10 Books Every Middle Schooler Must Read

I’m not going to lie… I don’t remember being required to read very many books throughout my middle and high school years, which means I missed out on so many classics in my younger years. Somehow or another I still became a total bibliophile and book hoarder, but for years the range of books I read was very sparse. I didn’t branch out until I was at least 25 years old, and I feel as though I deprived myself and I am still playing catch up.

As a homeschool mama I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to my own children, so I am making sure I expose them to all kinds of books long before they reach their adult years. (And hopefully along the way they will grow to become book lovers just like me!) Check out my booklist: 10 Books Every Middle Schooler Must Read to see what my 8th grader will be exploring this year.

 

10 Books Every Middle Schooler Must Read:

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1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief follows a 9 year old girl, Liesel Meminger, who was given up by her mother to the Hubermann family shortly before the start of World War II. When Hans Hubermann learns that Liesel cannot read, he teachers her not only how to read but the wonders of the written word. This is a story of loss, suffering, and rediscovering life, family, and new friendships.

2. The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver is a young adult dystopian novel that follows a 12 year old boy named Jonas. Jonas is the new Receiver of Memory, and is introduced to a whole new world of emotions. The new memories passed on to him has turned his world upside down. Somehow Jonas must make sense of his new life, but will it all be too much for him?

3. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth’s future, the novel presents an imperiled mankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species which they dub the “buggers”.

4. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders is about the life of a 14-year-old boy, Ponyboy Curtis, and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider because he is a greaser.

5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants  is told as a series of memories by Jacob Jankowski, a 93-year-old man who lives in a nursing home. As a young man Jacob’s parents died in a car accident. After learning of his parent’s deaths and their estate problems, Jacob runs away in the night. He jumps onto a circus train where he is hired to care for the animals. Jacob learns the hard way that the circus is not all fun and games. Somehow he must find a way to escape his new life and keep his new friends safe.

6. Invictus by Ryan Graudin

Invictus tells the tale of Farway Gaius McCarthy who was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 A.D. and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 A.D. Exploring history is all Far has ever wanted, but this future seems shattered when he fails his final time-traveling exam. Far takes a position commandeering a ship as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past. Through his travels Far meets a mysterious girl who turns his world even more upside down. What kind of truth does this girl hold?

7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help tells the story of black maids working in white Southern homes in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, and of Miss Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a 22-year-old graduate from Ole Miss, who returns to her family’s cotton plantation, Longleaf, to find that her beloved maid and nanny, Constantine, has left and no one will tell her why. Skeeter is determined not only to find Constantine, but also to be a writer and is willing to do whatever it takes even if that meant writing a book anonymously with the help of 12 black maids.

8. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is a dystopian novel set in the 2040s. The story follows Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game. The discovery of  the egg will lead him to inherit the game creator’s fortune.

9. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Tuck Everlasting explores the concept of immortality, which might not be as desirable as it may appear to be. Will Winnie Foster chose immortality or will she live a nature life after discovering the magical spring and the Tuck family?

10. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl is a book of the writings from the diary kept by Anne Frank.  Anne wrote this while in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Thank you for checking out my booklist: 10 Books Every Middle Schooler Must Read…

What is your middle schooler reading this year? Feel free to leave a comment below with your booklists!

Want more booklists?

Take a peak at what my high schooler will be reading for his 10th grade year-
15 Banned Books Every High Schooler Must Read

 

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