Chapter Books

Follow

• 

  Fiona’s Bee (1975) by Beverly Keller

  Gareth B. Matthews

  Young Fiona saves her money to buy a dog dish, which she puts on her front porch and fills with water every day, hoping to make friends with a dog who might stop by for a drink, and with its human walker. But when a bee lands in the water and nearly drowns, Fiona's rescue results in her making a whole group of new friends in an unexpected way. Beverly Keller's delightfully offbeat story nudges us to think about what kind of respect we owe to creatures like bees, what kinds of animals can be pets, and what the limits are, or should be, on keeping animals as pets.

• 

  Higher Power of Lucky (2008) by Susan Patron

  Maughn Gregory

  Ten-year-old Lucky lost her mother in a freak accident; her father is missing, and she is being cared for by her father’s former girlfriend in a tiny town at the edge of the Mojave desert. That could be the set-up for a story of loss and poverty. But this girl lives up to her name: she takes scraps of information, chance experiences, and overheard theories as resources for imagining the world and plotting her way forward. She learns how things work from the desert animals and insects, with the help of her hero, Charles Darwin. She learns survival and a good attitude from her quirky neighbors, becoming a first-rate self-educator and independent thinker.

• 

  My Octopus Teacher (2020) directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed

  Maughn Gregory

  My Octopus Teacher combines a carefully structured love story with astonishing information about undersea life, documenting a year of encounters between a photographer and an octopus. It is important as a non-standard love story and as a reflection on the possibility of deep connection with non-human creatures.

• 

  The Upside-Down Cat (1981) Elizabeth Parsons

  Maughn Gregory

  Lily Black, nicknamed the “Upside-Down Cat” from her habit of lying on her back over a hot-air register to keep warm, lives with Joe and his parents in New York City and summers with them in Maine. When she disappears at the end of one summer, Joe and his family have no choice but to return to New York without her. A kind lobsterman finds Lily, takes care of her all winter, and becomes fond of her. The next summer, when Joe finds Lily on the man’s boat, they have to decide whom Lily really belongs to—if anyone.