2026 DCL Kids Reading Challenge: Fiction Inspired by FactLike this list

11 items

• 2026 DCL Kids Reading Challenge

  View on dcl.org

  Win a Denver Zoo Annual Family Pass in this year's random prize drawing of the kids challenge finishers! Read any of the titles on this list, or choose your own, for your chance to win.

• Beyond the Bright Sea

  Wolk, Lauren, 1956-

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  Crow was found floating in the sea when she was just a baby. Now that she is 11, she thinks it’s high time to find out who she really is and where she came from.

• I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii, AD 79

  Tarshis, Lauren

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  The ground is rumbling and a volcanic eruption is about to destroy Pompeii in this gripping graphic novel. Can Marcus and his dad make it out of the city, or will the ash bury them along with the rest of the city?

• The One and Only Ivan

  Applegate, Katherine

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  A gorilla who lives at a shopping mall with other four-legged friends yearns for a better life.

• Iceberg

  Nielsen, Jennifer A.

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  Hazel stows away on the Titanic, hoping for adventure and a good story to tell. Instead, she will have to fight to survive as the ship sinks into the icy depths.

• The Blackbird Girls

  Blankman, Anne

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  Two girls' fathers are caught in the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. In the aftermath, secrets will be revealed and unlikely friendships will be forged.

• Balto and the Race Against Time

  Moss, Helen

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  Five senior dogs, who are suddenly puppies again, time-travel back to 1920s Alaska to help Balto the sled dog deliver diphtheria medicine.

• When We Flew Away

  a Novel of Anne Frank, Before the Diary

  Hoffman, Alice

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  Based on the real-life memoirs of a young girl in hiding, this title explores what Anne Frank’s life might have been like before World War II and the Nazi regime.

• Gold Rush Girl

  Avi, 1937-

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  There’s gold in them there hills and Tori and her family are headed to California to hopefully claim their share.

• Rebellion 1776

  Anderson, Laurie Halse

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  During the Siege of Boston, Elsbeth must endure the horrors of war. That is challenging enough, but her father is now missing as well, and there is a smallpox epidemic ravaging the city.

• The Door of No Return

  Alexander, Kwame

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  Kofi is living a normal life in the Asante kingdom (modern-day Ghana), playing in the river with his friends, going to school, dealing with bullies. His family warns him to stay away from the river at night, and Kofi is about to discover why.