7th & 8th Graders: Find Your Books Now (2011)

Ask Me No Questions by Marina Tamar Budhos - 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.



Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman - In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are forced to move in with her father's extended family and become accustomed to a totally different way of life.




The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart - Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks.




The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong - Still mourning the death of their mother, three brothers go with their father on an extended sailing trip off the Florida Keys and have a harrowing adventure at sea.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.




The Maze Runner by James Dashner - Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.



Million-Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica - Eighth-grade star quarterback Nate Brodie's family is feeling the stress of the troubled economy, and Nate is frantic because his best friend Abby is going blind, so when he gets a chance to win a million dollars if he can complete a pass during the halftime of a New England Patriot's game, he is nearly overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed.



The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon - In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.




Slob by Ellen Potter - Picked on, overweight genius Owen tries to invent a television that can see the past to find out what happened the day his parents were killed.





-All book summaries taken from NoveList database.

6th Grade: Find Your Books in the Catalog (2011)

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin - Jason, a 12-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer relates what his life is like as a he tries to make sense of his world.



Elephant Run by Roland Smith - Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British father's plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya, they plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.



The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.





The Great and Only Barnum by Candace Fleming - Thrill to the audacity! Gasp at the hucksterism! Come one, come all to the jaw-dropping, larger-than-life biography of expert humbugger, relentless curiosity seeker, and unparalleled showman P.T. Barnum.




Half-Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer - When Fletcher Moon, the youngest detective in the world (he lives in Ireland), is framed for a crime he did not commit, he must team up with the unlikeliest of allies, run from the authorities, and solve the case within twelve hours to clear his name.




Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth - In India during World War I, thirteen-year-old Leela's happy, spoiled childhood ends when her husband since age nine, whom she barely knows, dies, leaving her a widow whose only hope of happiness could come from Mahatma Ghandi's social and political reforms.




The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd - When Ted and Kat's cousin Salim disappears from the London Eye ferris wheel, the two siblings must work together--Ted with his brain that is "wired differently" and impatient Kat--to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Salim.




The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancy - In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi.



Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor - Twelve-year-old Addie tries to cope with her mother's erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of Schenectady, New York.





The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry - In this tongue-in-cheek take on classic themes in children's literature, the four Willoughby children set about to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny.



-All book summaries taken from the Novelist database.