Realistic Fiction for Book #2 Due by October 20/21.
As usual, your book needs to be at least 100 pages long, at or near your reading level (so not too young, and not too hard), and a book you have not read before.
Your genre this time is contemporary realistic fiction, also sometimes called "life problems" fiction.
Realistic fiction includes
books that are set in the real world and have characters that could
really exist and plots that could really happen. For this term they
should be contemporary -- set in modern times -- not historical fiction. Anything that happened prior to about fifty years ago would be considered historical rather than contemporary.
Joan Bauer is one writer of realistic fiction. We will probably read her book Stand Tall as a class.
Some examples of realistic fiction include The Outsiders (which we read as a class), Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (1020L) and others, Because of Winn-Dixie (610L) by DiCamillo, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie (560L), Stargirl (590L),
No More Dead Dogs (610L) by Korman, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (700L) by Konigsburg, Walk Two Moons (770L) by Creech, Rules (780L) by Lord, Downriver (760L) by Will Hobbs.
For more, look under "Life and Its Problems" at Recommended Books
or Contemporary Realistic Fiction
To find out the lexile level for a book, go to lexile.com
If you do not have your own lexile level, hopefully we will soon be completing the Scholastic Reading Inventory to find it! (As of the middle of September 2014, we're waiting for the resolution of technical difficulties.)
If parents are concerned about certain books, one guideline for age appropriateness is to check recommended grade levels with the reviews on Amazon.
Focus on the Family reviews many books at http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/protecting_your_family/book_reviews_for_parents/a_c.aspx
