CurriConnects Book List - Massachusetts
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Massachusetts
From the rocky shores of Cape Cod to the cobblestone streets of Boston, Massachusetts brings together history, innovation, and community. This collection brings together books that explore the people, places, and stories that shape the Bay State. Each title includes a brief description, a suggested interest level, and a Lexile measure when one is available, so you can match readers to the right book. Use the collection to launch a state study, support research projects, or help students discover the stories of their own state.
Picture Books
Comet's Nine Lives - Jan Brett, (978-0698118942), Fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: 640
Born near a Nantucket Island lighthouse, Comet the cat is a wanderer at heart — but every adventure seems to cost him one of his nine lives. From a garden to a bookstore, a boat to a party, trouble follows him everywhere. As his lives dwindle, Comet begins to long for something he has never had: a place to truly call home.
Ghost Ship - Mary Higgins Clark, (978-1416935148), Fiction
Interest level: 1-5
Thomas has always been drawn to the old sailing ships of Cape Cod's past, spending hours imagining the lives lived aboard them. After a violent storm, he digs a weathered belt buckle from the sand — and suddenly finds himself face to face with Silas Rich, a cabin boy from the ship Monomoy that sailed two and a half centuries ago. The world of tall ships turns startlingly close as Silas begins to tell his tale.
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg - D.B. Johnson, (978-0618737499), Fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: 500
Two friends, thirty miles, and two very different ideas about how to get there. Inspired by a passage from Thoreau's Walden, this quietly philosophical picture book follows one friend who walks and another who works odd jobs to earn train fare, and discovers along the way that the journey itself is the point.
Journey Around Boston from A to Z - Martha Day Zschock, (978-1889833194), Non-fiction
Interest level: K-3
From Brahmins on Beacon Hill to fans packed into Fenway to the drama of the Tea Tax, this richly illustrated alphabet book sweeps readers through the historic streets of Boston, Cambridge, and beyond. Martha Day Zschock's detailed watercolor paintings and lively, accessible text make this an enchanting introduction to one of America's most storied cities.
Larry Gets Lost in Boston - John Skewes, (978-1570617935), Non-fiction
Interest level: PreK-2
When Larry the dog goes chasing after a snack and loses track of his owner Pete, his search takes him on an accidental tour of Boston — from the Green Monster at Fenway Park to the swan boats in the Public Garden, through Quincy Market, along the Freedom Trail, and all the way to Boston Harbor.
Letting Swift River Go - Jane Yolen, (978-0316968607), Non-fiction
Interest level: PreK-3, Lexile: 860
Sally Jane watches as the world she has always known is slowly swallowed by rising water. This quietly moving story follows her experience of the flooding of the Swift River towns in western Massachusetts — communities deliberately submerged to create the Quabbin Reservoir — and the bittersweet acceptance that comes with watching a place you love disappear forever.
Make Way for Ducklings - Robert McCloskey, (978-0670451494), Fiction
Interest level: PreK-2, Lexile: 710
Mrs. Mallard has found the perfect spot for her family in Boston's Public Garden, but getting eight ducklings safely through the city's busy streets is another matter entirely. When the local police step in to escort the family to their new home, this beloved classic becomes a warm celebration of community, perseverance, and the quiet goodness that shows up when it's needed most.
Zachary's Ball - Matt Tavares, (978-0763650339), Non-fiction
Interest level: 1-4
When Zachary's father snags a foul ball at Fenway Park and passes it to his son, something extraordinary happens: Zachary finds himself in a Red Sox uniform, standing on the pitcher's mound, playing against New York. As long as he holds the ball, every baseball dream feels within reach.
Middle Grade Books
Beneath the Streets of Boston: Building America's First Subway - Joe McKendry, (978-1567922844), Non-fiction
Interest level: 4-6
Long before Boston's legendary traffic jams, city planners dreamed of moving people underground. This richly illustrated narrative descends into the world of the workers who dug miles of tunnels by hand beneath Boston Harbor, Beacon Hill, and the Old State House, and built the Longfellow Bridge to carry trains across the Charles River — creating a system so successful it became a model for cities across the country. Even the public's early fears, including a fanciful illustration of a fanged subway microbe, make for a fascinating part of the story.
