Raising Readers
6th Grade
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
X Twain
The adventures and pranks of a mischievous boy growing up in a Mississippi River town in the early nineteenth century.
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
92 Frank
A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. The diary chronicles 25 trying months spent in hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery
F Montgomery
Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her. First in a series.
Ella Enchanted
Gail Carson Levine
NB Levine
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.
Eragon
Christopher Paolini
X Paolini
In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters. First in a trilogy.
Gregor the Overlander
Suzanne Collins
X Collins
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy. First in a series.
Hoot
Carl Hiaasen
X Hiaasen
oy, 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.
The House of the Scorpion
Nancy Farmer
NB Farmer
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Jacob Have I Loved
Katherine Paterson
NB Paterson
"Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated . . ." With her grandmother's taunt, Louise knew that she, like the biblical Esau, was the despised elder twin. Caroline, her selfish younger sister, was the one everyone loved. Growing up on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island in the early 1940s, angry Louise reveals how Caroline robbed her of everything: her hopes for schooling, her friends, her mother, even her name. While everyone pampered Caroline, Wheeze (her sister's name for her) began to learn the ways of the watermen and the secrets of the island, especially of old Captain Wallace, who had mysteriously returned after fifty years. Alone and unsure, Louise began to fight her way to a place where Caroline could not reach.
The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again
J. R. R. Tolkien
F Tolkien
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to share in an adventure from which he may never return.
Homecoming
Cynthis Voigt
F Voigt
The Tillerman kids' mother just left them one day in a car in a mall parking lot. Their father, too, had left them a long time ago. So, as usual, it was up to thirteen-year-old Dicey, the eldest of four, to take care of everything, make all the decisions, feed them, find places to sleep. But above all, Dicey would have to make sure to avoid the authorities who would split them up and place them in foster homes. Deep down, she hoped they could find an adult they could trust, someone who would take them in and love them. Read the sequel Dicey's Song too!
Inkheart
Cornelia Caroline Funke
X Funke
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.
Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary
Novel
Avi
NB Avi
A ninth-grader's suspension for singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" during homeroom becomes a national news story.
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor
NB Taylor
A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.
The Thief Lord
Cornelia Caroline Funke
j Funke
Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with--and protection from--Venice's "Thief Lord."
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Elizabeth George Speare
NB Speare
Forced to leave her sunny Caribbean home for the bleak Connecticut Colony, Kit Tyler is filled with trepidation. What this spirited teenager doesn't count on, however, is how her aunt and uncle's stern Puritan community will view her. In the colonies of 1687, a girl who swims, wears silk and satin gowns, and talks back to her elders is not only headstrong, she is in grave danger of being regarded as a witch. When Kit befriends an old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, it is more than the community can take: soon Kit is defending her life.