Middle School

Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park interweaves the stories of two Sudanese children who overcome mortal dangers to improve their lives and the lives of others. A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. 

Inside Out & Back Again is the story of Ha, a ten-year old girl who leaves war-torn Vietnam and immigrates to the United States. We chose this novel for its thoughtful exploration of some important social and emotional themes: culture, war, bravery, friendship, bullying, loss, and resilience. 

A light-hearted fantasy about a modern 12-year-old boy who learns that his true father is Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Percy sets out to become a hero by undertaking a quest across the United States to find the entrance to the Underworld and stop a war between the gods. 

Bud, Not Buddy is the story of a young Black boy's search for the father he has never met. Following clues from the few possessions he carries that were his momma's, Bud escapes from a difficult life in Flint to Grand Rapids, Michigan to find his father. 

Lyddie is a book about a young girl facing obstacles while working in a mill, trying to earn money to keep her family's barn and reunite her family. 

Inspired by the story of a Chinese immigrant who created a flying machine in 1909, Dragonwings touches on the struggles and dreams of Chinese immigrants navigating opportunity and prejudice in San Francisco. 

Unbroken is a biography of World War II veteran Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash in the Pacific Theater, spent 47 days drifting on a raft, and then survived more than two and a half years as a prisoner of war (POW) in three Japanese POW camps.