Middle School Must Reads
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
FIC ROW
Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
FIC MEY
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets
an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she
comes to realize is not wholly human.
The Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
FIC WES
Uglies, Pretties, Specials
This arc of Scott Westerfeld's UGLIES trilogy follows the high-tech adventures of Tally Youngblood. As an
ugly, then a pretty, and finally a special, Tally works to take down a society created to function with
perfect-looking people who never have a chance to think for themselves.
Extras by Scott Westerfeld
FIC WES
After rebel Tally Youngblood brings down the uglies/pretties/specials regime, fame, instead of beauty,
becomes the new world order, and fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse embarks on a dangerous plan to boost her
popularity ranking
The Giver by Lois Lowry
FIC LOW
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories
shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he
lives.
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
FIC LOW
Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial
Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful
Guardians.
The Messenger by Lois Lowry
FIC LOW
In this novel that unites characters from "The Giver" and "Gathering Blue," Matty, a young member of a
utopian community that values honesty, conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain or
understand
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
FIC HIN
Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents' death, as they search for an identity among
the conflicting values of their adolescent society in which they find themselves "outsiders.”
The Penderwicks: A summer tale of four sisters
FIC BIR
by Jeanne Birdsall
While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four
through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.
The Penderwicks on Gardam St
FIC BIR
by Jeanne Birdsall
The four Penderwick sisters are faced with the unimaginable prospect of their widowed father dating,
and they hatch a plot to stop him.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
FIC MON
Anne, a mischievous, red-haired, eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middleaged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on
everyone around her.
The book of lost things by John Connolly
FIC CON
Taking refuge in fairy tales after the loss of his mother, twelve-year-old David finds himself violently
propelled into an imaginary land in which the boundaries of fantasy and reality are disturbingly melded.
The boy next door by Meg Cabot
FIC CAB
Mel is bored with her life, until the elderly woman next door is nearly murdered, and she sets out to find
who is responsible by investigating her neighbors, including the handsome, but mysterious, man who
has come to dog sit for his comatose aunt.
Holes by Louis Sachar
FIC SAC
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative,
Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real
friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
Diary of a wimpy kid by Jeff Kinney
FIC KIN
Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley,
undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley
grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.
Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
FIC PAO
In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that
weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and
monsters.
After successfully evading an Urgals ambush, Eragon is adopted into the Ingeitum clan and sent to finish
his training so he can further help the Varden in their struggle against the Empire.
The further adventures of Eragon and his dragon Saphira as they continue to aid the Varden in the
struggle against the evil king, Galbatorix.
What the Dickens: the story of a rogue tooth fairy
FIC MAG
by Gregory Maguire
As a terrible storm rages, ten-year-old Dinah and her brother and sister listen to their cousin Gage's tale
of a newly-hatched, orphaned, skibberee, or tooth fairy, called What-the-Dickens, who hopes to find a
home among the skibbereen tribe, if only he can stay out of trouble
What my mother doesn’t know by Sonya Sones
FIC SON
A series of poems reflect the thoughts and feelings of Sophie, a fifteen-year-old-girl, as she describes her
relationships with a series of boys and as she searches for Mr. Right.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
FIC ADA
In a constant struggle against oppression, a group of rabbits search for peaceful co-existence. Chronicles
the adventures of a group of rabbits searching for a safe place to establish a new warren where they can
live in peace.
Island of the blue dolphins by Scott O’Dell
FIC ODE
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends
eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also
finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
Jacob I have loved by Katherine Patterson
FIC PAT
Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise
finally begins to find her identity.
Time trilogy by Madeleine L’Engle
FIC LEN
A Wrinkle in time,
Meg and Charles Wallace set out with their friend Calvin in a search for their father. His top secret job
as a physicist for the government has taken him away and the children search through time and space to
find him.
Swiftly Tilting planet,
The youngest of the Murry children must travel through time and space in a battle against an evil
dictator who would destroy the entire universe.
Many Waters
The fifteen-year-old Murry twins, Sandy and Dennys, are accidentally sent back to a strange Biblical time
period, in which mythical beasts roam the desert and a man named Noah is building a boat in
preparation for a great flood.
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
FIC CRE
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip
retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother
also left.
Dicey’s song by Cynthia Voigt
FIC VOI
Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey must
decide what she wants for her siblings and herself.
Julie of the wolves by Jean Craighead George
FIC GEO
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost
on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Hunger games by Suzanne Collins
FIC COL
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised
survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteenyear-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.
Number the stars by Lois Lowry
FIC LOW
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.
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
FIC SPI
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an
eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.
Diary of a wimpy kid: the last straw by Jeff Kinney
FIC KIN
Middle-schooler Greg Heffley nimbly sidesteps his father's attempts to change Greg's wimpy ways until
his father threatens to send him to military school.
Sold by Patricia McCormick
FIC MCC
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the
city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no
hope of escape.
Sisterhood of the traveling pants
Second summer by Ann Brashares
FIC BRA
When teenager Carmen and her three friends discover that a pair of worn jeans from a thrift shop
provides an uncanny fit for all four of them, they decide to form a sisterhood, with the pants as the
symbolic bond of friendship among them, and embark on a sweet-sixteen summer.