Book picks similar to
The Lower Fourth by Brenda Girvin


school-stories
vintage-girls
childrens-fiction

The School of Possibilities


Seita Parkkola - 2006
    But Storm notices that something strange is going on at his new school. The students are not... normal.Soon he's being spied on, followed by classmates — and worst of all, forced to accept the headmaster's perfectly behaved daughter as his girlfriend. He can feel himself becoming more obedient, more like his classmates. Storm tries to resist, but he doesn't understand how or why the school is controlling him.Can Storm escape — or will he be turned into a zombie of "good" behavior like everyone else around him?

Back Home


Michelle Magorian - 1984
    When she returns in 1945, she finds a country and a family she neither understands nor likes, and vice versa.

Partly Cloudy


Tanita S. Davis - 2021
    Moving in with her great-uncle, Papa Lobo, and switching to a new school is just the first step.It’s not all rainbows and sunshine, though. Madalyn discovers she’s the only Black girl in her class, and while most of her classmates are friendly, assumptions lead to some serious storms.Papa Lobo’s long-running feud with neighbor Mrs. Baylor brings wild weather of its own, and Madalyn wonders just how far things will go. But when fire threatens the community, Madalyn discovers that truly being neighborly means more than just staying on your side of the street— it means weathering tough conversations—and finding that together a family can pull through anything.

Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Silly School Mystery


Chris Monroe - 2017
    Supplies go missing and suspicious bite marks are appearing all over school. Chico Bon Bon is on the casewith his trusty tool belt.

Just Like That


Gary D. Schmidt - 2021
    Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students from wealthy backgrounds. In a parallel story, Matt Coffin has wound up on the Maine coast near St. Elene's with a pillowcase full of money lifted from the leader of a criminal gang, fearing the gang's relentless, destructive pursuit. Both young people gradually dispel their loneliness, finding a way to be hopeful and also finding each other.

Spying on Miss Muller


Eve Bunting - 1995
    Half-German and half-Irish, she's as beautiful as a movie star. But ever since their country, Ireland, went to war with Germany, they don't feel the same way. In fact, the girls now think there's something very strange about Miss Müller.One night Jessie sees Miss Müller walking by herself in a part of the dorm that is off limits. When she tells her friends, they get really suspicious. But they will soon find out that appearances can be deceiving--and that judging someone can be downright dangerous. . . .

Aftermath


Emily Barth Isler - 2021
    --Amy Schumer, writer, actor, and activist After her brother's death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school--especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family's own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers. Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after-school mime class, Lucy discovers that while grief can take many shapes and sadness may feel infinite, love is just as powerful.

Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10


Judy Finchler - 1995
    She's there all the time. In fact, all the teachers live at school. They eat dinner in the cafeteria and sleep in the teachers' lounge. I'm sure of it! So why is Miss Malarkey moving into my apartment house?...What could be more surprising than finding out your teacher has a life outside school? In Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10, Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley celebrate kids' comic misunderstandings about the private lives of teachers.

Roommates


Emily Chase - 1983
    They're so different they practically hate each other! But slowly they grow to understand and care about one another and to help each other—through Dana's disastrous first love, Faith's trouble with the headmistress, and Shelley's desperate homesickness.

Operation Frog Effect


Sarah Lynn Scheerger - 2019
    . . what happens when a whole group of kids join together and act? Hi--It's us, Ms. Graham's class. We didn't mean to mess things up. But we did. We took things too far, and now Ms. Graham is in trouble--for something we did. We made a mistake. The question is, can we fix it? Ms. Graham taught us that we get to choose the kind of people we want to be and that a single act can create ripples. So get ready, world--we're about to make some ripples.Sincerely,Kayley, Kai, Henry, Aviva, Cecilia, Blake, Sharon, Emily (and Kermit, class frog)Everyone makes mistakes. But what happens when your mistake hurts someone else? Told in eight perspectives--including one in graphic novel form.

The Year of the Book


Andrea Cheng - 2012
    But in any language, all Anna knows for certain is that friendship is complicated.When Anna needs company, she turns to her books. Whether traveling through A Wrinkle in Time, or peering over My Side of the Mountain, books provide what real life cannot—constant companionship and insight into her changing world.Books, however, can’t tell Anna how to find a true friend. She’ll have to discover that on her own. In the tradition of classics like Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books and Eleanor Estes’ One Hundred Dresses, this novel subtly explores what it takes to make friends and what it means to be one.

Everyone Else's Parents Said Yes


Paula Danziger - 1989
    Matthew cannot resist the temptation to play practical jokes on his older sister and all the girls in his class at school, so by the time of the big party for his eleventh birthday they have all declared war on him.

Welcome to Kindergarten


Anne Rockwell - 2001
    Explore the reading, math, and art centers. Sit at the desk where he will practice writing, counting, and telling time. The classroom may look a little too big at first, but after finding out about all the fun ahead, it doesn't seem too big at all. In fact, it's just the right size.

Among the Ghosts


Amber Benson - 2010
    Noh, slightly eccentric herself, enjoys exploring the campus, but things get spooky when she meets several other children near an old burned-out dormitory. There shouldn’t be students around in the summer, right? But these kids turn out to be ghosts, and they need Noh’s help. She is the only “realie” who can see them—and, now that the ghosts have started to disappear, the only one who can save them.

Monsters Love School


Mike Austin - 2014
    Reading and writing and learning your monster history has never been so much fun!Fans of Monsters Love Colors and others will love this exciting picture book.