Children's Books Set in Illinois

Updated November 25, 2024
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The first rule of punk
Pérez, Celia C.
Paper Book
A2018 Pura Belpre Author Honor Book The First Rule of Punk is a wry and heartfelt exploration of friendship, finding your place, and learning to rock out like no one's watching. There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school-you can't fix...
Scritch scratch
Currie, Lindsay
Paper Book
"This is a teeth-chattering, eyes bulging, shuddering-and-shaking, chills-at-the-back-of-your-neck ghost story. I loved it!"--R.L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series For fans of Small Spaces and the Goosebumps series by R.L Stine comes a chilling ghost story based on real Chicago...
Chasing Vermeer
Balliett, Blue
Paper Book
This bewitching first novel is a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery, disguised as an adventure, and delivered as a work of art. When a book of unexplainable occurances brings Petra Andalee & Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen: seemingly unrelated events connect, an...
Fair weather : a novel
Peck, Richard
Paper Book
From Newbery Medal-winning author Richard Peck comes a dazzling slice of American History, set during the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.   In his celebrated, Newbery-winning novels A Year Down Yonder and A Long Way from Chicago, Richard Peck carried us...
Freaky Fast Frankie Joe
Clifton, Lutricia.
Paper Book
When twelve-year-old Frankie Joe's mother is sent to jail, he is uprooted from his home in Texas to live with the father he has never met, his father's wife, and his father's four "legitimate" sons in Illinois. Frankie Joe is miserable. Trying to adjust to his blended family proves too much to bear,...
A long way from Chicago : a novel in stories
Peck, Richard
Paper Book
This Newbery Honor Winner and National Book Award Finalist is an unforgettable modern classic and features the debut of the larger-than-life Grandma Dowdel   What happens when Joey and his sister, Mary Alice--two city slickers from Chicago--make their annual summer visits to...
Sahara special
Codell, Esmé Raji
Paper Book
There are two files on Sahara Jones. The one the school counselor keeps is evidence that she's a fifth-grader who needs special education. The other is the book Sahara is secretly writing, her Heart-Wrenching Life Story and Amazing Adventures. The latest chapter in her book unfolds when her mother...
Shoeless Joe & me : a baseball card adventure
Gutman, Dan.
Paper Book
When Joe Stoshack hears about Shoeless Joe Jackson -- and the gambling scandal that destroyed the star player's career -- he knows what he has to do. If he travels back in time with a 1919 baseball card in his hand, he just might be able to prevent the infamous Black Sox Scandal...
The sixty-eight rooms
Malone, Marianne.
Paper Book
Almost everybody who has grown up in Chicago knows about the Thorne Rooms. Housed in the Children's Galleries of the Chicago Art Institute, they are a collection of 68 exquisitely crafted miniature rooms made in the 1930s by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. Each of the 68 rooms is designed in the style of a...
A spy on the home front : a Molly mystery
Hart, Alison
Paper Book
During a stay at Grammy and Granpa?s farm in the summer of 1944, Molly spends time with her friend Anna Schulz, the daughter of German immigrants. When Aunt Eleanor, now a WASP pilot, stops for a visit, a security check uncovers anti-American propaganda stashed aboard her plane. The FBI interrogates...
The Westing game
Raskin, Ellen.
Paper Book
For twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning The Westing Game has been an enduring favorite and is now being reissued with a brand-new jacket by Kevin Hawkes and an introduction by Ann Durell. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to...
A year down yonder
Peck, Richard
Paper Book
A Newbery Medal Winner Richard Peck's Newbery Medal-winning sequel to A Long Way from Chicago Mary Alice's childhood summers in Grandma Dowdel's sleepy Illinois town were packed with enough drama to fill the double bill of any picture show. But now she is...
Coming on home soon
Woodson, Jacqueline.
Paper Book
Ada Ruth's mama must go away to Chicago to work, leaving Ada Ruth and Grandma behind. It's war time, and women are needed to fill the men's jobs. As winter sets in, Ada Ruth and her grandma keep up their daily routine, missing Mama all the time. They find strength in each other, and a stray kitten...
Project Mulberry : a novel
Park, Linda Sue.
Paper Book
Julia Song and her friend Patrick would love to win a blue ribbon, maybe even two, at the state fair. They've always done projects together, and they work well as a team. This time, though, they're having trouble coming up with just the right project. Then Julia's mother offers a suggestion:...
The journey
Stewart, Sarah
CD
A new heroine to win readers' hearts, joining the ranks of Lydia Grace Finch and Elizabeth Brown. Sunday Dear Diary The luckiest girl on this good earth is writing to you tonight -- my birthday -- made perfect a few minutes ago by the present of a lace handkerchief. Mother had even hidden a tiny...
Saving Strawberry Farm
Hopkinson, Deborah.
Paper Book
Inspired by photos from the Great Depression, Isadora illuminates this story of a young boy who has one penny to buy candy with. But when he discovers Miss Elsie's beloved strawberry farm is about to be auctioned off by the bank, he uses that penny to save the farm. Full color.

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