Top Grade Fall 2012 Selections
Created by Top Grade on September 20, 2012A Few Bites
Shortlisted for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Picture Book Award and selected as an OLA Best Bet for 2012
It's time for Ferdie to eat lunch, but he'd much rather find the special part for his fighter ship. When big sister Viola promises to help him, he comes to the table. But he finds broccoli on his plate, and carrots! Ever resourceful and imaginative, Viola convinces Ferdie that dinosaurs ate broccoli to escape their fiercest predators, and that carrots are just like the Orange Power …
Justine McKeen, Walk the Talk
Meet Justine McKeen. She's the Queen of Green! She talks a little too much, bosses a little too much and tells the truth, just not all at once. She's trying to save the planet, one person at a time, and when she decides to get something done, it's a lot of fun.
In Justine McKeen, Walk the Talk, the second book in the Justine McKeen series, Justine decides there are too many cars idling in front of her school. So she comes up with a solution that should help keep the air cleaner. But she soon dis …
"Did you know, if nine kids walk to school all year instead of going in cars or buses, it stops over a ton of carbon dioxide from going into the air? It also saves gas. The less gas we use, the less we have to drill for oil. And that's good too. Plus, walking is healthier for kids."
"Let me guess," Safdar said. "You have a plan. Again."
"Of course I do," Justine said. "I am the Queen of Green."
What's for Lunch?
Whether their school is under a banyan tree, in a dusty tent held up with poles or in a sturdy brick structure in the heart of a bustling city, all children need a healthy lunch to be able to learn and grow. Good food nourishes both our bodies and our brains. It's one of the basic building blocks of life.
As the world has become more interconnected, what we eat has become part of a huge global system. Food is now the biggest industry on Earth. Growing it, processing it, transporting it and selli …
Mac in the City of Light
Mac’s school trip to Paris turns into an adventure she never imagined.
Fourteen-year-old California girl Mackenzie, known as Mac, goes on a school trip to Paris where she meets up with an old musician friend of her dad’s, Rudee Daroo, who now makes a living as a cab driver. Rudee reveals that some of the greatest monuments in Paris are being either destroyed or stolen and that the city is slowly becoming darker.
Mac finds herself in league with a crew of crazy cabbies and their friends as she …
The Secret of the Village Fool
Milek and his brother, Munio, live in a sleepy village in Poland, where nothing exciting seems to happen. They have a kind and gentle neighbour named Anton, but the people of the village laugh at Anton and call him the village fool because he talks to animals and only eats vegetables. When the war brings Nazi soldiers to town, life changes. The Nazis begin rounding up Jewish boys like Milek and Munio. Anton worries about them and comes up with a plan to hide the whole family in his own home, put …
A Long Way from Home
Thirteen-year-old Rabia, along with her mother and younger brother, flee Afghanistan and the brutal Taliban for Pakistan. Relocating to North America, their flight falls on the fateful morning of 9/11. After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, their plane is diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. Also on the plane is an American boy named Colin, who struggles with his prejudices against Rabia and her family. The people in the small community of Gander, including teens Jas …
Jason's Why
2014 Silver Birch Express Award nominee
Jason's mom says he is a problem, and puts him in a group home. Now Jason has to live with boys and grown-ups he doesn't know.
Jason thinks, Now I'm in a house that isn't my house. I watch their hands and feet. When hands and feet move fast, you're going to get hit.
There's a big bubble of mad inside Jason. It makes him yell and throw things. Jason wants to be good and move home again, but the mad bubble just won't go away.
People Who Said No
When saying no is the right thing to do.
Sometimes it’s okay to ignore the rules or break the law. In fact, it’s essential! This thought-provoking book features people who did just that: Sophie and Hans Scholl, siblings who distributed antigovernment pamphlets in Nazi Germany; and Andrei Sakharov, who helped develop the nuclear bomb in Cold War Russia, but then spoke out against its use. Some, like Rosa Parks, were not originally in positions of political power but came out of the ranks of r …