Sixth Grade Summer Reading Suggestions

SIXTH GRADE SUMMER READING CHOICES
Type of Book
TL - Traditional Literature
RF - Realistic Fiction
HF - Historical Fiction
SF - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
B - Biography
I - Information Book
S - Series or Sequel

Anne Frank: Life in Hiding
by Joanna Hurwitz A biography of a young Jewish girl made famous after her death in the Holocaust by the publishing of her diary detailing the two years her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. B

The Bad Beginning
by Lemonny Snicket The Bad Beginning is actually a great beginning. It's the first book in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, a wonderfully different and disastrous children's story starring three highly unlucky siblings. In this first book, readers are introduced to the unfortunate Baudelaire children -- 14-year-old Violet, 12-year-old Klaus, and their infant sister, Sunny -- when they learn they've just been orphaned by a terrible house fire. The executor of the Baudelaire estate -- a phlegm-plagued banker named Mr. Poe -- sends the children to live with a distant relative: a conniving and dastardly villain named Count Olaf, who has designs on the Baudelaire fortune. Available on cassette or CD from the Trident Academy library. F,S

Canyons
by Gary Paulsen Finding a skull on a camping trip in the canyons outside El Paso, Texas, Brennan becomes involved with the fate of a young Apache Indian who lived in the late 1800s. F

Child of the Owl
by Alexander Lloyd A twelve-year-old girl who knows little about her Chinese heritage is sent to live with her grandmother in San Francisco's Chinatown. RF

Children of the Wolf
by Jane Yolen Mohandas's routine life is changed forever when two strange jungle creatures are captured and brought back to the orphanage where he lives. More animal than human, the creatures crawl on calloused knees, eat raw meat, and cannot speak - because they are young girls who have been raised by a pack of wolves. Everyone who sees them wants something of them, except Mohandas. He tries to teach them words and human habits, and protect them from the other children at the orphanage, and his kindness seems to be working. But even as the wolf-girls begin to understand their human heritage, they cannot escape human cruelty... HF

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman - Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others. Available on cassette or CD from the Trident Academy library. F

Dragonsong
by Anne McCaffrey Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall Trilogy kicks off with this riveting and poetic first installment, in which Menolly -- a gifted musician who dreams of becoming a Harper -- meets a band of fire lizards and becomes their teacher. Forbidden by her father to indulge in music in any way, Menolly runs away, taking shelter with the planet Pern's fire lizards who, along with her music, open a new life for her. F,S

The Egypt Game
by Zilphea The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she's not sure they'll have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard behind the A-Z Antiques and Curio Shop, Melanie and April decide it's the perfect spot for Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians instead of two. After school and on weekends they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it's just a game, until strange things begin happening to the players. Has the Egypt Game gone too far? HF

Favorite Greek Myths
by Mary Pope Osborne Retells twelve tales from Greek mythology, including the stories of King Midas, Echo and Narcissus, the Golden Apples, and Cupid and Psyche. TL

Frindle
by Andrew Clements When he decides to turn his fifth grade teacher's love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control. Available on cassette or CD from the Trident Academy library. F

Gathering Blue
by Lois Lowry Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians. F

Growing Up In Coal Country
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti Describes what life was like, especially for children, in coal mines and mining towns in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I

Habibi
by Naomi Shihab Nye When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians. B

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point in the midst of the storm of this battle of good and evil. The author has already said that the Half-Blood Prince is neither Harry nor Voldemort. And most importantly, the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been brewing in J.K. Rowling's mind for 13 years. F

Holes
by Louis Sachar Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption. Available on cassette or CD from the Trident Academy library. RF

Letters From Rifka
by Karen Hesse In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America. HF

A Long Way From Chicago
by Richard Peck August 1930: The Cowgill boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights back. August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma trespass, poach, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry -- all in one day. And there's more, as Joey and Mary Alice make seven summer trips to Grandma's -- each one funnier than the year before -- in self-contained chapters that readers can enjoy as short stories or take together for a rollicking good novel. In the tradition of American humorists from Mark Twain to Flannery O'Connor, popular author Richard Peck has created a memorable world filled with characters who, like Grandma herself, are larger than life and twice as entertaining. HF

Loser
by Jerry Spinnelli - Just like other kids, Zinkoff rides his bike, hopes for snow days, and wants to be like his dad when he grows up. But Zinkoff also raises his hand with all the wrong answers, trips over his own feet, and falls down with laughter over a word like "Jabip." Other kids have their own word to describe him, but Zinkoff is too busy to hear it. He doesn't know he's not like everyone else. And one winter night, Zinkoff's differences show that any name can someday become "hero." Available on cassette or CD from the Trident Academy library. RF

Lost In Cyberspace
by Richard Peck While dealing with changes at home, sixth-grader Josh and his friend Aaron use the computer at their New York prep school to travel through time, learning some secrets from the school's past and improving Josh's home situation. SF

Maniac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries. RF

Milkweed
by Jerry Spinelli He's a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham. He's a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He's a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He's a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels. He's a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he's a boy who realizes it's safest of all to be nobody. HF

Missing May
by Cynthia Rylant After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living. RF

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O'Brien Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. F

My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead George A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship. RF

Nightjohn
by Jean Craighead George Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her how to read. HF

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand. HF

Watchers: Last Stop
by Peter Lerangis Watchers have power. They can see things that other people can't. Like David Moore, who glimpses his father in the phantom subway station of another world. And then comes the twist. . . . SF,S

The Winged Cat: A Tale of Ancient Egypt
by Deborah Nourse Lattimore In ancient Egypt, a young servant girl and a High Priest must each find the correct magic spells from the Book of the Dead that open the twelve gates of the Netherworld to determine who is telling the truth about the death of the girl's sacred cat. TL

A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. Available on cassette or CD from the Trident Academy library. F

Yolonda's Genius
by Carol Fenner After moving from Chicago to Grand River, Michigan, fifth grader Yolonda, big and strong for her age, determines to prove that her younger brother is not a slow learner but a true musical genius. Available on cassette or cd from the Trident Academy library. RF

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Back to Main Page - Summer Reading List - Middle School Created By Mary M. Silgals, MLIS
June 1, 2006Annotations by publishers except where noted.