3-5 Books

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  Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen

  Donna Gephart

  After overcoming a number of obstacles, especially in the subject of geography, Olivia is on her way to Hollywood to appear on Jeopardy! and, she hopes, to reunite with her father who left the family two years ago.

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  On Being Sarah

  Elizabeth S. Helfman

  Twelve-year-old Sarah Bennett, a young victim of cerebral palsy, yearns to become a part of the "normal" world, and she gets her chance when she is mainstreamed into a regular school, makes a new best friend, and learns to come to terms with her special challenge.

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  Once Upon a Time: An Adoption Story

  Ashley Hansen Bigler

  A mother and father tell their young adopted daughter how, through the love of her birth mother and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she came to be part of their family.

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  One April Morning: Children Remember the Oklahoma City Bombing

  Nancy Lamb

  Conversations with children from the Oklahoma City area about their feelings at the time of the bombing of the Federal Building and afterwards.

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  One Crazy Summer

  Rita Williams-Garcia

  In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.

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  One for the Murphys

  Lynda Mullaly Hunt

  Follows the experiences of foster kid Carley, who uses humor and street smarts to cope with her unpredictable life until the loving, bustling Murphy family offers her more stability and a greater sense of belonging than she ever thought possible.

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  One Potato, Two Potato

  Cynthia DeFelice

  This retelling of a Chinese folktale pays tribute to the author's Irish heritage, and to the joys of an old marriage, new friendships, and the impulse to share. Using pen and gouache, the artist shows the "simple" characters in all their winning complexity. A very poor, humble couple live so simple a life they share everything, until the husband discovers a pot with magical powers buried under the very last potato in the garden. Mr. and Mrs. O'Grady are so poor they have just one of everything to share - one potato a day, one chair, one blanket full of holes, and one gold coin for a rainy day. After digging up the last potato in their patch, Mr. O'Grady comes upon a big black object. It's a pot - no ordinary pot, for what they soon discover is that whatever goes into it comes out doubled! Suddenly the O'Gradys aren't destitute anymore. But what they really long for is one friend apiece. Can the magic pot give them that?

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  One-Third Nerd

  Gennifer Choldenko

  Fifth grade is not for amateurs, according to Liam. Luckily, he knows that being more than one-third nerd is not cool. Liam lives in the Bay area near San Francisco with his mom and two younger sisters. Dakota is fascinated by science and has a big personality but struggles to make friends; Izzy, a child with Down syndrome, makes friends easily and notices things that go past everyone else. Dad lives across town, but he's over a lot. And then there's Cupcake, their lovable German shepherd, who guards their basement apartment.

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  Only the Lonely

  Laura Dower

  Madison Finn uses her computer journal and the Internet to cope with many changes as she starts seventh grade--her parents' divorce, the arrival of a new girl in town, and separation from her two best friends.

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  Out of My Mind

  Sharon M. Draper

  Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory. She can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom, the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy, and she's determined to let everyone know it, somehow.

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  Pablo Finds a Treasure

  Andrée Poulin

  Pablo and his sister spend every day at "Treasure Mountain," the local dump. There, they rummage through the mounds of garbage looking for items that their mother can sell in order to provide food for the family. Occasionally, they find a "real" treasure like some still-edible food, or a picture book, which Pablo delights in, even though he can't read. The work is exhausting, and sometimes not very lucrative, but the worst thing they have to contend with is Filthy-Face, a brutish bully who steals the finds of all the children. But one day, Pablo discovers a real treasure. Will he be able to keep it from falling into the hands of Filthy-Face?

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  Pashmina

  Nidhi Chanani

  Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri's mom avoids these questions and the topic of India is permanently closed. For Pri, her mother's homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film.

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  Peace, Locomotion

  Jacqueline Woodson

  Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.

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  People with Disabilities (What Do You Know About It)

  Pete Sanders and Steve Myers

  Discusses what it means to have a physical impairment or learning disability and the effects of such challenges on the disabled person and those around him.

