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| Elementary School Summer Reading Lists 2008 for
Grades Four and Five |
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Please read this note
on viewing the lists.
The reading lists for summer 2008 can be viewed for Elementary
Grade K or Grade 1, Grade 2 or Grade 3,
Grade 4 or Grade 5; Middle School Grade 6,
Grade 7, Grade 8 or
High School Grade 9,
Grade 10, Grade 11,
Grade 12. Also, the reading lists have a printer friendly link for
students to print the list for use at home during the summer or when
returning to school in the fall. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to
read and print the complete list. If you do not already have Adobe Acrobat
Reader, you can
Get Adobe Acrobat Reader for Free Here 
All required books for summer reading will be available for sale at Barnes and
Noble, Borders, independent book stores and on-line. Please be advised that
there may be a limited number of summer reading books available for circulation
at the Middletown Public Library and the smaller branches (Lincroft, Navesink
and Bayshore) due to the volume of readers. If you are planning to visit the
Monmouth County Library (Shrewsbury Branch), you must have a paid membership
card in order to borrow books.
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| Students Entering Grades Four and Five 2008 |
You are viewing this Elementary Summer Reading List displayed in your web
browser.
For a printer friendly link, go to
Elementary Reading List to view and print the complete elementary
reading list to paper.
If you are entering kindergarten or first grade, go to Students
Entering Kindergarten and First Grade.
If you are entering second or third grade, go to Students
Entering Grades Two and Three.
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Aiken, Joan
Dangerous Games
Her mission to bring an expert on games back to an ailing King James III in
London takes Dido Twite to a small tropical island, where she is caught up in
the conflict between a conniving city dweller and the more subtle powers of the
native forest people.
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Almond, David
Kit’s Wilderness
Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the decaying coal
mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds both the old man and the town
haunted by ghosts of the past.
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Anderson, M.T.
Whales on Stilts
Racing against the clock, shy middle-school student Lily and her best friends,
Katie and Jasper, must foil the plot of her father’s conniving boss to conquer
the world using an army of whales.
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Armstrong, Alan W.
Whittington
Whittington, a feline descendant of Dick Whittington’s famous cat of English
folklore, appears at a rundown barnyard plagued by rats and restores harmony
while telling his ancestor’s story.
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Arnold, Caroline
Easter Island: Giant Stone Statues Tell of a Rich and Tragic Past
Describes the formation, geography, ecology, and inhabitants of the isolated
Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean.
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Avi
Poppy
Poppy the deer mouse urges her family to move next to a field of corn big
enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other
ideas.
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Banks, Lynn Reid
The Indian in the Cupboard
A nine-year-old boy receives a plastic Indian, a cupboard, and a little key for
his birthday and finds himself involved in adventure when the Indian comes to
life in the cupboard and befriends him.
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Bauer, Marion Dane
The Double-Digit Club
Nine-year-old Sarah is excited about summer vacation, but she faces unexpected
crises when her best friend Paige becomes old enough to join a local girls’
clique, and when she makes choices which affect her relationship with an
elderly blind neighbor.
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Bellairs, John
The House with a Clock in its Walls
A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden
in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.
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Birdsall, Jeanne
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a
Very Interesting Boy
While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four
lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy,
much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.
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Bishop, Nic
Digging for Bird-Dinosaurs: An Expedition to Madagascar
The story of Cathy Forster's experiences as a member of a team of
paleontologists who went on an expedition to the island of Madagascar in 1998
to search for fossil birds.
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Borden, Louise
The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of
Margret and H.A.Rey
The true story of the authors of the Curious George stories who escaped German
troops during World War II and saved their first manuscript.
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Bredsdorff, Bodil
The Crow-Girl
After the death of her grandmother, a young orphaned girl leaves her house by
the cove and begins a journey which leads her to people and experiences that
exemplify the wisdom her grandmother had shared with her.
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Butterworth, Oliver
The Enormous Egg
A fictional story about a dinosaur.
