The following are suggestions for sixth graders. Clicking on a book title will take you to the library catalog, where you can request the book or learn more information about it. Want even more reading suggestions? Ask a librarian.
| Location | Title/Author | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| YA / Ali | Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator Allison, Jennifer | During the summer before ninth grade, Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower. |
| J & Pbk / And | Fever 1793 Anderson, Laurie Halse | In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic. |
| YA / Cle | Things Not Seen Clements, Andrew | When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it. |
| J & Pbk / Cre | Bloomability Creech, Sharon | When Dinnie goes to an International School in Switzerland, she discovers her world expanding. |
| J & Pbk / Coo | The Dark is Rising Cooper, Susan | On his birthday Will discovers that he is the last of the old ones and is destined to seek the six magical sights that enable the old ones to triumph over dark. (series) |
| J & Pbk / Cus | Catherine Called Birdy Cushman, Karen | The 13-yr-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal of her life, particularly of her longing of adventure and her efforts to avoid being married. |
| YA & Pbk / Far | House of the Scorpion Farmer, Nancy | In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 140-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States. |
| YA & Pbk / Fla | The Ruins of Gorlan Flanagan, John | When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger. |
| J / Had | Double Identity Haddix, Margaret Peterson | Bethany's parents have always been overprotective, but when they suddenly drop out of sight with no explanation, Bethany uncovers shocking secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family. |
| YA Pbk / Hau | Snatched Hautman, Pete | Too curious for her own good, Roni, crime reporter for her high school newspaper, teams up with Brian, freshman science geek, to investigate the beating and kidnapping of a classmate. (series) |
| J & Pbk / Hes | Out of the Dust Hesse, Karen | In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression. |
| J Pbk / Hol | When Zachary Beaver Came to Town Holt, Kimberly Willis | During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world. |
| YA / Key | Alabama Moon Key, Watt | After the death of his father, ten-year-old Moon leaves their forest shelter home and is sent to an Alabama institution, becoming entangled in the outside world he has never known and making good friends, a relentless enemy, and finally a new life. |
| J & Pbk / Low | The Giver Lowry, Lois | Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. |
| YA & Pbk / Lup | Travel Team Lupica, Mike | After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national prominence--twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory. |
| J & Pbk / Pat | Jacob Have I Loved Paterson, Katherine | Feeling deprived all of her life of schooling, friends, mother and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity. |
| YA & Pbk / Pfe | Life As We Knew It Pfeffer, Susan Beth | Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. |
| YA / Run | The Mystery of the Third Lucretia Runholt, Susan | While traveling in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, fourteen-year-old best friends Kari and Lucas solve an international art forgery mystery. |
| YA / Shu | Everlost Shusterman, Neal | When Nick and Allie are killed in a car crash, they end up in Everlost, or limbo for lost souls, where although Nick is satisfied, Allie will stop at nothing--even skinjacking--to break free. |
| YA & Pbk / Son | Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie Sonnenblick, Jordan | 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. |
| J & Pbk / Sta | Shabanu Staples, Suzanne Fisher | When Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes. |
| J / Tay | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Taylor, Mildred D. | A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand. |
| J & Pbk / Tol | Surviving the Applewhites Tolan, Stephanie | Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had. |