Summer Reading 2024

The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers (fantasy)

Gr 4-8. Johannes, a free dog, lives in a park surrounded by human neighborhoods. His job is to be the Eyes–to see everything that happens and report back to three ancient bison. His friends–a seagull, a raccoon, a one-eyed squirrel, and a pelican who can read–work with him as the Assistant Eyes, making sure everything is in balance. But big changes are afoot. (The audiobook on Sora is awesome!) [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

Nugly by M.C. Ross (fantasy)

Gr 4-8. When Nugget, a cute puppy, is put up for adoption, he thinks it's because no one loves him–so he does the only thing he can think of: he runs away. Now Nugget is alone on the streets of Boston, where he quickly learns that not everyone is kind. After an unfortunate run-in with another animal leaves him disfigured, he can't rely on his cuteness to get by anymore. As Nugget learns to navigate his new life, searching for a new family to give all his love, will he learn to love himself, too? [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas (fantasy)

Gr 4-8. It's not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool–like getting a pet hellhound for your 12th birthday. Others, not so much–like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor. In the first book in this new series, Remarkable Nic goes on a hunt for a powerful magic tool. She wants to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

Jawbreaker by Christina Wyman (realistic fiction)

Gr 5-8. Max Plink's life is complicated. Her parents aren't getting along. The school bullies are relentless–and her own sister is the cruelest of them. Worst of all, her mouth is a mess. She already has braces, which means she lives on Advil and soft foods after each orthodontist appointment. But now Max has to wear painful (and totally awkward) orthodontic headgear nicknamed "the jawbreaker." Could things get any worse? Yep! Max Plink is about to go viral. [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FIRST CHAPTER]

No Place Like Home by James Bird (realistic fiction)

Gr 5-8. When home is a car, life is unpredictable. School, friends, and three meals a day aren't guaranteed. Not every town has a shelter where a family can sleep for a night or two, and places with parking lots don't welcome overnight stays. Opin, his brother Emjay, and their mother are trying to get to Los Angeles, where they hope an uncle and a new life are waiting. Then Opin finds a stray dog who needs him as much as he needs her, and his longing for a stable home intensifies. Will anything other than a real home ever be enough? [CLICK HERE TO READ AN EXCERPT]

Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow (realistic fiction)

Gr 5-8. Simon's biggest claim to fame should be the alpaca disaster that went viral on YouTube. But the story the world wants to tell is the one he'd do anything to forget: the one starring Simon as the only survivor of a school shooting. Two years after the event, 12-year-old Simon and his family move to the National Quiet Zone–the only place in America where the internet is banned. Instead of talking about Simon, the astronomers who flock to the area are busy listening for signs of life in space. Will Simon finally have the chance to tell his own story? [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TALK]

What Happened to Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski (realistic fiction)

Gr 5-8. Anna Hunt may be the new girl at East Middle School, but she can already tell there's something off about her 8th-grade class. Rachel Riley, who just last year was one of the most popular girls in school, has become a social outcast. But no one, including Rachel Riley herself, will tell Anna why. Anna wants to solve the mystery, so she creates her own podcast around the question that won't stop running through her head: What happened to Rachel Riley? [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TALK]

Will on the Inside by Andrew Eliopulos (realistic fiction)

Gr 5-8. Will loves playing center midfield on his middle school soccer team, until his doctor diagnoses him with Crohn's disease. His new medicines come with all kinds of side effects, forcing him to miss afternoon practices. Will finds himself hanging out with a kid at school, Griffin. This could be a real problem, seeing as Griffin just asked Will's best friend to the spring dance. As in, guy friend. What would Will's teammates say if they knew the whole story? [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT]

And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps (realistic novel-in-verse)

Gr 4-8. Joe Oak is used to living on unsteady ground. His mom never stays around long, and then he and his beloved grandmother find themselves without a home. His friend Nick helps them find a home in his trailer park, but things fall apart again when Joe is suddenly left to fend for himself. He doesn't tell anyone he's on his own, as he fears foster care and hoped his mom will come back. But time is running out–bills are piling up, the electricity's been shut off, and the school year's about to end, meaning no more free meals. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt (realistic novel-in-verse)

Gr 4-8. Selah has rules for being normal: She keeps her feelings locked tightly inside, despite the way they build up inside her as the school day goes on, so that she has to run to the bathroom and hide in the stall until she can calm down. Selah feels like a dragon stuck in a world of humans, but she knows how to hide it. Until the day she explodes and hits a fellow student. As her world crumbles around her, Selah starts to figure out who she is. She comes to understand that different doesn't mean damaged. Can she get her school to understand that, too, before it's too late? [CLICK HERE TO WATCH AN AUTHOR INTERVIEW]

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome (historical novel-in-verse)

Gr 4-8. 1879, Mississippi. Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family needs: an opportunity to claim the independence they've strived for, on their very own plot of land. Lettie, her mother, Sylvia, and teacher Philomena are free from slavery–but still bound by poverty and society’s rules for women. Will they survive the hardships of their journey? (This is the newest chapter book from the author who visited our school this year!) [CLICK HERE TO HEAR AN EXCERPT]

The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh (historical fiction)

Gr 4-8. Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas because of the pandemic, and his great-grandmother just moved in, adding to his stress and isolation. But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother's belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH AN AUTHOR INTERVIEW]

Heroes by Alan Gratz (historical fiction)

Gr 4-8. December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. With their dads stationed at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, the boys get to soak up the sunshine while creating their own comic books. World War II might be raging overseas, but America has stayed out of the fight. Nothing to fear, right? December 7th, 1941: Everything implodes. If the boys make it through this infamous day, can their friendship survive? Or has everything they know been destroyed? [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown (science fiction)

Gr 4-8. Everyone’s favorite robot is back! Roz faces her biggest challenge yet. Alarming rumors about a “Poison Tide” have reached Roz’s island home, carried by animals fleeing its toxic touch. When the deadly waters reach the island’s shore, withering plants and killing fish, the animals work together to save their sea-dwelling friends. Determined to find the source of the tide and stop it, Roz swims forth to meet the unknown enemy.  [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A TRAILER FOR THE UPCOMING MOVIE BASED ON THE FIRST BOOK!]

