What should middle school students read next?

This list has been compiled by Mrs. Danner. She is an expert in middle school and young adult literature.

Speculative Fiction

Other Worlds

A Great and Terrible Beauty

Libba Bray

After witnessing her mother’s murder, Gemma moves from India to a boarding school in England. While there she learns more about her mother, and about the supernatural powers that Gemma herself inherited. Learning about the Order and opening the Realms to her friends is fun and makes them powerful—but they aren’t the only ones with power, and if they’re going to bind the malevolent Circe, Gemma will have to rebuild the Order.

Gregor the Overlander

Suzanne Collins

When Gregor’s baby sister Boots crawls through a vent in the laundry room, Gregor crawls through after her—and finds himself, and Boots, falling. Falling all the way until they reach the Underland, where the Crawlers welcome Boots as a princess and the Underland humans hail Gregor as their prophesied savior. With the help of the Fliers and one particular Gnawer, Gregor must lead a small team of Underlanders through dangerous, Gnawer-controlled

territory to rescue an imprisoned Overlander… who may be Gregor’s missing father.

The Maze Runner

James Dashner

Thomas remembers nothing but his name when he’s pulled into the Glade, a strange place where the only escape means finding an exit from the Maze—not easy when the walls move every night and the mechanical beasts have a thirst for blood. When a girl shows up the day after Thomas’s arrival, the Gladers are thrown into chaos: Who is she? And what’s with her warning that “everything is going to change”?

Never After

Dan Elconin

Ricky is woken out of a good dream—one about an Island, a lush green paradise—by a crunching sound outside his window. In flies Peter, who offers to take Ricky to the Island he’s been visiting in his dreams. No sooner have they gotten to

Peter’s Island when Ricky is clubbed in the back of the head and comes to to find a rescue mission in progress. A small group of other rescued teens, with a man they call Captain, will have to capture Peter so that they can all, finally, go home.

Incarceron

Catherine Fisher

Finn is a prisoner in Incarceron, the sprawling, living prison from which only one person has ever escaped.

Claudia, the warden’s daughter, is in another kind of prison: her father has arranged a marriage for her based on his own political aspirations. Claudia’s and Finn’s paths intersect when they find identical crystal keys through which they can communicate with each other, and there’s something about Finn that seems so familiar to Claudia. Together they plot Finn’s escape, but getting him out will require finding the prison—which should be impossible to hide.

Epic

Conor Kostick

Following yet another death in Epic, Erik creates a new character. On a whim, he chooses a female form, allots all her aptitude points to beauty, and chooses an unusual character class: Swashbuckler. Such an unusual character makes Epic into a whole new game—which is exactly what Erik needs, if he’s going to slay the second dragon in Epic’s history and challenge the Central Allocation government to release his father from exile.

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeline L’Engle

After a horrible, stormy day at school, it’s a horrible, stormy night at home when Mrs. Whatsit shows up at the house and tells Meg’s mother that “there is such a thing as a tesseract.” The tesseract—a “fold” in space and time—will allow Meg and her brother Charles Wallace to travel quickly across the universe and rescue their father from IT, the telepathic brain holding the whole planet of Camazotz under its malevolent control.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs

Jacob’s grandfather told wild stories about the orphanage he’d been in as a child, a home where the children were invisible, or could conjure fire, or fly. In his dying breath, he urges Jacob to “find the bird. In the loop. Tell them what happened, Yakob.” Jacob travels to Wales to find the orphanage that was bombed in 1940 and yet somehow still exists, and bring a message to the headmistress who died in the bombing but is very much alive.

Scientific

Advancements

The Roar

Emma Clayton

Mika has never gotten over the death of his twin sister—

mostly because he’s positive she’s not dead. He can feel her out there, somewhere, and it’s up to him to find her. When the new Podfighter game comes to the arcades, Mika

instinctively knows there’s something about it that will bring him closer to his missing sister. Podfighter

competitions already have pretty high stakes, but for Mika, they just got a little higher.

The Lab

Jack Heath

Car chases, hostages, robotic fighting machines—it’s all in a day’s work for Special Agent Six of Hearts. Six is the best agent the Deck has, and he’s the Deck’s best hope for bringing down ChaoSonic, the company that has taken over what’s left of the world. But Six has a secret to protect about what makes him the Deck’s best agent, and it’s a secret that ChaoSonic is equally driven to protect—except they’re less concerned about his survival.

A Long, Long Sleep

Anna Sheehan

What’s it like to wake up to a world you don’t recognize? Rose has been asleep in her stasis tube for over 60 years when she’s finally discovered. She missed the Dark Times and their recovery, she’s missed the deaths of her parents, and most of all she misses Xavier, the love of her life and soul mate. She’s lived 16 years in the century since she was born. And there’s a robotic assassin after her, determined she keep all her family’s secrets to herself.

Unwind

Neal Shusterman

Connor finds the paperwork his parents signed: he’s scheduled for unwinding, having all his parts harvested and redistributed into other people. Sure, he’ll live on in a separated state, but he has no plans to let it happen to him. If he can survive until his 18th birthday, he’ll be free—but that’s a long time to survive when so many people are

willing to turn him in.

Leviathan

Scott Westerfeld

Pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, Aleksander has very little time to learn to pilot the Stormwalker and flee Austria before Serb assassins find out he’s still alive. He heads for the mountains, where Deryn’s airship is crashed. Deryn’s Darwinist officers want to keep the Clanker for questioning, but Alek may hold the keys to their salvation–just as they can help his escape. Deryn, Alek, and their respective crews have choices to make: do what’s best for their countries in this new war, or what’s best for their unlikely allies.

Supernatural Skills

Chime

Franny Billingsley

Briony has her stepmother’s death and her sister’s

developmental disabilities on her conscience: they’re both the result of her being a witch. She hides in the swamp, talking to the Old Ones and hoping no one will find out. Only witches can see the Old Ones, and witches are put to death. Which she knows she deserves. But then there’s Eldric, who sees everything Briony is and cares about her anyway. She could still have a normal life, if she can see herself the way Eldric sees her.

Wake

Lisa McMann

Janie can’t sleep. She wants to, but any time she closes her eyes, she gets sucked into the dreams of anyone sleeping nearby. She can’t control the ability she never wanted. And it’s about to get worse: she’s getting sucked into someone else’s nightmare and forced to participate in it.

Prophecy of the Sisters

Michelle Zink

Twin sisters Alice and Lia have just lost their parents. Now they discover the prophecy that will cause them to lose each other, too: the prophecy that has pitted generations of twins against each other, one charged with keeping the world safe from the one recruited to unleash an ancient evil. But the twin marked for goodness is the one who wants to see the world destroyed, and the other is all but powerless in overriding her prophesied role.

Creatures

Enclave

Ann Aguirre

Deuce, a new Huntress, gets paired with Fade, the loner-outsider who hates everyone in the enclave. Together they patrol the tunnels of their subterranean world. On a recon mission to a nearby enclave, Deuce and Fade are surrounded by freaks, the mindless creatures who will kill and eat anything, and they have a troubling realization: the freaks are getting smarter. This is bad, and will get worse if the Enclave officials won’t believe them.

The Unnameables

Ellen Booraem

The foundling Medford Runyuin has a secret: instead of carving dishes and drawer handles like his foster father, he’s been carving Useless Objects, like statues of people and birds. Useless Objects that might even be

Unnameable. Unnameable can get you banished, which is why Medford’s been careful to hide his collection. Until the windy night when the Goatman blows in, and the

Goatman could destroy everything—both for Medford, and for the rest of the Island.

Zombicorns

John Green

It all started with the corn. Corn that can be anything, from sugar to plastic. Corn that wants there to be more corn. Corn that caused the Zapocalypse. The Z’d up won’t try to eat your brains—only force-feed you the Devotion

131Y corn variety that will make you a thoroughly devoted tender of the corn, as well. Mia is the last surviving

member of her family, and maybe the last surviving person in Chicago. And she has her reasons for staying. (This is a free download from http://dft.ba/-zombicornpdf.)

The Enemy

Charlie Higson

It’s been long enough since the Disaster that the lucky ones have died. Anyone left over 14 is infected, turned into mindless, bloated animals seeking a quick meal of the

living. One group of kids has been holed up in a supermarket for protection, and they know they can’t stay there forever. The trek across London to the relative safety of

Buckingham Palace isn’t going to be as easy as it sounds—and it sounds like a bloodbath waiting to happen.

