English as a Second Language (ESL)

Lexile Level: AD680L
The true story of lifelong activist Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins and her participation in the Capitol Crawl in this inspiring autobiographical picture book.

Lexile Level: 690L
The inspirational story of Mary Sherman, the world's first female rocket scientist, who overcame gender barriers and many failures to succeed.

Lexile level: 650L
Sachiko's family home was about half a mile from where the atomic bomb fell on August 9, 1945. Her family experienced devastating loss. When they returned to the rubble where their home once stood, her father miraculously found their serving bowl fully intact. This delicate, green, leaf-shaped bowl--which once held their daily meals--now holds memories of the past and serves as a vessel of hope, peace, and new traditions for Sachiko and the surviving members of her family.

Lexile Level: 680L
A Caldecott-honor winning picture book biography of the mother of Emmett Till, and how she channeled grief over her son's death into a call to action for the civil rights movement.

Lexile Level: AD610L
A lyrical picture book biography of Simone Biles, gymnastics champion and Olympic superstar.

Lexile Level: 610L
Young Kalia has never known life beyond the fences of the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. The Thai camp holds many thousands of Hmong families who fled in the aftermath of the little-known Secret War in Laos that was waged during America's Vietnam War. For Kalia and her cousins, life isn't always easy, but they still find ways to play, racing with chickens and riding a beloved pet dog. A tender true story of the love between a father and a daughter.

Awards:Caldecott Award, 1979
Lexile Reading Level: 670L
Though she is fond of her people, a girl prefers to live among the wild horses where she is truly happy and free.

Awards:Caldecott Medal, 1994
Lexile Reading Level: 650L
A Japanese American man recounts his grandfather's journey to America which he later also undertakes, and the feelings of being torn by a love for two different countries.

Awards:Caldecott Medal, 1942
Lexile Reading Level: 630L
Mrs. Mallard was sure that the pond in the Boston Public Gardens would be a perfect place for her and her eight ducklings to live. Starting and ending with adorable ducklings, this 60-year old story is still as charming today as it was when Viking first published it in 1941. A true classic.

Awards: Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee 2015-2016
Lexile Reading Level: 670
Everyone on Grimloch Lane enjoys the trees and shrubs clipped into animal masterpieces after dark by the Night Gardener, but William, a lonely boy, spots the artist, follows him, and helps with his special work.

Awards:Caldecott Medal, 1950
Lexile Reading Level: 620L
It tells the famous story of the yearly return of the swallows to the Mission San Juan Capistrano through the eyes of a small child. Julian, the bell ringer of the Mission, tells Juan, a young boy who also lives at the Mission, the story of the swallows and how--without anyone really knowing why or how--they return each year from their winter home in South America to San Juan Capistrano in California. Thrilled by the story, Juan makes his own small garden in the hope that at least one family of swallows will nest there when they return.

Lexile level: 660L
Captivating photographs show how to lure in moths to study them.

Awards: A Junior Library Guild selection;Winner of the 2011/2012 William Allen White Children's Book Award (3rd - 5th grade).
Lexile Reading Level: 650L
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.

Awards:Newbery Honor, 1953.
Lexile Reading Level: 680L
In affectionate, sometimes bashful pig named Wilbur befriends a spider named Charlotte, who lives in the rafters above his pen. A prancing, playful bloke, Wilbur is devastated when he learns of the destiny that befalls all those of porcine persuasion. Determined to save her friend, Charlotte spins a web that reads "Some Pig," convincing the farmer and surrounding community that Wilbur is no ordinary animal and should be saved.

Lexile Level: 650L
The fight for women's suffrage between women's rights leader Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson is creatively presented as a four-round boxing match in this energetic nonfiction picture book.

Young Kalia has never known life beyond the fences of the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. The Thai camp holds many thousands of Hmong families who fled in the aftermath of the little-known Secret War in Laos that was waged during America's Vietnam War. Just four years old, Kalia is still figuring out her place in the world. Kao Kalia Yang's sensitive prose and Rachel Wada's evocative illustrations bring to life this tender true story of the love between a father and a daughter.

Awards:Newbery Honor, 1989
Lexile Reading Level: 610L
After reluctantly taking on the leadership of the Harlem gang, the Scorpions, Jamal finds that his enemies treat him with respect when he acquires a gun--until a tragedy occurs.

Awards:William C. Morris Award, 2017
Lexile Reading Level: 630
Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father's extreme faith and very public fall from grace. The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him.

Lexile Reading Level: 690
A London teenager who is blind and her younger brother travel to New York to find their missing father. Laureth Peak's father has taught her to look for recurring events, patterns, and numbers, a skill at which she's remarkably talented. Her secret: she is blind. But when her father goes missing, Laureth and her younger brother Benjamin are thrust into a mystery that takes them to New York City. Surviving will take all her skill at spotting the amazing, shocking, and sometimes dangerous connections in a world full of darkness.

Lexile Reading Level: 660
Cole St. Clair has come to California for one reason: to get back Isabel Culpeper.
Isabel fled from Cole's damaged, drained life... and damaged and drained it even more. He doesn't just want her, he needs her. Isabel is trying to build herself a life in Los Angeles. She can play the game as well as all the other fakes, but what's the point? Cole and Isabel have the power to love each other and the power to tear each other apart. The only thing for certain is that they cannot let go.