| Humor | ||
| Middle School Book List |
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. NY Scholastic Press, 1997 In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1989. In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2000. During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.
Cushman, Karen. Catherine Called Birdy. Clarion Books, 1994. The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Delacorte Press, 1999. Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Alexander, Lloyd. The High King. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, [1990], 1968. In this fifth and final chronicle of Prydain, the forces of good and evil meet in ultimate confrontation.
Cooper, Susan. The Dark is Rising. Scholastic, Inc. 1973. On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.
Lowry, Lois. A Summer to Die. Houghton Mifflin, 1977. Thirteen-year-old Meg envys her sister's beauty and popularity. Her feelings don't make it any easier for her to cope with Molly's strange illness and eventual death.
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved. Scholastic, 1990. Having felt deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.
Voigt, Cynthia. Dicey's Song. Fawcett Juniper, 1982. Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love, trust, humor, and courage.
Zindel, Paul. The Pigman. Bantam Books ,1986. A teenage boy and girl, high school sophomores from unhappy homes, tell of their bizarre relationship with an old man.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Scholastic Book Services, 1962. Elizabeth Bennet falls in love with Darcy, but obstacles are in their way--her prejudice and his pride.
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Fearon Publishers, 1967. The experiences of an Englishman stranded by shipwreck on a desert island, where he survives for some thirty years.
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. Macmillan, 1963. The dog hero, Buck, is stolen from his home and pressed into service as a sledge dog in the Klondike.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Hobbit. Houghton Mifflin, 1984. Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to share in an adventure from which he may never return.
Finney, Jack. Time and Again. Simon and Schuster, 1970. Illustrator Si Morley steps out of his twentieth-century New York apartment one night--right into the winter of 1882.
Skurzynski, Gloria. Virtual War. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1997. In a future world where global contamination has necessitated limited human contact, three young people with unique genetically engineered abilities are teamed up to wage a war in virtual reality.
Jacques, Brian. Redwall. Philomel Books, 1986. When the peaceful life in and around ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villanous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help.
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Hahn, Mary Downing. Time For Andrew. Clarion Books, c1994. When he goes to spend the summer with his great-aunt in the family's old house, eleven-year-old Drew is drawn eighty years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle who is dying of diphtheria.
Larson Levine, Gail. Ella Enchanted. Harper Collins Publishers, 1997. In this novel based on the story of Cinderella,Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.
Hannalee Choi, Sook Nyui. The Year of Impossible Goodbyes. Houghton Mifflin, 1991. A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.
Fox, Paula. The Slave Dancer. Bradbury, 1973. Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.
Yolen, Jane. The Devil's Arithmetic. Viking Kestrel, 1988. Hannah resents stories of her Jewish heritage and of the past until, when opening the door during a Passover Seder, she finds herself in Poland during World War II where she experiences the horrors of a concentration camp, and learns why she-- and we--need to remember the past.
Danziger, Paula. Make Like a Tree and Leave. Dell Publishing Co., 1992. Sixth-grader Matthew gets into trouble at home and at school, spars with his older sister, and helps save an elderly friend's property from the hands of a developer.
Korman, Gordon. The Twinkie Squad. Scholastic, c1992. Chaos spreads when Douglas, the most eccentric sixth grader in Thaddeus G. Little Middle School, joins the Twinkie Squad, a special counseling group for problem students
Lowry, Lois. Your Move, J.P. Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Lovestruck J.P. finds himself doing all sorts of weird things to impress his new interest but his life becomes very complicated when a simple lie gets out of control.
Peck, Richard. Bel-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats. Delacorte Press, 1993. Bambi, Buffie, and Brick, three totally cool siblings from Los Angeles, move with their parents to Hickory Fork, a small town terrorized by a high school gang.
Avi. Wolf Rider. Collier Books, 1988. After receiving an apparent crank call from a man claiming to have committed murder, fifteen-year-old Andy finds his close relationship with his father crumbling as he struggles to make everyone believe him.
Cooper, Susan. The Boggart. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1993. After visiting the castle in Scotland which he rfamily has inherited and returning home to Canada, twelve-year-old Emily finds that she has accidentally brought back with her a boggart.
