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Author: Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Illustrator: Marc Simont
Grade Level: K-3
This book is great for students who love problem solving and mystery! Growing up, I loved reading books dealing with mystery and "crime" because I got to be involved in the reading. This book is excellent for beginning readers due to its slight complexity and encourages logical thinking throughout to help Nate solve the problems. Nate the Great must work in this book to find his friends lost picture. Nate the Great is a book that gets students involved in reading and has them dig deeper and actively participate as they go through the pages.
Standards:
K.FFL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

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Author: Beverly Cleary
Grade Level: K-2
One of my favorite books and authors growing up, I had to include this in my Padlet! Socks is a great read for younger elementary students due to the lovable main character, a cat named Socks. I remember this being a read-aloud text in my second grade class and I loved it! After his owners bring home a new baby, Socks life changes and he becomes very jealous. This gives him the desire to act out and misbehave for attention. This book is very entertaining and funny for young readers to enjoy. Qualitatively, the book is slightly complex however in the younger ages it would be better as a read aloud due to the amount of words in the book.
Standards:
2.FL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

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Author: Kate DiCamillo
Grade Level: 4-6
After moving to Florida, Opal finds herself becoming a new dog owner inside a grocery store. Because of her new dog Winn-Dixie, Opal finds things out about her past, meets new people, and learns to forgive. This award winning book would be great to do as a read aloud that could be followed up with the film. Students could then compare and contrast the two and compare the elements of the film and the story. The book is moderately complex due to the multiple levels of meaning, vocabulary, and sentence structures.
Standards:
5. SL. CC.2 Summarize a text presented in diverse media such as visual, quantitative, and oral formats.
5. SL.PKI.5 Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations, when appropriate, to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

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Author: Kate DiCamillo
Grade Level: 4-6
After being separated from her best friends and her home, Louisiana struggles to find a way back despite her grandmother's plans for her. This story is great to include when speaking on character development because each character is well-developed and carefully crafted. The book follows many twists and surprises which causes it to be very complex in its organization.
Standards:
6.RL.CS.6 Explain how an author establishes and conveys the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

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Author: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Grade Level: 4-8
This book covers an extremely difficult topic, however it is one that is very timely. In Ghost Boys, a young boy is shot and killed by a white police officer. The book follows the young boys ghost as he watches the aftermath of his death. As a ghost, he meets another boy who was killed and learns about all the boys that are like him and the changes that need to be made in society. While I think this book can be extremely deep for classrooms, upper elementary students may respond to it well especially depending on their maturity levels and backgrounds. This book is complex and captures the true pain of racial injustice.
Standards:
Could tie in Social Studies standards of Civil Rights and how there are still racial issues today.

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Author: R.J. Palacio
Grade Level: 4-8
An excellent read aloud for all students, Wonder is a book that shows different perspectives throughout the reading. Wonder is a book that I think all people should read because of it dealing with empathy, compassion, acceptance, friendship, and kindness which are so important to promote in the classroom and in the community. Qualitatively, this book would fall mainly in the middle, with the life experiences being very complex for some students.
Standards:
5.RL.KID.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a story, drama, or poem and explain how it is conveyed through details in the text; summarize the text.

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The Great Smoky Mountain Salamander Ball

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The Great Smoky Mountain Salamander Ball

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Author and Illustrator: Lisa Horstman
Grade Level: K-2
This book is an excellent one to tie literacy and science together. While a fiction story, the book holds a lot of scientific information that can be taught to students. The book follows a character on a trip to the mountains where she witnesses a Salamander Ball. The book goes over 27 salamander species and other Smoky Mountain information and is especially great to cover in East Tennessee. The scientific diversity included in the book is great for the science standards. While students can read this independently, I believe they will learn more through it being a read aloud during science lessons so that specific questions can be asked as it is read. Qualitatively, the vocabulary is mostly familiar and conversational with slight content-specific language. The book falls mainly in the slightly complex category.
Standards:
2.LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

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Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Grade Level: 4-8
This dystopian novel is filled with action and suspense throughout the story. When the main character finds a message that she believes will save the city from the lights going completely out, she must work with her friend to decipher the message. This book is great for upper elementary due to the characters being around their age which they may find relatable and exciting. This book is more moderately complex to very complex and would be a great read aloud so that the class can have discussions about some of the harder-to-grasp concepts.
Standards:
5.FL. VA.7a Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

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Author: Rita Williams-Garcia
Grade Level: 4-8
One Crazy Summer is a story about three sisters who travel to see their mother who once abandoned them. The author pays close attention to the wording and sentences throughout the book and maintains a conversational style. The book covers the complexities the sisters face during their journey including racism, poverty, and abandonment. Qualitatively, this book ranks most in the moderately complex to very complex categories.
Standards:
5.FL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
5.FL.PWR.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills when decoding isolated words and in connected text.

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Author: E.B. White
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Grade Level: K-3
Charlotte's Web is a story that follows the development of a runt named Wilbur and the friendship that is formed between him and a spider named Charlotte. The book provides insight to human emotion and motives due to Wilbur's fate in the barn and his owners desire for money. The book is a favorite to children due to the involvement of animals as characters and can be easily understood through the author defining a lot of words through questioning of the characters. Overall, the book is mainly moderately complex. The involvement of animals can tie this reading into science as well.
Standards:
2.FL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
2.FL. VA.7a Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.

