Dawn, a List member at our Reading/Writing Workshop chat, offered this compilation of "great middle school books" to the List.

Great Middle School Books


Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
6th grade
Read aloud
Young Brian's plane crashes in the middle of the Canadian wilderness
when the pilot has a heart attack. Brian must survive on his own. He
develops self-reliance and deals with his parents' divorce.


Just Ella
Margaret Peterson Haddix
6th grade
Independent/partner reading
The story of what happens to Cinderella after she moves to the palace as
well as what REALLY happened the night of the ball.

The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
6th grade
Read aloud
A series of related stories that take a glimpse at a young, poor,
Latina's life and neighborhood. Beautifully written.I actually
read it aloud to my classes and used it as a touchstone text
for memoir writing. Very effective because the chapters are
short and manageable for mini-lessons in Writing Workshop.

Flying Solo
Ralph Fletcher
Read aloud
6th-8th grade

Joey Pigza Swallows a Key
Jack Gantos.
read aloud
sixth grade
Joey is a boy with ADD that lives a horrible life
and does things that shouldn't be done at school.
He gets into trouble. It allows me to talk about
behavior, learning problems, punishments, etc.
with my class.

The Cay
Theodore Taylor
independent reading
6th grade
They loved it and it has a lot of science in it
(We read it in science class!) as well as
great "lessons" about life. The main character
is an 11 year old boy who is shipwrecked with a
Black man and the boy goes blind and realizes
the color of skin does not matter.

Stargirl
Jerry Spinelli
7th grade
teacher read aloud
about a strange girl who comes to town
and the reactions she elicits from her
fellow students. Great discussions on
conformity, loyalty to friends, cliques.
Kids really liked it.

Freak the Mighty
Rodman Philbrick
Grades 5-9
I read it aloud
It's about an unusual friendship between a troubled, quiet, rather large
young man and an extremely intelligent boy who is very tiny because of a
debilitating disease. All of my kids loved it in 7/8 grade last year. Also
a movie, The Mighty, but not near as good as the book.

Nothing But The Truth
Avi
6-9
students read aloud and silently
about a young man who starts a tale about a teacher that is not the truth,
which ends in the teacher's dismissal. It shows how harmful lies can be and
how quickly untruthful tales are spread.

On My Honor
Marion Dane Bauer
4-8
Read together
The story of two friends who come into conflict about swimming in a river
that flows rapidly and which they have been told not to go near. One of them
drowns, and the other is having a hard time telling the truth about what
really happened...excellent book.

Belle Prater's Boy
Ruth White
Grades 5-8
read aloud
This is a coming of age story between two cousins, Gypsy Arbutus Leemaster
and Woodrow Prater. They are brought closer together by the disappearance of
Woodrow's mother, Belle Prater. Full of mystery and humor, written by an
Appalachian author, the mountain dialect brings everything to life.
Excellent!

I am enclosing this website:
www.randomhouse.com/teachers/authors ; this is a listing of great books for
young readers. If you click on the book, it takes you to a synopsis of it
and how to use it in the classroom.

--------------------------------------------

As a social sciences teacher I have found the following novel to be very
appropriate for teaching students about the 60's and the civil rights
movement in:

The Watsons Go To Birmingham by Paul C. Curtis

The book describes the church bombing in Alabama in 1963 in terms that
students can understand and empathize with in general. It is appropriate
for grades 4-8 and should be read aloud. I haven't seen this much interest
in a class novel in a long time. It carefully entertwines facts about the
bombing with a fictional family in a sympathetic yet humorous way. I
enjoyed this one too!!

Linde Crawford
Aquarium....interactive television for cats.
http://www.lindecrawford.net

------------

Bud, Not Buddy
Paul Curtis
read aloud
7th and 8th grade
Bud is a young boy whose mother dies. He goes in search of his real father. I
loved The Watsons Go to Birmingham, as did my students, but they seemed to
like
this even more.

Harris and Me
Gary Paulson
read aloud
7th and 8th grade
Harris has to spend the summer with distant relatives.
He gets himself and his distant cousin in trouble. Hilarious.

