Realistic Fiction Books

Picture Books

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Mommy bunny with a counter-argument to the baby bunny’s urge to run away from home. She will become anything to get her baby back. Theme is that your mom will always be there for you, no matter what. I love this book because it brings back memories.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: One morning, Peter woke up and looked out the window to see the snow that fell during the night. After breakfast he put on his snow-suit and went outside. He moved his feet in and out and to make tracks in the snow. He also made tracks with a stick, hit a tree with the stick, decided not to play in a snow ball fight because he was too young and instead made a snowman, pretended he was a mountain climber and slide all the way down. Picked up some snow and put it in his pocket and told his mom all about the day. After the tub, he looked in his pocket for the snow and it wasn’t there and he was sad. He had a dream that the sun made all the snow melt, but when he woke up it was snowing again and he called his friend and played more. Theme is having a good snow day. I like this story because it brings back memories and is fun to read. 

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Art class in school was over and Vashti sat in her chair next to her empty paper. The teacher told her to draw a small thing and see where it takes you. So Vashti grabbed a marker and stabbed the paper. The teacher made her sign it and then was surprised to see it hanging above the teacher’s desk the next morning. She then said that she could make a better dot than that one and took out her watercolors to make a red, purple, yellow and blue dot also. She mixed blue and yellow to make green.  She made little dots and big dots and dots by painting around to make a white dot. A little boy loved her art and wanted to paint but wish he could, she told him that he could but he said he can’t even draw a straight line. He showed her that he can only make a squiggle and she told him to sign it. Theme is that everything is art. I love this story because I think it is the cutest thing when a teacher can communicate through a student for the student to then use the skills themselves to teach others as well. 

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Trixie went on an errand with her daddy. They went down the block, through the park, past the school and until the Laundromat. She helped her daddy put the laundry and money into the machine, then left. A block later, Trixie realized something and tried to tell her dad something but her dad didn’t understand her and she cried and went boneless. She tried everything to show how unhappy she was, making her daddy unhappy too. Once that got home the mommy asked where the bunny was and they ran back to the Laundromat. Trixie’s daddy looked for the bunny, and finally found him and Trixie’s first words were “KNUFFLE BUNNY!” and they walk home. Theme is to never lose a Knuffle Bunny. I really loved this story because it was adorable and the pictures were actual picture of real places with the cartoon people drawn over them, which is really neat. 

When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: When I was young in the mountain, grandfather came home in the evening and kissed her head, grandmother made cornbread,beans and walked with me to the Johnny house in the dark night, took the cows to the lake and swam. On the way home we visited Mrs. Crawford’s house for butter.  We pumped pails of water and stood in-front of the stove with hot coco. We went to church and listened to frogs, watched snakes, and took pictures with them. We sat on the porch swings and talked and loved it because they loved the mountains. Theme was about the history of the mountains and family traditions. This story was sweet because it repeated the title on almost every page and in the end they loved living in the mountains. 

I Can Be Anything by Jerry Spinelli (Realistic Fiction) 

Summary: Starts off with a little boy in the grass asking a rabbit what he should be when he grows up. Which job with will be best for him? Pumpkin grower, dandelion blower, paper-plane folder, puppy-dog holder, puddle stomper, apple chomper, mixing-bowl licker, tin-can kicker, barefooted hooper, bubble gum popper, snowball smoother, baby-sis soother, girt unwrapper, jump and clapper, cheek-to-cheek grinner, dizzy dance spinner, cross-legged sitter, make-believe critter, deep hole digger, lemonade swigger, honeysuckle smeller, silly-joke teller, best-part saver, or goodbye waver? He chooses every one of the jobs in the end. Theme is you can be anything you want. I like this book because it was really cute and creative. 

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Pa and Son went out to the woods late one night, passed his bed-time, to go owling. Threw the snow and the motionless trees, the Pa and Son quietly walked.  While looking up at the moon Pa called “Whoo-whoo-who” like the sound of a Great Horned Owl. They kept walking threw the woods to find an owl, while quietly trying to be as brave as they could. In another clearing of trees, Pa and Son tried to call for an owl again and this time they had an answer back.  They stood right under the owl’s nest and watched it as it flew on a branch, stared at them and flew off. To go owling you do not need words, warmth, or anything but hope. Theme is owling and family traditions. I liked this book because it was really cute and enjoyable for many ages. 

