Sixth grade is not a good time for everybody; bad things can happen to good kids. Teachers will accuse you of doing things wrong, bullies will find your weaknesses and use them against you and the students who are the loudest and most disruptive can drown out the quiet, nice kids. But this year is Maverick Falconer’s year. He’s going to make a difference by helping those smaller than him (and those shorter if he can find anyone!) and he’s going to stand up to bullies. Maverick’s father died a hero on active military duty in Afghanistan when he was 3 and one of the last things his father left him was a toy sheriffs’ badge when he was little but being a hero is not as simple as carrying his badge. Now he likes to carry it to remind him of his dad and to remind him to make school a better place for everyone even if it’s hard to do. At school, it’s his arch nemesis Bowen Stack to deal with. At home it’s his Mom’s drinking and abusive boyfriends to worry about. A powerful story showing a young boy who just wants to make school and home a better place to be.

Yoko Picture Book/Animal Fiction
Wells, R. (2009). Yoko. New York: Disney/Hyperion Books.
Yoko the kitten is off to her first day of school and so her mother sends her off with a healthy comfort food, a lunchbox full of her favorite sushi. Yoko is excited for the day ahead and to show her classmates her red bean ice cream. Timothy had a peanut butter and honey sandwich, Tulip had Swiss cheese on rye and the Franks brothers both bought Franks. Yoko is super excited for her lunch, but her classmates decided to tease and bully her at lunch time when she goes to eat because it was a lunch they had not seen before. During the class Snack Time Song, the two Frank bulldog brothers tell her her food is for weirdos “Yuckorama!”. Everyone laughs, and Yoko finishes her day sad and down. But Mrs. Jenkins has a plan and decides to host an International Food Day. She asks all the students to be open-minded and try everything. Yoko’s mother made sushi for everyone in the class. Everything was eaten but her sushi. But then Timothy, a raccoon, tries Yoko’s sushi and Yoko shows him how to use the chopsticks to eat it. By the end of the book they are fast best friends planning to open their own lunch restaurant serving up tomato sandwiches and dragon rolls.

Visiting Day Picture Book/Poems
Woodson, J., & Ransome, J. (2015). Visiting Day. New York: Puffin Books.
With her grandma’s love and guidance, a young girl and her grandmother prepare for a very special day of the month – the one day they go to visit the girl’s dad in prison. “Only on visiting day is there chick