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns muchof value about the world he lives in. Audio
	Winter of the Dead: 1609 - Elizabeth Massie. Two orphaned thieves arrive in Jamestown with dreams of a city paved in gold, but instead face the harsh realities of a colony on the verge of collapse.
	Wolf Rider - Avi. After receiving an apparent crank call from a man claiming to have committed murder, fifteen-year-old Andy finds his close relationship with his father crumbling as he struggles to make everyone believe him. Audio