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Amos McGee was an early riser, who changed right into his uniform when he woke up. He ate his oatmeal and had some tea and started to walk to the bus. He was right on time for the 6am bus to the City Zoo. Amos had a lot to do at the Zoo, including seeing all of his friends. He played chess with the elephants, raced the tortoise, sat with the shy penguin, lent a handkerchief to the rhino, and read stories to the owl. One day Amos woke up with a cold and didn’t think he could make it to work. At the Zoo all the animals waited for him, wondering where he was. Later that day all the animals went on the train and arrived at Amos’s house. The elephant and him played chess but he was too tired to run races to they played hide-and-seek instead. The penguin sat near Amos’s feet while he took a nap and the rhino had a handkerchief ready when Amos had to sneeze. When he started to feel a lot better, they all shared a pot of tea. After tea he said goodbye to everyone and set his alarm clock for the morning bus as the owl read him a story because Amos was also afraid of the dark. The last picture of the book was Amos sleeping with all of the other sleeping animals. Theme is that the people you love will be there for you. I liked this book because it was really cute and I love the pictures and story line. 

Chapter Books

Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Joey Pigza Loses Control is an account of Joey's six weeks spent over summer vacation with his usually absent dad. Joey has ADD and has finally found a good dose of medicine, in the form of a patch on his arm. The new meds help Joey "settle down and think. And not just think about all the bad things that had already happened. I started thinking about the good things I wanted to happen." Meds have helped Joey start out new. But upon arriving at his dad's, Joey realizes his Dad is just like a grown up version of himself, but without the medicine. Carter Pigza is excited to get have this chance to bond with his son, and wants to make his son a winner. And winner's don't need medicine. So the first order of business is to flush all of Joey's medicine down the toilet and get Joey's world-class pitching arm on his baseball team. Both of which he does.  The rest of the story is about Joey slowing losing what little control he had over his behavior without the patch. Things go south quickly, and Dad is of no help to Joey. Joey’s burning desire to please his dad is the chief conflict here, because even Joey can sense his dad is making dangerous decisions. The real strength in this novel is the honest and heartbreaking voice of Joey and the voice, in turn, it gives ADD. I think this book is a wonderfully written novel that will make your reader think, and give him a birds eye, empathic view of children without stable family units and children struggling with ADD. Theme of this book is always do what is best for you no matter what anyone else says. I liked this book because it was showed me how a student with ADD would react and what they need to help them. 

Ramona Quimby Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: The novel opens with Ramona starting third grade and being excited about riding the school bus all by herself. At the same time, her older sister Beezus is enthusiastic about starting junior high, while their father begins taking college classes with a view to becoming a teacher.  Once Ramona arrives at school, she instantly clicks with her teacher, Mrs. Whaley ("a whale with a 'y' for a tail"), and starts signing her name, "Ramona Quimby, Age 8". But of course, as is normal for Ramona, things don't always go as planned. One day, she takes a hard-boiled egg to school for lunch. When she whacks it against her head to remove the shell as per a third-grade trend, she realizes it wasn't hard boiled and gets raw egg in her hair. She later overhears Mrs. Whaley talking about the incident in the staff room, commenting "What a nuisance". Ramona is shocked and upset that her teacher thinks of her like this. In another chapter, Ramona and Beezus claim not to like tongue because of "those yucky little bumps". As punishment for their comments, Mr and Mrs Quimby state that their two daughters should prepare the evening meal. The next day, Beezus and Ramona behave themselves in the hope that their parents will forget about their punishment. Unfortunately, Mr and Mrs Quimby remember and instruct the sisters to cook dinner. They prepare chicken thighs, rice and cornbread. However, they use some other ingredients because they ran out of the right ones. They use Cream of Wheat in the cornbread with the cornmeal, and banana yogurt and chili powder. They also make a mess of the kitchen. In another chapter, Ramona comes down with stomach flu and she does the "most terrible, horrible, dreadful, awful thing"; she throws up in front of everybody.  After Ramona recovers, she has hangups about a book report she is assigned to do, and comes up with a clever way to present it. Mrs. Whaley congratulates her warmly. Ramona confronts her teacher about the way she called her a nuisance. Mrs. Whaley replies that she meant it was a nuisance for the school secretary to have to wash the egg out of Ramona's hair. In the final chapter, the Quimbys are in a generally bad mood on a rainy Sunday, hardly a novelty in Oregon, complete with Beezus being upset over not being able to spend the night at her friend Mary Jane's house and Ramona being forced to clean up her room. So, to cheer everyone up, their father decides they should go out to dinner for the first time in months to Whopperburger, where the whole family realizes that a man, who had strangely asked Ramona if she's been nice to her mother, has paid for their meal, and they go home happy. Theme is family and school. I did not like this book much because it was boring and the plot line was not interesting enough for me. 

