When you hand your middle schooler a book, you want them to be engaged and involved in the story. You however, don’t want them taught new swear words, they get enough of that at school. Today, Marissa, from Rae Gun Ramblings and I have each complied a list of the best books that are perfect for your Middle School Student. Check out her list here and read mine below.
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. This is hands down my favorite Cinderella story. If you have seen the movie, don’t let it keep you from reading this book to your kids. It is clever and funny. There is still the same basic cast of characters, Ella, the evil stepmother and stepsisters but in this version you add in some crazy fairies, ogres and giants too. Ella was cursed by a fairy when she was a baby with obedience. She has to follow any direct command that she is given, which could including hurting herself. Ella must figure out how to break the curse before she does something truly dreadful.
The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks by Nancy McArthur. This book had as rolling on the floor as kids. What’s not hilarious about a plant that eats your dirty socks? This book is about two brothers a neat freak and a walking disaster area and the crazy sock-eating plants they grow together. I loved it as a kid and so did my brothers.
Harry Potter by JK Rowling– The perfect series for a middle school student to start. It is captivating, fun and will help them WANT to read.
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles). This fun series is about a princess who likes to fence and practice magic and doesn’t want to marry a boring prince, instead she runs off to live with the dragons instead. She becomes a dragon’s princess and actually talks the knights who come out of rescuing her. I haven’t read this series to my daughter yet, but it is on my list for sure.
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale– Miri has grown up on Mount Eskel, it is a quiet life until the King’s Priests chose the mountain as the home of the next princess. Each village girl is required to attend a strict princess academy, for when the prince comes in a year to pick his bride. Although Miri is small and feels like she doesn’t contribute much to her family’s work in the quarry, she finds that she can contribute in much bigger ways. This is one of my favorite princess reads, the main character is endearing and for once you aren’t rooting for her to end up with the prince.
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George– When Creel’s aunt offers her to a local dragon in hopes that somebody wealthy will rescue her and bring money to the family, Creel decides not to stick around and rescues herself. She strikes a bargain with a dragon, that includes her freedom and an odd pair of slippers. The slipper cause trouble all over the place until the put the fate of the whole nation at risk. Creel must figure out what the slippers do and how to save the country before it is too late.
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine– Aza isn’t a dainty princess, in fact she is a plain peasant and in a land that prizes beautiful faces and voices more than anything else, she sometimes feels out of place. Aza does have a gorgeous voice and the talent of being able to throw her voice to sound as if it is coming from anywhere in the room. A passing duchess invites her to court and then the queen who has a plains singing voice insists she stays so that she can use Aza’s voice as her own. Aza must learn to stand on her own feet and use her voice for good instead of allowing it to be used by the evil
queen.
You don’t just find out how Peter Pan came to be, you get to watch as the most famous Peter Pan characters come on the scene. The Lost Boys are introduced almost immediately and you get to meet Black Stache, who will turn into Captain Hook. Yup, this book is set so much earlier that Peter hasn’t even fed his hand to the croc yet.
Heist Society by Ally Carter- A light, fun read about a teenage girl who comes from a family of thieves. She has tried to get away to move on with her life and attend school, but she finds it is a lot harder to escape thieving when so many people don’t want her to. This is a light, run read about an art heist. I enjoyed the story and the characters.
The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen- The young prince has been missing for years, and one man has an idea to bring him back. He auditions four young men to possibly masquerade as the prince, training each one to become more like the missing prince. One will be king and the others will die. Although this book was predictable in spots, I really enjoyed it.
I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter– Cammie Morgan is a special girl. She is a genius, speaks 14 languages and is training to be a spy. Although she is about to undertake her most difficult covert ops assignment, pretending to be a normal teenager.Cammie is a 15-year-old girl attending the private Gallagher Academy For Exceptional Young Women, which most of the students just call spy school. Starting in 7th grade, brilliant girls are invited to come live at the academy, learn to speak different languages, attend classes in different cultures, math, science, oh and covert operations.
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer – Underneath the the world of humans lies a whole secret world of Faeries, a world that 12-year-old billionaire and criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl, discovers and exploits in hopes of gaining fairy gold. The Artemis Fowl books are a light, fun and easy read and they get better as the series goes on. This book is a little bit the Italian Job meets Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. It is an interesting story with a good twist on the typical fantasy characters. You meet some of the top fairies in this book, who are more war generals than fairy God mothers. The humans are the bad characters in the book, but you sympathize with them none the less.
