Summer Reading 2018: Grades 6 & 7

Archer has four important role models in his life--his dad, his grandfather, his uncle Paul, and his favorite teacher, Mr. McLeod. When Uncle Paul and Mr. McLeod get married, Archer's sixth-grade year becomes one he'll never forget.

Dreaming of Broadway stardom, eighth-grader Nate Foster runs away from his dull Pennsylvania town to the Big Apple, and to a casting call for a new musical. There's an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small- town blues and big-time stardom.

Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift in a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow's only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar. Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn't until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, an unstoppable chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger.

When he realizes that his grandfather's stories of an enchanted circus are true, Micah
Tuttle sets out to find the mysterious Circus Mirandus--and to use its magic to save his grandfather's life.

Thyme Owens moves across the country with her family so her younger brother can take
part in a promising cancer drug trial, and though all she wants is for him to get better, adjusting to life in Manhattan is anything but easy .All Thyme can do is count the minutes, the hours, and days, and hope time can bring both a miracle for Val and a way back home.

A shy boy's life is sent spiraling into adventure after a fateful day when he discovers a pig in a small hat and returns it to its home at the mysterious Explorers Club.

As he tries to survive Hanukkah, 1971 in the suburbs of the suburbs of Los Angeles, middle-school magician Joel learns to appreciate life's small miracles with the help of an unusual stranger he meets on a bus.

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

Impoverished Russian country girl Elena Rudina and the aristocratic Ekatrina meet and
set in motion an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and the witch Baba Yaga, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.

Arturo Zamora’s family restaurant has been the center point of their Miami neighborhood
since his grandparents founded it 19 years ago. Hoping to expand, the family puts in a bid on the lot next door, only to discover that a developer wants not only the lot, but the entire block. Arturo, his cousins, and friends vow to fight back.

After Nadia is separated from her family while fleeing the civil war, she spends the next
four days with a mysterious old man who helps her navigate the checkpoints and snipers of the rebel, ISIS, and Syrian armies that are littering Aleppo on her way to meeting her father at the Turkish border.

Relates the story of two early-twentieth-century cousins who believed they saw real fairies, created photographs using paper cutouts when they were teased by adult family members, and inadvertently drew the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a fellow believer.

Ellie's scientist grandfather has discovered a way to reverse aging, and consequently has turned into a teenager--which makes for complicated relationships when he moves in with Ellie and her mother, his daughter.

Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. Ghost has been the one causing problems -- and running away from them -- until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who blew his own shot at success by using drugs, and who is determined to keep other kids from blowing their shots at life.

Twelve-year-old Sophie discovers the abilities that have always caused her to stand out are because she is actually an elf and, after she is brought to Eternalia where she can hone her skills, Sophie learns she harbors certain secrets that others would kill to learn.

This book begins with a warning: "Do not read beyond this page!" Though the brain teasers and coded messages in this supernatural mystery will make you curious about what happens next, beware! As you read, you (like Max-Ernst and Cass, the book's eccentric 11- year-old heroes) might learn secrets that put you in mortal danger at the hands of a covert, immortality-obsessed cult.

When wasps come to Steve in a dream offering to fix his sick baby brother, he thinks all he has to do is say yes. But yes may not mean what Steve thinks it means.

Fifth-grader Melody has cerebral palsy, a condition that affects her body but not her
mind. Although she is unable to walk, talk, or feed or care for herself, she can read, think, and feel. She's brilliant, but few people realize just how brilliant until she receives "Elvira," her Medi- Talker computer.

When cell phones are banned at their school, Frost and his friends start communicating through sticky notes left all over the school before other kids start following their example, triggering a wave of bullying activities in the wake of a new girl's arrival.

Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.

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.

Twelve-year-old Jonathan Grisby has been sent to the Slabhenge Reformatory School
for Troubled Boys, a former lunatic asylum on a remote island. When a freak accident eliminates (deservedly) the entire staff of adults, the boys find themselves suddenly free--and trapped on Scar Island which seems to be sinking into the ocean.

In an alternate history of New York, three kids try to solve a modern-world puzzle and complete a treasure hunt laid into the streets and buildings of the city.

Told entirely in text messages, emails, and notes, best friends Prianka, Gabby, and Cecily find their friendship tested by busily planning a spring fair, bullying, and boys. But when the new girl Victoria is accidentally sent a hurtful text message, the entire sixth grade gets called out for bullying, cell phones are confiscated, and the trio known as CPG4Eva is forced to figure out just how strong their friendships are IRL.

From the boys who sailed with Columbus to today's young activists, this unique book brings to life the contributions of young people throughout American history, with biographies of dozens of young people who made a mark in American history, including explorers, planters, spies, cowpunchers, sweatshop workers, and civil rights workers.

An old red oak tree tells how he and his crow friend, Bongo, help their human neighbors
get along after a threat against an immigrant family is carved into the tree's trunk.