How to Ditch Your Fairy

Justine Larbalestier

Most people are born with a fairy. You might get an awesome fairy, like the all-boys-will-like-you fairy. Or you might get a crap fairy, like the every-car-you’re-in-will-find-a-great-

parking-spot fairy. As a 14-year-old who can’t even drive, Charlie walks everywhere in hopes of making her fairy so bored that it leaves. There’s one person who might be able to help her—but it’s her arch enemy’s mom.

A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness

At exactly seven minutes past midnight, the monster comes to Conor’s room. There’s been a monster in his nightmares, but it’s not this one: this is the yew tree from the backyard, come walking to tell him three stories. After three stories, Conor has to tell one in return. It has to be the truth. It has to be his truth. And it has to be at seven minutes past midnight.

Daybreak

Brian Ralph

Falling asleep is usually a bad idea. You wake up this time to find a one-armed teen leaning over you. He seems friendly, and offers you shelter, and food. He’s willing to help you. And frankly, you could use his help, because it’s been a long time since you’ve seen anyone actually alive, and it’s a little

surprising you’ve survived this long on your own.

Shiver

Maggie Stiefvater

Grace has always had an affinity for the wolves,

particularly the one with the yellow eyes, ever since she was attacked by them as a child. When a shivering boy appears on Grace’s doorstep following a hunting party, she recognizes those eyes: this is her wolf, in human form. Grace’s feelings for Sam quickly turn to love, even though they both know that his time as a human is limited—and it may be more limited than Grace realizes.

Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out

edited by McSweeny’s

What more information do you need than the title of this short-story anthology?

Realistic

Friends & Family

Beat the Band

Don Calame

There is one thing that can get Coop the attention of the sexy Prudence Nash: winning Battle of the Bands. Even though his band totally sucks. Getting paired with social pariah “Hot Dog” Helen for a health class project on contraception will also get Pru’s attention. Coop is willing to go alone with Pru’s plan to harass Helen into leaving their school, until he finds out that Helen is actually kinda cool—and might be just what the band needs.

Carter Finally Gets It

Brent Crawford

Will Carter’s freshman year is off to a good start, playing football, hanging out with his friends, falling for a great girl, and trying not to be a dork. But he doesn’t really think things through, like stopping at Taco Bell for a quick bite before a movie date, or crashing an upperclassman’s party—and his sister’s boyfriend’s car—or totally forgetting about his girlfriend when a hot girl asks him out. Freshman year will give him lots of opportunity to get his head together—if he can stop doing such colossally dumb things.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

Carolyn Mackler

Virginia has the Perfect Family, all slim and smart and professional. Virginia is … not any of those things. And she’s about to be left alone: her parents leave town nearly every weekend, her beloved brother has gone off to college, and her best (and only) friend is moving to the other side of the country. All it takes is one phone call from college—one horrible accusation leveled at her brother—for Virginia’s family to show how not perfect they really are.

Absolutely Maybe

Lisa Yee

Maybelline Chestnut is used to taking a backseat to her mom Chessy’s priorities: this time, it’s Wedding Number Seven and coaching her charm school students for an upcoming pageant. Then Maybe’s next stepfather-to-be makes an unwelcome visit to her bed and Chessy takes his side. By the next afternoon, Maybe and her two best friends are on their way to Los Angeles, where Maybe plans to find her biological father (the one man Chessy didn’t marry) and the rest of her problems will solve themselves… won’t they?

The Boyfriend List (15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs, and Me, Ruby Oliver)

E. Lockhart

In just ten short days, Ruby has managed to lose her boyfriend, lose all her other friends, hurt someone who wasn’t really her friend (and now never will be), become a total outcast, and become the subject of some bathroom graffiti. It’s no wonder she’s also had her first panic attack. Luckily, she’ll tell you all about every harrowing (and hilarious) detail.

The Spectacular Now

Tim Tharp

Sutter loves life. What’s the point of life if not to enjoy it? He’s outgoing, he’s friendly, he’s the life of every party. Copious amounts of whiskey can do that to a person. But then he wakes up on Aimee’s front lawn. Aimee is different. Aimee is shy. Aimee is a disaster, and Sutter makes it his mission to show her how to have fun. Now, for once, he’s responsible for someone’s life, and it’s up to him to see if he’s going to make it better or ruin it completely.

Beatle Meets Destiny

Gabrielle Williams

Waiting for a bus on Friday the 13th, Beatle (real name: John Lennon. Really.) meets Destiny (last name: McCartney. Really.). The pair decide that it’s fate and go for ice cream, and from there their relationship blooms—or would, if not for Beatle’s girlfriend Cilla, who is Beatle’s twin sister’s best friend. Destiny has her own problems, related to purloined art materials, her astrology column in the local paper, and a job offer that quickly turns creepy. Despite all that, Beatle knows that he’s got to get her into his life.

An Off Year

Claire Zulkey

After years of good grades and preparation, Cecily stands at the door to her freshman dorm room—and promptly turns around to go home. It’s not the right time for her to start college, she knows, but taking a year off isn’t right, either. Cecily’s frustrations with her own directionlessness strain the good relationship she has with her dad, and what hope can there be for the already-hostile relationship with her sister? This year is Cecily’s chance to sort things out, and hope the timing is better on the second try.

Sports

Swim the Fly

Don Calame

Each summer, Matt, Coop, and Sean set a goal, and this year’s goal is to see a naked girl. Their schemes to make it happen routinely backfire in humiliating (but hilarious) ways, but Matt has something even more challenging to accomplish: swimming the hundred-yard butterfly to impress the hot girl on his swim team, even though he’s not much of a swimmer, and the ‘fly is the hardest stroke known to god or man.

Life at These Speeds

Jeremy Jackson

Kevin is a mediocre half-miler for his school track team—and the only remaining member after the team bus slides off a bridge after a meet. In his grief, Kevin starts running. And winning. Despite his claims that he hates running, he finds peace in it, and genuinely misses it when he can’t compete. Kevin’s voice is just distant and distracted enough to make him as much of a mystery to the reader as he is to the other characters in this coming-of-age sports story.

Seth Baumgartner’s Love Manifesto

Eric Luper

Immediately after getting dumped over lunch at Applebee’s, Seth looks up and sees his dad at another table—with a woman who isn’t Seth’s mom. It’s been a rough day. Seth puts it all into his podcast: The Love Manifesto, dedicated to exploring “what love is, why love is, and why we’re stupid enough to keep going back for more.” He’s still pissed at his dad, though, and that’s going to make it hard to concentrate on his game in the big father-son golf tournament at the end of the summer.

Ramp Rats: A Graphic Guides Adventure

Liam O’Donnell & Mike Deas

The summer is only just beginning, but Benny already knows there’s going to be some trouble ahead. All he wants to do is use the skate park to learn some new tricks, but the park is dominated by Crunch and his gang. Everyone tells Benny to stand up to Crunch, but that’s easier said than done—especially when Benny makes an ill-advised bet about who will win the upcoming skate competition. Luckily, Benny’s stepbrother Marcus is in town to teach Benny the finer points of skateboarding—and to give him the courage to stand up to Crunch.

Mudville

Kurtis Scaletta

When Roy gets home from baseball camp, he’s surprised to find Sturgis sitting on his couch. Even more surprising, though, is that right after Sturgis’s arrival, it stops raining in Moundville for the first time in twenty-two years. With the sky finally clear, it’s time to finish the baseball game against Sinister Bend that was rained out more than two decades ago. But two decades of rain makes for a generation of Moundville kids who don’t know the first thing about how to play baseball–and they have to start by building the new field.

Bullies & Abuse

13 Reasons Why

Jay Asher

One person’s actions can cause a ripple effect, affecting many more people than just the intended target. That’s what Clay learns the night he walks around town, listening to Hannah Baker’s recorded explanations of how each of thirteen people contributed to her decision to end her life. Harassment and rumors are a big part of it. What did Clay do to be on the list?

Because I Am Furniture

Thalia Chaltas

Anke’s father pays far more attention to her siblings than he does to her. That’s okay, since his attention takes the form of punches and other abuse. She knows it’s a good thing that he leaves her alone, but it still leaves her feeling oddly jealous. She’s all but invisible at home, so having her new volleyball teammates see and hear her in a big change in her life. Maybe she can start being seen and heard at home, too, and put an end to the troubles there.

Dreamland

Sarah Dessen

When Caitlin meets Rogerson Biscoe, everything changes. Rogerson is smart, and charming, and compelling, and even a little dangerous. Soon Caitlin is spending all her time with him—but that’s normal when you’re in love. And it?s normal that he wants to know where she is when she’s not with him, isn’t it? She loves him, and needs him, and is willing to sacrifice anything for him. But even once

Caitlin’s given up everything, he still finds more to take—and he’s all she thinks she has.

