Ten Must-Read Middle School Novels (in no particular order)
1. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Who doesn't love stories of romance, especially around the holidays?! Follow Dash and Lily around New York City finding clues in alternating chapters of their perspectives. After Lily leaves a red notebook on a shelf at a local bookstore, Dash unexpectedly stumbles upon it, which leads him to eventually start leaving the notebook for Lily. What starts in a bookstore, ends up all across the streets, buildings, and even holiday displays in the city. They end up exchanging the moleskine notebook back and forth by leaving it at places that they hint for in their clues, until the day they actually meet. Could they possibly fall in love, or are the situations they find themselves coming face-to-face with a little too much? If you loved reading this book, check out the sequel titled The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily!
2. Love and Gelato
And, of course, another romance novel on the list! I honestly think the author purposely put these three wonderful things together: love, gelato, and Italy. Jenna Evans Welch definitely makes us swoon over the love connection between the unlikely couple. After the death of Lina's mother, Lina is sent all the way across the world to Italy to meet her father that she has never met before. On arriving to this strange new "temporary" home of hers, she is welcomed with a present from a neighbor, which is her mother's diary. She also meets Ren, the boy next door, and he ends up introducing Lina to his friends and... girlfriend. Through this book, you, as the reader, get to experience the mystery behind the diary with Lina, and the complications of teenage love and social life.
3. The Giver
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a "perfect" society where there is no such thing as fear, pain, hate, fighting, and war? It doesn't matter what you look like because everyone acts and even looks the same. Everyone is polite, kind and there is little competition, but you are unable to make important decisions in your life. Instead of choosing your future job, you are assigned to it, and you can't decide who you are going to marry or how many children you have. Everything is assigned to you. Making choices in this society doesn't happen often. Follow Jonas as he lives everyday life and slowly realizes that this perfect world isn't everything it is shown to be.
4. Positively Beautiful
Could I carry the cancer gene? That's the thought that haunts Erin Bailey's mind while she goes through everyday life. Her mom is just diagnosed with breast cancer, and there is a possibility that she could have it too. Should she take the DNA test to find out if she has it, or should she not? It might sound simple to give an answer, but finding out if she has cancer could change her life. Erin's only escapes are flying lessons and an online friend who seems like a supporter. One day, as something happens when she is by herself in a place up in the sky, her life takes an unexpected turn. Could this new journey of hers end in disaster, or could it be the best thing that has ever happened?
5. A Tiny Piece of Sky
This historical fiction book takes place during WWII as you follow Frankie through her life in her small town in Maryland. She is faced with some interesting situations while a war is happening in another part of the world. Frankie is tasked with peeling potatoes and washing dishes in the kitchen of her new family's restaurant. Without the company of her older sister, Joanie, Frankie finds other fun things to do, but everywhere she turns, she hears rumors. Bad rumors that make her want to scream. Why would anyone think that her own father is a German spy? The thought merely disgusts her, so she takes responsibility into her own hands by spying. She ends up finding out about unexpected things about the people all around her. This book will cause you to smile, laugh, roll your eyes, and even cry as you read the story through Frankie's perspective.
6. The Book Thief
I all around fell in love with this book. Through the unique perspective of Death, yes death, you are told the story of Liesel Meminger, and you are introduced to various people that all seem to play a part in her life. Liesel is a young German girl during WWII living in a house on Himmel street with her new parents and a surprise. As the book unfolds, a young Jewish man named Max comes to their house to hide in their cold, dark basement to escape the brutality of the German Nazis. Will Liesel learn to keep the Jew her family is hiding a secret? Will she be able to handle her nightmares that cause her to lie awake at night? Will she ever fall in love with the sneaky German boy, Rudy? As always, read to find out!
7. Ghost
I read this book last year, and after finishing it, I read every book by Jason Reynolds that I could find. I have even recently purchased the second and third book in this series, The Track Series. This book is the first one in the series, and it is about a boy who prefers to be called Ghost over his real name, Castle. He one day stumbles upon a track, and unexpectedly becomes a part of the middle school track team. He yearns to be the fastest sprinter on the team, but his past seems to be slowing him down on and off of the track. He then meets three other young runners on the team— Patina, Sunny, and Lu— who he connects with. Follow Ghost as he is faced with difficulties surrounding running and his past.
I also highly recommend reading any book by Jason Reynolds. His stories are just plain out amazing, and the author has a great voice that needs to be heard through his writing!
8. Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip
I was a little skeptical when I came across this read because I don't usually enjoy reading books where the main focus is a sport (after reading Jason Reynold's Ghost, I will pretty much be open to reading anything). Anyways, I ended up reading it, and that was a very good decision. This book is about a teenager named Peter. His pitching days are over because of a really serious arm injury, and his grandfather, a photographer, is now showing signs of having Alzheimer's, which is a serious disease that can cause loss of memory. Peter begins to take an advanced photography class at his high school, and he meets a girl. While facing difficult situations causing him to keep secrets from his family and friends, will he find a way to handle his life without the sport that had formerly been a big part of it?
9. An Abundance of Katherines
This book doesn't seem to get enough praise like John Green's other books, and this upsets me a lot. If people would just look past the math (like I did), they will probably surely love it just as much as I do! This is such a good story about Colin and Hassan, two best friends who are looking to escape their lives for a couple of months when they come across a perfect little town during the summer seasons. Collin was a child prodigy, and he is still very smart, but not as smart on the topic of relationships where he always seems to be the one getting dumped. He prefers girls by the name of Katherine until somethings happen. If this interests you, I will surely recommend it!
10. Refugee
The last book on this list that tells the heart-wrenching stories of three refugees: Josef, Isabel, and Muhammed. Josef is escaping Nazi Germany with his mother, little sister Ruthie, and his father who has just been released from a concentration camp where he witnessed unimaginable things. They try and flee Germany by a ship. Isabel is from Cuba when Castro is under control where her father is a "criminal". Her family and her neighbors end up leaving Cuba on a small, makeshift boat that barely fits them all. Muhammed lives in present day Syria where fighting and bombs are a regular day-to-day thing. He flees his country with his mother, father, little brother Waleed, and his baby sister. They travel by car, raft, and even on foot to make it to safety. This book amazingly ties the three stories all together where the characters are connected in an interesting, compelling way. This story will make you want to cry and reach out to help these refugees. Alan Gratz, the author, did a wonderful job of creating this necessary story that shows the world the struggles refugees faced and are even still facing today.
The library here at our school has all of these books, so be sure to check them out, and enjoy an amazing story!