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Author: Kwame Alexander
Grade Level: 4-8
Crossover follows the Bell family through a series of events throughout a basketball season. The book follows the boys basketball team while also covering the family struggles they are experiencing at home. When judging literature, this book best reveals to the reader life's complexities. These complexities include health issues, family issues, and school issues. Qualitatively, Crossover is slightly complex due to concept-specific vocabulary. However, it is structured in verses which can help readers as they read the book independently.
Standards:
4.RL.KID.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in a text, such as character's thoughts, words, or actions.

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Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Grade Level: 4-8
This book is a great book about diversity and character development. The book follows moments throughout Esperanza's life such as the death of her father, her corrupt uncles, and her immigration to California. The book incorporates some Spanish language that through context or exact translations can be understood by readers. The main ideas of the book include discrimination, poverty, and perseverance. Using the qualitative measures rubric, Esperanza Rising would fall more in the very complex to moderately complex categories due to the varying levels of complexity, levels of meaning, and cultural knowledge. Esperanza Rising would be a great tool to add to incorporate social studies standards of culture into the literacy standards.
Standards:
4.RL.KID.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in a text, such as a character's thoughts, words, or actions.
5.RL.CS.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
SSP.05 Develop historical awareness.

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Author: Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrator: Sylvia Long
Grade Level: K-3
This book is a great option to connect science and literacy in the classroom. The use of graphics in this book are exceedingly complex while the actual language features are slightly complex. Students reading this book will go through a variety of nest types for different insects and animals. The beginning and end covers of the book show the animals that inhabit each nest. A great activity to use following this book would be to have young students make their own nests from materials they find throughout the classroom and playground.
Standards:
2.LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
3.LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

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Author: Suzanne Slade
Illustrator: Rebecca Bond
Grade Level: 1-4
This book follows the process of the building of the White House and the impact that George Washington had on the design. Utilizing a similar structure from the classic "The House that Jack Built." The book is filled with rhyming verses that help the reader understand the meaning. The use of graphics, vocabulary, and structure are moderately complex.
Standards:
4.ETS2 Links among engineering, technology, science, and society.
4.RL.CS.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated.

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Author: Charles R. Smith Jr.
Illustrator: Floyd Cooper
Grade Level: 1-4
This book would be a great book to read along with The House that George Built due to the differing perspective given. This award winning book covers the building of the White House and the slaves' impact with the building. The sentence structure of this book falls in the very complex category along with the use of graphics, life experiences, and cultural knowledge.
Standards:
4.ETS2 Links among engineering, technology, science, and society.
4.RL.CS.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated.

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Author and Illustrator: Tomie De Paola
Grade Level: K-3
This book would be a great resource to connect literacy to social studies. The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush is a story about a Native American child that can be used to introduce diversity and also has strong themes throughout that students can identify as they read. While life experiences and cultural experiences fall more exceedingly complex, the sentence structure and use of graphics are more moderately complex. The book is longer and may be better to use as a read-aloud so that you can stop and define unfamiliar words and concepts to the class.
Standards:
1.03 Compare and contrast family traditions and customs among different cultures within a student's community and state.
2.01 Identify various cultural groups within the U.S. and the student's community.
4.RL.KID.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem and explain how it is conveyed through details in the text; summarize the text.

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Author and Illustrator: Katherine Applegate
Grade Level: 4-8
This book deals with themes of friendship, misplacement, and nature. This would be a great resource to connect literacy and science in the classroom. The book includes vocabulary that is very complex that can be unfamiliar or subject-specific. However, the author helps the reader by providing a glossary within the book. While the sentences are moderately complex, the reading is more appropriate for upper-elementary leveled students due to the concepts and vocabulary. There are a few images scattered throughout, however they are slightly complex and are not necessary to the text.
Standards:
5.LS3 Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
5.LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
5.FL. VA.7a Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

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Author and Illustrator: Ian Falconer
Grade Level: K-3
This book falls primarily in the slightly complex categories when dealing with organization, sentence structure, vocabulary, and meaning. However, the use of graphics supports and extends the meaning of the text so it would become very complex. This resource is great to introduce students to character development.
Standards:
K.FFL.PWR.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills when decoding isolated words in connected text.
K.RL.KID.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
K.RL.KID.3 With prompting and support, orally identify characters, setting, and major events in a story.

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Author and Illustrator: Monica Wellington
Grade Level: Pre-K-2
This book would be a great option to use to introduce language diversity. This would also be a fantastic resource in classrooms with high ESL populations so that they could read a book that they would be able to relate to and see their own culture in. The book is about an apple farmer named Annie and follows her throughout her day, giving this book a variety of uses. It can additionally be used to talk about math when dealing with the shopping and selling aspects of the book. The text falls in the moderately complex to very complex categories. The graphics support selected parts of the text, the sentence structure is primarily simple and compound, and there are references to other cultures.
Standards:
K.FFL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
K.02 Compare and contrast family traditions and customs, including: food, clothing, homes, and games.
K.06 Recognize and describe different types of jobs, including work done in the home, school, and community.
1.06 Distinguish how people are consumers and producers of goods and services.

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Author: Alison McGhee
Illustrator: Eliza Wheeler
Grade Level: K-3
This book shows a father explaining his multiple tattoos to his young son. The book varies in complexity. While the conventionality and vocabulary are slightly complex, the use of graphics are exceedingly complex. After reading the book, having students put their own life events in chronological order like the father did in the book would promote literacy skills while also having them look back at their own histories.
Standards:
K.FFL.F.5 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
K.FL. VA.7c Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.
K.01 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events within a student's home, school, and community.
1.22 Arrange the events from a student's life in chronological order.