This Is What I Did

Ann Dee Ellis

Logan’s having a hard time adjusting to his new school. His best friend is gone, his family has moved across town, and rumor about what happened have followed him here—and make him the target of bullies. What did happen was pretty horrific to witness, and Logan is caught up in the guilt of not having done anything to stop it or help. This is more about his healing and getting past the incident than it is about the bullies.

Poison Ivy

Amy Goldman Koss

Ivy’s had Ann, Sophie, and Benita calling her “Poison Ivy” for so long, she doesn’t even think of herself as just plain Ivy anymore. Now the bullying has come to a head, and their Government teacher kicks off a mock civil trial, bringing the Evil Three up on charges and choosing students to be judges, and jury. If the Evil Three are found guilty, they’ll need to apologize in writing and leave Ivy alone. But their liability hinges on Ivy’s lawyer’s ability to prove what everyone already knows.

Living Dead Girl

Elizabeth Scott

Once upon a time, Alice got separated from her classmates on a field trip. Once upon a time, Ray came to take care of her. Once upon a time, things are not the way they look. For five years, Alice has been Ray’s love, absorbing his every abuse, and now that she’s 15, Ray needs her to prove she loves him by finding what he needs: a new little girl to love and take care of. And Alice wants to do that for him, because once he has a new Alice, the old one can finally die.

GBLTQ

I Am J

Cris Beam

J was born a girl, but knows he’s actually a boy. The trouble is in making everyone else understand that—his parents, his best friend, and to a certain extent even himself. Transitioning to the male body he knows he should have always had is difficult enough, and even harder without the support of his friends and family.

The Vast Fields of Ordinary

Nick Burd

Dade’s kinda-relationship with Pablo is just about over, as is his parents’ kinda-relationship with each other. As these dissolve, Dade recognizes that he wants more than a kinda-relationship with anyone. Lucy, kicked out of her parents’ house for being a lesbian, quickly becomes Dade’s first real friend and encourages him to finally cuts ties with Pablo. Once Dade starts dating Alex instead, he begins to understand what love can be.

Secrets of Truth and Beauty

Megan Frazer

Dara’s “(Re)Think Thin” autobiographical documentary for class makes a statement about society’s views of obesity—and lands her in the school counselor’s office. Humiliated, her parents pull her out of school and demand she attend therapy. Instead, Dara contacts her older sister—the one she’s never met, the one her parents have tried to pretend never existed—and moves to Rachel’s goat farm for the

summer. Dara has a chance to explore who she really is without her parents’ controlling insistence on who she should be.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

John Green & David Levithan

Will Grayson is wandering Chicago after he couldn’t get into a concert he wanted to see. will grayson is looking for the boy he’d planned to meet. When the two Will Graysons meet, neither finds exactly what he expected, but they’ll both find so much more, as long as they figure out ways to accept their friends, their lives, and themselves.

GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and

Questioning Teens

Kelly Huegel

A comprehensive guide for anyone struggling with gender identity or sexuality that provides role plays, brief personal narratives, and informative answers about topics ranging from coming out to dating to employment issues.

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary

Poppins, & Fenway Park

Steve Kluger

Augie is obsessed with musical theater. TC lives and breathes baseball. Alejandra is an ambassador’s daughter. And all three of them are working together on a project for their English class, showing off the highlights of their magical freshman year.

Crash

Jerry Spinelli

From the first time Crash saw tiny, nerdy Penn when they were five years old, Crash knew that Penn was going to be his target. Now that they’re in seventh grade, not much has changed—except that Crash’s little sister is becoming an environmentalist, their parents don’t have time to see him win football games, and Crash’s grandfather?s health is failing. But when Penn drops by with an unexpected act of kindness, Crash starts to think about what it means to sacrifice something important for somebody else.

Suite Scarlett

Maureen Johnson

The Hopewell Hotel is—well, not shabby, but it’s certainly not as fancy as it once was. Scarlett grew up in it, and now that she’s 15, her parents put her in charge of the Empire Suite, a job that consists mostly of meeting the needs of the room’s occupant. The occupant, though, is the demanding Mrs. Amberson, a former actress turned traveler turned talent scout—and she’s about to turn Scarlett’s life upside down.

Non-Fiction

Science & History

The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science

Sean Connolly

What causes an avalanche? Find out when you make one. What’s happening during a lunar eclipse? Recreate it in your living room and see. How is rocket fuel different from regular fuel? Find out when you build your rocket out of a soda bottle. How long will it take a pizza to be delivered? It doesn’t matter once you’ve built a solar pizza cooker. You’ll find these experiments and explanations—and many

others—in The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science.

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science

John Fleischman

Phineas Gage was a railroad construction worker in 1848 when his career was tragically cut short by the blasting accident that sent a 13-pound iron rod through his head. He survived the accident and lived eleven more years, but his friends and family all said that Phineas wasn’t the same after it. His one moment of inattention changed who he was, and also changed everything we knew and understood about brain science.

Lincoln’s Flying Spies: Thaddeus Lowe and the Civil War Balloon Corps

Gail Jarrow

The United States had an air force long before we had

airplanes. Thaddeus Lowe’s corps took to the air to

monitor troop movement, count rebel soldiers, and gather information on the confederates to report back to the Union army—all from their hot-air balloons. Photographs and primary sources enrich this little-known chapter of Civil War history.

The Good, The Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and her Impact on Us

Tanya Lee Stone

In 1950, there were baby dolls and fashion dolls, but no dolls that could be used to tell stories. Then came Ruth

Handler’s idea of a doll with the shape of a teenager: Barbie was born. Love her or hate her, Barbie has been a canvas for girls’—and boys’—imaginations for more than half a century, serving as fashion model, career woman, crash dummy, and sometimes an all-around bad example. That’s a lot of drama packed into an eleven-inch doll.

Food

CandyFreak

Steve Almond

Steve Almond loves candy. Not just loves it in the way of “oh, hey, a Snickers, I’ll eat that,” but reveres it, worships it, every aspect of candy. Whether he’s eating candy bars fresh off the production line or detailing the history of the Bit O’Honey bar, Almond’s sweet tooth is not only obvious, but infectious. Just TRY reading his love letter to candy without reaching for a Milky Way.

Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food

Eric Schlosser

How did the burger chains get started, and grow so big so fast? Where does all that food come from? What happens to your insides if you eat it every day? Are you sure you want to know? From the rise of McDonald’s to the obesity epidemic, from your first after-school job to the making of a chicken nugget, you’ll never look at a Happy Meal the same way again.

Honey Bees: Letters from the Hive

Stephen Buckmann

Far more than “bee vomit,” honey secured its place in human history very early on. From prehistoric cave paintings depicting honey-gathering straight through modern beekeeping, Honey Bees shows you life inside a hive, the origins of beekeeping, and the wide variety of health benefits of honey, from its healthy sweetness in cooking to its antiseptic properties.

Odds...

I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs By Teens Famous and Obscure

A never-ending series of marvelous misadventures.

We are banned from Wal-Mart forever.

Super powers would make everything easier.

Honestly, I hate all my friends.

What you leave out of a story can be just as fascinating as what you put in. What would your memoir say, if you only had six words to tell it?

Do Not Open: An Encyclopedia of the World’s

Best-Kept Secrets

John Farndon

Blackbeard’s treasure was buried near Keating Summit, Pennsylvania, and may still be there. The average toilet contains less bacteria than the average kitchen sink—but you send up a cloud of 10 billion bacteria and viruses every time you flush. In Louisiana, you can be fined $500 for having a pizza (or anything else) delivered to someone without their permission.

The Mischief Maker’s Manual

Sir John Hargrave

Pranks, practical jokes, stunts, and hoaxes: it’s all covered, along with tips on when to prank, staying out of trouble, and most importantly, how to recover when a prank goes wrong. With recipes for fake vomit, sneezing powder, and more, no prankster can afford to be without this manual.

The Big Book of Gross Stuff

Bart King

The grossest thing in your kitchen is probably the sponge. Throughout history, the bathroom has been called a water closet, necessary house, and House of Easement. Your eyes are actually made out of a kind of jelly. And there’s plenty more where these facts came from.

Zombie Haiku

Ryan Mecum

Little old ladies

Speed away in their wheelchairs,

Frightened meals on wheels.

Everything I thought

Tasted a lot like chicken

Really tastes like man.

Mountain Man Dance Moves: the McSweeney’s Book of Lists

GENDER-NEUTRAL GROCERY ITEMS:

• Grandparent Smith apples

• Humanderin oranges

• Chef Childardee Ravioli

• Older Relative Jemima Syrup

This is just one of the many helpful lists you’ll find inside.

