Summer Reading Suggestions for 2017
…for what to readafter completing the required titles
(Recommended by Springton Lake Middle School Library)
Fantasy and Supernatural
/ Barnhill, Kelly.The Girl Who Drank the MoonAn epic fantasy about a young girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, who must unlock the powerful magic buried deep inside her.
Reading Level:5.0 Interest Level:5-8 (2017 Newbery Medal)
/ Gaiman, Neil.The Graveyard Book
The orphan Bod, short for Nobody, is taken in by the inhabitants of a graveyard as a child of eighteen months and raised lovingly and carefully to the age of eighteen years by the community of ghosts and otherworldly creatures.
Reading Level:5.1Interest Level:5-8
/ Gidwitz, Adam. A Tale Dark Grimm
Follows Hansel and Gretel as they walk out of their own story and into eight more tales, encountering such wicked creatures as witches, along with kindly strangers and other helpful folk. Based in part on the Grimms' fairy tales Faithful Johannes, Hansel and Gretel, The seven ravens, Brother and sister, The robber bridegroom, and The devil and his three golden hairs.
Reading Level:4.8Interest Level:5-8
/ Funke, Cornelia.Inkheart
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father Mo, a bookbinder, can "read" fictional characters to life when an evil ruler named Capricorn, freed from the novel "Inkheart" years earlier, tries to force Mo to release an immortal monster from the story.
Reading Level:7.0Interest Level:5-8
/ Collins, Suzanne.Gregor the Overlander
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving humans, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.
Reading Level: 5.0 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Riordan, Rick. The Sword of Summer
Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother's mysterious death, he's lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits. One day, he's tracked down by an uncle he barely knows – a man his mother claimed was dangerous. Uncle Randolph tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god. The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years. When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision. (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard)
Reading Level: 4.9 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.
Reading Level: 6.7 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Reading Level: 5.3 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Paige, Danielle.Dorothy Must Die
Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, has been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to stop Dorothy who has found a way to come back to Oz, seizing a power that has gone to her head -- so now no one is safe!
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Stiefvater, Maggie. The Scorpio Races
Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Interest Level: Young Adult
Historical Fiction
/ Draper, Sharon M. Stella by StarlightWhen a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.
Reading Level:5.1 Interest Level:5-8
/ Gidwitz, Adam. The Inquisitor's TaleOr, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog
Crossing paths at an inn, thirteenth-century travelers impart the tales of a monastery oblate, a Jewish refugee, and a psychic peasant girl with a loyal greyhound, the three of whom join forces on a chase through France to escape persecution.
Reading Level: 4.5 Interest Level:5-8
/ Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones
Thirteen-year-old Eulinda, a house slave on a Georgia plantation in 1864, turns to Clara Barton, the eventual founder of the American Red Cross, for help in finding her brother Neddy who ran away to join the Northern war effort and is rumored to be at Andersonville Prison.
Reading Level: 6.3 Interest Level:5-8
/ Kadohata, Cynthia. Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam
Cracker is a German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and the enemy. The fate of entire platoons rests on her keen sense of smell. Sometimes Cracker remembers when she was younger, and her previous owner would feed her hot dogs and let her sleep in his bed. That was nice, too. Rick Hanski is headed to Vietnam. There, he's going to whip the world and prove to his family and his sergeant -- and everyone else who didn't think he was cut out for war -- wrong. When Cracker is paired with Rick, she isn't so sure about this new owner. He's going to have to prove himself to her before she's going to prove herself to him. They need to be friends before they can be a team, and they have to be a team if they want to get home alive. Reading Level:5.1Interest Level:5-8
/ Sharenow, Robert. The Berlin Boxing Club
In 1936 Berlin, fourteen-year-old Karl Stern, considered Jewish despite a non-religious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Schmeling while struggling with the realities of the Holocaust.
Interest Level:Young Adult
/ Wolk, Lauren. Wolf Hollow
Twelve-year-old Annabelle must learn to stand up for what's right in the face of a manipulative and violent new bully who targets people Annabelle cares about, including a homeless World War I veteran.
Reading Level: 4.6 Interest Level: 3-6
/ Nielsen, Jennifer A. A Night Divided
When the Berlin Wall went up, Gerta, her mother, and her brother Fritz were trapped on the eastern side where they were living, while her father, and her other brother Dominic were in the West--four years later, now twelve, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform on the western side and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.
Reading Level: 4.7 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. The War that Saved My Life
A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.
Reading Level: 3.9 Interest Level: 3-6
/ Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Echo
Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.
Reading Level: 5.3 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Robinson, Sharon. The Hero Two Doors Down
Eight-year-old Steve Satlow is thrilled when JackieRobinson moves into his Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1948, although many of his neighbors are not, and when Steve actually meets his hero he is even more excited--and worried that a misunderstanding over a Christmas tree could damage his new friendship.
Reading Level: 3.9 Interest Level: 3-6
Mystery & Adventure
/ Dowd, Siobahn.Down the Rabbit Hole : An Echo Falls MysteryLike her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.
Reading Level:6.0Interest Level:5-8
/ Grisham, John. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
Thirteen-year-old TheodoreBoone, who knows every judge, police officer, and court clerk in the small town of Strattenburg, finds himself involved in a murder trial because of knowledge he might have about a cold-blooded killer.