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Byrd, Robert
Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer
Illustrations and text portray the life of Leonardo da Vinci, who gained fame
as an artist through such works as the Mona Lisa, and as a scientist by
studying various subjects including human anatomy and flight.
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Cerullo, Mary
The Truth about Great White Shark
Photographs illustrate this book about sharks.
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Cheng, Andrea
Honeysuckle House
An all-American girl with Chinese ancestors and a new immigrant from China find
little in common when they meet in their fourth grade classroom, but they are
both missing their best friends and soon discover other connections.
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Child, Lauren
Utterly Me, Clarice Bean
When someone steals the winner’s trophy for the school book project, Clarice
emulates her favorite book heroine, Ruby Redfort, the detective.
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Cleary, Beverly
Dear Mr. Henshaw
In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems
in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally
finding his own place in the world.
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Cleaver, Vera and Bill
Where the Lilies Bloom
In the Great Smoky Mountains region, a fourteen-year-old girl struggles to keep
her family together after their father dies.
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Collard, Sneed B.
Dog Sense: A Novel
After he and his mother move from California to Montana to live with his
grandfather, thirteen-year-old Guy gradually adjusts to the unfamiliar
surroundings, makes a friend, and learns to deal with a bully, with the help of
his Frisbee-catching dog, Streak.
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Cooney, Doug
I Know Who Likes You
When Swimming Pool’s mother insists she graduate from charm school or give up
baseball, Ernie, who is the reluctant team manager, and Dusty, the catcher,
pull together to help the team and their friend.
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Corrin, Sara and Stephen
The Pied Piper of Hamlin
The legend is based on a true incident in Germany in 1284. Breughelesque
illustrations match the mood of the tale.
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Creech, Sharon
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup
With the help of her wise old grandmother, twelve-year-old Rosie manages to
work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend, Bailey, the
boy next door.
Love That Dog Jack keeps a journal for his
teacher in free verse about his thoughts and especially about his dog.
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Dahl, Roald
George’s Marvelous Medicine
George decides that his grumpy, selfish old grandmother must be a witch and
concocts some marvelous medicine to take care of her.
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DiCamillo, Kate
Because of Winn Dixie
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi,
Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog
Winn-Dixie.
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some
Soup, and a Spool of Thread The adventures of Desperaux
Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the
servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring
them all to ruin.
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DiTerlizzi, Tony
The Seeing Stone
When Mallory and Jared attempt to rescue Simon from goblins, they use a magical
stone which enables them to see things that are normally invisible.
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Downer, Ann
Hatching Magic
When a thirteenth-century wizard confronts twenty-first century Boston while
seeking his pet dragon, he is followed by a rival wizard and a very unhappy
demon, but eleven-year-old Theodora Oglethorpe may hold the secret to setting
everything right.
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Fardell, John
The 7 Professors of the Far North
Eleven-year-old Sam finds himself involved in a dangerous adventure when he and
his new friends, brother and sister Ben and Zara, set off for the Arctic to try
and rescue the siblings’ great-uncle and five other professors from the mad
scientist holding them prisoner.
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Ferber, Brenda A.
Julia’s Kitchen
When her mother and younger sister are killed in a house fire, eleven-year-old
Cara struggles to find a way to deal with her emotions and to reach out to her
grieving father.
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Fradin, Dennis B.
The Signers: The Fifty-Six Stories behind the Declaration of
Independence
Profiles each of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence,
giving historical information about the colonies they represented. Includes the
text of the Declaration and its history.
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Fritz, Jean
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?
Describes some of the well known as well as the lesser-known details of Paul
Revere's life and exciting ride.
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George, Jean Craighead
My Side of the Mountain
A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in
the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on
nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human
companionship.
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Giff, Patricia Reilly
Nora Ryan’s Song
When a terrible blight attacks Ireland’s potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old
Nora Ryan’s courage and ingenuity helps her family and neighbors survive.
Maggie’s Door (sequel) In the mid-1800’s, Nory
and her neighbor and friend, Sean, set out separately on a dangerous journey
from famine-plagued Ireland, hoping to reach a better life in America.