...& Ends

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

Georgia Bragg

King Tut likely died of malaria; Edgar Allan Poe is suspected to have had rabies. Beethoven and Galileo both met their ends due to lead poisoning. Fifteen other historical figures—world leaders, writers, scientists, and more—were felled by things as mundane as pneumonia and as unpredictable as angry mobs, and this book identifies which gruesome end each person came to.

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius

Colin Dickey

What makes a person a genius is usually what’s in their heads. From the late-18th to the mid-19th century, some people were so interested in seeing what was in geniuses’ heads that even death couldn’t stop them: Beethoven, Mozart, Descartes, and many others had their skulls stolen right out of their graves. With so much to be learned from geniuses, it’s no wonder their skulls were in such demand.

Is the End of the World Near?: From Crackpot

Predictions to Scientific Scenarios

Ron Miller

Most major religions have predictions about the end of the world; the Mayans may have provided a date. But many of the proposed end-of-the-world scenarios are unrealistic, or are at least are millions of years off. Ron Miller separates the honest threats from pseudoscientific theory, and somehow both assuages our fears and gives us brand-new ones we’d never considered.

Official Underground 2012 Doomsday Survival

Handbook

W.H. Mumfrey

What do you do when an asteroid hits the earth? Die, most likely—unless you’ve followed Mumfrey’s instructions and have a nearby cave all ready for move-in. How do you survive an alien invasion? You don’t—unless you’ve followed Mumfrey’s instructions and ran to an unpopulated area the instant you saw the ships overhead. When the internet is a memory and food is an occasional luxury, you’ll be glad you read this book.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Mary Roach

A surprisingly not-gory look at what happens—or can happen, should you sign the necessary paperwork ahead of time—after death, including the religious and cultural histories of burial and the practical applications of cadavers. Anatomy classrooms, safety research, forensic testing, organ donation, even cannibalism—there are myriad ways to use a cadaver, and Mary Roach covers all of them. Entertaining, informative, engaging, and a strange combination of irreverent and respectful.

People & Places

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing

Ann Angel

In her 1950s high school, Janis tried to fit in by joining the Future Teachers of America and the Glee Club, but her opinions—her defense of school integration, her tastes in blues and folk music and beat poetry—still made her stand out. Music became her escape, and by 1967 she was stunning audiences, who had never heard anything like her before. Janis Joplin did not live her life quietly, but grabbed it with both hands.

Emperors of the Ice: A true story of disaster and survival in the Antarctic, 1910-13

Richard Farr

Titus Oates was part of an ill-fated Antarctic expedition, in a group of five men who reached the South Pole and never returned. Apsley Cherry-Garrard was part of a team sent to replenish their supplies. Many, many things went wrong, including an incompetent navigator, frostbite, injury, and the loss of a tent. This is Cherry’s story of Antarctic survival, against long odds and the worst weather.

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West

Sid Fleischman

“Mark Twain was born fully grown, with a cheap cigar clamped between his teeth.” His life was wild even before that moment: he worked as a riverboat pilot and a prospector, a journalist and a typesetter. More than anything, he was a man with a story, though one about which his own mother remarked “I discount him ninety percent for embroidery, and what is left is perfect and priceless truth.”

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith

Deborah Heiligman

Charles Darwin believed in evolution, and pioneered the entire theory that science, not God, was behind how the natural world came to be. Charles Darwin also had a great love for his wife, Emma, even though she believed in God over science. Charles and Emma made their marriage work, and this is their personal story of how.

Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI

Ryan Smithson

Ryan was starting his junior year when planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11th. A year later, uncertain about college and wanting to serve his country, he enlisted in the Army Reserves, planning on putting in his one weekend a month and two weeks a year. But then the country officially went to war, and Ryan’s unit was deployed to Iraq. What follows is the details—good, bad, ugly, unforgettable details—of one young soldier’s tour of duty.

Arts & Crafts

The Pocket Paper Engineer: How to Make Pop-Ups Step-by-Step

Carol Barton

This two-volume set will walk you through the basics of creating your own pop-up books, from the very first folds through advanced cutting and shaping techniques. Clear illustrations and writing make it easy to look like a pro.

Uber Origami

Duy Nguyen

Folding the occasional crane is old news. Nguyen provides clear illustrations for base folds and flowers straight through stegosaurs and Elvis. Impress your friends with folded war machines or turn a dollar bill into a Klingon bird of prey: all the instructions you need are right here.

Ductigami: The Art of the Tape

Joe Wilson

Do you need a new wallet? An apron? A hat? Good news: they’re all easy to make, and they’ll be pretty sturdy as long as you make them with duct tape. Joe Wilson gives step-by-step instructions for 18 useful things you can make out of a roll (or more) of tape.

Historical

Pre-1900

Chains

Laurie Halse Anderson

Isabel and her sister Ruth were promised their freedom when their owner died—but their owner’s son sold them anyway, to a Loyalist couple from New York City. The Locktons are working with the British, and some new friends want Isabel to spy on them to help foil the planned invasion. Isabel’s only priority is protecting her sister—but when Mrs. Lockton does the unforgiveable, Isabel knows it’s time to take action.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

M.T. Anderson

Octavian is a very unusual boy: dressed in silks, given a fine classical education, and raised by philosophers, he seemingly has everything—until he opens a forbidden door and learns the truth about the philosophers’ experiments. After one of their experiments leads to a tragedy in Octavian’s life, he sets out on his own course, toward adulthood and the Revolutionary War.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Jacqueline Kelly

Calpurnia is an oddity, her interest in science conflicting with her mother’s interest in making her a debutante and, eventually, wife. Calpurnia’s interests are not in housewifery: she’s been studying science with her grandfather, an avid naturalist. The discovery of a new species of plant might be her salvation—or she may have to resign herself to cooking, knitting, and living the only kind of life for girls in 1899.

Bloody Jack

L.A. Meyer

Mary Faber has been living in the streets of London with a gang of her fellow beggars for years. When the leader of her gang, Rooster Charlie, is killed, it’s time for Mary to strike out on her own. She dons his shirt and pants, cuts off her hair, calls herself Jacky, and lands herself a spot as a Ship’s Boy on the HMS Dolphin. What follows is a series of adventures on the high seas, including storms, pirate attacks, shipwrecks, even a touch of romance—and every adventure is another opportunity for Jacky to blow her cover.

1900-1940

Al Capone Does My Shirts

Gennifer Choldenko

Moose Flanagan and his family have just moved to Alcatraz Island, to be nearer to a special school for his autistic sister Natalie. Moose is coping as best he can under the weight of the move, his own new school, and having near-complete responsibility for his older sister while his dad works and his mom seeks a cure for Natalie’s condition. As he begins to settle in, Moose finds himself caught up in the mischief spearheaded by the warden’s daughter, Piper.

Uprising

Margaret Peterson Haddix

Bella, newly arrived from Italy, finds a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. There she meets Yetta, a young woman fighting to unionize the workers. When the workers go on strike, wealthy Jane runs away from home to help the fight—even though it means walking away from her life of privilege. While the girls return to work without a union, they still fight to improve conditions—but changes don’t come quickly enough to prevent a deadly fire.

Winnie’s War

Jenny Moss

When 12-year-old Winnie’s father brings her along on a carpentry job to measure a deceased neighbor for a coffin, she instantly knows that the Spanish flu epidemic has hit her small town of Coward Creek, Texas. She tries to protect her family and keep them from catching the flu, desperately seeking home remedies she knows are useless and making masks she hopes are not. Pandemics, though, have a way of getting past even the best defenses.

Vixen

Jillian Larkin

Chicago socialite Gloria knows there must be something more for her than her engagement to most-eligible-bachelor Sebastian. She finds that something in Chicago’s hottest speakeasy, and particularly in the company of the jazz band’s black piano player. Her cousin Clara plays the part of the innocent country girl while escaping her own tawdry flapper past, and Gloria’s best friend Lorraine throws herself at their mutual friend Marcus, who has eyes for another. All three girls have their secret desires, and fulfilling them means sacrificing everything.

I Capture the Castle

Dodie Smith

Cassandra’s father wrote an amazing book. He hasn’t written a word since. Cassandra’s older sister dreams of being the romantic heroine of a Jane Austen novel. Cassandra herself dreams of being a writer. In their charming-but-crumbling castle in the English countryside, Cassandra faithfully records her thoughts and observations of family, friends, and foibles, along with the changes in the castle and in herself. The result is a candid, romantic, and witty accounting of a young woman’s journey into adulthood.

