Memorial Middle School Summer Reading List
This is list of recommended books from Memorial Middle School. Copies of the list are also available at the library.
| Grade 6 Nutmegs | |
| Arnold, Louise | |
| Golden and Grey: An Unremarkable Boy and a Rather Remarkable Ghost. 2005 | |
| When a downhearted ghost becomes the "invisible friend" of an eleven-year-old boy who is an outcast in his new school, the two help each other find their place in their respective worlds. Sequels include The Nightmares Ghosts Have |
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| Broach, Elise | |
| Shakespeare's Secret. 2005 | |
| Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the most popular boy in school. | |
| Carbone, Elisa | |
| Blood on the River: James Town 1607. 2006 | |
| Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of James Town, where he must quickly learn to distinguish between friend and foe. | |
| Corbett, Sue | |
| Free Baseball. 2008 | |
| Angry with his mother for having too little time for him, eleven-year-old Felix takes advantage of an opportunity to become bat boy for a minor league baseball team, hoping to someday be like his father, a famous Cuban outfielder. | |
| Evans, Douglas | |
| MVP* Magellan Voyage Project. 2004 | |
| Twelve-year-old Adam Story is challenged by the deposed ruler of Babababad and his mongoose companion to become the first youngster to travel around the world in forty days without an adult. | |
| Fox, Helen | |
| Eager. 2004 | |
| Unlike Grumps, their old-fashioned robot, the Bell family's new robot, Eager, is programmed to not merely obey but to question, reason, and exercise free will. Sequels include Eager's Nephew, and Eager and the Mermaid |
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| Gutman, Dan | |
| The Homework Machine. 2006 | |
| Four fifth-grade students--a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker--as well as their teacher and mothers, each relate events surrounding a computer programmed to complete homework assignments. | |
| Lowry, Lois | |
| Gossamer. 2006 | |
| While learning to bestow dreams, a young dream giver tries to save an eight-year-old boy from the effects of both his abusive past and the nightmares inflicted on him by the frightening Sinisteeds. | |
| Stewart, Jennifer | |
| Close Encounters of a Third World Kind. 2004 | |
| Twelve-year-old Annie is reluctant to travel to a village in Nepal for her father's two-month medical mission, but once there she assists at the clinic, makes friends with a local girl, and has adventures that change her life. | |
| Vande Velde, Vivian | |
| Three Good Deeds. 2005 | |
| Caught stealing some goose eggs from a witch, Howard is cursed for his heartlessness and turned into a goose himself, and he can only become human again by performing three good deeds. | |
| Grades 7 & 8 Nutmegs | |
| Budhos, Marina | |
| Ask Me No Questions. 2006 | |
| Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family. | |
| Choldenko, Gennifer | |
| Al Capone Does My Shirts. 2004 | |
| A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister. | |
| Lester, Julius | |
| Day of Tears. 2005 | |
| Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma. | |
| Lupica, Mike | |
| Heat. 2006 | |
| 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. | |
| Murdock, Catherine Gilbert | |
| Dairy Queen. 2006 | |
| 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. | |
| Paver, Michelle | |
| Wolf Brother. 2005 | |
| 6,000 years in the past, twelve-year-old Torak and his guide, a wolf cub, set out on a dangerous journey to fulfill an oath the boy made to his dying father--to travel to the Mountain of the World Spirit seeking a way to destroy a demon-possessed bear that threatens all the clans. Sequels include Spirit Walker, Soul Eater, Outcast |
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| Schusterman, Neal | |
| The Schwa Was Here. 2004 | |
| A Brooklyn eighth-grader nicknamed Antsy befriends the Schwa, an "invisible-ish" boy who is tired of blending into his surroundings and going unnoticed by nearly everyone. | |
| Springer, Nancy | |
| The Case of the Missing Marquess. 2006 | |
| Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother. Sequels include The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan |
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| Westerfeld, Scott | |
| Uglies. 2005 | |
| Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. Sequels include Pretties, and Specials |
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| Zevin, Gabrielle | |
| Elsewhere. 2005 | |
| After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live." | |
| Middle Readers | |
| Bishop, Nic | |
| Nic Bishop Spiders. 2007 | |
| Introduces young readers to the world of arachnids, discussing life cycles, predatory behaviors, web construction, communication, and mating rituals. | |
| Dowson, Nick | |
| Tracks of the Panda. 2007 | |
| A mother panda teaches her cub how to survive in their mountain habitat but as the sound of villagers clearing the forest approaches, she knows they must look for a new home. | |
| Giblin, James Cross | |
| The Many Rides of Paul Revere. 2007 | |
| Goscinny, Rene | |
| Nicholas and the Gang. 2007 | |
| Nicholas is invited to a birthday party by the girl next door, plays a very messy game of chess, and learns that walking on your hands is much harder than turning somersaults. | |
| Hest, Amy | |
| Remembering Mrs. Rossi. 2007 | |
| Although she loves her father, their home in New York City, and third-grade teacher Miss Meadows, Annie misses her mother who died recently. | |
| Judge, Lita | |
| One Thousand Tracings. 2007 | |
| Based on a true events, this inspiring picture book tells the story of an American family who establishes contact with a German family after World War ii and sends them a package of much-needed supplies, including shoes. | |
| Kobayashi, Issa | |
