Click the unit name to expand the unit listing. Selections with a star feature the full selection content.

Unit 1 Finding Your True Self

Selection / Author	Page
"The Goodness of Matt Kaizer" / Avi	5
"Eleven" / Sandra Cisneros	19
"Why?" / Anne Frank	26
"Ta-Na-E-Ka" / Mary Whitebird	33
"The All-American Slurp" / Lensey Namioka	46

Unit 2 Learning from Heroes

Selection / Author	Page
"How Robin Hood Saved the Widow's Three Sons" / Sara Hyry	73
from Still Me / Christopher Reeve	79
"Joyriding" / Jim Naughton	91
A Woman Called Truth / Sandy Asher	104
"Priscilla and the Wimps" / Richard Peck	134

Unit 3 Adventures and Disasters

Selection / Author	Page
"The Face of the Deep Is Frozen" / Jennifer Armstrong	153
"Pompeii" / Robert Silverberg	163
"The Springhill Disaster" / Peggy Seeger	178
"The Cutoff: The Story of the Donner Party" / Catherine Gourley	185
"The Wreck of the Hesperus" / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	201
"Big Wind" and "Child on Top of a Greenhouse" / Theodore Roethke	210

Unit 4 Insights from Animals

Selection / Author	Page
"My Friend Flicka" / Mary O'Hara	229
"Rikki-tikki-tavi" / Rudyard Kipling	249
"Zlateh the Goat" / Isaac Bashevis Singer	263
"Shelter Shock" / Elizabeth Hess	271
"Cat on the Go" / James Herriot	291
from Ranch of Dreams / Cleveland Amory	307

Unit 5 Do You Hear the Music?

"The Creation of Music" / Donna Rosenberg	333
"Forever Young" / Bob Dylan	342
"Scarborough Fair" / Anonymous	350
"Nothing but Drums" / Oscar Hijuelos and "Three/Quarters Time" / Nikki Giovanni	356
from To Be or Not to Bop / Dizzy Gillespie with Al Fraser	362

Unit 6 Fantastic Places

Selection / Author	Page
from The Hobbit / J. R. R. Tolkien	383
"The Tunnel" / Sarah Ellis	400
"Dragon, Dragon"	411
"The Rebellion of the Magical Rabbits"	423

Unit 7 Pass It On: The Oral Tradition

Selection / Author	Page
"The Creation" / Joseph Bruchac	453
"The Twelve Labors of Hercules" / Walker Brents	459
"The Singing, Springing Lark" / Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm	470
"The Magic Mortar" / Yoshiko Uchida	479
"The Cow of No Color" / Nina Jaffe and Steve Zeitlin	488
"Don't Step on a Crack" / Lila Perl	493

Unit 8 Stories to Tell: Fiction

Selection / Author	Page
"All Summer in a Day" / Ray Bradbury	514
"The Woman and the Wolf" / Farley Mowat	523
"I, Hungry Hannah Cassandra Glen . . ." / Norma Fox Mazer	537
"Raymond's Run" / Toni Cade Bambara	549
"The Boy Who Talked with Animals" / Roald Dahl	561
"Potter's Gray" / Joan Aiken	582

Unit 9 Words in Motion: Poetry

Selection / Author	Page
"in Just-" and "Spring is like a perhaps hand" / E. E. Cummings	613
"There Is No Word for Goodbye" / Mary TallMountain and "If You Should Go" / Countee Cullen	618
"The Sidewalk Racer, or On the Skateboard" / Lillian Morrison	624
"The Eagle: A Fragment" and "Break, Break, Break" / Alfred, Lord Tennyson	629
"Jabberwocky" and "You Are Old, Father William" / Lewis Carroll	634
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" / Robert Frost	643
"Life Doesn't Frighten Me" / Maya Angelou	647
"Cynthia in the Snow" / Gwendolyn Brooks	651
"Two Girls . . ." / Charles Reznikoff	657
"Ox Cart Man" / Donald Hall	661
"One Time" / William Stafford	665
"English Sparrows (Washington Square)" and City Trees" / Edna St. Vincent Millay	670
"Good Hot Dogs" and "Buenos Hot Dogs" / Sandra Cisneros	676

Unit 10 Turning Words into Action: Drama

Selection / Author	Page
The Ugly Duckling / A. A. Milne	696
In the Fog / Milton Geiger	716

Unit 11 Telling It As It Is: Nonfiction

Selection / Author	Page
"Madam C. J. Walker" / Jim Haskins	739
"Satchel Paige" / Bill Littlefield	748
from Geronimo's Story of His Life / Geronimo	758
from Gorillas in the Mist / Dian Fossey	767
"The Five 'Wanderers' of the Ancient Skies" / Dennis Brindell Fradin	776
"Night" from Knots in My Yo-Yo String / Jerry Spinelli
"A Breath of Fresh Air?" / Alexandra Hanson-Harding	793

Unit 12 Reading Between the Lines: Informational and Visual Media

Selection / Author	Page
Earth from Space	823
from Dear Ms. Demeanor / Mary Mitchell	829
Beads & Bangles	837
"Hearing under Siege" / Bob Ludlow	842
from The Adventures of Tintin: The Black Island / Hergé	849