Alebrijes by Dona Barba Higuera (science fiction)

Gr 5-8. For 400 years, Earth has been a barren wasteland. The few humans that survive scrape together an existence in the cruel city of Pocatel–or go it alone in the wilderness beyond. They don't last long. 13 year-old pickpocket Leandro and his sister Gabi do what they can to forge a life in Pocatel. When Gabi is caught stealing precious fruit from the Pocatelan elite, Leando takes the fall. But his exile proves more than he could have imagined: Beyond the walls of Pocatel he discovers mutant monsters, wasteland pirates, a hidden oasis–and the truth. [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT OF THE AUDIOBOOK]

The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett  (science fiction)

Gr 4-8. 11-year-old Kemi loves scientific facts, especially probability. It's how she understands the world. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and the odds of having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, she lucked out. But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with Earth in four days, and then, Kemi's life as she knows it will end. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TALK]

The Liars Society by Alyson Gerber (mystery)

Gr 5-8. Weatherby is a fish out of water. When she lands a scholarship to the prestigious Boston School, she's excited to be in the same world as her dad. But Weatherby has a secret she'll risk everything to protect, one that could destroy her new life. And then there’s Jack. Every member of Jack's wealthy family has made their mark at the Boston School. Everyone, that is, except for Jack, who is entirely mediocre. But Jack has a secret of his own–one with the power to ruin everything. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

The Do-Over by Rodrigo Vargas & Coni Yovaniniz (graphic novel)

Gr 4-8. Shy Mariana is having trouble making friends after a cross-country move to Ohio, plus, her dad refuses to let her help out at his hair salon. So when she meets Zoe and Everly, and the three decide to start their own hair styling studio, she finally finds the friends–and the calling–she's been searching for. But with a line of customers always at the door, the friends have to scale up quickly, and they don't agree on how. Can Mariana find the courage to speak up for what she wants? [CLICK HERE TO READ AN EXCERPT]

The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum by Lisa Yee (graphic novel)

Gr 4-8. Olive Cobin Zang has… issues. And they mostly aren't her fault. (No, really!) Problems have a knack for finding her. So, imagine her doubts when she's suddenly dropped off at the strangest boarding school ever: a former castle turned prison that's now a "reforming arts school"! But nothing could've prepared Olive for RASCH (not "rash"). There, she's lumped with a team of other kids who never quite fit in, and discovers that the academy isn't what it seems–and neither is she. In fact, RASCH is a cover for an elite group of misfits who fight crime…and Olive has arrived just in time. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

It Found Us by Lindsay Currie (horror)

Gr 5-8. 12-year-old Hazel Woods has always had a knack for sleuthing. Some may call it snooping, but she just wants to solve local mysteries. So, after she overhears her brother Den planning to sneak into the cemetery at night for an epic game of hide-and-seek, she secretly tags along. This seems like the perfect opportunity to investigate the claims that the cemetery is haunted. But the moment the game ends, Hazel realizes something is very, very wrong. Her brother's best friend, Everett, is missing. There's no sign of Everett anywhere. It's as if he just…vanished. [CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BOOK TRAILER]

Fighting with Love: The Legacy of John Lewis by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome

Gr 4-8. The story of a groundbreaking civil rights leader, John Lewis, by the author and illustrator who visited our school this year. John Lewis grew up in Alabama, in a family of sharecroppers, and he realized early on that not everyone was treated equally. Hearing Martin Luther King Jr. on the radio as a teenager inspired him, and Lewis joined groups to fight segregation and restrictive voting laws. [CLICK HERE TO READ IT ON SORA]

Total Garbage: A Messy Dive into Trash, Waste, and Our World by Rebecca Donnelly

Gr 5-8. Trash has been part of human societies since the beginning. It seems like the inevitable end to the process of making and using things–but why do we make so much garbage? How bad is our garbage problem? And how can we do better? This book explores how our choices, personal and societal, impact our world and our planet–and encourages us to make a change. [CLICK HERE TO READ IT ON SORA]

Piece by Piece: Ernestine’s Gift for President Roosevelt by Lupe Ruiz-Flores

Gr 4-8. During the Great Depression, Ernestine's family didn't have much. The Mexican American teen was so grateful for the government food aid they received in Texas, that she wanted to thank President Roosevelt. But how? After seeing the plans for a difficult woodworking project, she decided she would make it herself and send it to the president. Piece by piece, that's exactly what she did. The clock case she built remains on display in the Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park to this day. [CLICK HERE TO READ IT ON SORA]

Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown

Gr 6-8. After the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Americans became the target of racism and discrimination in the United States. Many were rounded up and put in concentration camps. But even while this was happening, there were many Japanese American soldiers who fought to ensure that all Americans were safe during the biggest conflict in world history. [CLICK HERE TO READ IT ON SORA]

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day

Gr 5-8. On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c'est partie! The Mona Lisa, she's gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa–the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all. [CLICK HERE TO READ IT ON SORA]