The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Lexile: 970

One tip I've found, when searching for appropriate books for my accelerated reader, is to go back to the classics. The Secret Garden is perfect. A beautifully-written combination of adventure and fantasy, this story draws children in as the story comes to life. An orphaned, spoiled child named Mary comes to live in a dark, brooding house in rural England. She discovers an abandoned garden and begins the process of helping it to bloom again.

After reading this book, my son wanted to talk about all the flowers we saw in town, and he asked many questions about Dicken and his remarkable bond with animals. It's a gentle story with many layers; children will go back to it again and again. I recommend the remarkably illustrated version by Inga Moore, whose drawings feel as if they've always been associated with the story.

My son first read this book at age 5. There are some exciting plot twists, but nothing overtly scary.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Lexile: not listed, but about 800-900

The Mysterious Benedict Society is a wonderful kid-centered adventure. An orphaned child sees an ad in the newspaper: Wanted: Extraordinary children. He shows up for the exam and is drawn into a world where children are the most important piece in a plan to overthrow an odious leader who is invading the country through subliminal messages in technology.

This book is exciting and scary and un-putdownable. Its themes are likely too advanced for very young readers, but slightly more mature readers will find the adventure fast-paced, the story well-told, and the vocabulary appropriately challenging. My son read this at age 6 1/2 and promptly turned back to the beginning and read it again.