Get ready to have some great reading adventures! The Children’s Librarians at the Ferguson Library enthusiastically recommend the following books as good places to start your adventure. And don’t forget, your librarian can help you with additional suggestions of books to read by these and other authors.

GRADES 1 AND 2 | GRADES 3 AND 4 | GRADES 5 AND UP   GRADES 1 AND 2 Anna, Grandpa, and the Big Storm by Carla Stevens Anna and her grandfather are trapped in an elevated train during the Great Blizzard of 1888. JBEG The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh Everyone tells him that there are no bears on Hemlock Mountain – but Jonathan isn’t so sure! JBEG

Artwork created by Paul Zelinsky for the 2001: A Reading Odyssey Summer Reading Program.

The Big Balloon Race by Eleanor Coerr
Just before the big race, Ariel accidentally stows away in her mother’s hot air balloon.   EBEG

Bony Legs by Joanna Cole
Will Sasha end up as dinner for the terrible Bony-Legs – or will she escape?   EBEG

The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford
An Alaskan sled dog saves the town of Nome from an epidemic by delivering medicine through a blinding snowstorm.   EBEG

Good Hunting, Blue Sky by Peggy Parish
A Native American boy comes home with something unexpected when he goes hunting with his new bow and arrow.   EBEG

Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express  by Margaret K. Wetterer
Kate has less than an hour to stop a train full of passengers from traveling over a collapsed bridge.   EBEG

Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Peter and Connie Roop
When a violent storm delays her father’s return, Abbie must keep the lighthouse lamps lit all by herself.   E387.1 B

Molly the Brave and Me by Jane O’Connor
Beth admires her friend Molly’s bravery, but when the two girls become lost in a cornfield, she surprises herself with her own courage.  EBEG

A Picture for Harold's Room: A Purple Crayon Adventure by Crockett Johnson
Harold travels far from home while drawing a picture with his purple crayon.   EBEG

Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne
A magic tree house takes Jack and Annie back to the days of nasty pirates and secret treasure maps.  Will they find the gold – or walk the plank?   JBEG

Wagon Wheels  by Barbara Brenner
After the Civil War, an African American family journeys to Kansas and faces hunger, wild animals and a dangerous prairie fire.  EBEG

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Catwings by Ursula Le Guin
Four young cats with wings fly away from their city home in search of a safer place to live.   JFIC

The Firework-Maker's Daughter by Philip Pullman
To become a master maker of fireworks like her father, Lila must undertake a perilous journey to the top of a volcano.   JFIC

The Great Summer Camp Catastrophe by Jean Van Leeuwen
Three mice from New York City are accidentally shipped in a care package to a summer camp in Vermont.  Will they survive country life long enough to find their way home?  JFIC

Help! I'm a prisoner in the library by Eth Clifford
With a snowstorm raging outside, two sisters spend an adventurous night trapped inside the public library.   JFIC

Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka
A mysterious book transports three boys back in time to the days of King Arthur.   JBEG & JFIC

A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla
Left on their own in seventeenth-century London, Amanda, Jemmy and Meg are happy to gain passage on a ship bound for America – until a storm blows them off course!   JFIC

The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski
While traveling by themselves through the forest, Roger and Alice are imprisoned in a deserted tower by a pair of bandits.   JBEG

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
A baby dragon is kidnapped by the lazy animals on Wild Island – and a boy named Elmer Elevator sets out to rescue him.   JBEG

Shadows of Caesar's Creek by Sharon M. Draper
During a camping trip at a state park, Ziggy, Rico, Rashawn and Jerome – a.k.a. The Black Dinosaurs – get lost in the woods at night.  JPBK

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
Little Willy enters the National Dogsled Races with his beloved dog Searchlight.  Will he win the prize money and save his grandfather’s farm?   JBEG & JPBK

Tracks in the Snow by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
Erin and Tiffany are searching the woods for Erin’s missing babysitter when a blizzard strikes!   JFIC

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
When Prince Brat decides to run away from the palace, he takes his whipping boy with him – and the two become involved with dangerous outlaws!   JFIC

White Water by P. J. Petersen
Greg is forced to take charge when his father is bitten by a rattlesnake during a white-water rafting trip.   JFIC

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Backwater by Joan Bauer
Sixteen-year old Ivy’s courage is tested when she treks into the mountain wilderness to visit her reclusive aunt.   JFIC

Danger in Quicksand Swamp by Bill Wallace
Two boys search for buried treasure on an island in a swamp and find themselves battling alligators and quicksand – and a murderer!   JFIC

Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret
An earthquake hits the island where his family is camping and Jonathan must use his wits to keep himself and his little sister Abby alive.   JFIC

Frozen Stiff by Sherry Shahan
A kayaking trip in an Alaskan fjord leaves thirteen-year old Cody and her cousin Derek battling for survival.   JFIC

A Girl Names Disaster by Nancy Farmer
Nhamo faces drowning and starvation as she journeys by river from her remote village in Mozambique to her father’s family in Zimbabwe.   JFIC

The Illyrian Adventure by Lloyd Alexander
While researching an ancient legend in the kingdom of Illyria, Vesper Holly and her guardian Brinnie become embroiled in a dangerous rebellion.   JFIC

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
The classic story of a Native American girl who survives alone on an island off the coast of California for eighteen years.   JFIC

Lost in the Devil's Desert by Gloria Skurzynski 
When two escaped convicts discover Kevin hiding in the back of their stolen pickup truck, they leave him to die in the middle of the desert.   JFIC

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Sam Gribley runs away from home and spends a year living in a hollowed-out tree in the Catskill Mountains.   JFIC

Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman
Dan is at home with only his baby brother and best friend for company when a tornado strikes!   JFIC

The Sign of the Beaverby Elizabeth George Speare
Thirteen-year old Matt is left alone to guard his family’s newly built cabin in this gripping adventure set in the eighteenth-century Maine wilderness.   JFIC

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Charlotte’s voyage to America aboard the merchant ship Seahawk is complicated by a murderous captain and a mutinous crew.   JFIC & JPBK

The Voyage of the Frog by Gary Paulsen
When a sudden storm roars across the Pacific, David finds himself stranded on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean with sharks and killer whales circling nearby.   JFIC

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
Sophie and her cousin Cody record their experiences in separate journals during a sail across the Atlantic to visit their grandfather in England.  JFIC

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Bonnie and Sylvia risk being devoured by wolves when they attempt to escape the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp!   JFIC & JLT