The True Confessions
Charlotte Doyle
lit circles
7th grade
Charlotte has to cross the ocean on a merchant ship with only the men of the
crew for company. Always a favorite for my students.

A Long Way from Chicago
Richard Peck
6th and 7th graders
they love it! It would fit in nicely with a Social Studies unit on the Great
Depression.

Out of the Dust
Author: Hesse
Grade: 7
About: A young girl growing up in the Oklahoma Dust bowl mid-20th century.
Beautifully written, alost like a long poem. Read-aloud and savor the
touching, sparse language (shows kids that they don't have to be wordy and
flowery in their writing to tell a story).

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
Author: Woodson
Grade: 7
About: Heady stuff - racism, sexual orientation adolescent angst..
(Used for independent reading/lit. circles)

Esperanza Rising
Author: Patricia Munoz
Grade:7 and above
Read aloud or did the kids read it?: Kids read it
What was the book about?: Takes place in CA and Mexico in the 1930's
Esperanza the daughter of wealthy landowners. Her life changes dramatically
when a family tragedy occurs. She travels to CA to work as a migrant farm
worker. Most of my students roots are in Mexico and they love this book.

Touching Spirit Bear
Author: Ben Mikaelsen
Grade:7 and above
Read aloud or did the kids read it?: Read aloud
What was the book about?: The book is about justice revenge and the healing
process. After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to
prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on Native
American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an
encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

anything by Walter Dean Myers (especially
for boys).

The Goddess of the Moon
series by Lynne Ewing
books keep disappearing from my classroom - seems madly popular.
I haven't actually read these books, but they appear to be about
these sort of gang type girls with mystical powers. Ewing seems
a writer whose writing is fairly simple, yet she deals with teen issues.

The Outsiders
For my 8th graders:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (they love the fact that he tries to get out of
going to school, connects them, also reminds them of Bart Simpson)

Among the Hidden
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Grade: 7th
Read aloud or did the kids read it?: read aloud
What was the book about?: A third-born child lives in a society where
people are not supposed to have more than two children. He, of course, is
kept a secret for fear of what the government will do.

The Killer's Cousin
Author: Nancy Werlin
Grade: 7th
Read aloud or did the kids read it?: read aloud
What was the book about?: Werlin's website
(http://www.nancywerlin.com/tkc.htm) says it better than I can right now...

"Recently acquitted of murder, seventeen-year-old David has moved to
Massachusetts to complete his senior year of high school. His aunt and uncle
have offered him shelter - escape from the media's questions and from the
uncertain glances of his neighbors and ex-friends.

His attic apartment doesn't feel much like a shelter, though. He sees
ghostly shadows at night, his aunt is strangely cold, and his
eleven-year-old cousin, Lily, is downright hostile. And as Lily's behavior
becomes more and more threatening, David can't help wondering why. What ugly
secrets lurk within the walls of Lily's home?

There's one thing David knows with certainty. The more he learns about his
cousin Lily, the harder it is to avoid thinking about his own past."

Among the Hidden
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Grade: Used with 6-8th low readers, book probably at 5-6th grade reading
level.
Read aloud or did the kids read it?: Read aloud.
What was the book about?: In country where couples can only have two
children, a family raises a "shadow child." Luke finds out there are others
and becomes aware of a movement to change the rules.

Among the Hidden
Author:Margaret Haddix
Grade:6
Read aloud or did the kids read it?:I read it to them so I could control
where we stopped, but they could easily have read it themselvesWhat was the
book about?:Setting is a time and place where families are
only allowed to have two children. This family decides to have a third...
who they keep hidden. One day, he discovers another hidden child in a
house nearby... they meet... she plans a rebellion but can't talk him into
being part of it...she dies... he is saved by her father... It has the
same power (to me) as Bridge to Terebithia... the kids were really shocked
that she died... There's a sequel that I haven't read yet...I'm waiting
for the paperback... it's called Among the Betrayed.Kids loved it... and it
led to LOTS of discussion about population control
etc. etc. I'd use it in 7 and 8.

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