Summer Reading Suggestions for 2016

…for what to read after completing the required titles

(Recommended by Springton Lake Middle School Library)

Fantasy and Supernatural

	Bell, Hilari. Shield of Stars When the Justice he works for is condemned for treason, fourteen-year-old and semi-reformed pickpocket Weasel sets out to find a notorious bandit who may be able to help save his master's life. Reading Level: 5.6 Interest Level: 3-6
	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: 5.1  Interest 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: 4.8  Interest 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: 7.0  Interest Level: 5-8
	Auxier, Jonathan. The Night Gardener Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be, and soon the siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and secrets of the cursed house. Reading Level: 5.4 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
	White, J. A. The Thickety: A Path Begins When twelve-year-old Kara discovers her mother's grimoire in the dangerous forest, she must decide if she'll use it, even though such magic is forbidden. Reading Level: 5.3 Interest Level: 5-8
	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

	Gantos, Jack. Dead End in Norvelt In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses. Reading Level: 6.0  Interest Level: 5-8
	Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War. Reading Level: 5.2 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: 5.1 Interest 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
	Hahn, Mary Downing. Stepping on the Cracks In 1944, while her brother is overseas fighting in World War II, eleven-year-old Margaret gets a new view of the school bully Gordy when she finds him hiding his own brother, an army deserter, and decides to help him. Reading Level: 5.1 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
	Hopkinson, Deborah. The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel Eel, an orphan, and his best friend Florrie must help Dr. John Snow prove that cholera is spread through water, and not poisonous air, when an epidemic sweeps across their London neighborhood in 1854. Reading Level: 4.2 Interest Level: 5-8
	Robinson, Sharon. The Hero Two Doors Down Eight-year-old Steve Satlow is thrilled when Jackie Robinson 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 Mystery Like 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: 6.0  Interest Level: 5-8
	Grisham, John. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer Thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone, 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
	Cooney, Caroline B. Three Black Swans When sixteen-year-old Missy Vianello decides to try to convince her classmates that her cousin Claire is really her long-lost identical twin, she has no idea that the results of her prank will be so life-changing. 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: 5.6  Interest 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 gamemaker Luigi 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 School A 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: 3.8  Interest 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
	Lubar, David. Dunk Chad, hoping to work out his frustrations and his anger by taking a summer job as a dunk tank Bozo on the boardwalk at the New Jersey shore, comes to a better understanding of himself and the uses of humor as he undergoes training in the fine art of insults. Reading Level: 7.5  Interest Level: Young Adult
	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: 4.7  Interest 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

	Deuker, Carl. Gym Candy Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Green, Tim. Football Genius Troy, a sixth-grader with an unusual gift for predicting football plays before they occur, attempts to use his ability to help his favorite team, the Atlanta Falcons, but he must first prove himself to the coach and players. Reading Level: 4.8  Interest Level: 5-8
	Alexander, Kwame. The Crossover Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. Reading Level: 4.5 Interest Level: 5-8
	Lupica, Mike. Heat Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof. Reading Level: 6.9  Interest Level: 5-8
	Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Dairy Queen After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Ritter, John H. The Boy Who Saved Baseball The fate of a small California town rests on the outcome of one baseball game, and Tom Gallagher hopes to lead his team to victory with the secrets of the now disgraced player, Dante Del Gato. Reading Level: 6.5 Interest Level: 5-8
	Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Coy, John. Crackback Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Korman, Gordon. Pop Lonely after a midsummer move to a new town, sixteen-year-old high-school quarterback Marcus Jordan becomes friends with a retired professional linebacker who is great at training him, but whose childish behavior keeps Marcus in hot water. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Gutman, Dan. Roberto & Me Stosh travels back to 1969 to try to prevent the untimely death of Roberto Clemente, a legendary baseball player and humanitarian, but upon his return to the present, he meets his own great-grandson who takes him into the future, and what he finds there is more shocking than anything he has encountered in his travels to the past. Reading Level: 4.3 Interest Level: 5-8