WWII & The Holocaust

The Boy Who Dared

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Helmuth is a schoolboy in Germany when the Nazis take power in Germany, and he quickly gets swept up in the crisp uniforms and patriotism of the Hitler Youth. But as the war progresses, he begins to see how much freedom is being taken from the German people. Helmuth must decide how loudly he can speak out against the war, when the quietest whisper will be treason.

A Diamond in the Desert

Katherine Fitzmaurice

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tetsu’s family—along with thousands more Japanese-Americans—is moved to the Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona. Tetsu misses his old life, his dad, his dog—but finds a small joy in the camp when a fellow prisoner organizes a baseball team. Baseball is the only thing that makes life in the camp tolerable, but he gives it up when his sister gets sick—because Tetsu knows her illness is his fault.

Ann Clare LeZotte

Despite her deafness, Paula is happy with her life. But when the priest comes to the door one day to warn her family that the Nazis are rounding up not just the Jews, but the disabled and infirm, Paula’s happy life becomes one of fleeing and hiding instead. Paula narrates her story in verse in this slim novel.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale

Art Spiegelman

Maus is the Pulitzer-prize winning story of Spiegelman’s father’s survival in the concentration camps in Poland during World War II. The representation of Jews as mice and Nazis as cats help to create one of the strongest, most poignant Holocaust survival stories available in print.

Milkweed

Jerry Spinelli

Misha is an orphan, homeless on the streets of Poland. He survives by stealing food and hiding from adults. For all his street smarts, though, he is naïve about the shiny-booted Nazis and wants to be one of them. When Misha’s Jewish friend Jenina and her family are forced to move into a newly-created ghetto, Misha cheerfully moves with them. But as conditions grow worse and his adopted family is starving, Misha’s loyalty and survival instincts are tested against the growing horror of the holocaust.

The Wave

Todd Strasser

When Laurie’s history class is studying the Holocaust, a classmate asks why so many people went along with the Nazis. Instead of answering, their teacher introduces a new system of classroom government: The Wave, promising strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action. Something about the movement doesn’t seem right to Laurie, but she’s nearly alone in being opposed to it. Within days, the classroom experiment has taken over the whole school—and dissenters will not be tolerated.

The Book Thief

Marcus Zusak

There is one person who has followed Liesel Meminger from her trip to her new foster parents’ home and through her adolescence: Death, who has affected Liesel’s life so many times that he can’t help watching her. He’s seen it all, and his telling of her story captures the humanity, the horrors, and the everyday lives of German families during World War II.

1950-1990

Bog Child

Siobhan Dowd

Fergus and his uncle Tally are on a peat-digging trip when they find the body. The police determine that it’s been in the bog for a long time, and the archeologist they call in thinks it might be Iron Age. Fergus gets deeply involved in trying to unravel the mystery of who the girl was (as well as getting deeply involved with the archeologist’s daughter), while trying desperately to not get involved in the criminal activity surrounding him in 1981 Ireland.

Harriet the Spy

Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet intends to be a famous author someday, and she’s starting by writing down everything she sees—and she sees a lot on her daily spy route. Which is fine, until she loses her notebook and all her classmates find out just how much Harriet sees—and how she feels about them. Harriet will have to give up her spying if she hopes to get her friends back—but is such a big sacrifice worth it?

Dead End in Norvelt

Jack Gantos

Jack did a really dumb thing. Then he did another really dumb thing, and now he’s grounded for the entire summer. He’s allowed out of the house only when his elderly neighbor calls for his help transcribing the obituaries she dictates for the dead townspeople, or opening jars her arthritic hands can’t handle, or spreading rat poison in her basement. Nearly every call means another Norvelt native is dead—and Jack gets out of the house a surprising amount for one summer.

Mamba Point

Kurtis Scaletta

One of the first things Linus sees when he steps off the plane in his new home of Liberia is a black mamba, the deadliest snake in the whole country. He notices the snake more and more, and it seems almost friendly. Linus feels himself becoming more like the snake—braver, bolder—but will his mystical connection to this spirit animal help him reinvent himself—or put his whole family in danger?

The Wednesday Wars

Gary Schmidt

Hollis is just trying to make it through the seventh grade—the year when half his class goes to Hebrew school on Wednesday afternoons and the other half goes to catechism, leaving Hollis alone with Mrs. Baker week after week. And that wouldn’t be so bad, except that Mrs. Baker hates him. After devising several plans to get rid of him in the afternoons, she finally starts assigning him Shakespeare—which leads to a number of colorful curses, an understanding of love, and a public performance in yellow tights with feathers on the butt.

Okay for Now

Gary Schmidt

Doug’s family had to move to Marysville. Now that they’re here, Dad still has a bad temper. Doug’s brother is still a jerk. Doug’s other brother is still in Vietnam. Doug still hides a secret. But Doug also has a job now, delivering groceries (to a spooky old lady who almost never goes outside). He has the birds at the library. He has Miss Cowper’s Country Literacy Unit. And he has Lil Spicer. Marysville isn’t paradise, but for Doug, it’s good enough.

When You Reach Me

Rebecca Stead

Finally in the sixth grade, Miranda feels like 1979 will finally be her year. Except it’s a lot weirder a year than she expects: her best friend, Sal, wants to hang out with the guys instead of with her, apartment keys go missing, and Miranda finds odd notes in her coat pockets, asking her to write letters that will somehow save someone’s life. If she can make sense of it all before it’s too late, anyway.

This Means War!

Ellen Wittlinger

Juliet and Lowell have been best friends for years—but suddenly he’d rather hang out with the guys and pretend Juliet doesn’t exist. Juliet is in the market for a new friend, and she finds one in Patsy: brave, strong, wonderful Patsy, who won’t accept being considered less able than the boys. Patsy riles both the girls and the boys into a competition to prove which sex is better: 9 tests, boys vs. girls, best five wins. Running races, climbing trees, and other tasks prove not only who the best athletes are, but where the lines are between bravery and foolhardiness.

Dystopia

Dystopias

Perfect worlds aren’t always so perfect.

Candor

Pam Bachorz

Oscar Banks is a straight-A student and Student Council President. All the teens want to be like him. But Oscar knows that the teens of Candor are controlled by subliminal messages—and he has a plan to sabotage the system.

Matched

Ally Condie

When Cassia gets matched on her 17th birthday, she’s thrilled to be matched to her best friend, Xander—and shocked when someone else’s information appears in her Match files the next morning. When an Official corners her and confesses that it was a mistake, that Ky was never meant to be entered in the Match pool, her curiosity is piqued. As she and Ky fall for each other, Cassia bristles under the lack of choices in Society, and begins making some dangerous choices of her own.

Little Brother

Cory Doctorow

Marcus and his friends are in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Bay Bridge blows up, and they’re quickly taken into custody by the Department of Homeland

Security. When he’s released after days of interrogation, Marcus swears revenge. He develops the Xnet, a hidden network accessed through a hack in the XBox console, and uses it to organize protests and sabotage against the DHS. Marcus knows it’s only a matter of time until the DHS catches up to him. Marcus values his safety, but he values freedom even more.

Rash

Pete Hautman

When Bo lets his temper get out of hand, he’s not

surprised to find himself serving a 36-month sentence in pizza factory on the tundra. What does surprise him is when he makes the elite factory football team—despite football having been outlawed in the United Safer States of America decades ago. The game gives Bo the outlet he never knew he’d been looking for, but it’s not enough to help him overcome all his fears. There are still those

hungry polar bears on the other side of the fence, after all.

Nomansland

Lesley Hauge

Keller is a teenage Tracker-in-training in a society where frivolities and friendships are forbidden. When a fellow patrol-member invites Keller to check out a hidden house from the Time Before, stuffed with Found Objects, Keller is excited, and nervous. Those feelings grow in equal

measure as the trips become more frequent, and Keller can’t shake the bad feeling.

The Limit

Kristin Landon

Matt is flipping through a magazine near the check-outs when his mom gets the news: their family is over their limit. Humiliations aside, this is Bad News. By the time they’ve gotten home from the store, there’s already a black limo outside, waiting to take 13-year-old Matt to the workhouse to earn the money his family needs to get them back under their government-mandated limit. Matt’s smart enough to know there’s something fishy going on about the work that they’re doing, and he is just the computer hacker to find out what.

Unidentified

Rae Mariz

Kid goes to school in the Game Center, what

corporations turned public schools into when they took over. When Kid witnesses an anti-corporate prank one morning, she’s interested: who would, or could, do such a thing? High-tech security firm Protecht takes notice when Kid starts asking questions about the pranksters, and their branding of her gives her far more social

capital than she could have expected. But it also gives her more incentive to uncover the Unidentified—and not for her corporate sponsors.

