Grade 2-4-The adorable and intelligent hamster introduced in The World According to Humphrey (Putnam,2004) is dismayed to find that he shares his status as classroom pet with a frog.Try as he might,Humphrey cannot seem to make friends with Og,who just splashes him or says"BOING!"The little rodent,who can secretly write,learn,and get out of his cage,also uses his wits to effect positive outcomes of the various subplots,including a new girl who won't talk and has trouble making friends,two pals who get into a terrible fight,a bully who causes trouble on the bus,and the janitor who dreams of going back to college.The theme of friendship is as pervasive as the title implies,making this chapter book a charming read-aloud.Pair this tale with Frank Asch's Survival School(S & S,2003)for an appreciation of animals in the classroom.

Gr 8 Up-In this gritty novel of World War II, 16-year-old Erik Brandt is forced to fight for the emaciated German army, and because of his knowledge of the Russian language, he is sent to the Russian front. The train trip that Erik and the other young men take is symbolic of their transition from child to man. These boys are sent to the front with only a few weeks of basic training and the directions to kill or be killed. After the first battle, Erik makes the life-altering decision to take the uniform of a dead Russian soldier and pretends to be Russian for most of his remaining time as a soldier, surviving serious wounds and finding the love of his life while he recuperates in a war hospital. There he pretends to have amnesia and takes the moniker "Soldier X." When the hospital is attacked, Erik and his girlfriend escape. After a harrowing journey filled with enemy encounters, they find a safe house in Czechoslovakia and eventually make their way to Berlin. The story is framed with a prologue and epilogue f