Mrs. Penrose, Librarian

Welcome to the FGC Library!

Welcome, Dragons!

Please check out the incredible selection of fiction, nonfiction, and audiobooks our library has to offer! I want our collection to be so popular it is hard to keep it on the shelves.

You will come to the library twice a week. We will do lessons in copyright, research, and library skills and, of course, check out! You can have two items checked out at a time and will be able to check out more for long weekends as well as winter and spring break.

Join our Google Classroom to stay up to date with assignments, announcements, and all things library!

Please be responsible for the items you borrow from the library and are in your care:

Use a bookmark

Report any damage

Return items on time

The library has comfortable seating for quiet reading. Enjoy!

Our library classroom has physically distanced seating and plexiglass to keep us healthy and get us through the pandemic.

Our fiction section is separated into genres to help you find your favorite read or to help you try a different form of fiction writing. Please recommend titles that will help the FGC library grow!

Our nonfiction books include many subjects to expand your knowledge and feed your need to know.

And, of course, I am always here to help you find what you need!

This summer the FGC students will be able to check out books from the LMS! All of this will be posted in Google Classrooms, but here are the details: Mrs. Frese, the librarian at the middle school, sent this link to explain how to check out books from the Ladue Middle School. Beginning June 1, you can join the St. Louis County Library Summer Reading Program! Click on the summer reading program picture below for more information:

On their website, you can download a reading log or set up an account to keep track of your reading online and watch a video of four librarians giving a book talk of their summer reading picks. Happy Summer Reading! Here is a list of summer reading suggestions from Whitley Abell, Youth Librarian with the St. Louis County Library:

What to Read...

Truman Book award nominees (grades 6-8) and Mark Twain award nominees (grades 4-6) for 2021-2022

Penrose Picks:

There are many outstanding books. Here are a few I would recommend for summer reading that we have at the FGC. (Descriptions are taken from the St. Louis County Library’s website):

Historical fiction:

Ground Zero by Alan Gratz (all of his historical fiction books are well-written)

Two kids. One devastating day. No one will be the same. The story is told in two different time periods: September 11, 2001, New York, and September 11, 2019, Afghanistan.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

The compelling tale of Billie Jo's struggle to survive during the dust bowl years of the Depression. With stoic courage, she learns to cope with the loss of her mother and her grieving father's slow deterioration. The 1998 Newbery Medal winner.

Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes

In 1870, Reconstruction brought big changes to the Louisiana sugar plantation where spunky ten-year-old Sugar has always lived, including her friendship with Billy, the son of her former master, and the arrival of workmen from China.

Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood

In 1940, a group of British children, their escorts, and some sailors struggle to survive in a lifeboat when the ship taking them to safety in Canada is torpedoed. Includes historical notes.

Paperboy by Vince Vawter

When an eleven-year-old boy takes over a friend’s newspaper route in July 1959, in Memphis his debilitating stutter makes for a memorable month.

Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban

Near the start of World War II, young Manami, her parents, and Grandfather are evacuated from their home and sent to Manzanar, an ugly, dreary internment camp in the desert for Japanese-American citizens.

Realistic fiction:

Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson

Amara is dismayed by family estrangements and revelations about her father's early years before discovering new ways to connect with her heritage.

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

Everyone else thinks Zoe's worrying about doing a good job at her bakery internship and proving to her parents that she's worthy of auditioning for Food Network's Kids Bake Challenge. But with bakery confections on one part of her mind, and Marcus's conviction weighing heavily on the other, this is one recipe Zoe doesn't know how to balance. The only thing she knows to be true: Everyone lies.

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar

In 1960s New York, fifth-grader Ruthie, a Cuban-Jewish immigrant, must rely on books, art, her family, and friends in her multicultural neighborhood when an accident puts her in a body cast.

Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly

Bullied at school, eighth-grader Apple, a Filipino American who loves the music of the Beatles, decides to change her life by learning how to play the guitar.

Karma Khular’s Mustache by Kristi Wientge

"A biracial Indian/Caucasian girl is nervous to begin middle school, especially since her mother is now the breadwinner of the family, her best friend may no longer be a bestie, and the appearance of the seventeen hairs over her lip that form a very unwanted mustache"

Fantasy/Science fiction:

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

A sci-fi adventure novel about Min, a teenage fox spirit, who runs away to solve the mystery of what happened to her older brother and ends up on an adventure that could save her entire planet.

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia (first in a series)

A seventh-grade boy accidentally creates a hole into the Midpass, a world where ancient African gods clash with gods of African-American legend. He must race to find Anansi, the Weaver, and repair the rip before the iron monsters wreaking havoc in the Midpass consume their world and ours.

The Storm Runner by Jennifer Cervantes (first in series)

To prevent the Mayan gods from battling each other and destroying the world, thirteen-year-old Zane must unravel an ancient prophecy, stop an evil god, and discover how the physical disability that makes him reliant on a cane also connects him to his father and his ancestry.

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Alberto Hernandez

Sal is in the principal's office for the third time in three days, and it's still the first week of school. Gabi, student council president and editor of the school paper, is there to support her friend Yasmany and accuses him of putting a raw chicken inside a friend's locker. Turns out he can reach into time and space to retrieve things from other universes.

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (first in series)

Twelve-year-old Aru stretches the truth to fit in at her private school, but when she is dared to prove an ancient lamp is cursed, she inadvertently frees an ancient demon.

Adventure fiction:

The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

In 1350, a boy with a large hump on his back becomes the servant of a shadowy pilgrim on his way to Rome, who pulls the boy into a dangerous expedition across Europe to gather the seven precious relics of Saint Peter.

The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

On the night of his final vigil before being knighted, Tiuri answers a request to deliver an urgent letter to a distant kingdom across the Great Mountains - a journey that will threaten his life and teach him the true meaning of what it is to be a knight.

City Spies by James Ponti (new series) Book 1 and 2 now available

Sara Martinez is facing years in the juvenile detention system for hacking into the foster care computer system to prove that her foster parents are crooks. Enter a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to join a group of MI6 spies.

Mystery fiction:

Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series by Elizabeth Bunce

The first is Premeditated Myrtle: “When twelve-year-old aspiring detective Myrtle Hardcastle learns her neighbor in quiet Swinburne, England, a breeder of rare flowers, has died she is certain it was murder and that she must find the killer.”

Aggie Morton Mystery Queen series by Marthe Joselyn and Isabelle Follath

The first is The Body Under the Piano: In 1902 Aggie and her friend Hector Perot use their deductive skills to find the killer of the body under the piano before her beloved dance instructor is charged with the crime.

Ruby Redfort series by Lauren Child (6 book series)

The first book is Look into My Eyes: Thirteen-year-old Ruby, a genius code-cracker and daring detective, gets an anonymous call setting a challenge that leads her to the headquarters of Spectrum, a highly secret anti-crime agency that needs her help to crack a code, but soon Ruby uncovers dastardly plans of the Fool's Gold Gang.