| Today and Today. | |
| (not available from the Southbury Library) | |
| Lehman, Barbara | |
| Rainstorm. 2007 | |
| In this wordless picture book, a boy finds a mysterious key which leads him on an adventure one rainy day. | |
| Levine, Ellen | |
| Henry's Freedom Box. 2007 | |
| A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry "Box" Brown, escapes to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia. | |
| Lewin, Ted | |
| At Gleason's Gym. 2007 | |
| Describes the visitors and activities which go on at Gleason's gym in Brooklyn, where famous boxers such as Muhammed Ali trained. | |
| Mora, Pat | |
| Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico! | |
| (not available from the Southbury Library) | |
| Park, Linda Sue | |
| Tap Dancing on the Roof. 2007 | |
| Ritcher, Jutta | |
| The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity. 2007 | |
| Eight-year-old Christine is late for school every day because a talking alley cat demands her attention, giving her much to think about as he tries to teach her to be spiteful and pitiless. | |
| Selznick, Brian | |
| The Invention of Hugo Cabret. 2007 | |
| When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized. | |
| Stewart, Trenton Lee | |
| The Mysterious Benedict Society. 2007 | |
| 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. | |
| Varon, Sara | |
| Robot Dreams. 2007 | |
| The enduring friendship between a dog and a robot is portrayed in this wordless graphic novel. | |
| Older Readers | |
| Alexander, Lloyd | |
| The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio. 2007 | |
| Naive and bumbling Carlo, his shady camel-puller Baksheesh, and Shira, a girl determined to return home, follow a treasure map through the deserts and cities of the infamous Golden Road, as mysterious strangers try in vain to point them toward real treasures. | |
| Alexander, Elizabeth | |
| Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color. 2007 | |
| Poets Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson tell the story of Prudence Crandall's school for African American girls opened in 1833. | |
| Barakat, Ibtisam | |
| Tasting the Sky. 2007 | |
| Bernier-Grand, Carmen | |
| Frida: Viva la vida! Long Live Life! 2007 | |
| Frida Kahlo, a native of Mexico, is described here in biographical poems accompanied by her own artwork. Both text and images reveal the anguish and joy of her two marriages to muralist Diego Rivera, her life-long suffering from a crippling bus accident, and her thirst for life, even as she tasted death. | |
| Burns, Loree Griffin | |
| Tracking Trash. 2007 | |
| Compestine, Ying Chang | |
| Revolution is Not a Dinner Party. 2007 | |
| Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter. | |
| Curtis, Christopher Paul | |
| Elijah of Buxton. 2008 | |
| In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom. | |
| Engle, Margarita | |
| The Poet Slave of Cuba. | |
| (not available from the Southbury Library) | |
| Freedman, Russell | |
| Who Was First? 2007 | |
| "For a long time, most people believed that Christopher Columbus was the first explorer to 'discover' America--the first to make a successful round-trip voyage across the Atlantic. But in recent years, as new evidence has come to light, our understanding of history has changed. We know now that Columbus was among the last explorers to reach the Americas, not the first." | |
| Gore, Al | |
| An Inconvenient Truth (Teen Edition). 2007 | |
| This young readers' version of the recent documentary film's companion adult volume cuts the page count by about a third but preserves the original's cogent message and many of its striking visuals. | |
| Grandits, John | |
| Blue Lipstick. 2007 | |
| Holm, Jennifer | |
| Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf. 2007 | |
| Told entirely through notes, grocery receipts, and a vast array of other items, this story follows Ginny as she accidentally dyes her hair pink, throws live frogs in class, and loses the lead role in ballet to her ex-best friend. | |
| Miyabe, Miyuki | |
| Brave Story. 2007 | |
| Young Wataru Mitani's life is a mess. His father has abandoned him and his mother has been hospitalized after a suicide attempt. Desperately he searches for some way to change his life; a way to alter his fate. To achieve his goal, he must navigate the magical world of Vision, a land filled with creatures both fierce and friendly. | |
| Neri, G. | |
| Chess Rumble. | |
| (not available from the Southbury Library) | |
| Schlitz, Laura Amy | |
| Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. 2007 | |
| A collection of short one-person plays featuring characters, between ten and fifteen years old, who live in or near a thirteenth-century English manor. | |
| Schmidt, Gary | |
| The Wednesday Wars. 2007 | |
| During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in. | |
| Sis, Peter | |
| The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. 2007 | |
| Tan, Shaun | |
| The Arrival. 2007 | |
| In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family. | |
| Wells, Rosemary | |
| Red Moon at Sharpsburg. 2007 | |
| As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn't know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has evern known. | |
| Woodson, Jacqueline | |
| Feathers. 2007 | |
| When a new, white student nicknamed "The Jesus Boy" joins her sixth grade class in the winter of 1971, Frannie's growing friendship with him makes her start to see some things in a new light. | |
| All Ages | |
| Bryan, Ashley | |
| Let It Shine. 2005 | |
| With a kaleidoscope of color and cut paper, a two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner celebrates three favorite spirituals: "This Little Light of Mine," "Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In," and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." | |
| Prelutsky, Jack | |
| Good Sports. 2007 | |