Delirium

Lauren Oliver

Decreased appetite, weight loss, lack of concentration, mood swings: all symptoms of amor deliria nervosa. Lena is looking forward to being Cured, to getting her match, to having her life’s choices settled. But just months before she’s to get her cure—on the day of her evaluation, when she’ll give the panel the information they need to make those decisions for her—she meets the person who will infect her. It’s an ancient infection, and deadly dangerous: Lena has fallen in love.

Epitaph Road

David Patneaude

30 years ago, the Elisha’s Bear virus struck, wiping out 97% of the male population. The female-to-male ratio now stands at about 13 to 1, and Kellen is that one. Now there’s another Bear on the way, and it’s targeting Kellen’s dad’s isolated fishing community. Kellen has to warn his dad, but getting there won’t be easy—and what he finds when he gets there could mean he’ll never get home again.

Inside Out

Maria Snyder

Trella is the Queen of the Pipes, able to get nearly anywhere in the Cube via the air ducts. She finds herself knee-deep in conspiracy when she agrees to retrieve information discs for a new prophet claiming to know about the Gateway to Outside. While searching for more information, Trella falls through a vent into a storage room currently being used as a hideout for an Upper-level boy her own age. With little choice but to trust him, she’s launched into an adventure she never could have anticipated.

Apocalypses

How to survive while the world doesn’t.

The Way We Fall

Megan Crewe

Kaelyn is trying to reinvent herself this year. The new

Kaelyn willingly visits a sick friend, trying to strengthen that budding friendship. But that friend has the cough, and the unbearable itching. It’s the unnamed virus, infecting more and more people across the small Canadian island, until the whole island is quarantined. Even the World Health Organization is stumped, and unless someone has a breakthrough soon, the whole island will be left to die.

The Carbon Diaries: 2015

Saci Lloyd

Carbon rationing is hitting everyone hard: Laura’s sister is burning through the family’s carbon credits flying to Spain, their mom is freaked out by riding buses instead of driving her fancy car, and their dad … well, he’s thinking of a career move into pig farming. Laura wants her life back, time to jam with her band and maybe get Ravi next door to notice her. There’s a black market in carbon springing up, politics are getting messy, and global warming is kicking off some big storms—like the one threatening to flood London.

Life As We Knew It

Susan Beth Pfeffer

An asteroid is bearing down on the moon—and the school is piling on extra assignments as a result. But then the moon gets knocked closer to the Earth. Tsunamis. Flooding.

Mosquitoes. Blizzards. Flu epidemics. The months of

isolation, with nothing to do and food supplies dwindling. With all the ash in the air from volcanoes, nothing is growing and outdoor game is starving. There’s literally nothing but canned and boxed goods, and when they run out, that’s it.

Nation

Terry Pratchett

Mau has just given up his boy’s soul and is paddling back to the Nation, where he will be given his man’s soul. That’s when the wave hits—that all-consuming wave that devours everything in its path, wiping out the entire Nation and killing everyone Mau knew and loved. Mau is alone on the island, but only temporarily—other refugees slowly row up to the Nation’s shores. Mau feels responsible for all these new people, and must defend the Nation from the raiders, protect the new refugees, and discover who they can be without the baggage of who they were.

Post-

Apocalypses

Moving on in a changed world.

Restoring Harmony

Joelle Anthony

Worried about her grandfather living alone far from

family, Molly’s parents send her to bring him back home to their farm. Molly’s inexperience at traveling is made nerve-wracking by tightened border security and disrupted railway lines, but a kind stranger helps her complete her journey. He continues to help her family as she settles into Portland, but his help comes from some shady sources Molly shouldn’t ask about. Each passing day brings more obstacles to returning home, among them her

grandfather’s reluctance to leave.

Ship Breaker

Paolo Bacagalupi

Nailer works as light crew, stripping copper wire from wrecked ships along the gulf coast, a dangerous job that could kill him any minute. His luck turns after a hurricane, when he finds a wreck on a nearby island: a clipper ship that hides food, silver—and a girl. The wreck is soon

discovered by Nailer’s abusive father and his band of thieves, and Nailer has a choice: hand over the girl, the luckiest of Lucky Strikes any of his crew has ever seen, or take her back to her people, where—she says—Nailer will be well-rewarded.

Wither

Lauren DeStefano

The First Generations successfully manipulated genetic code to ensure their children had perfect lives, free of cancer and other aging diseases. Two decades later, they learned they’d also unleashed a virus that kills males at age 25, and females at 20. At 16, Rhine has been stolen to be one of three sister-wives to the wealthy Linden, to bear his children to ensure humanity’s survival. Being a bride thrusts Rhine into a life of luxury, but it’s not enough to overcome her desire to escape, even when an attempt could kill her.

The Other Side of the Island

Allegra Goodman

Honor and her parents live on Island 365, where the weather is controlled by the Earth Mother corporation and everyone fits in perfectly. Except Honor’s parents, who refuse to go along with Earth Mother’s rules, and by

extension Honor herself. When Honor’s parents

disappear, it’s up to her to find out where they’ve gone—and what’s on the other side of the island for those who won’t conform.

Legend

Marie Lu

June is a military genius, having aced her exams and

graduated early from the academy. Her first assignment: track down the elusive Day, the Republic’s most-wanted criminal and her brother’s killer. June wants to avenge her brother’s death. Day wants to buy the cure to the plague that’s ripping through his family’s neighborhood. June is about to find out exactly what the Republic government is

capable of—and that’s something Day has known all along.

Battle Royale

Koushun Takami

40 Japanese high school students get detoured on a field trip and wake up in an unfamiliar classroom, where they are informed that their class has been randomly chosen for that year’s Program: a fight to the death until only one student remains. Each student is given a backpack

containing food, water, and a weapon of varying quality (from machine guns to forks) and released. Alliances are made, then broken; friends are betrayed and killed; one person will win and everyone will lose.

The Boy at the End of the World

Greg van Eekhaut

humans will require Fisher to outsmart robots, evade the deadly gadgets, and win over a colony of warrior prairie dogs—all in a world that has been completely destroyed.

Non-Fiction

The way things could go.

Is the End of the World Near?: From Crackpot

Predictions to Scientific Scenarios

Ron Miller

somehow both assuages our fears and gives us brand-new ones we’d never considered.

The Official Underground 2012 Doomsday Survival Handbook

W.H. Mumfrey

instructions and ran to an unpopulated area the instant you saw the ships overhead. When the internet is a memory and food is an occasional luxury, you’ll be glad you read this book.

8th gr

Historical Fiction

The Boy Who Dared

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Jacqueline Kelly

In the latter half of 1899, Calpurnia is an oddity, her interest in science at odds with her mother’s interest in making her a debutante and, eventually, wife. Calpurnia’s interests, though, are not in housewifery: she’s been studying science with her grandfather, an avid naturalist. The discovery of a new species of plant might be her salvation—or she may have to resign herself to cooking, knitting, and living the only kind of life for girls in 1899.

Milkweed

Jerry Spinelli

Misha is an orphan on the streets of Poland in 1939. He survives by stealing food and hiding from adults. For all his street smarts, though, he is naïve about the shiny-booted Nazis and wants to be one of them. When Misha’s Jewish friend and her family are forced to move into a newly-created ghetto, Misha cheerfully moves with them. But as conditions grow worse and his adopted family is starving, Misha’s loyalty and survival instincts are tested against the growing horror of the holocaust.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ray Bradbury

James and Will, both 13 years old, are very excited about the carnival coming to town. As the carnival lingers, though, the boys are increasingly aware of the evil that permeates it. But it’s when the boys discover the mysterious powers of the carousel that the truly diabolical nature comes clear. James and Will might be able to save the souls of the townspeople—but only if they can resist having their own wishes granted.

The Roar

Emma Clayton

Mika has never gotten over the death of his twin sister--mostly because he’s positive she’s not dead. He can feel her out there, somewhere, and it’s up to him to find her. When the new Podfighter game comes to the arcades, Mika instinctively knows that it will bring him closer to his missing sister. Podfighter competitions already have pretty high stakes, but for Mika, they just got a little higher.

The Maze Runner

James Dashner

Thomas remembers nothing but his name when he’s pulled into the Glade, a strange place where the only escape means finding an exit from the Maze--not easy when the walls move every night and the mechanical beasts have a thirst for blood. When a girl shows up the day after Thomas’s arrival, the Gladers are thrown into chaos: Who is she? And what’s with her warning that “everything is going to change”?

