Middle School Recommended Reading List
Roanoke County teachers believe that students should develop a love of reading and a responsibility to read in order to become life-long learners. We, therefore, encourage our students to continue to read during the summer.
All students are encouraged to read at least two books. The list is composed of a wide variety of recommended readings. We ask that you review it with your son or daughter to identify titles that are appropriate to his or her reading ability and maturity level.
Since reading is the single most important factor attributed to school success, we hope that students will use the list as a starting point and choose other selections to read during the summer.
Recognizing the diversity of our student body, we have designed this list to represent a wide range of selections. The titles have been carefully selected to account for the varying interests of our students. Topics range from magical worlds, to friendship, to war, to sports, to the trials and tribulations of growing up. We hope all students will find something that sparks the desire to read this summer.
Pre-AP English will have a required summer reading assignment which may or may not include selections on this list. Students enrolling in other levels of English can earn extra credit for completing an assignment based on the reading of any selection on this list. Extra credit may be earned for reading and doing the assignment for no more than two books. Specific information about these assignments can be obtained from your son or daughter’s school.
Parents and guardians are asked to work closely with the student to select readings that are appropriate to the reader’s interest, maturity, and reading skills.
** Available in Central Middle School Library
Fantasy/Science Fiction
The Lost Years of Merlin, T. A. Brown
Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins
Eragon, Christopher Paolini
The Folk Keeper, Franny Billingsley
Silverwing, Kenneth Oppel
**The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Nancy Farmer
The Wish List, Eoin Colfer
Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix
Downsiders, Neil Shusterman
**The Golden Compass, Philip Putman
Mystery/Adventure
**Something Upstairs, Avi
The Name of the Game Was Murder, Joan Lowery Nixon
The Rag and Bone Shop, Robert Cromier
Tangerine, Edward Bloor
The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Scared Stiff, Willo Davis Roberts
The Root Cellar, Janet Lunn
Monster, Walter Dean Myers
The Silent Boy, Lois Lowry
Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
Eagle Strike, Anthony Horowitz
The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau
Blackwater, Eve Bunting
**Far North, Will Hobbs
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, James Patterson
The Wreckers, Iain Lawrence
Jason’ Gold, Will Hobbs
**Black Star, Bright Dawn, Scott O’Dell
Blizzard’s Wake, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Popular Fiction
**Hope was Here, Joan Bauer
Becoming Naomi Leon, Pam Munoz Ryan
Loser, Jerry Spinelli
Olive’s Ocean, Kevin Henkes
Flying Solo, Ralph Fletcher
**View from Saturday, E. L. Konigsburg
Jake, Reinvented, Gordon Korman
**Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech
The School Story, Andrew Clements
**Say Goodnight, Gracie, Julie Reece Deaver
**A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck
Ruby Holler, Sharon Creech
Halfway to the Sky, Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
So B. It, Sarah Weeks
Last Book in the Universe, Rodman Philbrick
**A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park
**Tears of a Tiger, Sharon Mills Draper
My Louisiana Sky, Kimberley Holt
Stuck in Neutral, Terry Trueman
**Freak, the Mighty, Rodman Philbrick
Biography/Autobiography
Boy: Tales of a Childhood, Roald Dahl
The Hiding Place , Corrie Ten Boom
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Ji-Li Jang
I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Livia Bitton Jackson
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter, Adeline Yen Mah
Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt, Jean Roosevelt-Fritz
Guts, Gary Paulsen
Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Meyers
Coach Carter, Jasmine Jones
Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard, Mawi Asgedom
Historical Fiction
A Boy at War: Novel of Pearl Harbor, Harry Mazer
**Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers, Gary Paulsen
**The Slave Dancer, Paula Fox
**Devil’s Arithmetic, Jane Yolen
**Where the Broken Heart Still Beats, Carolyn Meyers
Year of Impossible Goodbyes, Sook Nyul Choi
**Don’t You Know There’s a War On?, Avi
Clay Marble, Minfong Ho
Girl in a Cage, Jane Yolen
Classics
**Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson
**Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
**Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
**Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy
**White Fang, Jack London
The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
**A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Mark Twain
**The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
**The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
Non-fiction
**Shipwrecked at the Bottom of the World; the Extraordinary True Story of the Shackleton and Endurance, Jennifer Armstrong
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom, Walter Dean Myers
**The Great Fire, Jim Murphy
**Woodsong, Gary Paulsen
Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success, Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt
A Time for Freedom: What Happened When in America, Lynne Cheney
Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattilo Beals