Junior High Reading List

Contemporary Fiction

Avi and Vail, Rachel. Never Mind! A Twin Novel (JUV FIC) 200p.
Twelve-year-old new York City twins Meg and Edward have nothing in common, so they are just as shocked as everyone else when Meg’s hopes for popularity and Edward’s mischievous schemes coincidentally collide in a hilarious showdown.

Blacker, Terrance. Boy2girl (YA FIC) 295p.
After the death of his mother, thirteen-year-old Sam comes to live with his cousin and as a prank, he dresses up like a girl for school, but it soon get out of hand.

Cummings, Priscilla. Red Kayak (YA FIC) 209p.
Living near the water on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, thirteen-year-old Brady and his best friends J.T. and Digger become entangled in a tragedy that tests their friendship and their ideas about right and wrong.

Fusco, Kimberly Newton. Tending to Grace (YA FIC) 167p.
When Cornelia’s mother runs off with a boyfriend, leaving her with an eccentric aunt, Cornelia must finally confront the truth about herself and her mother.

Harkrader, Lisa. Airball: My Life in Briefs (JUV FIC) 198p.
Uncoordinated Kansas seventh-grader Kirby Nickel braves his coach’s ire and becomes captain of the basketball team in order to help him prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he has never known.

Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot (JUV FIC) 292p.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.

Kehret, Peg. Abduction! (YA FIC) 215p.
Thirteen-year-old Bonnie has a feeling of foreboding on the very day that her six-year-old brother Matt and their dog Pookie are abducted, and she becomes involved in a major search effort as well as a frightening adventure.

Jimenez, Francisco. Breaking Through (JUV FIC) 195p.
Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.

Perkins, Lynne Rae. Criss Cross (JUV FIC) 337p.
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960’s experience new thoughts and feelings, questions their identities, connect and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

Shusterman, Neal. The Schwa Was Here (YA FIC) 228p.
A Brooklyn eighth-grader nicknamed Antsy befriends the Schwa, an “invisible-ish” boy who is tired of blending into his surroundings and going unnoticed by nearly everyone.

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie (YA FIC) 182p.
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family.

Tullson, Diane. Red Sea (YA FIC) 169p.
Fourteen-year-old Libby didn’t want to go on a one year long sailing voyage with her mother and stepfather and after an attack by modern day pirates, Libby finds herself in charge.

Mysteries

Abrahams, Peter. Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery (YA FIC M) 375p.
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her hometown of Echo Falls.

Allison, Jennifer. Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator (YA FIC M) 321p.
During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic skills to solve the mystery of the mansion’s boarded-up tower.

Corbett, Sue. 12 Again (JUV FIC) 227p.
When an overburdened mom makes an idle wish while drinking a special cordial, she wakes up the next morning s her twelve-year old self and needs her son’s help surviving middle school and getting back to her family.

Historical Fiction

Arrington, Frances. Prairie Whispers (YA FIC) 184p.
Only twelve-year-old Colleen knows that her baby sister died just after she was born and that Colleen put another baby in her place, until the baby’s father shows up and makes trouble for her and her family on the South Dakota prairie in the 1860’s.

Bath,K.P. The Secret of Castle Cant: Being an Account of the Remarkable Lucy Wickwright, Maidservant and Spy (JUV FIC) 291p.
When twelve-toed orphan Lucy Wickwright is brought to the castle to be a serving girl to the Adorable and Honorable Pauline, she becomes involved with revolutionaries and uncovers surprising castle intrigues.

Dowswell, Paul. Powder Monkey: The Adventures of Sam Witchall (YA FIC) 275p. Thirteen-year-old Sam Witchall has always dreamed of being a sailor, but he never realized how dangerous and gruesome life at sea could be until he is pressed into service aboard HMS Miranda.

Lester, Julius. Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue (YA FIC) 177p.
Emma has taken care of the butler children since Sarah and Frances’s mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have food hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave “assets”, possibly including Emma.

Reid Banks, Lynne. Tiger Tiger (YA FIC) 195p.
Two tiger cub brothers are taken from the jungle to ancient Rome, where one becomes the pampered pet of Caesar’s daughter and the other becomes a man-eating “entertainment act” at the Colosseum.

Sherlock, Patti. Letters from Wolfie (YA FIC) 228p.
Certain that he is doing the right thing by donating his dog, Wolfie, to the Army’s scout program in Vietnam, thirteen-year-old Mark begins to have second thoughts when the Army refuses to say when and if Wolfie will ever return.

Thal, Lilli. Mimus (JUV FIC) 394p.
Twelve-year-old Prince Florin is called from his childhood games to his father's side for a peace celebration hosted by King Theodo in Vinland. Upon his arrival, Florin finds it has all been a terrible ruse; his father and his guards are chained in the castle's dungeon, and Florin is forced to apprentice to Mimus, Theodo's seemingly cruel court jester. If Florin, in a motley suit, bells, and donkey ears, fails to learn his new role and amuse King Theodo, his father will be killed.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Bell, Hilari. The Goblin Wood (YA FIC) 294p.
A young Hedgewitch, an idealistic knight, and an army of clever goblins fight against the ruling hierarchy that is trying to rid the land of all magical creatures.

Bondoux, Anne-Laure. The Destiny of Linus Hoppe (YA SF) 153p.
In a utopian world, fourteen-year-old Linus, who is approaching the test that will determine which Realm he will live, rejects the accepted way of life and ventures to change his destiny.

Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen (YA FIC) 251p.
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up to find himself invisible, he, his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

Constable, Kate. Singer of All Songs (YA SF) 297p.
Calwyn, a young priestess of ice magic, or “chantment,” joins with other changers who have different magical skills to fight a sorcerer who wants to claim all powers for his own.

Hale, Shannon. Princess Academy (JUV FIC) 314p.
While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.

Horowitz, Anthony. Raven’s Gate (YA FIC) 254p.
Sent to live in a foster home in a remote Yorkshire village, Matt, a troubled fourteen-year-old English boy, uncovers an evil plot involving witchcraft and the site of an ancient stone circle.

Randall, David. Clovermead (YA SF) 288p.
Clovermead, twelve-year-old tomboy, learns that her father has been lying about the past and the truth may be the key in ending an epic battle raging between the followers of Lord Ursus and those of Lady Moon.

Reeve, Philip. Mortal Engines (YA SF) 310p.
In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another.

Sedgwick, Marcus. The Book of Dead Days (YA FIC) 273p.
With the help of his servant and an orphan girl, a magician named Valerian searches graveyards, churches, and underground waterways for a book he hopes will save him from a pact he has made with evil.

Zinnen, Linda. The Dragons of Spratt, Ohio (JUV FIC) 233p.
Seventh-grader John Salt, a budding animal behaviorist, and his best friend’s sister become unlikely allies in an attempt to protect a pack of dragons from an unscrupulous cosmetics researcher.

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JA, 1/07