The Lab

Jack Heath

Car chases, hostages, robotic fighting machines--it’s all in a day’s work for Special Agent Six of Hearts. Six is the best agent the Deck has, and he’s the Deck’s best hope for bringing down ChaoSonic, the company that has taken over what’s left of the world. But Six has a secret to protect about what makes him the Deck’s best agent, and it’s a secret that ChaoSonic is equally driven to protect--except they’re less concerned about his survival.

Trash

Andy Mulligan

Raphael is a “dumpsite boy,” picking through mountains of trash for recyclable materials—paper, plastics, anything he can sell. What Raphael finds is a purse, stuffed with money and a key. He’s rich—and embroiled in a mystery that only gets deeper when the police come in search of that same key. It’s up to Raphael and his friends to find out what makes the key so valuable, and fix what injustices can still be fixed.

Z for Zachariah

Robert C. O’Brien

Following a nuclear war, 16-year-old Ann Burden learns to survive alone in the untouched valley—until the day a stranger wearing a radiation-proof suit comes over the hill. When the stranger makes a crucial mistake, Ann nurses him back to health—making a crucial mistake of her own.

House of Stairs

William Sleator

Five teenage orphans wake up to find themselves in a place without walls, floors, or ceilings—only stairs. Endless stairs, leading to landings and more stairs. On one landing is a machine that dispenses food, but only if the five do everything right—and what’s right one day isn’t necessarily what’s right the next. And sometimes, it was never right at all.

Realistic Fiction

This is What I Did

Ann Dee Ellis

Logan’s having a hard time adjusting to his new school. His best friend is gone, his family has moved across town, and rumors about what happened have followed him here--and make him the target of bullies. The thing that happened was pretty horrific, and Logan can’t bring himself to talk about it. He can’t stop feeling guilty over it. It wasn’t his fault—except that it sort of was.

Big Mouth

Deborah Halvorsen

Shermie has a goal: to be the best, most-famous competitive-eater in the world. The current hot-dog eating record is 53 dogs in 12 minutes, and Shermie will have to up his training if he expects to get past his current record of seven. Then he learns the secret: he’ll have to lose his restrictive “fat belt” if he expects to compete. His friend Gardo knows all about weight-cutting from wrestling, and Gardo is willing to help him—but doing things Gardo’s way may lead to bigger problems than just weight.

Toning the Sweep

Angela Johnson

Em and her mother spend one last summer in the desert with Ola, packing her house for her move to the city for cancer treatments. Em battles with the impending loss of her grandmother and desert sanctity while her mother must realize what brought her there in the first place.

The Darlings are Forever

Melissa Kantor

For the first time, Jane, Natalya, and Victoria will be going to different schools. Jane’s drama rehearsals, Natalya’s snobby new friends, and Victoria’s busy schedule with her father’s political campaign threaten to tear them apart, just when they need each other most. Doing things they’re afraid of can push them to be their best selves, but not listening to their fears can lead to trouble, even among best friends.

Bystander

James Preller

Eric is new in town, and while he’s idly shooting baskets by himself, a kid covered in ketchup flees past. A few minutes later, some other kids ride up on their bikes, asking if Eric has seen anyone come by. Instinctively, Eric lies and says no. Griffin, the leader of the boys on bikes, takes something of a liking to Eric, and while Eric has some misgivings he can’t put his finger on, the two become friends. Griffin can charm the pants off most adults, and it takes a little while before Eric even realizes that he’s a bully. But it’s not so easy to stand up to someone when he’s your friend--and doubly hard to stand up when you’re the next one at risk.

Scrawl

Mark Shulman

Tod has a reputation as a bully, a criminal, and a loser, but there’s a lot more to him than that. Through two months of detentions (punishment for a pretty serious crime, but I’ll let him tell you about that), Tod writes out his entire story, from his current projects to what landed him in these never-ending detentions. He doesn’t want you to know it, but there’s more to this bully than what you see on the surface.

After Ever After

Jordan Sonnenblick

Five years ago, Jeffrey’s cancer went into remission, but left him with a bunch of side effects: a limp, concentration problems, an inability to do math. School is confusing and torturous at the best of times, but for Jeffrey--coping with his new girlfriend, his brother’s year-long trip to Africa, his best friend’s sudden mood swings, and the knowledge that failing the standardized math test means repeating the year--it’s unthinkable. And he’s really bad at math.

Non-Fiction

Mischief Maker’s Manual

Sir John Hargrave

7th gr

Historical Fiction

Al Capone Does My Shirts

Gennifer Choldenko

It’s 1935, and Moose Flanagan and his family have just moved to Alcatraz Island, to be nearer to a special school for his autistic sister Natalie. Moose is coping as best he can under the weight of the move, his own new school, and having near-complete responsibility for his older sister while his dad works all the time and his mom obsessively seeks a cure for Natalie’s condition. As he begins to settle in, Moose finds himself caught up in mischief and money-making schemes—all spearheaded by the warden’s daughter, Piper.

Dead End in Norvelt

Jack Gantos

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Jacqueline Kelly

The Wednesday Wars

Gary Schmidt

Against the background of the Vietnam war (in which faculty members’ husbands are fighting, missing, dying), Hollis is just trying to make it through the seventh grade--the year when half his class goes to Hebrew school on Wednesday afternoons, and the other half goes to catechism, leaving Hollis alone with Mrs. Baker week after week. And that wouldn’t be so bad, except that Mrs. Baker apparently hates him. After devising several plans to get rid of him in the afternoons, she finally starts assigning him Shakespeare--which leads to a number of colorful curses, and understanding of love, and a public performance in yellow tights with feathers on the butt.

Realistic Fiction

Happy Kid!

Gail Gauthier

Ever since the incident with the screwdriver at the end of sixth grade, Kyle has been living in his own pessimistic cloud. Concerned, his therapist mom gives him a self-help book and bribes him with a dollar for each chapter read. Kyle is surprised to find that the book tends to fall open to exactly the pages he needs--and even more surprised to find that the book’s advice works. There’s a chance that Kyle can reconnect with his old friends, make some new ones, and even redeem himself by doing the right thing. Maybe his seventh-grade glass can be half-full, after all.

The Tanglewood Terror

Kurtis Scaletta

Eric is sure there’s a scientific explanation for the glowing mushrooms in the woods behind his house. And there’s an explanation for the mushrooms creeping into his backyard. And through the floorboards in the house. And over the football field. There’s not a place in town that isn’t covered in the luminescent fungus—and it might not be the first time the mushrooms have swallowed a town.

Smile

Raina Telgemeier

When she was in the 7th grade, Raina tripped and fell while chasing a friend, and in the fall knocked out her two front teeth. What followed was a blur of orthodontics, but also school dances, friendships, crushes, and even Nintendo. Middle school can be rough—but at least Raina still has her Smile.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Linda Urban

Zoe dreams of playing Carnegie Hall, despite never having touched a piano. When her father braves the mall to buy one, he comes home with not the baby grand of Zoe’s dreams but the vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag Perfectone organ. Nothing about the instrument–not the sound of it, not the instructor, not even the songbook–fits with Zoe’s concert pianist dream. Zoe’s hard work will take her to the Perfectone Perform-O-Rama competition–or will, if her dad can muster up the courage to drive her.

Non-Fiction

The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science Sean Connolly

What causes an avalanche? Find out when you make one. What’s happening during a lunar eclipse? Recreate it in your living room and see. How long will it take a pizza to be delivered? It doesn’t matter once you’ve built a solar pizza cooker. You’ll find these experiments and explanations—and many others—in The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science.

Mischief Maker’s Manual

Sir John Hargrave

Mystery

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Wendy Mass

Jeremy has been given a box that he’s supposed to open it on his 13th birthday, and (according to the writing on it) it’s supposed to contain the Meaning of Life. The problem: all 4 keys are missing. Jeremy enlists his best friend, and with her help, they break into the office of the lawyer who sent the box, get caught, and are sentenced to community service. Jeremy’s getting desperate: he has less than a month to go, and he still hasn’t found the keys. He’s enjoying helping other people, but is there anyone helping him?

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword Barry Deutsch

Mirka is the eleven-year-old victim of her stepmother’s knitting lessons and arguments, in which she changes her position as soon as Mirka gives in and agrees with her. All Mirka wants to do is slay dragons. First she’ll need a good dragon-slaying sword, though, and the only way to do that is to challenge the troll who has it.

Epic

Conor Kostick

Following yet another death in Epic, Erik creates a new character. On a whim, he chooses a female form, allots all her aptitude points to beauty, and chooses an unusual character class: Swashbuckler. Such an unusual character makes Epic into a whole new game--which is exactly what Erik needs, if he’s going to slay the second dragon in Epic’s history and challenge the Central Allocation government to release his father from exile.