Reading Level: 5.4 Interest Level:5-8
/ Evans, Richard Paul. Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Fourteen-year-old Michael discovers he has special electrical powers and, with the help of his best friends, becomes aware that there are other teens with similar powers, but something or someone is hunting them and, after Michael's mother is kidnapped, he will need to rely on his powers and his friends to rescue his mom, protect himself, and save the others.
Interest Level:Young Adult
/ Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Among the Hidden
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm, until another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong.
Reading Level: 4.7 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Wasserman, Robin.The Book of Blood and Shadow
While working on a project translating letters from sixteenth-century Prague, high school senior Nora Kane discovers her best friend murdered with her boyfriend the apparent killer and is caught up in a dangerous web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all searching for a mysterious ancient device purported to allow direct communication with God.
Interest Level:Young Adult
/ Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society
After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.
Reading Level:5.6Interest Level:3-6
/ Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker(Alex Rider Series)
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.
Reading Level: 5.5 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Reichs, Kathy. Virals
Tory Brennan is the leader of a band of teenage 'sci-philes' who live on an island off the coast of South Carolina and when the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Lane, Andrew. Death Cloud
In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously "unwell," fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Grabenstein, Chris.Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by his hero (the famous gamemakerLuigi Lemoncello), with other students but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape.
Reading Level: 5.2 Interest Level: 3-6
Realistic Fiction
/ Grimes, Nikki. Planet Middle SchoolA series of poems describes all the baffling changes at home and at school in twelve-year-old Joylin's transition from tomboy basketball player to not-quite-girly girl.
Reading Level:3.8Interest Level:3-6
/ Hiassen, Carl. Hoot
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Reading Level:5.5 Interest Level:5-8
/ Philbrick, Rodman. Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina
A twelve-year-old boy and his dog become trapped in New Orleans during the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.
Reading Level:6.0 Interest Level:5-8
/ Reynolds, Jason. As Brave as You Are
When 11-year-old worrywart Genie and his big brother, Ernie, leave Brooklyn and go to their grandparents' home in rural Virginia, it seems as though they have been dropped on another planet. The city boys are introduced to another way of life and to their blind grandfather, who goes to extreme lengths to conceal his disability. A rich and rewarding coming-of-age story about family and courage, told with laugh-out-loud humor and a great deal of heart. (School Library Journal)
Reading Level:4.8 Interest Level:5-8
/ Draper, Sharon.Out of My Mind
Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom--the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she's determined to let everyone know it...somehow.
Reading Level:4.7 Interest Level:5-8
/ Sonnenblick, Jordan. Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family. Reading Level: 5.3 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Preller, James. Bystander
Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people, but although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution.
Reading Level: 5.0 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Tolan, Stephanie S. Listen!
During her solitary convalescence from a crippling accident, twelve-year-old Charley finds a wild dog, and the arduous process of training him leads her to explore her feelings about her mother's death two years earlier.
Reading Level: 4.8 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Counting By 7s
Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident.
Reading Level: 5.1 Interest Level: 5-8
/ Buyea, Rob. Because of Mr. Terupt
It's the start of fifth grade for seven kids at Snow Hill School. There's . . . Jessica, the new girl, smart and perceptive, who's having a hard time fitting in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffrey, who hates school. Only Mr. Terupt, their new and energetic teacher, seems to know how to deal with them all. He makes the classroom a fun place, even if he doesn't let them get away with much . . . until the snowy winter day when an accident changes everything and everyone. Reading Level: 4.6 Interest Level: 3-6
Science Fiction & Dystopian
/ Patterson, James. The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride Series)After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "bird kids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.
Interest Level:Young Adult
/ Dashner, James. The Maze Runner
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.
Interest Level:Young Adult
/ L’Engle, Madeline.A Wrinkle in Time
Meg Murry, her brother Charles, and their friend Calvin, embark on a journey through space and time, assisted by three otherworldly women, when they set out to find Meg's father, a physicist who disappeared while experimenting with time travel.
Reading Level:4.7Interest Level:5-8
/ Lore, Pittacus.I Am Number Four
In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their planet, Lorien.
(Lorien Legacies Series) Interest Level:Young Adult
/ Westerfeld, Scott.Uglies
Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game
Ender, who is the result of genetic experimentation, may be the military genius Earth needs in its war against an alien enemy.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Roth, Veronica. Divergent
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Crockett, S. D. After the Snow
Fifteen-year-old Willo Blake, born after the 2059 snows created a new ice age, searches for his family, who mysteriously disappeared from their frozen mountain home, and encounters outlaws, halfmen, and an abandoned girl along the way.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Healey, Karen. When We Wake
In 2027, sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl--playing the guitar, falling in love, and protesting the wrongs of the world with her friends. But then Tegan dies, waking up 100 years in the future as the unknowing first government guinea pig to be cryogenically frozen and successfully revived. Appalling secrets about her new world come to light, and Tegan must choose to either keep her head down or fight for a better future.
Interest Level: Young Adult
/ Colfer, Eoin. The Reluctant Assassin
In Victorian London, Albert Garrick, an assassin-for-hire, and his reluctant young apprentice, Riley, are transported via wormhole to modern London, where Riley teams up with a young FBI agent to stop Garrick from returning to his own time and using his newly acquired scientific knowledge and power to change the world forever. (W.A.R.P. Series)
Reading Level: 5.8 Interest Level: 5-8
Sports Fiction