Library

Adventures Through the Printed Page

Austin Waldorf has a robust library that has a wide range of reading material for our students. Our librarian, Marion Rocco, is available to offer helpful recommendations for children, parents, and teachers.

Library Resources

Library Catalog

Search the library catalog, renew books, place hold requests, and more. Contact Mrs. Rocco for your user name and password.

Search the Catalog

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Research Resources

Coming soon!

Library Events

After School Family Hour

All AWS families are invited to visit the library on Mondays after school from 3:45 to 4:45 pm to explore our collections and borrow books together.

Each week will also feature a few simple crafts and activities.

Toddler Storytime

Toddler storytime will be on Fridays from 8:45 to 9:15 am, in the Willow Garden Classroom.

Volunteer in the Library

The Library is always happy to have help from parent volunteers. If you are interested in learning how to reshelve returned books, process new books, check books out to students, and more, please reach out to Mrs. Rocco.

We welcome volunteers who can make a weekly commitment as well as those who want a more flexible or infrequent schedule.

AWS Children’s Choice Awards

The AWS Children’s Choice Awards celebrate and promote excellence in the writing of contemporary literature for children. This award recognizes newly published books that have the potential to invite deep feeling and nurture appreciation for the beauty and power of language.

2025 Award Selections

The Library invites all students in rising 3rd through 8th grades to participate in The AWS Children's Choice Awards.

Over this past school year, the Awards Committee read as many children's books published in 2024 as possible. We have chosen 3 titles to recommend to each grade. Students who wish to participate in the Children's Choice Awards should read at least 2 of the recommended books over the summer. The children will then vote on their 1 favorite book when we return to school in the fall. The book with the most votes will be their gold medal winner!

2025 Award Selections

3rd Grade

Beti and the Little Round House

By Atinuke

Beti lives in a little round house in the green woods under the mountains with Mam, Tad, baby Jac, and her very own tiny goat named Naughty. Beti loves the little round house, where there is always the promise of adventure for Naughty, Jac, and her friends, whatever the season!

Mouse and his Dog

By Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko

In Dogtown, a shelter for real and robot dogs, Mouse helps his big-hearted but trouble-attracting best friend Buster find a forever home, and embarks on an adventure with Stewie, a misunderstood dog, and Smokey, a malfunctioning robot dog.

The Wishkeeper’s Apprentice

By Rachel Chivers Khoo

Being a Wishkeeper's apprentice isn't just about organizing incoming wishes and untangling wish snags: a strange wolf-man is threatrening every wish that has ever been granted in the town of Whittlestone. With lively illustrations, this sweet adventure bubbles with charm and heart.

No post to display.

4th Grade

The Perilous Performance at Milkweed Meadow

By Elaine Dimopolous

A group of turkeys arrives in Milkweed Meadow planning to put on a dazzling stage performance, but Butternut the rabbit has learned that the play is not what the meadow animals are expecting--and she calls on her human friend, Thalia, to help her expose the turkeys' plan and try to save the meadow.

The House with a Dragon in It
By Nick Lake

When a mysterious hole opens up in her new foster family's living room, Summer encounters a dragon who offers her three wishes, but as she uses the wishes, the magic takes a dark turn and jeopardizes Summer's deepest desire for a home.

A Strange Thing Happened at Cherry Hall

By Jasmine Warga

A painting has been stolen...! When Rami sees a floating girl in the museum, he knows he has seen her somewhere before. Then he realizes: She looks just like the girl in the painting that has gone missing. But how does her appearance connect to the theft? Will Rami, with the help of his classmate, Veda, be able to solve the mystery?

5th Grade

The Selkie’s Daughter

By Elaine Dimopolous

Brigit, a girl with selkie heritage, embarks on a perilous journey with newcomer Peter to confront the Great Selkie in Sule Skerrie in order to prevent a curse that threatens her village's safety.

Ferris
By Kate DiCamillo

During the summer before fifth grade, Ferris Wilkey has her hands full with her little sister terrorizing the town, her Aunt Shirley moving into their basement and her grandmother seeing a ghost--one who has wild, impractical and illuminating plans.

Impossible Creatures

By Katherine Rundell

Christopher discovers the Archipelago, a world where mythological creatures were secreted away by magic long ago, but those creatures are now dying, and it is up to Christopher and Mal, a girl from the Archipelago, to save both of their worlds.

6th Grade

The First State of Being

By Erin Entrada Kelly

When Ridge, a time-traveling teenager from the future, gets trapped in 1999, he befriends Michael, a lonely twelve-year-old boy, changing the course of their lives forever.

Sona and the Golden Beasts
By Rajani LaRocca

Discovering an orphaned wolf pup she believes is related to the five sacred beasts of Devia, which a Hunter has been killing one by one, Sona embarks on an epic adventure during which she realizes that the fate of the sacred beasts, and the future of Devia, is in her hands.

The Last Dragon on Mars

By Scott Reintgen

Thirteen-year-old Lunar Jones was born on Mars, with every day a struggle, until he stumbles into a restricted military zone where he learns dragons are real and a new dragon has chosen him as a rider--a role he needs to embrace quickly because this dragon could save the Martian colony.

7th Grade

The Night War

By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

During World War II, twelve-year old Miriam secretly spirits other Jewish people out of Nazi-occupied France after being separated from her family and forced into hiding.

Finn and Ezra’s Bar Mitzvah Time Loop
By Joshua S. Levy

Finn and Ezra don't have a lot in common--except, of course, that they're trapped in a bar mitzvah time loop, reliving their celebrations in the same New Jersey hotel over and over and over again. No way out. Until Finn and Ezra meet and realize they're not alone.

Blackberry Fox

By Kathrin Tordasi

During a summer holiday in Wales, Portia and Ben discover a mysterious door in a forest, unaware that it is a portal to a perilous Otherworld, and they unwittingly open the door, unleashing a powerful evil that endangers both the human and fairy realms, forcing them to confront the consequences of their actions.

8th Grade

Sheine Lende

By Darcie Little Badger

When Shane's mother and a local boy go missing after a strange interaction with a fairy ring, Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent—who isn't to be trusted—set off on the road to find them.

Jupiter Rising
By Gary D. Schmidt

Jack is finding his stride . . . until suddenly his past and present smash together, threatening to dissolve both his newfound confidence and his friendships.

The Bletchley Riddle

By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they're living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II--Britain's eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park.