2011-2012
Grade 6-8 Chapter Book Summaries
Grade 6
Freak the Mighty-Rodman Philbrick
Summary: “I never had a brain until Freak came along…” That’s what Max thought.
All his life he’d been called stupid, dumb. It didn’t help that his body seemed to be
growing faster than his mind. It didn’t help that people were afraid of him. So Max
learned how to be alone. At least until Freak came along. Freak was weird too. He had
a little body—and a really big brain. Together, Max and Freak were unstoppable.
Together, they were Freak the Mighty.
* This story contains some violence. The two main characters are attacked.
Rules-Cynthia Lord
Summary: Twelve-year old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near
impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his
disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules from “a peach is not a funny
looking apple” to “keep your pants on in public”-in order to head off David’s
embarrassing behaviors.
But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort of friend, and Kristi, the
potential next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that
turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?
The Shakespeare Stealer-Gary Blackwood
Summary: Steal Shakespeare’s play Hamlet…or else. That’s the order from his
fearsome master. And Widge-a poor orphan with the rare ability to write a unique coded
shorthand-has no choice but to follow orders. So Widge works his way into the Globe
Theatre, where Shakespeare’s troupe rehearses and performs. The players take him in
and treat him as one of their own. Afraid to disappoint his master, but unwilling to betray
his new friends, Widge is torn. Will he secretly copy down his lines? Until he decides,
he must play the part of his life.
From the Mixed up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler-E.L. Konigsburg
Summary: Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running
away…so she decided to run not from somewhere but to somewhere-somewhere large,
warm, comfortable, and beautiful. And that was how Claudia and her brother, Jamie,
ended up living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art-and right in the middle of a mystery
that made headlines.
Tuck Everlasting-Natalie Babbitt
Summary: Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? That was what young Winnie Foster
must decide when she discovers a spring on her family’s property whose waters grant
immortality. Members of the Tuck family, having drunk from the spring, tell Winnie of
their experiences watching life go by and never growing older.
But then Winnie must decide whether or not to keep the Tuck’s secret-and whether or not
to join them on their never ending journey.
The Face on the Milk Carton-Caroline B. Cooney
Summary: This book is centered on Janie Johnson. Janie is a typical teenager who is
getting excited about finally getting her license to drive. Her world gets turned upside
down, however when she is in the lunchroom one day and sees a familiar face on the
back of a milk carton, her own! She is convinced that it is her picture on the carton; with
the help of her neighbor and new boyfriend, Reeve, she sets out to find the truth. Was she
really born to Frank and Miranda Johnson or was she taken from a shopping mall in New
Jersey so many years ago?
* Some mention of sexual relationships. No crude language at all.
Grade 7
So B. It-Sarah Weeks
Summary: She doesn’t know when her birthday is or who her father is. In fact,
everything about Heidi and her mentally disabled mother’s past is a mystery.
When a strange word in her mother’s vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi sets out on a
cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past. Far way from home, pieces of
her puzzling history come together. But it isn’t until she learns to accept not knowing
that Heidi truly arrives.
Gathering Blue: Lois Lowry
Summary: Kira, an orphan with a twisted leg, lives in a world where the weak are cast
aside. She fears for her future until she is spared by the all-powerful Council of
Guardians. Kira is a gifted weaver and is given a task that no other community member
can carry out. While her talent keeps her alive and brings certain privileges, Kira soon
realizes that she is surrounded by mysteries and secrets. No one must know of her plans
to uncover the truth about her world-and to find out what exists beyond it.
Bud, Not Buddy- Christopher Paul Curtis
Summary: It’s 1936 in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may
be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud’s got a few things going for him:
He has his own suitcase full of special things.
He is the author of Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life
Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising
Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!
Bud’s got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the
road and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him-not hunger, not fear, not vampires,
not even Herman E. Calloway himself.