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  Petey

  Ben Mikaelsen

  In 1922, at the age of two, Petey's distraught parents commit him to the state's insane asylum, unaware that their son is actually suffering from severe cerebral palsy. Bound by his wheelchair and struggling to communicate with the people around him, Petey finds a way to remain kind and generous despite the horrific conditions in his new "home." Through the decades, he befriends several caretakers but is heartbroken when each eventually leaves him. Determined not to be hurt again, he vows to no longer let hope of lifelong friends and family torment him. That changes after he is moved into a nursing home and meets a young teen named Trevor Ladd; he sees something in the boy and decides to risk friendship one last time. Trevor, new to town and a bit of a loner, is at first weary of the old man in the wheelchair. But after hearing more of his story, Trevor learns that there is much more to Petey than meets the eye.

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  Pictures of Hollis Woods

  Patricia Reilly Giff

  A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.

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  Pieces of Why

  K.L. Going

  Tia lives with her mom in a high-risk neighborhood in New Orleans and loves singing gospel in the Rainbow Choir with Keisha, her boisterous and assertive best friend. Tia's dream is to change the world with her voice; and by all accounts, she might be talented enough. But when a shooting happens in her neighborhood and she learns the truth about the crime that sent her father to prison years ago, Tia finds she can't sing anymore.

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  Princess Princess Ever After

  Katie O’Neill

  When the heroic princess Amira rescues the kind-hearted princess Sadie from her tower prison, the two band together to defeat a jealous sorceress with a dire grudge against Sadie.

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  Prinsesa: The Boy Who Dreamed of Being a Princess

  Emmanual Romero and Drew Stephens

  In an age of hateful bullying and advances for LGBT and gender nonconforming people, there's no easy way to understand what these struggles mean unless you put a face to them. What better face is there to look at than that of an innocent child who is full of wonder at the world? In the end, the story shows that whatever issues children need to deal with, they'll be okay as long as they have loving and supportive adults in their corner.

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  Probably the World's Best Story About a Dog and the Girl Who Loved Me

  D. J. Smith

  Paolo's plan for August in Orange Grove City is to hire out his little brother to the neighbors. Georgie is six; he needs a manager. But then the family dog, Rufus, is stolen. Overnight, Paolo is trying to manage not just Georgie, but their deaf cousin, Billy, who speaks only with his hands; Henry, a strange vacation visitor whom the boys discover living locked in his aunt's attic; and Butter Schwartz, a lonely, half-wild schemer with a paper route. The last two are definite dognapping suspects...To top it all, a girl with a big-time crush on Paolo won't let him be, day or night, crisis or no crisis. For her, missing Rufus is nothing to snaring Paolo, who has met his match as a manager. The solution to the mystery of Rufus, the threat of Theresa, and the future must rest in Billy's hands.

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  Puppy Fat

  Morris Gleitzman

  Keith worries about his separated parents and wants to improve their appearance so they will find new partners, but he realizes that he cannot change them into different people.

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  Red Butterfly

  A. L. Sonnichsen

  A young orphaned girl in modern-day China discovers the meaning of family in this inspiring story told in verse, in the tradition of Inside Out and Back Again and Sold. Kara never met her birth mother. Abandoned as an infant, she was taken in by an American woman living in China. Now eleven, Kara spends most of her time in their apartment, wondering why she and Mama cannot leave the city of Tianjin and go live with Daddy in Montana. Mama tells Kara to be content with what she has -- but what if Kara secretly wants more? Told in lyrical, moving verse, Red Butterfly is the story of a girl learning to trust her own voice, discovering that love and family are limitless, and finding the wings she needs to reach new heights.

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  Red Sky in the Morning

  Elizabeth Laird

  Although she loves her baby brother, Anna finds herself trying to hide his severe physical and mental disability from her friends.

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  Riding Freedom

  Pam Muñoz Ryan

  A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, and fooled everyone by her appearance.

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  Robert Lives with His Grandparents

  Martha Hickman Whitmore

  Robert is embarrassed to admit to his classmates that he has lived with his grandparents ever since his parents' divorce.