CurriConnects Book List - Kentucky
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Kentucky
This carefully organized collection presents books about the state of Kentucky across three age-appropriate reading levels, complete with Lexile measures to support selecting books suitable for diverse learners. Each title features a concise description of its content, helping teachers, librarians, and families connect readers with compelling stories about Kentucky’s people, landscape, and life.
Picture Books
B is for Bluegrass: A Kentucky Alphabet - Mary Ann Riehle, (978-1585360567), Non-fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: 980L
This book features everything (and many people) that makes the Bluegrass State special.
Finlucky from Kentucky - Julia Smethurst, (978-1938905360), Fiction
Interest level: PreK
Finclucky is a banjo-playing chicken who brings his barnyard together to form a lively rhythm-and-blues band. The music is so infectious that even the hardworking farmer joins the fun, proving that a little harmony can transform any workday.
Junia, The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson, (978-1534113039), Fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: 780
Junia is no ordinary mule — she's the faithful companion of a Pack Horse librarian in the hills near Troublesome Creek, Kentucky, helping deliver free books and reading materials to remote communities each month through sunshine, rain, and snow. Traveling hundreds of miles along rugged paths no car or wagon could navigate, Junia's steady hooves and big heart make her an essential partner in bringing literacy to those who need it most.
My Mountain Song - Shutta Crum, (978-0618159703), Fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: AD790L
Set in the mountains of Kentucky, this tender and lyrical story follows young Brenda Gail as she spends the summer with her great-grandparents, learning from Gran Pap that everyone born in the mountains carries a song inside them made of memories. After a squabble with her cousin Melvin, which leads to an unexpected reconciliation, Brenda Gail begins to discover the moments that will shape her own song.
The Big Bat - Anne Jewell, (978-1935497141), Fiction
Interest level: PreK-3
Katie and Ace visit the Louisville Slugger Museum and are fascinated by the World’s Biggest Bat outside.
The Last Black King of Kentucky - Crystal Hubbard, (978-1600608919), Non-fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: 970
Born into an 1880s Kentucky sharecropping family, Jimmy Winkfield overcame systemic obstacles to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Isaac Murphy. His steadfast spirit and passion for horses led him to racetracks around the world, where he cemented his legacy as one of history's greatest horsemen. Ultimately, Winkfield earned his place in the record books as the last African American jockey to ever win the Kentucky Derby.
Middle Grade Books
Becoming Muhammad Ali - James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, (978-0316498173), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 1010
Becoming Muhammad Ali traces the early life of Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, from his childhood friendships and struggles with racism to the stolen bike that sparked his journey into boxing at age twelve. Written in both prose and verse, the book follows Cassius through his first Golden Gloves victory and his transformation into a legend.
Chasing Redbird - Sharon Creech, (978-0064406963), Fiction
Interest level: 4-6, Lexile: 790
When thirteen-year-old Zinny discovers an overgrown trail running through the woods behind her Kentucky home, she becomes determined to uncover where it leads — seeing it as her chance to finally be noticed and claim something of her own. But the trail holds more than she bargained for, becoming the key to understanding her family, the mystery surrounding her Aunt Jessie's death, and herself.
Danger at Sand Cave - Candice Ranson, (978-1575054544), Fiction
Interest level: 2-4, Lexile: 520
In this fictionalized account of the death of a famous explorer from a cave collapse, a young boy tries to find and rescue Floyd Collins, despite risking his own life.
Dexter the Tough - Margaret Peterson Haddix, (978-1416911708), Fiction
Interest level: 2-5, Lexile: 690
An understanding teacher sympathetically approaches Dexter's aggressive behavior on his first day in a new school after he is sent to Kentucky to live while his father undergoes cancer treatment.
Dream of Night - Heather Henson, (978-1416948995), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 470
Dream of Night is an abused thoroughbred racehorse with a fierce, untamable spirit — and Shiloh is an eleven-year-old foster child hardened by neglect and instability — and by chance, both land in the care of Jessalyn DiLima, a woman who is a little broken herself and offering each of them a last chance before the state intervenes.
Faith, Hope, and Ivy June - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, (978-0385905886), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 900
Catherine swaps places with Ivy June in a special school program; the girls find their lives share many similarities despite vast differences in their social and economic backgrounds and the areas of Kentucky where they live.
Tadpole - Ruth White, (978-0756949242), Fiction
Interest level: 4-8, Lexile: 760
Four young girls welcome their male cousin to a seemingly idyllic existence in rural Kentucky, but then their mother discovers his guardian abuses him.
The Champ: The Story of Muhammad Ali - Tonya Bolden, (978-0375824012), Non-fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 760
This compelling biography traces Muhammad Ali's remarkable journey from his humble beginnings as a skinny young Cassius Clay boxing at a local Kentucky gym to his legendary heavyweight championship victory at the iconic "Rumble in the Jungle."
Trouble Don't Last - Shelley Pearsall, (978-0440418115), Fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 720
Two slaves from Kentucky, in 1859, of widely different ages and families, try to escape together to Canada using the Underground Railroad to help them.
Young Adult and Adult Books
Run - Kody Keplinger, (978-0545831147), Fiction
Interest level: 9-13
Wildchild Bo and straight-laced Agnes become best friends. When Bo is on Agnes’s doorstep in the middle of the night, Agnes does not hesitate to leave with her. Unfortunately, running from the police means confronting some hard truths and facing many challenges.
Runaround - Helen Hemphill, (978-1590787779), Fiction
Interest level: 8-13, Lexile: 610
Pre-teen Sassy feels she desperately needs a boyfriend, but she has no idea how to attract one or that the object of her quest is actually interested in her sister; this disturbing book contrasts the rough life in Kentucky with the view of young adulthood in Sassy's teen love magazines.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson, (978-1492671527), Fiction
Interest level: 10Adult
Cussy Mary Carter is one of Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project. Not all of her neighbors trust her because she is one of Kentucky’s blue-skinned people. She has to overcome challenges to bring books to the people in the hills.
The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes, (978-0399562495), Non-fiction
Interest level: 9Adult
Alice Wright arrives in Kentucky to escape England and start her life with her American-born husband. Not used to taking orders from a man, Alice finds life in Kentucky stifling. When Eleanor Roosevelt issues a call for traveling librarians, Alice enthusiastically answers.
The No-Girlfriend Rule - Christen Randall, (978-1665939829), Fiction
Interest level: YA
Hollis is trying to keep her boyfriend interested, so she decides to learn his favorite game, Secrecy and Sorcery. As she learns the game and meets more and more of the players, she also learns more about her true self.
Wake the Bones - Elizabeth Kilcoyne, (978-1250790828), Fiction
Interest level: YA
When Laurel Early returns to her Kentucky farm after dropping out of college, she finds the woods shifting, the soil dead, and a devil from her past. Now Laurel must unravel the terrifying secrets of her mother's legacy and embrace her own innate magic before the fate of everyone she loves is lost forever.