Tom Stechschulte
1) The road
Author
Lexile measure
670L
Language
English
Description
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. They sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged...
Author
Lexile measure
810L
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"This Newbery Medal-winning novel by bestselling-author Katherine Paterson has been a modern classic about friendship and loss for forty years. Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie's house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia....
Author
Lexile measure
880L
Language
English
Description
This depicts the men of Alpha Company. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she...
Author
Language
English
Description
Llewelyn Moss is hunting antelope near the Texas/Mexico border when he stumbles upon several dead men, a big stash of heroin, and more than two million dollars in cash. He takes off with the money -- and the hunter becomes the hunted. A drug cartel hires a former Special Forces agent to track down the loot, and a ruthless killer joins the chase as well. Also looking for Moss is the aging Sheriff Bell, a World War II veteran who may be Moss' only hope...
7) Rain gods
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2009
Language
English
Description
When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily. As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Burned out and still reeling from a love affair gone bad, world-class violinist Caroline Waverly goes to her grandparents' home in Innocence, Mississippi, for some much-needed rest and relaxation. Instead she finds herself overwhelmed all over again--first by Tucker Longstreet, a charming local with a sideline in no-strings-attached relationships, and then by a deadlier, more disturbing development.
10) Plainsong
Author
Lexile measure
770L
Language
English
Description
National Book Award Finalist
A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver.
In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself,...
A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver.
In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself,...
Author
Pub. Date
2004
Language
English
Formats
Description
In James Lee Burke's last novel featuring Billy Bob Holland, Bitterroot, the former Texas Ranger left his home state to help a friend threatened by the most dangerous sociopath Billy Bob had ever faced. After vanquishing a truly iniquitous collection of violent individuals, Billy moved his family to west Montana and hung out a shingle for his law practice. But in In the Moon of Red Ponies, he discovers that jail cells have revolving doors and that...
Author
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Description
"In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She's been married to Roy Tupkin for fifteen days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
#1 bestselling author Karen Kingsbury tells the heartwrenching story of Cody Gunner, a widower fighting for stability, and the woman who wants to help him trust again — even when trust is the most terrifying thing of all.
Still aching over his wife's death, Cody Gunner can't bear the thought of also letting go of his Down's Syndrome brother, Carl Joseph. Cody wants his brother home, where he will be safe and cared for, not out on his own...
Still aching over his wife's death, Cody Gunner can't bear the thought of also letting go of his Down's Syndrome brother, Carl Joseph. Cody wants his brother home, where he will be safe and cared for, not out on his own...
14) The returned
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
When their son Jacob, who died tragically at his 8th birthday party in 1966, arrives on their doorstep, still 8 years old, Harold and Lucille Hargrave must navigate a strange new reality as chaos erupts around the world as people's loved ones are returned from beyond.
15) The yearling
Author
Lexile measure
750L
Language
English
Formats
Description
A young boy living in the Florida backwoods is forced to decide the fate of a fawn he has lovingly raised as a pet. Relive the wonder of a childhood favorite that has been capturing the hearts of readers for more than half a century. An instant bestseller when it was released in 1938, this Pulitzer Prize winner has been read and loved by school-age children across the nation for more than fifty years. In this classic story of the Baxter family and...
17) The guardian
Author
Series
O'Malley volume 2
Lexile measure
HL 690L
Language
English
Formats
Description
A federal judge has been murdered. There is only one witness, and someone wants her dead. U.S. Marshal Marcus O'Malley thought he knew the risks of the assignment going in -- until he fell in love. To do what he must accomplish, he must walk back into his past and wrestle with the complex matter of prayer, and again learn to trust a sovereign God.
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2009
Language
English
Formats
Description
When the frozen body of Dr. Leonard Novak--formerly a lead scientist on the Manhattan Project--is found near Tennessee's Oak Ridge nuclear facility, Dr. Bill Brockton takes up the investigation. It seems Novak died from ingesting highly radioactive material, and now the medical examiner has been poisoned by the same substance. As Brockton digs, he connects Novak's death to long-ago events and realizes the answers may ultimately lie in Oak Ridge's...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
1998
Lexile measure
AD 830L
Physical Desc
1 volume 32 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 26 x 27 cm.
Language
English
Description
In this Caldecott Medal—winning picture book, the true story of Wilson Bentley and his singular fascination with snowflakes is rendered in rich prose and gorgeous artwork, perfect for the holidays, snow days, and everyday.
Wilson Bentley was always fascinated by snow. In childhood and adulthood, he saw each tiny crystal of a snowflake as a little miracle and wanted to understand them.
His parents supported his curiosity and saved until they could...
20) The negotiator
Author
Series
O'Malley volume 1
Language
English
Formats
Description
FBI agent Dave Richman from Danger in the Shadows is back. He's about to meet Kate O'Malley, and his life will never be the same. She's a hostage negotiator. He protects people. He's about to find out that falling in love with a hostage negotiator is one thing, but keeping her safe is another! Introducing the O'Malleys, an inspirational group of seven, all abandoned or orphaned as teens, who have made the choice to become a loyal and committed family....