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The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Only a mother could love this ugliest of ducklings, teased at every turn for his awkward appearance. But seasons change, and so does he, into a gloriously graceful swan.
  • Booktalk Nancy Keane
  • Study Guide includes pre-reading, during reading, and post reading activities. Weston Woods

 

The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter
Because John is afraid to leave the Navajo Reservation, his grandfather explains to him how the Navajo language, faith, and ingenuity helped win World War II.
  • Book Project features the formation of the Grand Canyon. A Read Across America Project featuring Arizona. University of Virginia Curry School of Education
  • Lesson Plan includes activities for before, during, and after reading. Southwest Children's Literature-University of Arizona

·         Literature Circle Lesson Pages 1-13 Appalachian State University

·         Literature Circle Lesson Pages 14-18 Appalachian State University

 

Unbroken by Jessie Haas
Following her mother's death in the early 1900s, thirteen-year-old Harry lives on Aunt Sarah's farm where an accident with her spirited colt leaves her a changed young woman.

 

Uncle Elephant by Arnold Lobel
Uncle Elephant comes to the rescue when his nephew's parents are lost at sea and cares for him until they are found again.

 

Uncle Jed's Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell
Sara Jean’s Uncle Jed, the only black barber in the county, overcomes many setbacks including the Great Depression of the 1930’s, as he works to save enough money to open his own barbershop.
  • Activities include writing and saving money. TeacherViews

·         Activities for the family. Reading Rainbow

·         Activity about family history. McGraw-Hill

  • Lesson Plan focuses on the economic concept of saving. KidEconBooks

·         Teacher's Guide Reading Rainbow

·         Teacher's Guide features social science activities. Reading Rainbow

 

Uncle Nacho's Hat by Harriet Rohmer
When Ambrosia gives her Uncle Nacho a new hat, he tries to get rid of his old one, but to no avail. No matter what he does, the pesky hat keeps coming back to him.

·         Activities Scroll down the page. Garde Arts Center

 

Uncle Vova's Tree by Patricia Polacco
Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and children gather at a farm house to celebrate Christmas in the Russian tradition.

 

Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
A boy spends the day with Uncle Willie in the soup kitchen where he works preparing and serving food for the hungry
  • Lesson Plan includes activities for before, during, and after reading. Kansas City Public Schools
  • Questions to ask before and after reading. Family TLC

 

Under a War-Torn Sky by L. M. Elliott
After his plane is shot down by Hitler's Luftwaffe, nineteen-year-old Henry Forester of Richmond, Virginia, strives to walk across occupied France, with the help of the French Resistance, in hopes of rejoining his unit.

 

Under Copp's Hill by Katherine Ayres
1908, eleven-year-old Innie joins the library club at a settlement house that serves immigrant families of Boston's North End, but when items and money disappear from the settlement house, Innie's past as a troublemaker puts her under suspicion.
  • Guide includes pre-reading activities, thematic connections, and interdisciplinary connections. Barbara Murphy, Shaler Area Middle School, Glenshaw, PA

 

Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
After the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, thirteen-year-old Tomizu, the American-born son of Japanese
immigrants, suddenly becomes the man of the house after his father is arrested and discovers the true meaning of friendship and loyalty. 
  • Book Discussion Guide includes summary, discussion questions, and related web sites. Multnomah County Public Library (Oregon)
  • Book Project features learning about Pearl Harbor. A Read Across America Project featuring Hawaii. University of Virginia Curry School of Education

·         Literature Unit with comprehension lessons. Hawaii Department of Education

  • Teacher's Guide includes a pre-reading activity and curricular connections. Random House

 

Under the Cat's Eye by Gillian Rubinstein
Jai and his friends at boarding school join forces with shape-shifters in their attempt to defeat the fiendish headmaster who steals the souls and futures of the students.
  • Study Guide includes summary and questions and activities by chapter. Bernadette Sheedy

 

Under the Cherry Blossom Tree by Allen Say
A cherry tree growing from the top of the wicked landlord's head is the beginning of his misfortunes and a better life for the poor villagers.
  • Activities include writing and Internet links. TeacherViews

 

Under the Hawthorn Tree by Marita Conlon-McKenna
During the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, three children are left alone and in danger of being sent to the workhouse, so they set out to find the great-aunts they remember from their mother's stories.
  • Questions for chapters 1 and 2. Irish National Teacher's Organization

 

Under the Lemon Tree by Edith Thacher Hurd
A farmer thinks his donkey is too noisy until a fox threatens the barnyard.
  • Activities include cross-curricular ideas. TeacherViews

 

Undercurrents by Willo Davis Roberts
When her father is called home on business from their summer vacation, fourteen-year-old Nikki is forced to cope with adult-sized problems: her young new stepmother is traumatized by childhood memories, while Nikki feels she is being stalked on her new friend Julian's property.

 

Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker
Two slave girls escape from a plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and steal toward Canada on the Underground Railroad.

 

The Underground Railroad by Raymond Bial
Text and pictures present the routes, lives, and hardships of runaway slaves on their way to freedom on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.

 

The Unicorn and the Lake by Marianna Mayer
When a serpent poisons the lake where all the animals drink, only the unicorn has the power to save them.

 

United Tates of America by Paula Danziger
Eleven-year-old aspiring artist Skate experiences many changes when she enters middle school, finds her best friend drifting away from her, and loses her beloved great-uncle.

·         Booktalk Nancy Keane

 

The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Feeling angry and out-of-place in her large family, twelve-year-old Xandra finds a magical key to a world of ghostly, sometimes frightening, phantoms that help her see herself and her siblings more clearly.

 

The Unwilling Umpire (A to Z Mysteries series) by Ron Roy
When the umpire at the baseball game fundraiser is accused of stealing a collection of autographed baseballs, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose try to prove his innocence.
  • Teacher's Guide includes activities to be used with all books in the series. Random House

 

Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
After her mother's death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster schoolteacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen.
  • Activity includes questions to answer online and print out.

 

Up Goes the Skyscraper by Gail Gibbons
Follows, in simple text and illustrations, the building of a skyscraper step by step.
  • Activities include designing a skyscraper and researching jobs in the story. TeacherViews

 

Up, Up, Down by Robert Munsch
Anna climbs everything from cabinets to trees.

 

Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal
Nine-year-old Piri describes the bewilderment of being a Jewish child during the 1939-1944 German occupation of her hometown (then in Hungary and now in the Ukraine) and relates the ordeal of trying to survive in the ghetto.

 

Us and Uncle Fraud by Lois Lowry
Eleven-year-old Louise Cunningham watches with wonder as a visit from her unusual uncle gives her ordinary small town a glow of something mysterious and magical.