CurriConnects Book List - Alabama
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Alabama
This carefully curated collection features books about Alabama organized into three developmental reading levels, each with corresponding Lexile measures to help educators and parents select age-appropriate materials. Every title includes a brief description highlighting its content and themes, making it easy to match young readers with engaging stories about Alabama's history, culture, and people.
Preschool and Picture Books
Alabama Spitfire: The Story of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird - Bethany Hegedus, (978-0063037403), Non-fiction
Interest level: PreK-3
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. This is the story of the childhood that inspired the famous novel.
Back of the Bus - Aaron Reynolds, (978-0147510587), Fiction
Interest level: 1-3, Lexile: 590L
A boy and his mother are trying to make their way home at the end of the day when a commotion erupts at the front of the bus. They end up witnessing the historic arrest of Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks.
Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story - Calvin Alexander Ramsey, (978-0763687694), Fiction
Interest level: K-3, Lexile: 710L
Young Alex meets Belle, who is enjoying her retirement. He hears Belle’s story from Miz Pettway and learns that Belle had pulled the cart that held Dr. Martin Luther King’s casket. Alex begins to realize the significance of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Thanksgiving Visitor - Truman Capote, (978-0679838982), Fiction
Interest level: 1-7, Lexile: 1130
A preteen boy finds comfort with a much older female cousin during a Thanksgiving celebration after he gets bullied at school.
Y is for Yellowhammer: An Alabama Alphabet - Carol Crane, (978-1585361182), Non-fiction
Interest level: K-2
This book features all the things that are special about Alabama.
Middle Grade Books
Alabama Moon - Watt Key, (978-0312644802), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 720
Ten-year-old Moon was raised off the grid in rural Alabama. His father was a survivalist who did not trust the government, and when he died, he left instructions for Moon to find people like them. Moon tries to follow his father’s wishes but finds himself navigating a world that he does not understand.
Bird - Angela Johnson, (978-0142405444), Fiction
Interest level: 4-10, Lexile: 710
Bird trails her stepfather to Alabama, trying to encourage him to return home; at the same time she meets some troubled children whom she attempts to help.
Gone Crazy in Alabama - Rita Williams-Garcia, (978-0062215895), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 740
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern leave their city home to visit their grandmother and great-grandmother in Alabama. Delphine begins digging into her family history to heal the rift between her great-grandmother and her estranged great-aunt.
Inside Out and Back Again - Lai Thanhha, (978-0061962783), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 800
A Vietnamese immigrant writes a series of poems reflecting on her wartime experiences in Vietnam and her resettlement in Alabama.
My Year in the Middle - Lila Quintero Weaver, (978-1536213171), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 720
Lu Olivera does not want to draw attention to herself, and that is hard to do in a deeply segregated town in Alabama in 1970. As tension builds in her school and town, Lu struggles with whether she should take a stand.
Singing Hands - Delia Ray, (978-0618657629), Fiction
Interest level: 5-7, Lexile: 900
Twelve-year-old Gussie Davis, one of three hearing daughters of deaf parents in 1948 Alabama, faces a summer of rebellion when her humming during church services leads to unexpected consequences at the Alabama School for the Deaf.
Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues - Harriette Gillem Robinet, (978-0689838866), Fiction
Interest level: 2-6, Lexile: 550
A grandmother and two grandchildren take part in the historic Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott of 1956, searching for rent money and singing themed blues.
Young Adult and Adult Books
Almost American Girl: A Graphic Memoir - Robin Ha, (978-0062685094), Non-fiction
Interest level: 7-12
Robin and her mom lived a happy life in South Korea. It was not always easy, but they had each other. When a visit to Alabama turns into an unexpected wedding and an unexpected move, Robin’s life changes overnight. She is in a new school in a new country, speaking a new language. She has trouble fitting in, and she is angry at her mother. When her mother enrolls her in a drawing class, she begins to see the positive aspects of her new life.
Fake ID (Hunted) - Walter Sorrells, (978-0142407622), Fiction
Interest level: 8-12, Lexile: 650
Chass, a 16-year-old who has used many identities, seeks to find answers to her disturbing past in Alabama.
Looking for Alaska - John Green, (978-0142402511), Fiction
Interest level: 7-12, Lexile: 850
Prep school student Miles generally enjoys his life at school, his friends, and their tricks, but a deadly car accident changes everything.
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller - Sarah Miller, (978-1442408517), Fiction
Interest level: 3-11, Lexile: 890
This historical fiction novel describes the relationship between blind and deaf Helen Keller and the teacher who saved her, Annie Sullivan.
The Hanging Woods - Scott Loring Sanders, (618-881255), Fiction
Interest level: 6-12, Lexile: 760
Told from the point of view of a murderer, this brutal novel portrays a teen friendship gone out of control after one of the boys discovers a family secret.
The Stones of Mourning Creek - Diane Les Becquets, (978-0761452386), Fiction
Interest level: 6-12, Lexile: 670
Francie's interracial friendship with an African American girl during the 1960s provokes controversy.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee, (978-0060935467), Fiction
Interest level: 9-13, Lexile: 790
Young Scout Finch and her brother struggle with their experiences as their father represents a black man in a 1930s court of law.