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Gilson, James
Do Bananas Chew Gum?
Able to read and write at only a second grade level, sixth-grader Sam Mott
considers himself dumb until he is prompted to cooperate with those who think
something can be done about his problem.
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Greene, Stephanie
Queen Sophie Hartley
A suggestion from her mother leads Sophie to befriend the new girl at school
and an elderly, grouchy woman, and helps her overcome the feeling that she is
not good at anything.
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Griffith, Helen V.
Dinosaur Habitat
After twelve-year-old Nathan’s pesky younger brother Ryan claims to have found
a dinosaur fossil, they are suddenly transported into a misty world where
Ryan’s toy dinosaurs are alive.
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Halliday, John
Predicktions
Guided by his Mystic Board, Josh Jolly and his sixth-grade friends unwittingly
bring fame and fortune to a town where nothing unusual had ever happened until
the night of Josh’s birth.
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Hamilton, Virginia
Cousins
Concerned that her grandmother may die, Cammy is unprepared for the accidental
death of another relative.
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Hannigan, Katherine
Ida B: and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (possibly)
Save the World
In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and
playing in her family’s apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for
breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to
public school.
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Himmelblau, Linda
The Trouble Begins
Reunited with his family for the first time since he was a baby, fifth grader
Du struggles to adapt to his new home in the United States.
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Holt, Kimberly Willis
Mister and Me
In a small Louisiana mill town in 1940, Jolene does not want her Momma to marry
the logger who is courting her, but it seems that even her most defiantly bad
behavior cannot make him go away.
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Horvath, Polly
Everything on a Waffle
Eleven-year-old Primrose living in a small fishing village in British Columbia
recounts her experiences and all that she learns about human nature and the
unpredictability of life in the months after her parents are lost at sea.
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Hurwitz, Johanna
Dear Emma
In her letters to a Vermont friend, eighth grader Dossi, a Russian, Jewish
immigrant living in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1910, shares her
thoughts about her new brother-in-law, the diphtheria epidemic, and the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
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Juster, Norton
The Phantom Tollbooth
A journey through a land where Milo learns the importance of words and number
provides a cure for his boredom.
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Kent, Deborah
Chance of a Lifetime
Away from home during the battle of Vicksburg, fourteen-year-old Jacquetta
returns to find her parents gone and the plantation in Yankee hands, but with
help from a slave girl, she devises a plan to rescue the family’s Morgan
horses.
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Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody
The Adventures of Young Buffalo Bill
After the death of his brother, with-year-old Bill Cody and his family set out
from Iowa to make a new home for themselves in the volatile Kansas Territory.
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LaFaye, A.
Worth
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot
work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father
brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even worse.
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Lasky, Kathryn
The Man Who Made Time Travel
Describes the need for sailors to be able to determine their position at sea
and the efforts of John Harrison, an eighteenth century man who spent his life
refining instruments to enable them to do this.
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Lewis, C. S.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Concerned that her grandmother may die, Cammy is unprepared for the accidental
death of another relative.
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Lingrin, Astrid
Pippi Longstocking (series)
Pippi has a variety of adventures, including going to school and to the circus.
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Lord, Bette Bao
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she becomes Americanized at
school, in her apartment building, and by her love for baseball.
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Lowry, Lois
Anastasia Krupnik
Anastasia's tenth year has some good things like falling in love and really
getting to know her grandmother and some bad things like finding out about an
impending baby brother.
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Lubar, David
Dog Days
Larry is enjoying the summer, playing baseball and taking care of the stray
dogs he’s brought home. Then his brother Paul finds another stray in an alley
under mysterious circumstances, but the dog won’t come home with them. When the
price of dog food rises and the price paid for scrap falls, Larry has to find a
new way to feed his dogs and try to help the dog from the alley.
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Marsden, Carolyn
Silk Umbrellas
Eleven-year-old Noi worries that she will have to stop painting the silk
umbrellas her family sells at the market near their Thai village and be forced
to join her older sister in difficult work at a local factory instead.
