Ruby Lu, Brave and True

Bottom line:  An Asian American Ramona
Author: Lenore Look
Lexile measure: 640
Language: Mention of "four letter words, bad ones".  Also, there are some words (not bad ones) in transliterated Chinese .
Violence:  None.
Big Kid Mature Topics:  Bullying (verbal name calling making fun of sweaters, not violent or threatening).  The bully gets sick with pneumonia and is hospitalized.  The seven year old protagonist drives a car.  The story talks about immigrant relatives in a negative, stereotypical way--but this is in the context of the protagonist naming the reasons she doesn't want them to come to the US, and it all melts away in the end.  There are also a lot of elements of Cantonese American culture that young kids from other cultures might not be familiar with.
Illustrations:  Black and white shaded drawings, every few pages.
Plot:  moderately complex.

Ruby is one of our favorite protagonists.  Maybe its because we get to use our very limited Cantonese and knowledge of Chinese culture, but I suspect its also because Ruby is so real  and yet so funny.  Even DS (4) thinks so.  She reminds me of Ramona and Judy Moody and Clementine all wrapped into one.

A word of caution:  Very young readers may not understand the gravity of getting into a real car and driving it for real with a pretend driver's license.  DS was very blown away when I told him that he was not allowed under and circumstances to drive our car.

The Boxcar Children

Bottom line:  Easy to read, nonviolent mysteries.
Author:  Gertrude Chandler Warner
Lexile measure: 490
Language: None offensive.
Violence:  None.
Big Kid Mature Topics:   The children are orphans.  They have run away before they can be turned over to a guardian.  They do not go to school.  The cover of the book depicts a thunderstorm.
Illustrations:  Black and white shaded drawings, every few pages.
Plot:  moderately complex
DS took one look at the cover and was convinced this was a scary book.  It really isn't but try telling that to him.  This book was a fun read with an interesting plot twist, but the dialogue, vocabulary, and characterizations are all relatively simple.  DD thought it was great, even though she often reads far above this Lexile.   We are looking forward to the more than 100 sequel books.  Of note, GC Warner only wrote 19 of the sequels.