Junie B. First Grader (at Last!) by Barbara Park (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Junie B. Jones just started First Grade and it is very different from Kindergarten. She doesn’t like first grade at first because her best friend Lucille from last year doesn’t want to be her best friend anymore and instead hangs with two twins, Camille and Chenille.  Plus her bus buddy, Grace from last year has a new buddy, so she sits with a boy named Herb, that she thinks she will like. During journal time, Mr. Scary, her teacher, took her down to the nurse’s office to test her eyesight and she ends up needing glasses. Junie was scared that everyone would react to her new glasses so she tried to whisper the news to Herb, but May the goodie girl started to yell at her to be quiet and Junie yelled her secret as she screamed at May. The next day Junie showed her glasses for Show and Tell. May laughed at her, but her friends Herb, Jose and Lennie all high-fived her. At the end she was happy to be in first grade. Theme is little children and school. I do not like this book because Junie B. never seems to be very polite and she’s always annoying. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Realistic Fiction) 

Summary: Greg Heffley just started middle school and has to suffer through the bullying, girls, his dorky friend Rowley and the dreaded Cheese Touch. Not only school is tough, but home as well because of his older brother Rodrick playing tricks on him and his younger brother Manny who gets away with everything. Greg loves video games and tried to run for class treasurer but his campaign signs were too mean.  Greg’s favorite holiday is Halloween so him and Rowley tried to make a haunted house in Rowley’s basement. It didn’t work out too well when a little boy was too scared to get out from under the bed and Rowley’s dad came down stairs and made Greg leave. On Halloween the boys dressed up as a knight with a lot of reflective tape and a pirate.  After hanging around their parents and little siblings the boys went off on their own but ran into a couple of high school bullies in their big truck who made fun of them and sprayed them with a fire extinguisher then chased them to Greg’s Gramma’s house. They safely got back home to be drenched from Greg’s dad and his trash can filled of water for the teenagers that come to his house. In November Greg and Rowley tried out for wrestling but Greg was put in the low weight class with Fregley, the weird kid.  He didn’t want to be defeated by him again so he asked his dad for a weight machine to get bulked up and gain pounds in muscle. His mom didn’t want to spend the time and money on the exercise machines so Greg made his own weights which didn’t work out too well. When that was over, Greg’s mom made him sign up to act in the Wizard of Oz play at school.  Greg was on of the trees in the forest seen with a singing part, but after seeing his older brother tape him from the crowd, he didn’t want to sing anymore and ruined the play by throwing an apple at the annoying girl playing lead, Patty Farrell. For Christmas Greg didn’t get anything he wanted because his video game was accidentally sent to the Giving Tree poor person instead. While Rowley road on the new big wheel from Christmas, Greg threw a football at him as a game, but Rowley fell off and broke his arm. At school, Rowley got all the fame and girls because of his injury and Greg was upset because he got nothing. Rowley and Greg then decided to work together on a comic strip for the school’s newspaper, but Rowley and Greg had different ideas.  Greg’s ended up winning, but the teacher edited the strip so much it made him look like a teacher’s pet and was then bullied for it.  The boys decided to join the Safety Patrol to miss some of their Math class, but Greg got in trouble when he had to take care of Kindergarteners when walking home.  It was raining so he borrowed Rowley’s jacket while he was taking a quiz, but Greg was caught terrorizing the children by Mrs. Irvine who thought it was Rowley.  This got Rowley in trouble with the principle and got him kicked off the Patrol for a week. Greg was caught and Rowley got a promotion for taking the blame. Rowley starts to hang out with Greg’s back up friend Collin and start to make matching T-shirts together with their faces on them.  Greg needs a new friend and the only one he can think of is Fregley.  She he decides to sleep over Fregley’s house, but he eats all of Greg’s candy and get a sugar high. Greg runs away in the bathroom to then get an apology note from Fregley with a booger on it which makes him run back home at 2am.  To get more friends, Greg tries to get a class favorite, but his new sub teacher is his mom and all of his plans fail.  Rowley’s comics end up being in the newspaper, unchanged, and this gets Greg mad.  Their peers than think they are going to fight, but it was interrupted by the teen boys from Halloween who make Rowley eat the Cheese. Greg takes the blame for touching it and Rowley gets Class Clown, but Greg has blackmail on him with eating the Cheese just incase he get a big head. Theme is surviving relationships with friends and family as well as school survival. I love this book because it is one of the only books that actually make me laugh out loud while I read it.

Superfudge by Judy Blume (Realistic Fiction)

Summary: Peter is a sixth grader who lives in New York City.  He has a little brother, named Fudge.  Peter’s mom tells him that she is going to be having another baby.  Peter worries the new baby will create the same problems that Fudge caused him, so he plans to run away.  Next his parents decide to move the family from the big city, to suburbs in Princeton, New Jersey.  First, Peter is worried that the new baby will turn out to be a pain like Fudge, but to his surprise his new baby sister Tootsie is actually charming.  The first new friend Peter makes is Alex, the boys start a business by collecting worms for their neighbor.  Peter is actually enjoying his new school, but is mad that Fudge is at the same school with him.  The story ends with the family making a big decision about what to do next; Move back to New York City or stay in Princeton, New Jersey.