Grade 2 to 5- reading together

Finding a baby dragon accidentally left alive after his older brother's dragonquest, Darek risks death and the anger of his people in trying to return it to the Valley of the Dragons.

When the jar that Donavan keeps his word collection in fills up, he finds a special way to give his words away and get something wonderful in return.

Castaway on an uninhabited island, Abel, a very civilized mouse, finds his resourcefulness and endurance tested to the limit as he struggles to survive and return to his home.

Balto has a quiet life as a sled dog--until tragedy strikes. Dozens of children in Nome become sick with diphtheria. Without antitoxin serum, they will perish--and the closest supply is 650 miles away! The only way to get the serum to Nome is by sled, but can the dogs deliver it in time? Heading bravely into a brutal blizzard, Balto leads the race for life.A Kansas City Children's Book Award for Grades 1--3From the Trade Paperback edition.

A bat who can't sleep days makes up poems about the woodland creatures he now perceives for the first time.

Chang, a mute Chinese boy whose father uses cormorants to fish, is pleased when he is finally old enough to help with the Big Catch and the raising of a new bird.

"Austin's visit to his grandmother's is the first since Grandpa died. Austin notices Grandpa's things but feels the emptiness of his absence. This spare story vividly captures the emotions of painful times and shows how they ease with sharing and remembering. Boy and grandfather were close, but boy and grandmother seem destined to be just as close, with Grandpa's memory to bind them. Poignant and perceptive, this has impressive resonance, and readers won't easily shed its warm afterglow."--(starred) Booklist. From the Trade Paperback edition.