Beyond the Bright Sea - Lauren Wolk, (978-1101994870), Fiction
Interest level: 5-6, Lexile: 770
Crow has spent her entire twelve years on a remote slice of the Elizabeth Islands off Massachusetts, raised by the man who rescued her when she was found adrift as a newborn and watched over by their fierce, warm-hearted neighbor across the sandbar. She has never pushed too hard on the question of where she came from — until a mysterious fire burning across the water one night makes the question impossible to ignore, setting off a chain of discovery and danger that changes everything.
I Survived The Great Molasses Flood, 1919 - Lauren Tarshis, (978-1338317411), Fiction
Interest level: 2-5, Lexile: 610
Carmen and her father left Italy four years ago to build a new life in Boston's North End, in the shadow of a massive metal tank filled with molasses that has always leaked but never seemed truly dangerous. Then one January day the tank explodes, unleashing a wave of thick, suffocating molasses through the neighborhood streets. Swept into the disaster, Carmen must find the strength to survive and to hold onto everything she and her father have worked to build together.
Johnny Tremain - Esther Hoskins Forbes, (978-0547614328), Fiction
Interest level: 5-8, Lexile: 840
A disfiguring accident ends fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain's promising career as a silversmith apprentice and sends him looking for a new path. He finds it carrying dispatches for a patriot newspaper and running messages for the Sons of Liberty, which brings him into contact with Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Dr. Joseph Warren and sweeps him into the heart of the American Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party to the first shots at Lexington.
Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship - Sharon Simpson, (978-1426202629), Non-fiction
Interest level: 5-8, Lexile: 1020
Built to carry enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean, the Whydah made one such crossing before being seized in 1717 by the boldest pirate of his era, Sam Bellamy. Packed with plunder from more than fifty captured vessels, the ship met its end in a ferocious nor'easter off the Massachusetts coast, pulling nearly all 146 people aboard to the bottom with it. Discovered by an underwater explorer in 1984, the Whydah's treasure hold, including coins, weapons, jewelry, and everyday objects, offers an extraordinary and sobering window into the tangled worlds of piracy and the slave trade.
Shark Summer - Ira Marcks, (978-0316461443), Fiction
Interest level: 3-8
When a Hollywood film crew descends on Martha's Vineyard with a mechanical shark and a youth filmmaking contest offering serious prize money, disgraced pitcher Gayle "Blue Streak" Briar spots her chance at redemption. She assembles an unlikely crew, including an aspiring cinematographer and a moody director, and sets out to document the island's own phantom shark legend. But as their cameras roll, the three friends start uncovering things beneath the surface they weren't prepared to find.
The 500 Million Dollar Heist: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Thirteen Missing Masterpieces - Tom Sullivan, (978-0062991577), Non-fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 1230
In eighty-one minutes, two men posing as Boston police officers walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, removed thirteen works of art, including several rare Rembrandts, and disappeared. The theft remains the largest private property heist in American history. Decades of investigation and dozens of promising leads have come and gone, and the frames still hang empty on the museum walls.
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy - Jeanne Birdsall, (978-0440420477), Non-fiction
Interest level: 3-7, Lexile: 800
The four Penderwick sisters arrive at the beautiful Arundel estate for a summer holiday and find more than they bargained for — sprawling gardens to explore, a treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, a cook whose gingerbread is the stuff of legend, and most importantly, Jeffrey Tifton, the owner's son and an ideal partner in adventure. His mother, the formidable Mrs. Tifton, has her reservations about the arrangement. The sisters, naturally, have other plans.