Holes by Louis Sachar – After Stanley Yelnats is falsely arrested for stealing a pair of famous shoes, he is sent to Camp Green Lake where the warden has kids dig holes each day, it seems the warden is looking for something. Could it involve the legend of Kissing Kate Barlow? Holes is a classic, I didn’t read this book until I was an adult, and I loved it. My husband was glancing over my shoulder when I pulled up Holes on Goodreads and he asked “Who could rate Holes less than four stars?”
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi – Charlotte’s family has moved from England to Rhode Island, leaving Charlotte behind to finish the school year. Charlotte boards a ship for an ordinary ocean crossing when she realizes that she has walked straight into a mutiny. No one is safe. Least of all Charlotte.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin – Mr. Westing, a millionaire, has died. He has left his vast fortune to 16 different people, if they can figure out the elaborate game he has set up.
Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson – When Finn, Charlene, Willa, Maybeck and Philby agree to become the models for the new Disney World hologram projections, they have no idea that the will become part of the park. After the sun goes down, the park comes to life and all of the villains from every Disney ride come alive and these five teens are the only things standing between the villains and park domination. If you love Disney, you will love these fun books with all of your favorite villains.
Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan – Perseus (Percy) Jackson thinks he is just a regular kid with a horrible step dad, but a series of crazy happenings lead him to find out he is the son of the sea god Poseidon.
The books takes Percy through his first quest to save the Gods from battle and the world from war. He is supposed to figure out who stole master lightening bolt from Zeus. Percy Jackson provides a good introduction to Greek mythology. It does a pretty good job of providing the reader with enough information so you don’t have to keep leaving the book to look something up about mythology. I, however, love to know every detail so I was often looking up characters/gods from the book. It was fun to see the Greek Gods in a modern sense and see that at least according to Riordan that they are still up to their old tricks.
Which of these are your favorite?
These are all great books – and love your choices! Holed and Ella Enchanted are my faves! What a great resource as we start the school year!
My kids have loved the Percy Jackson series, Miss Peregrine, and the False Prince. They also loved the Maze Runner. Good choices here for those starting middle school!
Looks like a great list. My son just started Kindergarten this year so our reading list looks much different 🙂
What a great list for middle school aged kids! Which, I have a grand daughter who is in middle school and who loves to read. So this is perfect!
Wonderful list! I have actually read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children myself and enjoyed it. I'm now looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out!
Gail Carson Levine was my FAVORITE author as a kid. I would read and re-read every one of her books because I loved them so much.
I need to get a few of these for my nieces. They are at the middle school age so they would lvoe them.
These look like such better books than what we had growing up! Harry Potter made the list too- can't go wrong.
I read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle in middle school and I remember loving it!! This is a great list of books to read!
We are just beginning elementary school. But, this is a great list for me to keepfor future reference!
I have pinned this. I need to get my boys off of graphic/cartoon type books. I feel like if I find a great story they will fall in love with reading.
What a great list! My boys aren't quite there yet but I will hang on to this for when they are.
Can we please go back to middle school and re-read all of these books? We'll start with the entire Harry Potter series and knock the rest out one by one.
This is a lovely list of books and a great selection you have put together. I have a while yet till my little on is in middle school. I will save this for a friend.
What great suggestions!! Is it bad that I'm like 628929 years old and Ella Enchanted is a favorite of mine lol.
I love this list! My kids are no where near this age yet, but I'll have to pin this so that when they are I can refer to it.
I always encourage my kids to read books. It develops their imagination and it improves their vocabulary. I love that you have a list of middle grade books, I have a boy in middle school that I would love to show this list to.
I love your list. I will share this with my sister, her son is in middle school.
These are great because they can lead to great discussions about life choices beyond just reading. I have an 8h grader and we will check some of them out.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is one of my all time favorite books. I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to read it on her own! I still have my copy from when it came out…it is well worn.
These are great middle school books! I taught 6th grade for 3 years and my students also really enjoyed "Esperanza Rising" by Pam Muñoz Ryan and "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen. (The original novel units I created for each of those are available for purchase at Teachers Pay Teachers.com.) The first is really great for exploring multiculturalism and identity, while the second is wonderful for adventure and character qualities.
Nice list!Thanks for linking up to Merry Monday! Sharing on G+! Have a great week!
Kim
You have a few favorites on your list and many new ones for us to check out too! We can't wait to read The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks. Pinned.
I actually haven't read most of these since I spend most of my time with adult books or younger kids books. I do know from the year I spent teaching 5th grade that this list contains many favorites for the middle grades!
Thank you for this list and your helpful reviews of them. I have 2 boys at the tween/teen reading level and it can be so hard to find reading materials they are interested in. Of course, they do not have the same taste in books, either. LOL
Thank you for sharing your blog post with us at the #HomeMattersParty this week.