Past class read-alouds have included:

Names/Nombres by Julia Alvarez

Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza (exerpt)

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (exerpt)

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen (exerpt)

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit

Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath

Escape from Memory by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Watching Alice: Break the Surface by Daniel Parker and Lee Miller

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs

These have all been great attention-keepers!  I would not hesitate to recommend all of them as read-alouds, especially Escape from Memory, Crossing the Wire and Iqbal.