Non-Fiction

	Lewis, Barbara A. Kids with Courage: True Stories about Young People Making a Difference Relates the stories of kids who made a difference in their neighborhood, community, or the world by helping in such areas as crime, life-saving, and the environment. Reading Level: 6.5 Interest Level: 5-8
	Noyes, Deborah. Ten Days a Madwoman: The Daring Life and Turbulent Times of the Original "Girl" Reporter, Nellie Bly Young Nellie Bly had ambitious goals, especially for a woman at the end of the nineteenth century, when the few female journalists were relegated to writing columns about cleaning or fashion. But Nellie knew she was destined for more and pulled a major journalistic stunt that skyrocketed her to fame: feigning insanity, being committed to the notorious asylum on Blackwell's Island, and writing a shocking expose of the clinic's horrific treatment of its patients. Nellie Bly became a household name as the world followed her enthralling career in "stunt" journalism that raised awareness of political corruption, poverty, and abuses of human rights. Reading Level: 6.4 Interest Level: 5-8
	Scott, Elaine. Buried Alive!: How 33 Miners Survived 69 Days Deep Under the Chilean Desert Relates the experiences of thirty-three Chilean miners who were trapped two thousand feet below the surface of the earth in August 2010. Reading Level: 6.0  Interest Level: 5-8
	Schlosser, Eric. Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food A look at fast food, what's in it, how it's made, and what it does to our bodies. Reading Level: 7.4  Interest Level: 5-8
	Sheinkin, Steve. Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon Examines the history of the atomic bomb, discussing the discovery of the behavior of uranium when placed next to radioactive material, the race to build a bomb, and the impact of the weapon on societies around the world. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Yousafzai, Malala, with Patricia McCormick. I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Malala Yousafzai's describes her fight for education for girls under Taliban rule, the support she received from her parents to pursue an education, and how the Taliban retaliated against her by trying to kill her. Reading Level: 5.8 Interest Level: 5-8
	Pacquiao, Manny. Pacman: My Story of Hope, Resilience, and Never-Say-Never Determination Manny Pacquiao recounts his life from being born and raised in an impoverished village in the Philippines, his boxing career, and how he gives back to the community. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Hopkinson, Deborah. Titanic: Voices from the Disaster Draws on stories from survivors and archival photographs to describe the history of the "Titanic" from its launch to its sinking. Reading Level: 7.6 Interest Level: 5-8
	Kamkwamba, William, and Bryan Mealer. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind African teenager William Kamkwamba explored science books in his village library when he was forced to drop out of school, and was able to change his family's life by creating a windmill to pump water for his family's farm. Reading Level: 6.2 Interest Level: 5-8
	Mortenson, Greg, and David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace--One School at a Time This young-reader's edition of the New York Times best-seller presents an abbreviated, simplified account of Mortenson's life-saving mountain rescue by Pakistani villagers that inspired his life's work: building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Includes new photos and illustrations, as well as a special interview by Greg's twelve-year-old daughter, Amira, who has traveled with her father as an advocate for the Pennies for Peace program for children. Interest Level: 5-8, Young Adult

Graphic Novel

	Bell, Cece. El Deafo A graphic novel memoir of author/illustrator Cece Bell who grew up hearing impaired. Reading Level: 3.3 Interest Level: 3-6
	Hale, Shannon. Rapunzel’s Revenge Rapunzel, having grown up in a lovely castle with the woman she thought was her mother, is placed in a very tall hollow tree as punishment after her curiosity prompts her to climb the castle wall and look at the ruin of the world beyond her home, but she is able to escape and, with the help of Jack, embarks on a plan to free the land from the grip of the witch. Reading Level: 3.7  Interest Level: 5-8
	Hinds, Gareth. The Odyssey Retells, in graphic novel format, Homer's epic tale of Odysseus, the ancient Greek hero who encounters witches and other obstacles on his journey home after fighting in the Trojan War. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Holm, Jennifer L. Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff Ginny makes a to do list for her seventh grade year, which includes landing a role in the school play, trying to make friends, ignoring her horoscope, and going to see her grandpa Joe in Florida; but she always seems to come up short in accomplishing any of it. Reading Level: 4.6  Interest Level: 3-6
	Telgemeier, Raina. Smile The author relates, in graphic form, her experiences after she injured her two front teeth and had to have surgeries and wear embarrassing braces and headgear, all while also dealing with the trials and tribulations of middle school. Reading Level: 3.6  Interest Level: 3-6
	Yang, Gene. American Born Chinese Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Interest Level: Young Adult
	Wood, Don. Into the Volcano While their parents are away doing research, brothers Duffy and Sumo Pugg go with their cousin, Mister Come-and-Go, to Kokalaha Island, where they meet Aunt Lulu and become trapped in an erupting volcano. Reading Level: 5.9 Interest Level: 3-6
	TenNapel, Doug. Ghostopolis Garth Hale, accidentally zapped into the ghost world by ghost wrangler Frank Gallows, teams up with Cecil, his grandfather's ghost, in an effort to save him from the evil ruler of Ghostopolis and get him back home again. Reading Level: 4.1 Interest Level: 5-8
	Colfer, Eoin, and Andrew Donkin (adapted by). The Supernaturalist: The Graphic Novel In futuristic Satellite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill escapes from his abusive orphanage and teams up with three other people who share his unusual ability to see supernatural creatures, and together they determine the nature and purpose of the swarming blue Parasites that are invisible to most humans. Reading Level: 3.6 Interest Level: 5-8
	Keenan, Sheila, and (illustrated by) Nathan Fox. Dogs of War Three fictional stories, told in graphic novel format, about soldiers in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War who were aided by combat dogs. Based on true stories. Reading Level: 2.9 Interest Level: 3-8