"Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, about a boy surviving in the Canadian wilderness.

Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman.

"The Thief Lord," "Inkheart" and "Dragon Rider" by Cornelia Funke.

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

"The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin, winner of the 1979 Newberry Award. KidsPost called it a "complicated, confounding, funny mystery."

"The Sign of the Beaver" by Elizabeth George Speare, a 1984 Newberry Honor book. Two boys, a settler and an Indian, find friendship in 18th-century Maine.

"My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George.

"The Physician" by Noah Gordon, the story of quest for medical knowledge set in 11th-century London.

"Cold Service and other mysteries by Robert B. Parker.

"47" by Walter Mosely. A 14-year-old slave meets a mysterious runaway in a story that is part mystery, part historical fiction, and part science fiction.

"The Street" by Ann Petry.

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley

"Makes Me Wanna Holler : A Young Black Man in America" by Nathan McCall.

"The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros.