The Overlooked Book Team
There is a new group for children in third through fifth grade – The Overlooked Book Team. There are some wonderful books that have not been checked out often in recent years. These books used to be popular, but are now mostly ignored. As a member of the Overlooked Book Team, will read these books, and share what you have read with others. By doing so, the Over Looked Book Team will make sure none of these books will be overlooked again!
How It Works
Being a member of the Overlooked Book Team is easy! Just follow these four simple steps:
- Sign up to attend our monthly meeting.
- Read at least one book from the Overlooked Book List. The list is available below, or at the Youth Services desk. Be sure to write down what book you’ve read, or bring it to the meeting.
- Attend the meeting and share what you read with other members. While at the monthly meeting, you will fill out a short review for each book you’ve read. Your reviews will be on display in the Youth Services department.
- Have fun reading these underappreciated but wonderful books!
Ten Book Prize
If you read ten books on the Overlooked Book List, you will receive a Overlooked Book Team tote bag. To be eligible for this prize you must hand in the reviews of all ten books and attend at least one meeting of the Overlooked Book Team.
Here is the list of books on the Overlooked Book List. Our first meeting is on Tuesday, February 9th.
The Overlooked Book List
Avi. Ereth’s Birthday
Grades 3-5
Feeling neglected on his birthday, Ereth, the cantankerous old porcupine, sets out looking for his favorite treat and instead finds himself acting as “mother” to three young fox kits.
J AVI
Avi. Ragweed
Grades 2-6
Ragweed, a young country mouse, leaves his family and travels to the big city, where he finds excitement and danger and sees cats for the first time.
J AVI, JPBK RAGWEED
Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan
Grades 3-5
The classic fantasy tale of the young boy who refuses to grow up and the children who follow him to Neverland. (Please make sure you read an unabridged version of this book!)
J BARRIE, JPBK PETER PAN
Baum, Frank L. The Wizard of Oz
Grades 3 & up
After a cyclone transports her to the land of Oz, Dorothy must seek out the great wizard in order to return to Kansas. (Please make sure you read an unabridged version of this book!)
J BAUM, JPBK WIZARD OF OZ
Burgess, Melvin. The Copper Treasure
Grades 4-6
In mid-nineteenth century London, three young boys try to retrieve a valuable roll of copper from the bottom of the Thames River.
J BURGESS
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland
Grades 3 & up
A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters. (Please make sure you read an unabridged version of this book!)
J CARROLL, JPBK ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Cutler, Jane. Spaceman
Grades 4-6
Ten-year-old Gary, who is failing the fifth grade and has trouble getting along with the other students, tries to adjust to his learning disability and his assignment to a special education class.
J CUTLER
DiSalvo, DyAnne. The Sloppy Copy Slipup
Grades 2-5
Fourth-grader Brian Higman worries about how his teacher Miss Fromme–nicknamed The General–will react when he fails to hand in a writing assignment, but he ends up being able to tell his story, after all.
J DISALVO
Dorris, Michael. Morning Girl
Grades 3-6
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an island in pre-Columbian America.
JPBK MORNING GIRL
Feiffer, Jules. The Man in the Ceiling
Grades 3-6
Jimmy’s dream is to be a great cartoonist someday, even greater than Walt Disney.
JFIC FEIFFER
Franklin, Kristine L. Nerd No More
Grades 3-6
Wiggie Carter gets himself into real trouble because he tries desperately to be a cool kid instead of a nerd with a mom who hosts a TV science show.
J FRANKLIN
Gardiner, John Reynolds. Stone Fox
Grades 3-6
Little Willy hopes to pay the back taxes on his grandfather’s farm with the purse from a dog sled race he enters.
JPBK STONE FOX
Gilson, Jamie. Thirteen Ways To Sink a Sub
Grades 4-5
The boys and girls in the fourth grade devise a contest to “sink” their substitute teacher by making her cry.
JPBK THIRTEEN WAYS TO SINK A SUB
Hurwitz, Johanna. The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein
Grades 4-6
Eight-year-old David is convinced that his life will be more adventurous when he changes his name to Ali Baba.
JFIC HURWITZ
Hyatt, Patricia Rusch. Coast to Coast With Alice
Grades 3-6
Sixteen-year-old Hermine Jahns relates her experiences traveling on the first cross-country automobile trip with a woman driver in 1909.
J HYATT
Jonell, Lynne. Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Grades 3-6
When Emmy discovers that she and her formerly loving parents are being drugged by their evil nanny with rodent potions that can change people in frightening ways, she and some new friends must try everything possible to return things to normal.
J JONELL
King-Smith, Dick. Babe: The Gallant Pig
Grades 3-6
A piglet destined for eventual butchering arrives at the farmyard, is adopted by an old sheep dog, and discovers a special secret to success.
JFIC KING, JPBK BABE THE GALLANT PIG
King-Smith, Dick. The Water Horse
Grades 2-5
In 1930, on the coast of Scotland, eight-year-old Kirstie finds a large egg which hatches into an unusual sea creature, and as he grows her family must decide what to do with him.
J KING SMITH
Kipling, Rudyard. A collection of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories
Grades 3-6
A collection of stories by Kipling based on the folk tales from around the world about various animals.
J KIPLING
Levinson, Marilyn. Rufus and Magic Run Amok
Grades 3-5
When ten-year-old Rufus discovers that he has magical powers like his mother and grandmother, he learns that being a wizard is not quite what he expected.
J LEVINSON
Lewis, Maggie. Morgy MacDougal-MacDuff Series
Morgy Makes His Move, Morgy Coast to Coast, Morgy’s Musical Summer
Grades 2-5
Morgy and his family move from California to Massachusetts, where he struggles to adjust to his new home.