Duncan, Lois. Don't Look Behind You. Dell Pub, 1990. April's father's job as an undercover F.B.I. agent forces the family to move far from home and assume new identities as part of the Federal Witness Security Program, and April must leave everything that she loves
Philbrick, W. R. Freak the Mighty. Scholastic Inc., 1993. At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a powerful team.
Avi. S.O.R. Losers. Avon, 1984. Each member of the South Orange River seventh-grade soccer team has qualities of excellence, but not on the soccer field.
Crutcher, Chris. Stotan! Dell, 1986. A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a memorable week of rigorous training that tests their moral fiber as well as their physical stamina.
Myers, Walter Dean. Hoops. Dell, 1981. A teenage basketball player from Harlem is befriended by a former professional player who, after being forced to quit because of a point shaving scandal, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake.
HISTORICAL FICTION
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
by:
Avi. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle relies on her resourcefulness to
survive an 1832 voyage aboard the "Seahawk" commanded by the murderous
Jaggery, as she assumes sailor's garb and is accused of murder.
Captain Grey by: Avi ; decorations by Charles Mikolaycak. Following the Revolution, an eleven-year-old boy becomes the captive of a ruthless man who has set up his own "nation,"supported by piracy, on a remote part of the New Jersey coast. 1775-1783--Fiction.
A Family Apart by: Joan Lowery Nixon.When their mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent by the Children's Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond. A young girl's rebellion against bigotry culminates in a terrifying witch hunt and trial.
The Sign of the Beaver by: Elizabeth George Speare. Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.
Bull Run by: Paul Fleischman ; woodcuts by David Frampton. Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.
The Orphan Trains by: Annette R. Fry. What to do with the children?.--New homes in the west.--Little wanderers and baby delinquents.--The last orphan trains.
The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by: Cynthia DeFelice. After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old Lucas becomes a doctor's apprentice.
Jip: His story by: Katherine Paterson. While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.
So Far From Home : the Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl by: Barry Denenberg. In the diary account of her journey from Ireland in 1847 and of her work in a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, fourteen-year-old Mary reveals a great longing for her family.
The Orphan Trains : Placing Out in America by: Marilyn Irvin Holt. A study of the system known as "placing out," which was practiced in America between 1853 and 1929, in which children, and in some cases women and entire families, were relocated from crowded urban areas and placed in homes in the west, traveling on orphan trains to their new lives.
Fever 1793 by: Laurie H. Anderson. An epidemic is sweeping the city of Philadelphia during one hot summer. First, Mattie’s friend dies - now her mother is sick. Will Mattie be next?
ADVENTURE
Wolf Stalker by: Gloria Skurzynski. Yellowstone National Park buzzes with rumors about a wolf attack. And a stalker delves through the trees, ready to kill.
The Whipping Boy by: Sid Fleischman ; illustrations by Peter Sis. A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.
Weasel by: Cynthia DeFelice. Alone in the frontier wilderness in the winter of 1839 while his father is recovering from an injury, eleven-year-old Nathan runs afoul of the renegade killer known as Weasel and makes a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge.
Encounter at Easton by: Avi. The doomed flight of two young indentured servants from their unkind master brings together an unlikely assortment of people in a mid-eighteenth-century Pennsylvania town.
Night Journeys by: Avi. In the spring of 1768, two young indentured servants escape into Pennsylvania and receive help from an unexpected source.
COMEDY
Frindle by: Andrew Clements. After learning how words are created, Nick invents a new word for pen: frindle - and his invention brings him both fame and trouble!
Lemony Snicket: the Unauthorized Biography by: Lemony Snicket. The elusive author provides a glimpse into his mysterious and sometimes confusing life: using fanciful letters, diary entries, and other documents as well as photographs and illustrations.
Shoebag by: Mary James. I’ve changed-into a person! Shoebag, a happy, young cockroach, awakes one morning to find that he has turned into a little boy. Adopted by the Biddle family, Shoebag is renamed Stuart Bagg, but he misses his family and longs for roachdom.