Hoot-Carl Hiaasen
Summary: Roy Eberhardt is used to the new-kid drill. His family has lived all over, and
Florida bullies are pretty much like bullies everywhere. But Roy finds himself oddly
indebted to the hulking Dana Matherson. If Dana hadn’t been mashing his face against
the school bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running
boy is the first interesting thing Roy’s seen in Florida.
He was running away from the school bus. He had no books, no backpack, and no shoes.
Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy’s trail. The chase will introduce him to
some other intriguing Floridian creatures: potty-trained alligators, a sinister pancake PR
man, some burrowing owls, a fake-fart champion, a renegade eco-avenger, and several
poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.
The Lightning Thief-Rick Riordan
Summary: Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school…again. And
that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount
Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology
textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them. Zeus’s master
lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property
and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will
have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who
abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend;
and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.
* Some sexual references. One character drinks to excess.
The Outsiders-SE Hinton
Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not much else besides
trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up
“greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect---until the night someone
takes things too far.
* Violence and death. Many characters smoke cigarettes. Some drink
alcohol.
Grade 8
Warriors Don’t Cry-Melba Pattillo
Summary: In 1957, Melba Pattillo turned sixteen. That was also the year she became a
warrior on the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the landmark 1954
Supreme Court Ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, Melba was one of nine teenagers
chosen to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School.
Throughout her harrowing ordeal, Melba was taunted by her schoolmates and their
parents, threatened by a lynch mob’s rope, attacked with lighted sticks of dynamite, and
injured by acid sprayed in her eyes. But Through it all, she acted with dignity and
courage, and refused to back down.
This is her remarkable story
* Racial slurs.
Nothing But the Truth-Avi
Summary: Ninth grader Philip Molloy has one thing on his mind: running. When a
failing English grade keeps him from joining the track team, he believes his teacher, Miss
Narwin, has it in for him. One morning during announcements, he disregards the
school’s policy of observing “The Star Spangled Banner” in respectful silence and hums
along, hoping to get transferred out of her class. Little does he know that his minor
infraction will make him the subject of national media attention. What truly happened
that morning in Miss Narwin’s class? Examine the events and reach your own
conclusion. But—can you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?
Lord of the Flies-William Golding
Summary: At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island,
stranding a group of school boys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is
something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they
want…Anything.
But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the
hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued…
*Violence
Break With Charity-Ann Rinaldi
Summary: Susanna desperately wants to join the circle of girls who meet every week at
the parsonage. What she doesn’t realize is that the leader of the group, the malicious Ann
Putnam, is about to set off a torrent of false accusations leading to the imprisonment and
execution of countless people.
When Susanna puts the pieces together, she faces a painful choice. She can keep quiet
and let the witch-hunt panic continue, or she can “break charity” with the group-and risk
having her family named as witches.
* Subject matter: Salem Witch Trials.
The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins
Summary: In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of
Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh
and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl
between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a
fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward
to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and
survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender.
But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against
humanity and life against love.
* Some violence and adult use of alcohol.
Homeless Bird-Gloria Whelan
Summary: Koly’s parents have arranged a marriage for their only daughter and now, like
many girls her age in India, she will leave home forever. She yearns to flee, but tradition
dictates that it’s too late to turn back. On her wedding day, Koly’s fate is sealed
Caught up in a current of tradition that threatens to sweep her toward a terrifying fate,
Koly finds herself cast out, lost in a strange and cruel world. But sometimes, courage and
hope can be more powerful than tradition, and fate can be taken into one’s own hands.
Treasure Island-Robert Louis Stevenson
For sheer storytelling delight and pure adventure, Treasure Island has never been
surpassed. From young Jim Hawkins’s first encounter with the sinister Blind Pew to the
climactic battle with the most memorable villain in literature, Long John Silver, this
novel has fired readers’ imaginations for generations. Original and thoroughly engaging,
Treasure Island continues to appeal to young and old alike.
* Violence and death, nothing overly graphic. Many characters drink
alcohol and use tobacco.