Watching: 7th grade reading books for children aged 12
Finding age-appropriate and engaging books for middle school readers is no easy feat. Enter this mega book list, packed with 37 classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction titles for building a classroom library just right for middle graders. From Hatchet to Holes and everything in between, the selections in this list feature just the right mix of classics, award-winners, and modern bestsellers, and tackle many of the issues students face as they transition from elementary to middle school.
Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. Survive. At any cost.”>
A boy who’s been a bully and hanging out with the wrong friends gets a new start after a memory-loss-inducing accident. But can someone really change who he is, or will the old him merely come back over time?”>
A story of survival and of transformation, this riveting book has sparked many a reader’s interest in venturing into the wild.”>
Meg Murray, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. He claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a “tesseract,” which, if you didn’t know, is a wrinkle in time.”>
It’s 1936 in Flint, Michigan. Ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but he’s on a mission to hit the road and find his father, and nothing can stop him.”>
Sharon Robinson shares memories of her famous father in this warm, loving biography of the man who broke the color barrier in baseball.”>
One day, John finds a strange coin and uses it to buy a box of chocolate at a mysterious new candy store, and suddenly everything his lips touch turn to chocolate! This funny be-careful-what-you-wish-for story has been delighting kids everywhere since it was first published in 1952.”>
Jack hates poetry, but his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, won’t stop giving her class poetry assignments. But then Jack discovers the more he writes, the more he learns he does have something to say.”>
Follow Percy’s mythic adventures as he travels from this world to the Underworld to Mount Olympus in a heart-pounding modern odyssey that was a #1 New York Times bestseller.”>
This winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award features Stanley Yelnats, a kid who is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats.”>
Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle’s mother has disappeared. While tracing her steps on a car trip from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, Salamanca tells a story to pass the time about a friend named Phoebe Winterbottom whose mother vanished and who received secret messages after her disappearance.”>
When sixteen people are called together for the reading of wealthy Sam Westing’s will, they are surprised to learn that the will is actually a contest in which they are all to participate.”>
For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different…”>
Three-time Newbery Honor winner Gary Paulsen’s funny follow-up to the popular Lawn Boy is packed with big surprises—and big laughs!”>
This 2007 Newbery Honor Book is a humorous and heartwarming debut about feeling different and finding acceptance.”>
This realistic novel was written by a first-time teen author no older than the characters she depicts. The story remains as hard-hitting and important today as when it was published in 1967.”>
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Esperanza thought she’d always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico, and that she’d always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers.”>
This bewitching first novel is a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery, disguised as an adventure, and delivered as a work of art.”>
Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, and literary fiction, Pam Muñoz Ryan weaves sound poems and thought-provoking questions into her exquisitely crafted prose to create a narrative tapestry of color, rhythm, and emotion, while Peter Sis’s delicate, mesmerizing drawings transport readers to the lushness of the rainforest, the vastness of the sea, and the whimsy of Neftali’s imagination.”>
Winner of the 1977 Newbery Medal and nominated for the National Book Award, the story of Cassie Logan, an independent girl growing up relatively protected in a loving family, is culled from author Mildred Taylor’s own family’s life and stands as an important addition to both the African-American experience and young adult literature.”>
Lost and alone in the forbidden Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.”>
Told with simplicity, innocence, and grace, this unforgettable memoir gives a child’s-eye view of a terrifying time in twentieth-century history and of one family’s indomitable courage under fire.”>
Cameron, the guy who never cared about anything, is now at the center of everything, and it’s going to take all his slacker skills to win this round.”>
The humorous and heart-wrenching story of a young girl who discovers her own courage and strength when she makes the dangerous journey from Mozambique to Zimbabwe.”>
Walking through the misty Florida woods one morning, twelve-year-old Rob Horton is stunned to encounter a tiger—a real-life, very large tiger—pacing back and forth in a cage.”>
From Newbery Honor award-winning author Laurence Yep comes this boldly written, fictionalized account of the bombing of Hiroshima, seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Sachi.”>
Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached.”>
Set in 1935, when guards actually lived on Alcatraz Island with their families, Choldenko’s second novel brings humor to the complexities of family dynamics and illuminates the real struggle of a kid trying to free himself from the “good boy” stance he’s taken his whole life.”>
Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life, her name for one. But according to Gram, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking…until their mother reappears after seven years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions and challenging Naomi to discover and proclaim who she really is.”>
Three sisters learn much about their family, their country, and themselves in this National Book Award finalist.”>
Roy Eberhardt is new to his small Florida community of Coconut Cove. When he spots a running boy, he senses a mystery, and sets himself on the boy’s trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.”>
In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful and very awkward hearing aid.”>
Enter the world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family. When Momma and Dad decide it’s time for a visit to Grandma, Dad comes home with the amazing Ultra-Glide, and the Watsons head South to Birmingham, Alabama… toward one of the darkest moments in America’s history.”>
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Master storyteller Christopher Paul Curtis lends his trademark humor and vibrant narrative style to the gripping tale of eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada.”>
Categories: literature