…and now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold

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The “coming-of-age” story. When a boy becomes a man.

…and now Miguel is a great read for boys ages nine through thirteen. Joseph Krumgold really gets into the head of a kid during that in-between age, wanting to be respected as a man yet child enough that he’s not quite ready for a man’s responsibilities.… Read the rest

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch By Jean Lee Latham

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Set in post-Revolutionary War New England, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is the  biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, author of The American Practical Navigator, nicknamed the “Sailor’s Bible.” While I never paid attention to the author’s name when I was a child, I’m sure I read several of Jean Lee Latham’s biographical works.… Read the rest

M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton

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Synopsis

Set in Appalachia of northern Kentucky along the Ohio River,  M.C. Higgins is the oldest son in an African American family, proud of his great grandmother’s mountain and proud of his skills as a swimmer, a hunter-tracker, and how he can shimmy up his forty-foot steel pole to view the hills.… Read the rest

Onion John by Joseph Krumgold

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Twelve-year-old Andy Rusch walks to school and walks home for lunch. He’s    free to roam the countryside surrounding his small town of Serenity the whole day long, and his parents have no trouble with him befriending the village’s odd-man character, Onion John.… Read the rest

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

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I read this Newbery winner when I was in junior high school. Ordinarily, I didn’t go for man-against-nature type of stories. I didn’t go for a novel told in first person present tense. But Island of the Blue Dolphins featured a girl who had to survive totally alone on her island.Read the rest