The Summer Reading Guide is a beloved summer tradition here at Reading Middle Grade. We've done it for the last three years, and I have to say: this is our best one yet! This year, the full guide with 30 books(!) is available for free for Patreon members, and I'm sharing what I call my 7 flagship books in today's blog post. Flagship in the sense that these books represent our six categories and the spirit of this year's guide. I focused on choosing stories that grab readers from the first or second (at most!) chapter, short books, and a healthy mix of lighthearted stories with a dash of touchi ..read more

Lou has recently gone through a spat with her best friend Francie and the two are no longer speaking because of something Lou did that makes her feel like the worst friend in the world. Lou has also been ostracized by Francie and her new friend Madison. But when a new girl, Cece, comes to town, she immediately gravitates toward Lou and asks her help because she believes she's been kidnapped by her dad. As Lou works with Cece to get to the bottom of things, she finds some loopholes in Cece's story that will once again move her to go against a friend's wishes. The post Review | Not the Worst Fri ..read more

The new Explorer Academy series stars Sailor York in Vela Book The Sailor Cipher, releasing on April 23, 2024. Sailor and her classmates in Explorer Academy uncover an elusive animal-smuggling ring. They’ll face puzzling obstacles and follow complex clues aboard the new ship, Vela. Here's an interview with the main character, Sailor. Keep reading to learn about the book and more about Sailor herself. The post Explorer Academy Blog Tour: An Interview with Sailor York appeared first on Reading Middle Grade ..read more

Weatherby is a new kid at the Boston School on a sailing scholarship and is immediately thrust into a world she knows nothing about. Old school phone booths, scrambled phone service at school, friends with kids who go to the country club.. and a boy who seems to hate her guts. It is told from two perspectives, Weatherby's and Jack Hunt's, a rich kid at the school who is also on the sailing team. When Jack, Weatherby, and their friends Pres, Iris, and Harper are contacted by what they think is the school's famed secret society, they get sucked into a mission, only to unravel a deep secret about ..read more

If you're an educator or librarian who runs a book club for 7th graders, I have some wonderful book club suggestions for you! Some of these have curriculum guides with discussion questions already out, if you need them. For this list, I focused on FUN stories for the older middle school crowd with a lot of discussion potential. You'll find a mix of genres, from mystery to fantasy to historical fiction. I've also added a few theme ideas to dive into with your students. The post 7th Grade Book Club Books appeared first on Reading Middle Grade ..read more

12-year-old Franny Petroski loves art, not just drawing and painting but finding stuff and making something out of what others may call trash -- a practice her grandmother tolerates but doesn't understand. Nana also is very stoic and won't say much about her daughter and Franny's mother, Mia, who left Franny when she was a baby. One evening, Nana breaks her tibia in an accident, leading to a lot of changes. First, they have to move out of their 2nd-floor apartment temporarily to an accessible house, and eventually, Franny's uncle Gabe, who's a software developer, has to come, reluctantly, to h ..read more

With so many verse novels for middle graders, you might be stuck choosing a grade-appropriate title. Many of these verse novels also feature in our larger list of middle grade verse novels but there are a few unique ones here not mentioned on that list. The stories on this list tackle a variety of themes Read More > The post Verse Novels I Recommend for 6th Graders appeared first on Reading Middle Grade ..read more

Brothers Seth and Isaiah (aka Ice Pick) love each other and live on a farm. Ice loves photography and animals and wants to be a vet. His brother runs track and has won a scholarship to college, so Ice feels pressure to make their last year at home together memorable. This is also the year that Ice wants to kick his shyness to the curb, especially now that he's a member of the Yearbook team and has been befriended by Zurie, an expressive girl he's kind of crushing on. But when an accident renders his brother brain damaged, Ice turns all his focus to helping Seth be himself again despite a bleak ..read more

Who doesn't love graphic novels? I know 5th graders love them. I have so many graphic novel lists, but these grade-specific lists make for an easy reference for teachers and librarians serving the grade. When choosing grade-level books, I look out for content appropriateness, plot complexity levels, and page length (because reading stamina develops with time and/or practice). On this list of 5th-grade graphic novels, you'll find some of my top recommendations for upper elementary kids! If your 5th graders love realistic graphic novels, definitely check out this list of realistic graphic novels ..read more

I'm so glad to see more and more people understand neurodivergence, and with the increased publication of middle grade books starring neurodivergent characters. In this updated list, I've scrapped the OwnVoices/Non-OwnVoice headings and included that information in the book's description instead. I've also tweaked the list to only include the books I've read and enjoyed, instead of making it a database. If you're looking for more of a database, I've linked an invaluable resource at the end of this post. This list attempts to cover the full (official) scope of neurodivergence, including autism ..read more