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Martin, Ann
The Doll People
A family of porcelain dolls that has lived in the same house for one hundred
years is taken aback when a new family of plastic dolls arrives and doesn't
follow The Doll Code of Honor.
The Meanest Doll in the World
Annabelle and Tiffany, dolls who are best friends living in the Palmer house,
have an adventure when they hide in Kate Palmer’s backpack, are carried to
school, mistakenly go to another house, and try to stop Princess Mimi, a doll
who threatens all dollkind.
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Murphy, Jim
Blizzard
Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the
massive snowstorm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New
York City.
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Myers, Laurie
Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog’s Tale
Seaman, Meriwether Lewis’ Newfoundland dog, describes Lewis and Clark’s
expedition, which he accompanied from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean.
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Nixon, Joan Lowery
Nancy’s Story: 1765
In 1765, twelve-year-old Nancy worries about the effect of the British Stamp
Act on her father’s silversmith business in Williamsburg and about how to get
along with her new stepmother.
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Norton, Mary
Borrowers
Miniature people who live in an old country house by borrowing things from the
humans are forced to emigrate from their home under the clock.
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Patneaude, David
Haunting at Home Plate
After they hear stories about their baseball field being haunted by the ghost
of a boy who died there many years ago, twelve-year-old Nelson and his
teammates start finding mysterious messages written in the dust.
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Rawlings, Marjorie
The Yearling
A young boy living in the Florida backwoods is forced to decide the fate of a
fawn he has lovingly raised as a pet.
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Schyffert, Bea Uusma
The Man Who Went to the Dark Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo
11
Astronaut Michael Collins
A biography of the astronaut, Michael Collins, who circled the moon in the
Apollo 11 space capsule while his colleagues Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
landed the lunar module and walked on the moon.
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Sewell, Anna
Black Beauty
A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good
and bad masters.
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Skolsky, Mindy Warshaw
Love From Your Friend, Hannah
From her home in back of the Grand View Restaurant in rural New York, Hannah
writes letters to her best friend, a pen pal, and even to President and Mrs.
Roosevelt.
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Sloan, Christopher
Feathered Dinosaurs
Looks at the evidence of dinosaurs with skeletal structures and feathers so
similar to birds and why that is convincing many scientists that birds evolved
from dinosaurs.
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Snicket, Lemony
The Bad Beginning
After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must
depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative
who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get
their fortune.
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Spinelli, Jerry
Maniac Magee
When Maniac decides to run away, he keeps running from one adventure to the
next.
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St. George, Judith
So You Want to Be President?
Presents an assortment of facts about the qualifications and characteristics
of. U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Bill Clinton.
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Steinbeck, John
The Red Pony
Young Jody Tiflin is given a red pony by his rancher father. Under ranch hand
Billy Buck's guidance, Jody learns to care for and train his pony, which he
names Gabilan.
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Wilder, Laura Ingalls
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Ma and the girls follow Pa west by train where they make their home at a rough
railroad camp and plan for their own homestead.
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White, E. B.
Charlotte’s Web
Wilbur, the pig, is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the
farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help
him.
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White, Ruth
Buttermilk Hill
When Lindy’s parents divorce and gradually begin to make new lives for
themselves she finds all the changes difficult, but in time she starts to find
her own way.
Tadpole
In rural Kentucky in 1955, Serilda Collins, single mother of four lively girls,
discovers that her orphaned nephew is being subjected to brutality.
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Woods, Brenda
The Red Rose Box
In 1953, Leah Hopper dreams of leaving the poverty and segregation of her home
in Sulphur, Louisiana, and when Aunt Olivia sends train tickets to Los Angeles
as part of her tenth birthday present, Leah gets a first taste of freedom.
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Yep, Laurence
The Star Fisher
Fifteen-year-old Joan Lee and her family find the adjustment hard when they
move from Ohio to West Virginia in the 1920s.
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