Recommended Reading: Middle School Recommended Reading

A gorgeously illustrated exploration of the Grand Canyon, past and present, by a master nonfiction author/illustrator.

When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world.

orn on Water Island in the Virgin Islands during a hurricane-- which is considered bad luck--twelve-year-old Caroline falls in love with another girl and together they set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother.

Merci Suárez begins the sixth grade and knows things will change, but she did not count on her grandfather acting strangely, not fitting in at her private school, and dealing with Edna Santos' jealousy.

*Highest Recommendation* Sixth-grader Carter must adjust to the unwelcome presence of a know-it-all butler who is determined to help him become a gentleman, and also to deal with burdens from the past.

In the summer of 1988, twelve-year-old Chuck Bell is sent to stay with his grandparents, where he discovers jazz and basketball and learns more about his family's past.

Eleven-year-old Alex Petroski, along with his dog, Carl Sagan, makes big discoveries about his family on a road trip and he records it all on a golden iPod he intends to launch into space.

*Highest Recommendation* Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade class, the other being Mr. Yao's son, Jason.

Accused of stealing the god of love's bow and arrow, Aru has ten days to find the real thief or risk being kicked out of the Otherworld. (Note: second book in series)

Months after Kiranmala's adventure in the Kingdom Beyond, a vision of the Demon Queen starts showing up in her bedroom, trying to tell Kiran something, but getting cutoff before she can finish; then she starts seeing an advertisement for an archery contest on her family's interdimensional television and Kiran realizes that she must return to her place of birth--where society is falling apart, a reality show is taking over, her friends are in danger, and she, once again, becomes the warrior princess she was meant to be. (Note: second book in series)

Min, a thirteen-year-old girl with fox-magic, stows away on a battle cruiser and impersonates a cadet in order to solve the mystery of what happened to her older brother in the Thousand World Space Forces.

*Highest Recommendation* Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert.