OBD Books for Fourth and Fifth Grade - YOUTH

Told in dual flashbacks, this novel relates the stories of both Trevor Roberts, a British journalist-in-training, and Henry Friston, a World War I Royal Navy sailor. Assigned in the 1950s to cover the annual hibernation awakening of Ali Pasha, a giant tortoise and local celebrity owned by Henry, Trevor meets and connects with Henry who then shares his wartime photos, memorabilia, and diary as well as reminiscences of harrowing battles with Turkish...

"Told in a conversational style, this scientific journey describes how one million oysters can land on top of a mountain"-- Provided by publisher.

"Beneath the forest floor, drifting through the air, and growing inside other living things, fungi are everywhere. Fungi break down waste and help plants and animals grow, but they can also destroy buildings and turn ants into zombies! From tiny microbes tot he largest living thing, this is a world of strange shapes, magical colors, and fascinating science"--Back cover.

Puzzle-crazy, twelve-year-old Winston and his ten-year-old sister Katie find themselves involved in a dangerous mystery involving a hidden ring. Puzzles for the reader to solve are included throughout the text.

In Romania in 1989, when people who say or do the wrong thing disappear, ten-year-old aspiring writer Ileana copes with fear, hunger, and cruelty by writing new endings to stories, including her own.

Starting life as a seed, a clonal grove of quaking Aspens grows into one of the world's oldest and largest organisms, whose future is now uncertain. Includes factual information on Pando, aspens, and trees, as well as a glossary.

"This illustrated nonfiction book for middle-grade readers is a comprehensive overview of the brain. It looks at the science behind how it works, how it directs our day-to-day lives and how much we don't know about this key organ in our bodies."-- Provided by publisher.

Unlucky and unloved, Molly Moon, living in a dreary orphanage in a small English town, discovers a hidden talent for hypnotism and hypnotizes her way to stardom in New York City.

The week of her tenth birthday, Alice and her parents go to Sanibel Island, Florida, just as they do every year, but this time some of the people who are always there are missing and some new people have come, which unsettles Alice, who wants things to be exactly the same as they alway are.

In her diary in 1912, thirteen-year-old Margaret Ann describes how she leaves her lonely life in a London orphanage to become a companion to a wealthy American woman, sails on the Titanic, and experiences its sinking.