J LEWIS
Mayo, Margaret. Magical Tales from Many Lands
Grades 3-5
A collection of tales from around the world, ranging from the Arabian story “The Lemon Princess” to the wonderful Zulu tale of “Unanana and the Enormous One-Tusked Elephant.”
JFOLK WORLD MAYO
McEwan, Ian. The Daydreamer
Grades 3-7
An imaginative ten-year-old boy, who is best understood by his family, recounts some of the adventures he has while daydreaming.
J McEWAN
Merrill, Jean. The Toothpaste Millionaire
Grades 4-6
A young girl describes how her school friend made over a million dollars by creating and marketing a cheaper and better toothpaste.
JPBK TOOTHPASTE MILLIONAIRE
Mitton, Tony. The Tale of Tales
Grades 2-4
On their way to Volcano Valley to hear “The Tale of Tales,” Monkey, Elephant, and other animal friends tell each other stories as they walk along.
J MITTON
Morgenstern, Susie Hoch. Secret Letters From 0 to 10
Grades 4 - 7
Ten-year-old Ernest lives a boring existence in Paris with his grandmother until a lively girl named Victory enters his class at school.
J MORGENSTERN
Nagda, Ann Whitehead. Meow Means Mischief
Grades 2-5
A stray kitten turns out to be the perfect way to help Rana make friends in her new school and to feel more comfortable with her grandparents, who are visiting from India while her parents are away.
J NAGDA
Napoli, Donna Jo. The Prince of the Pond: Otherwise Known as De Fawg Pin
Grades 3-5
Having been turned into a frog by a hag, a frog-prince makes the best of his new life as he mates, raises a family, and instills a new kind of thinking into his frog family.
J NAPOLI
Paton Walsh, Jill. The Green Book
Grades 3-5
As their small stock of essential supplies dwindle, a group of refugees from earth struggle to make their strange new planet provide life’s necessities.
JPBK GREEN BOOK
Pieńkowski, Jan. The Fairy Tales
Grades 2-5
A collection of four fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and Cinderella.
JFOLK WORLD Pienkowski
Pinkwater, Daniel Manus. The Hoboken Chicken Emergency
Grades 3-4
Arthur goes to pick up the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner but comes back with a 260-pound chicken.
JPBK HOBOKEN CHICKEN EMERGENCY
Pullman, Philip. I Was a Rat
Grades 4-7
A little boy turns life in London upside down when he appears at the house of a lonely old couple and insists he was a rat.
J PULLMAN
Pullman, Philip. Spring-Heeled Jack
Grades 3-5
Three children make their escape from a London orphanage and after a series of misadventures are reunited with their father through the efforts of the legendary Spring-Heeled Jack.
J PULLMAN
Roberts, Kevin. Thumb in the Box
Grades 3-5
In the small fishing village of New Aukland, British Columbia, much excitement is in the air, as a brand new fire truck is given to the town.
J ROBERTS
Roop, Peter. Goodbye For Today The Diary Of a Young Girl At Sea
Grades 2-5
Nine-year-old Laura writes in her journal about the boredom, excitement, and danger that she and her family face while sailing from Japan to the Arctic seas aboard the whaling ship captained by her father.
J ROOP
Sonenklar, Carol. Bug Boy
Grades 3-6
When someone anonymously gives bug lover Charlie a device called the Amazing Bug-A-View, he uses it to transform himself into a spider, a grasshopper, and a fly.
J SONENKLAR
Stauffacher, Sue. Donuthead
Grades 3-6
Franklin Delano Donuthead, a fifth-grader obsessed with hygiene and safety, finds an unlikely friend and protector in Sarah Kervick, the tough new student who lives in a dirty trailer, bonds with his mother, and is as “irregular” as he is.
J STAUFFACHER
Stewart, Paul. Fergus Crane
Grades 2-5
Nine-year-old Fergus Crane’s life is filled with classes on the school ship Betty Jeanne, interesting neighbors, and helping with his mother’s work until a mysterious box flies into his window and leads him toward adventure.
J STEWART
Stoutenburg, Adrien. American Tall Tales
Grades 3-5
Features eight American folk heroes: Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Stormalong, Mike Fink, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and Joe Magarac.
JFOLK AMERICA Stoutenburg
Testa, Maria. Some Kind of Pride
Grades 3-6
Named after the greatest baseball player of all time, eleven-year-old Ruth dreams of becoming a major league baseball player until she overhears her father lamenting the fact that she is a girl.
J TESTA
Uchida, Yoshiko. A Jar of Dreams
Grades 4-6
Eleven-year-old Rinko grows up in a closely-knit Japanese American family in California during the Depression, a time of great prejudice.
JPBK JAR OF DREAMS
Vande Velde, Vivian. Wizard At Work A Novel In Stories
Grades 3-6
A young wizard, who runs a school to teach wizards, looks forward to a quiet summer off but is drawn into adventures with princesses, unicorns, and ghosts instead.
J VANDE VELDE
Wilde, Oscar. The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
Grades 2-4
A collection of Wilde’s beautiful fairy tales.
J WILDE
Woods, Shirley. Amber: The Story of a Red Fox
Grades 4-6
Follow the life of Amber, a red fox, from her birth through adulthood.
J WOODS
Wright, Betty Ren. The Wish Master
Grades 3-7
Certain that his grandfather doesn’t want him around, Corby is unhappy when he and his mother go to spend the summer in Wisconsin to help take care of his ailing grandmother, until a local boy takes him to the Wish Master.
J WRIGHT
Yolen, Jane. The Young Merlin Trilogy
Passager, Hobby, Merlin
Grades 3-8
Follow a young Merlin as he grows from a feral child living in a forest to a brave young man.
J YOLEN
To make finding these books easier, every book on the list is marked with a sticker that looks like this:
I hope to see you at our first meeting!
Posted by Ms. Doty