The Limit

Kristen Landon

Matt is flipping through a magazine near the check-outs when his family goes over their limit. This is Bad News. By the time they get home, there’s a black limo outside, waiting to take Matt to the workhouse. He’s smart, so secures a top job to earn the money his family needs to get them back under their government-mandated spending limit. And he’s smart enough to know there’s something fishy going on about the work that they’re doing. Luckily, he is just the computer hacker to find out what.

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeline L’Engle

I am a genius of unspeakable evil and I want to be your class president

Josh Lieb

Oliver Watson is one of the dumbest kids in the seventh grade, and one of the most pathetic. However, he knows something the other kids don’t. In fact, he knows a lot of things the other kids don’t, because the pathetic dumb-kid thing is just a cover for his genius. We’re talking third-richest-man-in-America, secret-lair-under-the-house genius. Oliver has his sights set on one simple task: becoming class president. With his connections, it’s easy to eliminate the competition--but how can he really win an election when there’s nobody running against him?

The Giver

Lois Lowry

At age 12, Jonas sits on a stage with his classmates and waits for his career assignment. While his friends are assigned various jobs as teachers and janitors, scientists and gardeners, Jonas gets skipped over. But then he gets an unusual assignment: he will be the Keeper of Memories. As he meets with the previous Keeper—now the Giver—Jonas learns many joys and pains that his world has managed to forget. Slowly he understands what this well-ordered society actually costs, and must decide if it’s a price he can afford to pay.

Among the Hidden

Margaret Peterson Haddix

Luke is jealous of his two brothers. They get to go to school, go out in public, and they don’t have to worry about being seen. But Luke is a Third Child, and the Population Police are there to make sure no family has more than two children. Luke has to obey the rules and remain hidden—until he meets Jennifer, another Third Child who lives in the house behind his. Jennifer has plans, though, that will change everything—if Luke is brave enough to join her movement.

6th

Realistic Fiction

A Diamond in the Desert

Katherine Fitzmaurice

tolerable, but when his sister gets sick and Tetsu knows it’s his fault, he gives up the sport to be with her.

Dead End in Norvelt

Jack Gantos

Jack did a really dumb thing. Then he did another really dumb thing, and now he’s grounded for the entire

summer. He’s allowed out of the house only when his elderly neighbor calls for his help transcribing the

obituaries she dictates for the dead townspeople, or

opening jars her arthritic hands can’t handle, or

spreading rat poison in her basement. Nearly every call means another Norvelt native is dead—and Jack gets out of the house a surprising amount for one summer.

Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading

Tommy Greenwald

Charlie Joe has made it all the way to middle school without ever reading a full book cover to cover. He’s plenty smart—smart enough to find ways to get out of reading, while still looking like he’s done it. Charlie Joe’s brains don’t extend to other people, though, and his schemes backfire in a variety of ways.

The Tanglewood Terror

Kurtis Scaletta

The Wednesday Wars

Gary Schmidt

Hollis is just trying to make it through the seventh grade—the year when half his class goes to Hebrew school on Wednesday afternoons, and the other half goes to catechism, leaving Hollis alone with Mrs. Baker week after week. And that wouldn’t be so bad, except that Mrs. Baker hates him. After devising several plans to get rid of him in the afternoons, she finally starts assigning him Shakespeare—which leads to a number of colorful curses, an understanding of love, and a public

performance in yellow tights with feathers on the butt.

Smile

Raina Telgemeier

Nintendo. Middle school can be rough—but at least Raina still has her Smile.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Linda Urban

Zoe dreams of playing Carnegie Hall, despite never

having touched a piano. When her father braves the mall to buy one, he comes home with not the baby grand of Zoe’s dreams but the vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag Perfectone organ. Nothing about the instrument–not the sound of it, not the instructor, not even the songbook–fits with Zoe’s concert pianist dream. Zoe’s hard work will take her to the

Perfectone Perform-O-Rama competition–or will, if her dad can muster up the courage to drive her.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Gregor the Overlander

Suzanne Collins

territory to rescue an imprisoned Overlander… who may be Gregor’s missing father.

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeline L’Engle

The Limit

Kristin Landon

The True Meaning of Smekday

Adam Rex

Where do you start writing an essay on what Smekday means to you, when it involves things like an alien

invasion, a runaway Boov mechanic named J.Lo, and a cross-country trip in a flying car, all while on a mission to rescue your mom—whom the alien invaders kidnapped on Christmas Eve? Gratuity “Tip” Tucci’s essay has all the hilarious details—and some photos!—from her action-packed adventure!

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians

Brandon Sanderson

Alcatraz has a knack for breaking things. So when his 13th birthday rolls around and he accidentally smashes up his foster parents’ kitchen, is anyone really surprised? And because it’s that kind of day, Alcatraz gets a birthday

present: a bag of sand. And then someone steals his bag of sand. Because that bag of sand is what the evil librarians need to take over the world—unless Alcatraz can catch up to them and put his klutziness to good use.

The Shadow Thieves

Anne Ursu

Charlotte’s cousin Zee is coming to stay for a little while. Back in England, each of his friends has come down with a mysterious illness, and Zee is pretty sure it’s his fault. Now that he’s here, Charlotte’s friends are getting the same illness, so it’s up to the cousins to find the cure. It’s not so easy, though, when the cure lies in the Underworld, guarded by Harpies, ghosts, and gods, and they discover that the mythical world is anything BUT a myth.

The Boy at the End of the World

Greg van Eekhaut

His name is Fisher. The world is dangerous. And he’s the only one in it. These are the things Fisher knows immediately on waking up, on being born from the survival pod ages after all the other humans have died. The journey to find any other humans will require Fisher to outsmart robots, evade the deadly gadgets, and win over a colony of warrior prairie dogs—all in a world that has been completely destroyed.

Mystery

Chasing Vermeer

Blue Balliett

When a valuable work of art goes missing on its way to a Chicago museum and the thief puts a series of clues in the newspaper, Petra and Calder team up to solve the mystery and find the missing painting. They’ll need all their wits about them to crack the codes, solve the puzzles, and find the stolen Vermeer in this interactive mystery.

The Name of This Book is Secret

Pseudonymous Bosch

11-year-old misfits Cass and Max-Ernest find a

mysterious box, The Symphony of Smells, filled with vials and an encoded plea for help. And from there, their troubles begin: an eccentric magician has been killed, a classmate has been kidnapped, and Cass is getting scolded on manners whenever she tells the principal what clues she has. This engaging mystery-adventure will keep you on the edge of your seat!

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen

Eric Berlin

Winston loves puzzles. So when his sister finds the strips of wood with words and letters on them, he’s eager to crack the code—and surprised when he can’t. Soon his whole family and several friends are wrapped up in the a scavenger hunt for a ring that could be worth millions. Winston provides puzzles and clues throughout the book: can you solve them before he does?

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Wendy Mass

The Westing Game

Ellen Raskin

Sam Westing is worth over two hundred million dollars. He owns the fancy apartment building near his mansion, and has rented out each apartment to specially-chosen families. Sam Westing is also dead, and has left a will behind—a will that accuses one of his tenants of his murder, and pits the sixteen tenants against each other in a competition to discover the circumstances of his death.

The Fourth Stall

Chris Rylander

Sixth-graders Mac and Vince have spent years building up their business: whether you need a hall pass or entry to an R-rated movie, if you can pay (in cash or future favors), Mac can make it happen. Until a third-grader comes to their office, seeking protection from a high school crime boss and his gambling ring, and then the war is on. Mac has always been able to solve other people’s problems—but solving his own is proving much harder.

I Put a Spell On You

Adam Selzer

The spelling bee was a mess, and Chrissie Woodward is determined to find out why. She takes depositions from her fellow students: Jennifer, whose parents want her to win so badly her dad breaks into the school to steal the master word list; Mutual, the homeschooled kid who just enrolled at their school, despite his parents’ fears of germs, corruption, and immorality; and Jake, who has a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s something fishy going on—why is Principal Floren so intent on leveling the field for Mutual? And who are the two old ladies around town, grilling all the kids on their chances in the bee? Leave it to Chrissie Woodward to find out!

Non-Fiction

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous

Georgia Bragg

identifies which gruesome end each person came to.

The Big Book of Gross Stuff

Bart King

The grossest thing in your kitchen is probably the sponge. Throughout history, the bathroom has been called a water closet, necessary house, and House of Easement. Your eyes are actually made out of a kind of jelly. These facts, and many, many more, in The Big Book of Gross Stuff.

Is the End of the World Near?: From Crackpot

Predictions to Scientific Scenarios

Ron Miller

somehow both assuages our fears and gives us brand-new ones we’d never considered.