Mrs. Caouette’s Recommendations
Parents and students often ask for recommendations about good books to read. I have compiled a list of books appropriate for middle school students. Some classics are included but this list also includes many new titles. These books should be available at most local libraries. Students who read continue to improve their skills as well as spending hours discovering new worlds and ideas. All of the Maine Student Book Award Books are recommended. Local libraries and book stores will have the complete list.
http://www.windham.lib.me.us/msba.htm
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.htm
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/bestbooksyoung.htm
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/quickpicksreluctant.htm
Past Maine Student Book Award Books and others you
might enjoy:
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
Lightning Thief by Rick
Riordon
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt
Lucas by Kevin Brooks (mature)
Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Rules by Cynthia Lord
The Thief Lord by Corneilia Funke
Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher
Staples
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer
Choldenko
Code Talker by Bruchac
Higher Power of Lucky by
Susan Patron
House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer
The Watson's Go to Birmingham by Christopher Curtis (Hist.
Fiction-1960's)Newbery
Beyond the Western Sea (Book 0ne/Book Two) by Avi (Historical Fiction)
Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Contemp. Fiction-Africa survival story)
The Thief by Meghan Turner (Fantasy) Newbery Award Honor Book
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Historical Fiction)
Painting the Black by Carl Deuker (Sports Fiction)
Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (Historical Fiction WW II)
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Historical Fiction- U.S. 1930's Dust Bowl)
Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang (Autobiography)
Ella Enchanted by Gail Levine (Fantasy) Newbery Award Honor Book
Golden Compass and sequels The Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass by Philip
Pullman
The Giver by Lois Lowry (Fantasy) Newbery Award winner
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Science Fiction/Survival story)
Whirligig by Paul Fleishchman (contemporary fiction)
Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher (Historical Fiction)
The Storyteller's Beads by Jane Kurtz (Historical Fiction)
Within Reach, My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin (Non-fiction)
Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville (Contemporary Fiction)
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (contempory fiction)
Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley
Power of UN by Nancy Etchemendy (Fantasy)
Silent to the Bone by E.L Konigsburg (Contemporary Fiction)
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (Fantasy)
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
Homeless Bird by Gloris Whelan (Contemporary Fiction)
If you Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson (Contemporary Fiction)
Step from Heaven by An Na (Contemporary Fiction-multicultural)
Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Historical Fiction)
Classics and other
favorites for Middle School Students:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Alice's Adventure in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Greene
The Call of the Wild and Other Stories by Jack London
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis by
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
Sounder by William Armstrong
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
Anne Frank and the Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
2007/2008 Maine Student
Book Award List