Realistic Fiction

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.  Harper Collins, 1972 (paperback reissue 2003).  208 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: Young adult, ...

Gary Paulsen's classic survival novel Hatchet offers a realistic--as opposed to romantic-- view of nature and what it takes to survive in the wild. Hatchet ...

Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X Stork. Scholastic, 2009, 312 pages. Age/interest level: 14-up. Dancing With Max, by Emily Colson. Zondervan, 2010, 200 ...

Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley.  Atheneum, 2011, 240 pages.  Age-interest level: 16-up. UPDATE: Where Things Come Back has won a gold medal ...

Homelanders, by Andrew Klavan.  Published by Thomas Nelson in four parts: The Last Thing I Remember (2009), The Long Way Home (2010), The Truth of ...

Close to Famous, by Joan Bauer. Viking, 2011, 250 pages.  Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: ages 11-13 Bottom Line: In this feel-good middle ...

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer. Speak, 2005. 208 pages Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 12-16 Bottom Line: Good-hearted Jenna ...

The Confessions of April Grace: In Front of God and Everybody, by K. D. McCrite. Thomas Nelson, 2011, 390 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages ...

The death of God has been announced since the beginning of time (see Ps. 14:1), but God doesn't seem to stay dead--not even with Darwinism and nihilism ...

Prom and Prejudice, by Elizabeth Eulberg.  Point (Scholastic), 2011, 227 pages.  Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and up Bottom Line: ...

*The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg.  Clarion, 2011, 241 pages with author note. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages ...

Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg.  Houghton Mifflin, 2011, 37 pages.  Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 9-12 Recommended for: Ages 4-8 On the ...

Beautiful: Truth's Found When Beauty's Lost, by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma.  Thomas Nelson, 2009, 272 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and ...

Love Will Keep Us Together, by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt.  Hatchett: 2010, 287 pages.  (Miracle Girls series #4) Reading Level: Young adult, ages 12-15 ...

Becoming Me, by Melody Carlson.  Multnomah, 2010.  (Diary of a Teenage Girl series #1.) Reading Level: Young Adults, Ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and up ...

Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book, by Nancy Rue.  Zondervan, 2010, 211 pages.  (Real Life series #1) Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ...

A Dog's Way Home, by Bobbie Pyron.  HarperCollins, 2011.  321 pp.  Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 Bottom line: When Abby ...

The Year Money Grew on Trees by Aaron Hawkins.  HMH, 2010. 301 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 Bottom Line: Middle-grade ...