Young Adult and Adult Books
All We Can Do Is Wait - Richard Lawson, (978-0448494128), Non-fiction
Interest level: 7-12, Lexile: 900
A bridge collapses in Boston, and a group of teenagers converges in the waiting room of Massachusetts General Hospital, each carrying their own weight of hope, grief, and secrets. Siblings Jason and Alexa lean on each other until a revelation threatens to pull them apart. Scott waits desperately for word about his girlfriend, who was on a bus when the bridge went down. And Skyler waits for news of Kate, the sister who has always been her anchor. As the hours stretch on without answers, each of them must reckon with who they are and what comes next.
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch - Jean Lee Latham, (978-0618250745), Non-fiction
Interest level: 7-9, Lexile: 570
Nathaniel Bowditch grew up surrounded by the tall-masted ships crowding the wharves of Salem, Massachusetts — but his slight frame seemed to rule out a sailor's life. What no one anticipated was the ferocious determination hiding behind his quiet exterior. Through years of painstaking study and observation, Bowditch mastered the mathematics of sea navigation at a time when most sailors relied on little more than instinct, producing the work that became known as the Sailor's Bible and cementing his place as a New England legend. TeachersFirst has a Reading Trek related to this book.
Conversion - Katherine Howe, (978-0399167775), Fiction
Interest level: 7-12, Lexile: 770
Senior year at St. Joan's Academy in Danvers, Massachusetts is already suffocating with pressure when the school's most powerful social figure collapses mid-class in a fit of uncontrollable tics. The mysterious illness spreads, with seizures, hair loss, and violent coughing, and the media descends as panic takes hold. Only Colleen, who has been rereading The Crucible for extra credit, begins to sense what no one else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, and something eerily similar played out among a group of girls there three hundred years ago.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party - M.T. Anderson, (978-0763624026), Fiction
Interest level: 9-12, Lexile: 1090
A boy raised in silks and white wigs, given a classical education by a household of philosophers who identify themselves only by numbers — the arrangement sounds like privilege until Octavian dares to open a forbidden door and discovers the horrifying truth of what he and his mother actually are to the men who have raised him. Set against the turbulent backdrop of Revolutionary Boston, where Patriots fought for liberties that enslaved people would never be permitted to claim, this deeply unsettling novel holds the contradictions of American founding ideals up to unsparing light.
The Edge of Summer - Erica George, (978-0316496766), Non-fiction
Interest level: 9-12
Since elementary school, Coriander and her best friend Ella have shared one dream: saving the whales. When tragedy takes Ella, Coriander arrives alone at a Cape Cod marine biology internship, determined to honor what they had planned together. A complicated summer unfolds, part grief, part new beginnings, and part unexpected feelings for a local lifeguard named Mannix, as Coriander tries to hold onto her purpose and keep her promise to the humpback whales and to the friend she lost.
These Witches Don't Burn - Isabel Sterling, (978-0451480347), Fiction
Interest level: 7-12, Lexile: 660
Hannah is an Elemental Witch, capable of controlling fire, earth, water, and air, living in Salem, Massachusetts, where the last thing she can afford is to be caught using her powers in front of a non-witch. She's already navigating a painful breakup with her fellow Elemental ex-girlfriend Veronica when a blood ritual crashes a school bonfire and signs of dark magic begin appearing across town. With her coven skeptical and the threat escalating, Hannah has no choice but to team up with the one person she least wants to see, before something far worse than Salem's tourist season gets out of hand.
Walden - Henry David Thoreau, (978-9358561203), Non-fiction
Interest level: 9-12, Lexile: 1300
In 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts and spent two years living as deliberately and simply as he knew how. The book that emerged from that experiment is part nature writing, part philosophy, and part challenge — an extended meditation on solitude, self-reliance, and what it might mean to actually live, rather than simply exist.
You'll Be the Death of Me - Karen M. McManus, (978-0593175897), Fiction
Interest level: 7-12, Lexile: 750
Ivy, Mateo, and Cal were once close, but now they barely speak. A string of bad mornings sends all three ditching school on the same day, and an unexpected reunion turns deadly when they follow a fellow Carlton High student and stumble onto his murder. Suddenly their shared history matters a great deal, because it turns out each of them has a connection to the dead boy, and each of them is hiding something.