Level 1: Starting to Read
- Simple stories
- Increased vocabulary
- Longer sentences

Norman is a dog who cannot see. One day, he is at the beach. He hears a girl in the water calling for help. Can a blind dog save someone's life?

Dolores and the Big Fire
Dolores is a very timid cat. Her owner, Kyle, keeps a light on all night so she won't be scared. One night Dolores pokes at Kyle's face while he is sleeping. The house is on fire Can Dolores wake Kyle up in time?

MEET JAKE DRAKE,
BULLY BUSTER.

When Jake was three years old at Miss Lulu's Dainty Diaper Day Care Center, what did he know about bullies? Nothing. But he learned fast Why? Because Jake was kind of smart and not a tattletale, and he had no big brother to protect him. He was a perfect bully magnet.

But everything changed the year Jake was in second grade. That's when SuperBully Link Baxter moved to town. Jake had his hands full just trying to survive, until class project time. Who did the teacher assign to be Link's partner? You guessed it.

Jake has to use all his smarts...

Thief

When Phil sees another kid wearing his brother's jacket, he assumes the jacket was stolen. It turns out he was wrong, and Phil has to ask himself the question: Would he have made the same assumption if the boy wearing the jacket hadn't been African American? And that question leads to others that reveal some unsettling truths about Phil's neighborhood, his family, and even himself.

MEET JAKE DRAKE,
KNOW-IT-ALL

Jake Drake is excited about Despres Elementary School's first science fair. He wants to win the grand prize: a brand-new Hyper-Cross-Functional Bluntium Twelve computer system. And he really wants to beat the third-grade know-it-alls, Marsha McCall and Kevin Young.

The trouble is, to beat the know-it-alls, Jake has to become a know-it-all himself. And he may just lose more than he wins.

Knock, knock. Who's there? Jake. Jake who? Jake Drake, Class Clown.

Miss Bruce is the new student teacher in second grade, and she never smiles. Never. But when Jake cracks up the class during a spelling bee, he sees the tiniest hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Suddenly, Jake has a new mission in life: to be so funny that even Miss Bruce will laugh

But then things get out of hand, and Jake finds himself in big trouble. Has Jake discovered -- too late -- that not everybody loves a clown?

NEW STUDENT GETS OLD TEACHER
The bad news is that Cara Landry is the new kid at Denton Elementary School. The worse news is that her teacher, Mr. Larson, would rather read the paper and drink coffee than teach his students anything. So Cara decides to give Mr. Larson something else to read -- her own newspaper, The Landry News.
Before she knows it, the whole fifth-grade class is in on the project. But then the principal finds a copy of The Landry News, with unexpected results. Tomorrow's headline: Will Cara's newspaper cost Mr. Larson his job?

IT WAS THE PERFECT CRIME
Unfortunately, it also led to the perfect punishment. When Jack Rankin gets busted for defacing a school desk with a huge wad of disgusting, watermelon bubble gum, the principal sentences him to three weeks of after-school gum cleanup for the chief custodian. The problem is, Jack's anger at the chief custodian was the reason for his gum project in the first place. The chief custodian happens to be Jack's dad.
But doing time in the school basement after hours reveals some pretty surprising things: about the school, about Jack's father, and about Jack...

A fifth-grade genius turns the spotlight on grades--good and bad--in this novel from Andrew Clements, the author of Frindle.

Nora Rose Rowley is a genius, but don't tell anyone. She's managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she's not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way.

But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point. Suddenly the attention she's successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her...

Two middle school girls scheme to publish a book in this novel from Andrew Clements, the author of Frindle.

Natalie's best friend, Zoe, is sure that the novel Natalie's written is good enough to be published. But how can a twelve-year-old girl publish a book? Natalie's mother is an editor for a big children's publisher, but Natalie doesn't want to ask for any favors.

Then Zoe has a brilliant idea: Natalie can submit her manuscript under a pen name, with Zoe acting as her literary agent. But it's not easy for two sixth graders to put themselves over as grown-ups, even with some...