Change Requires Effort

A Christmas Carol

"Bah Humbug!" said Scrooge. With those famous words a tale unfolds that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas.

A Lesson Before Dying

Two young black men, one condemned to death for a murder and the other a teacher, form a bond in a small Cajun Louisiana community in the late 1940s.

All Quiet On The Western Front

This novel depicts the experiences of a group of young German soldiers fighting and suffering during the last days of World War I.

Bud, Not Buddy

Bud Caldwell is an orphan on the run during the Great Depression. One dilemma after another uncovers a tough character who perseveres and triumphs in his adventure.

Cannery Row

The adventures and misadventures of cannery workers living in the run-down waterfront section of Monterey, California, are recounted and exposed.

East Side Dreams

Art Rodriguez experiences an unpleasant childhood full of difficult obstacles that could have profoundly impaired his chance for a normal life.

Frindle

When he decides to turn his fifth-grade teacher's love of the dictionary around on her, Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a series of events that quickly move beyond his control.

Holes

Stanley Yelnats is sent to a correctional boot camp for a crime he did not commit.

I Am The Cheese

Imagine discovering that your whole life has been a fiction, your identity altered, and a new family history created.

Jesse

To escape a home dominated by his alcoholic stepfather, 17-year-old Jesse abruptly leaves high school, moves into an apartment with his older brother, and takes classes at Fresno City College.

Miracle's Boys

Set in contemporary Harlem, this novel tells of three African-American brothers who are left alone after their mother's passing.

Nectar in a Sieve

This is a story of a simple peasant woman in a primitive village in India. Her entire life becomes a gallant, persistent battle to care for those she loves.

Of Mice and Men

George and Lenny are migrant workers in the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression, they dream of a time when they will have enough money to buy their own farm.

Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights

Carley recalls the summer when, as a troubled fourteen-year-old, he came to northern Minnesota to stay with his Uncle David who was a blacksmith and gained not only new skills but also a new sense of himself.

Riding Freedom

Posing as a boy, Charley Parkhurst ran away from an orphanage in the mid-nineteenth century, moved to California as a stagecoach driver, and fooled everyone by her appearance.

Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti

Seventeen-year-old Dijo (a victim in the real-life 1991 firebombing of a boys' shelter) is remembered by a girl named Jeremie, who cares for him in the hospital after he has been beaten in an unprovoked attack

The Afterlife

Teenaged Chuy tells the story of what it is like for him to be dead, what he observes among the living in his former Fresno neighborhood, and how he alters his choices from those he made while living.

The Maze

Rick Walker is a troubled teen who breaks out of Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center and becomes a stowaway in a pickup truck headed into Utah's canyons.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

This story describes an African-American woman's search for a fulfilling relationship through two loveless marriages.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Eight-year-old "Scout" Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer, prejudice and class distinction emerge as enemies of justice and truth.

Where the Red Fern Grows

This ia a story of a boy's childhood in the Ozarks which features his intense relationship with two coonhounds and the many adventures they have while hunting.