Books You Can Safely Recommend To Middle-Schoolers (Part 10)
Discover safe, engaging middle-school book recommendations in Part 10! From Sharon Flake's *The Skin I'm In* to Jerry Spinelli's *Stargirl* and Louis Sachar's *Small Steps*, this curated list of juvenile and young adult fiction offers thought-provoking, age-appropriate reads for tweens and teens. Perfect for parents, teachers, and librarians seeking quality books to recommend to middle-schoolers.
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Shug
by Jenny Han
A twelve-year-old girl learns about friendship, first loves, and self-worth in a small town in the South.
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Side Effects
by Amy Goldman Koss
Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even thrives.
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The Silenced
by James DeVita
In a world filled with sanctions and restrictions, Marena struggles to remember the past: a time before the Zero Tolerance Party murdered her mother and put her father under house arrest. A time before they installed listening devices in every home and forbade citizens to read or write. A time when she was free. In the spirit of her revolutionary mother, Marena forms her own resistance group—the White Rose. This is a chilling dystopian novel that leads readers to question the very essence of their identities. Who do you think you are?
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The Skin I'm in
by Sharon Flake
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.
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Skulduggery Pleasant
by Derek Landy
Meet Skulduggery Pleasant Ace Detective Snappy Dresser Razor–tongued Wit Crackerjack Sorcerer and Walking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton —as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old. These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil. The end of the world? Over his dead body.
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Slawter
by Darren Shan
While on a horror movie set with his Uncle Dervish, Grubbs Grady realizes that his battle with the evil demon master Lord Loss may be about to resume.
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Small Steps
by Louis Sachar
Three years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is trying hard to keep his life on track, but when his old pal X-Ray shows up with a tempting plan to make some easy money scalping concert tickets, Armpit reluctantly goes along.
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So B. It
by Sarah Weeks
You couldn′t really tell about Mama′s brain just from looking at her, but it was obvious as soon as she spoke. She had a high voice, like a little girl′s, and she only knew 23 words. I know this for a fact, because we kept a list of the things Mama said tacked to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. Most of the words were common ones, like good and more and hot, but there was one word only my mother said: soof. Although she lives an unconventional lifestyle with her mentally disabled mother and their doting neighbour, Bernadette, Heidi has a lucky streak that has a way of pointing her in the right direction. When a mysterious word in her mother′s vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi′s thirst for the truth leads her on a cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past.
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Song of the Sparrow
by Lisa Ann Sandell
This lyrical novel in verse tells the tale of fiery, 16-year-old Elaine of Ascolat--who will one day be known in poems and paintings as RThe Lady of ShalottS from Arthurian lore.
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Stanford Wong Flunks Big-time
by Lisa Yee
After flunking sixth-grade English, basketball prodigy Stanford Wong must struggle to pass his summer-school class, keep his failure a secret from his friends, and satisy his academically demanding father.
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Star-crossed
by Linda Collison
Having been discovered as a stowaway as she tries to reach Barbados in 1760 to claim her father's estate, teenaged English orphan Patricia Kelley struggles to survive by learning to be a ship's doctor and by disguising herself as a man when necessary. Includes glossary of nautical terms.
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Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A modern-day classic from Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli, this beloved celebration of individuality is now an original movie on Disney+! And don't miss the author's highly anticipated new novel, Dead Wednesday! Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’ s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love. Don’t miss the sequel, Love, Stargirl, as well as The Warden’s Daughter, a novel about another girl who can't help but stand out. “Spinelli is a poet of the prepubescent. . . . No writer guides his young characters, and his readers, past these pitfalls and challenges and toward their futures with more compassion.” —The New York Times
