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Reading Program is a series of children’s novels by Andrew Clements the award-winning American author from New Jersey. The first novel in the Reading Program series was “Karen’s Island”, which was first published in 1995 and was followed by eight more titles between 1995 and 1998.
Order of Reading Program Series
| # | Read | Title | Published | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karen's Island | 1995 | Description / Buy | |
| 2 | Three Wishes For Buster | 1995 | Description / Buy | |
| 3 | Bill Pickett: An American Original Texas Style | 1996 | Description / Buy | |
| 4 | Hurricane Andrew | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 5 | Ham And Eggs For Jack | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 6 | Life in the Desert | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 7 | Desert Treasure | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 8 | Inventors | 1998 | Description / Buy | |
| 9 | Milo's Great Invention | 1998 | Description / Buy |
The Reading Program series of novels is a combination of fiction and nonfiction works. The works, which range from a description of the effects of momentous events such as Hurricane Andrew, historical descriptions of the Wild American West, hunt for treasure among a range of children’s interest stories. All of the novels take a children’s perspective.
“Karen’s Island” the first novel in the Reading Program series of novels is the story of a girl named Karen. Karen is a middle school girl who finds a bird with a broken wing on her front porch and has to take responsibility for it.
She learns responsibility by nurturing the bird back to health. When the bird is healthy, she is sad that she has to let it back into the wild, but ultimately acknowledges that the bird was born to fly free in the wide-open skies.
“Karen’s Island” is a great novel and an amazing story of a child coming to learn the nature of responsibility not only for herself, but also for other living things in her world. It is a great narrative, which just goes to demonstrate why the author has won so many literary awards for children’s fiction over the years.
READING PROGRAM AWARDS:
The Reading Program novels have won several awards including the Delaware Diamond Award, Black-Eyed Susan Award, Great Stone Face Book Award, Nutmeg Book Award, Young Hoosier Book Award, Sasquatch Award, and the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award among several other awards.
BEST READING PROGRAM BOOKS:
Hurricane Andrew: The fourth novel of the Reading Program series of novels is generally considered one of the best novels in the series. The novel has won several state and literary awards over the years. The novel is an analysis of “Hurricane Andrew” one of the biggest hurricanes to ever hit the United States in decades.
The novel is told from the perspective of a child author that was caught up in the big storm. It discusses the effects of the storm on infrastructure and on people’s lives immediately after the hurricane. Hurricane Andrew is essentially a historical novel told from a socioeconomic perspective.
Milo’s Great Invention: The ninth title in the Reading Program series is one of its very best and a children’s favorite. Coming with a companion book that lists out several important inventions of the twentieth century, it is an exciting novel for middle school children. The novel itself is a story about a boy named Milo whose family’s favorite dish is peas.
Milo does not care for peas and even actively hates them. However, since he cannot control meal preparation, he is forced to take peas or come up with a way of removing the peas from his food. As such, he invents a machine that effectively eliminates and disposes of peas from his plate, which makes his meals all the more pleasant.
Desert Treasure: Another incredible title in the Reading Program series of novels is the 1998 published “Desert Treasure”. The lead in the series is a boy named Michael who is over the moon when his father asks him to go on a hiking and camping trip with him. He picks up his things and drives out with his father to the desert.
He wanders away from his father and while he is exploring a wood cabin nearby, he stumbles on an old tin box. The box has a photo, a piece of ribbon, four buttons, and a pocket watch. Upon unfolding the cloth, they find an old map with strange numbers and arrows on it that looks like some instructions on how to find buried treasure.
OTHER BOOK SERIES YOU MAY LIKE:
Many fans of the Readers Program series of novels also love the “Jolly Postman” series of novels by Allan Ahlberg. The novels are interactive children’s books with narrative verse and illustrations following the adventures of an unnamed mail carrier in London.
Readers Program fans also love the “Young Samurai” series of novels by Chris Bradford. The series of novels follow the adventures of a young English boy named Jack Fletcher, who is looking to become the first Gaijin Samurai.
What Is The Next Book in The Reading Program Series?
There doesn't seem to be an upcoming book in The Reading Program Series. The newest book is Hurricane Andrew and was released on January, 1st 1998.
