SIXTHGRADE RECOMMENDEDREADS
J HIAS, C
WRECKER
Carl Hiaasen
Valdez Jones VIII calls himself Wrecker because his 5x great-grandfather salvaged shipwrecks for a living. So is it destiny, irony, or just bad luck when Wrecker comes across a speedboat that has run hard aground on a sand flat? The men in the boat pay him to forget he ever saw them. Wrecker would be happy to forget, but he keeps seeing these men all over Key West And now they want more than his silence--they want a lookout
J CERV, A
Angela Cervantes THE CURSED MOON
Rafael Fuentes loves writing ghost stories, reading scary books, and entertaining his friends with terrifying tales he creates on the spot. To take his mind off his mom being released from jail and coming home, Rafa spends an evening crafting the scariest ghost story he's ever told. Rafa is really proud of his latest creation, until strange things start to happen around him.
Jamie Sumner MAID FOR IT J SUMN, J
Now that Franny and her newly sober mom have moved to a cozy apartment above a laundromat, Franny's looking forward to a life where her biggest excitement is getting top grades in math class. But when her mother is injured in a car accident, Franny tries to keep their fragile world intact by taking over her mom's cleaning jobs.
Sayantani DasGupta THE CHAOS MONSTER J DASG, S
When Kinjal’s dog disappears before his eyes, he can’t imagine things will get stranger until two enormous flying horses appear to take him and his twin sister to the Sky Kingdom. They have come to this dimension to seek help--bees are disappearing, along with the nectar the horses need to survive. Once there, they discover that the disappearance of the bees is more nefarious than they thought, and the plot goes all the way to the top.
Mitali Perkins HOPE IN THE VALLEY
Twelve-year-old Pandita Paul doesn't like change: in growing up, grieving her mother, anything. After a falling out with her best friend, Pandita is planning to spend most of her summer reading and writing in her favorite secret space: the abandoned but majestic mansion across the street But then the unthinkable happens. The town announces that the old home will be bulldozed in favor of new--maybe affordable--housing. With her family on opposing sides of the issue, Pandita must find her voice--and the strength to move on--in order to give her community hope.
J RHOD, J
TREASURE ISLAND: RUNAWAY GOLD
Jewell Parker Rhodes
Zane is itching for an adventure so when he is entrusted with a real treasure map, Zane wastes no time in riding the ferry over to the city to start the search with his friends and his dog. Through strange coincidence, they meet a man who is eager to help them: John, a sailor who knows all about the buried history of Black New Yorkers of centuries past, and the gold that is hidden somewhere in those stories. As a vicious rival skateboard crew follows them around the city, Zane and his friends begin to wonder who they can really trust.
J MALD, T
Torrey Maldonado HANDS
Trev would do anything to protect his m especially from his stepdad. Rather tha takes matters into his own hands, literally. He starts learning to box but everyone isn’t a fan of his plan, because Trev’s a talented artist, and his hands could actually help him build a better future Ultimately, Trev knows his future is in his hands, and his hands are his own, and he has to choose how to use them
Lisa Fipps
Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, twelve-year-old Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself, with the help of some wonderful new allies in this poignant debut novel-in-verse.
J HOPK, D
THE PLOT TO KILL A QUEEN
Deborah Hopkinson
In 1582 thirteen-year-old Emilia Bassano is a lute player and aspiring playwright who stumbles on a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth, and is recruited by Sir Francis Walsingham to go to the castle where Mary Queen of Scots is being held and discover who is responsible for the plot.
IZZY AT THE END OF THE WORLD
K.A. Reynolds
Ever since Izzy Wilder's mom died, it has felt like the end of the world. When mysterious lights flash across the mountains outside her house one night, suddenly everyone except her and her dog Akka seem to have disappeared in an instant. But Izzy is a fighter and she won't lose anyone else, even if it means battling terrifying gray, ugly monsters and decoding cryptic messages that seem a lot like her mom talking to her from beyond the grave.
A ROYAL CONUNDRUM J GN YEE, L
Lisa
Yee
After Olive is dropped off at the strangest boarding school ever, she discovers RASCH (not “rash”) is actually a school for an elite group of misfits who fight crime Turns out that RASCH is in danger of closing, unless Olive's class can stop the heist of the century. And as Olive falls in love with this wacky school, she realizes it's up to her new team to save the only home that's ever welcomed them.
Wendy Bjazevich EXOPLANETS: A GUIDE TO THE WORLDS OUTSIDE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
NASA has confirmed the existence of 5,000 exoplanets (planets that lie outside of our solar system)! You'll learn the four main types of exoplanets, techniques scientists use to discover them, the probability of finding life as we know it beyond Earth, plus detailed information about dozens of some of the most fascinating exoplanets discovered so far.
In Your Freedom, Your Power, middle grade readers get a focused look at their freedoms and rights through the lens of this all-powerful First Amendment. The book engages children in learning more about their country and their rights and responsibilities.
Prepare to explore the treasures of the world's civilizations--from ancient Egyptian amulets, Mayan jewelry, and prehistoric tools--to Medieval tapestries, Renaissance suits of armor, and modern-day baseball cards. Each page brings you closer to the past as you learn about the people of different ages through the objects they left behind.
As a female Jewish physicist in Berlin during the early 20th century, Lise Meitner had to fight for an education, a job, and equal treatment in her field. Nevertheless, she persevered and one day made a discovery that rocked the world: the splitting of the atom. While her male lab partner was awarded a Nobel Prize for the achievement, the committee refused to give her any credit Suddenly, the race to build the atomic bomb was on