ELL

REALISTIC FICTION

Reading levels are indicated: “beginning” is for readers who are starting to learn English, while “intermediate” and “advanced” are for readers with some experience in the language.
Click on the Amazon link button to view the title at Amazon*
Bhai For Now by Maleeha Siddiqui
Ashar is busy with hockey and trying to get into good schools. Shaheer is trying to adjust to yet another move and trying to find new friends, again. The two boys are nothing alike, except they look identical. They soon discover that they are twins, separated as babies, and devise a plan to get to know the parents they have been separated from. (intermediate)
Clean Getaway
by Nic Stone
Scoob gets suspended from school so to avoid taking the punishment from his strict dad, he opts to go on a road trip through the American south with his white Grandma (G’ma) who’s been acting kind of strange lately…(intermediate)
Berrybrook Middle School series 
by Svetlana Chmakova
Crush
Jorge is really big, but he's a nice guy with a good group of friends. He only feels off balance when a certain girl is near. (graphic novel) (beginning)
Fish in a Tree
by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Ally has always tried to disguise her dyslexia but acting out, until a teacher helps her to see her true abilities. (beginning)
Freestyle 
​by Gale Galligan
Cory's dance team is praticing hard for a competition, but his parents are more worried about his grades. At first he's resistant to the tutor they hire, his nerdy lab partner.  But her amazing yo-yo skills intrigue him and soon he's spending more time with her than his old friends. How will this affect the dance team's chances of working smoothly together? (graphic novel) (beginning)
Long Way Down 
by Jason Reynolds
“Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.” -from Amazon (advanced)
Maybe He Just Likes You 
by Barbara Dee
At first when some of the boys in her seventh grade class crash the playground birthday celebration for a friend, and give her a hug, Mila thinks nothing of it. Soon, there's another hug, and a smirk, comments on the bus... it all feels weird. Her friend says they're just flirting. But it doesn't feel like flirting and soon she just wants to hide, even in band, her favorite subject. (intermediate) 
Mr. Terupt series series
​by Rob Buyea
Because of Mr. Terupt
Seven 5th-graders at Snow Hill School relate how their lives are changed for the better by their rookie teacher. (beginning)
New Kid series
by Jerry Craft
Middle-schooler Jordan must travel back and forth from home to school, navigating between two very different worlds while keeping his friends, honoring his responsibilities, and pursuing his dreams. (graphic novel) (intermediate) 
The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls 
​by James BIrd
Benny fills up his empty life by stealing stuff. When he goes up before a tough judge, his mom proposes he go to a "boot camp" style intervention with their extended family on an Ojibwe reservation. In addition to hanging out with his dad, who he barely knows, his rehabilitation seems to be up to the chief's daughter, who always wears a mask. Can this second chance turn his life around? (intermediate)
When Stars Are Scattered 
​by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
When Omar gets the opportunity to go to school, he is excited. He knows an education could enable him and his younger brother to get out of the refugee camp where they've spent most of their lives. But going to school also means leaving his brother behind to fend for himself every day. (graphic novel) (beginning)