Or, if race is an issue for the teacher, there's always Newbery-award-winner Amos Fortune, Free Man, the story of a slave who buys his own freedom, buys the freedom of four women, masters a trade, buys land and a business, and dies, respected and honored, at 91. And it's based on a real person.

Or, if Charlie wouldn't mind reading about a girl, there's the Newbery Honor book A Girl Named Disaster. I read it recently and loved it. Nhamo is a great heroine, and the adventure doesn't stop when she leaves the wild and reaches other people.