LS & MS Book List: Old & New Classic Read-Alouds

Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish, and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Fourth-grader Jada's best friend moved away but a class project on rocks and minerals, her favorite topic, could mean new friends, if only one of her teammates would stop being mean.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

A spunky young girl from Colombia loves playing with her canine best friend and resists boring school activities, especially learning English, until her family tells her that a special trip is planned to an English-speaking place.

---

A young girl helps her grandmother care for magical creatures.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

When the squirrel Tail comes barreling into the chicken coop ranting about a round, shiny, green, big, scary thing in the yard, Dirt, Sweetie, Poppy, and Sugar investigate this strange object.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Nory, Elliott, Andres, and Bax find their lives forever changed when they attend the Dunwiddle Magic School's Upside-Down Magic class.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Edward Tulane, a cold-hearted and proud toy rabbit, loves only himself until he is separated from the little girl who adores him and travels across the country, acquiring new owners and listening to their hopes, dreams, and histories.
✸ Check out this eBook at the Chapin Library here.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

At Great Rapscott School for Girls of Busy Parents, Ms. Rapscott teaches her students How to Get Lost on Purpose, resulting in a series of fantastical adventures that makes each learn a little something about courage, strength, bravery, and teamwork.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Lumphy is a stuffed buffalo. StingRay is a stuffed stingray. And Plastic... well, Plastic isn't quite sure what she is. They all belong to the Little Girl who lives on the high bed with the fluffy pillows. A very nice person to belong to. Together is best for these three best friends. Together they look things up in the dictionary, explore the basement, and argue about the meaning of life. And together they face dogs, school, television commercials, the vastness of the sea, and the terrifying bigness of the washing machine.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

When the sensible, reliable and always tidy Clover Twig goes to work for a messy witch, she discovers that the witch's cottage has quite a few secrets hiding inside of it!

In this compilation of four separately published books, Pakistani American second grader Yasmin learns to cope with the small problems of school and home, while gaining confidence in her own skills and creative abilities.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Avon the snail and Edward, a take-charge ant, set off together on a journey to an undetermined destination in search of unspecified adventures.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Four-year-old Ramona has an imagination that makes her a menace to everyone around her, particularly her older sister, Beezus.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

This is the story of two very different sisters--Eliza, who longs to ride into battle against villains and dragons, and Lavender, who would give anything to be a pampered princess. Before the end of the story both of them have had a chance to fulfill their dreams, though not quite in the way they intended. Accompanied by their depressed goat, Gertrude, with their granny's warnings about the Black Death ringing in their ears, they head out into the forest and come face to face with an evil count who definitely does not have their best interests at heart.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

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.
✸ Check out this audiobook at the NYPL here.

---

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has left her Upside-Down House and the animals that live there in the care of her twenty-something niece, Missy. Luckily for the town's families, Missy Piggle-Wiggle is capable of concocting the same sort of inventive cures for bad behavior that made her aunt an indispensable community resource
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Visiting her grandmother in Australia, Livy, ten, is reminded of the promise she made five years before to Bob, a strange, green creature who cannot recall who or what he is.
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.

---

Keena Ford doesn't mean to be a troublemaker, but sometimes things get out of hand. Lucky for her, it's the beginning of the second grade and Keena's got a clean slate. So when her new second-grade teacher, Ms. Campbell, mistakenly thinks it's her birthday and brings in a huge chocolate cake, Keena realizes that she's gotten herself into a sticky situation. She knows she has to tell the truth, but it's not easy to turn down her very own birthday cake and a chance to wear a sparkly crown. How will Keena get out of this mess?

---

Polly loves words. And she loves writing stories. So when a magic book appears on her doorstep that can make everything she writes happen in real life, Polly is certain all of her dreams are about to come true. But she soon learns that what you write and what you mean are not always the same thing!
✸ Check out this eBook at the NYPL here.