Just because summer is upon us doesn’t mean your child shouldn’t continue reading during the holiday. You can continue the fun with this summer reading list for children in Grades 6 through 8.
Your kiddo will need a break from the sun and get some downtime during the long summer days.
Curl up with a great book and keep their minds (and reading skills) sharp.
You can find this summer reading list for 6th, 7th and 8th grade at your local library or purchase through the affiliate links provided for your convenience.
And a special thanks to the Association for Library Service for the wonderful summer reading inspiration.
Summer Reading List, Grades 6-8
My sons personally really liked Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, Wonder and Smile!
Summer Reading List
When You Reach Me
Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction * A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book* A Junior Library Guild Selection
This Newbery Medal winner will appeal to readers of all types, especially those who are looking for a thought-provoking mystery with a mind-blowing twist.
The Wild Book
Fefa struggles with words.
She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write.
Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping away like bullfrogs.
How will she ever understand them?
Wonder
USA Today bestseller * Time Magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time * New York Times Book Review Notable Book * Washington Post Best Kids’ Book
The book that inspired the Choose Kind movement!
The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Nicholas Flamel appeared in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter — but did you know he really lived? And his secrets aren’t safe!
Discover the truth in book one of the New York Times bestselling series the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.
American Born Chinese
National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature * 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: New * Eisner Award nominee for Best Coloring * 2007 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year * New York Times bestseller
A tour-de-force by New York Times bestselling graphic novelist Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters.
Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.
Axe Cop, Vol. 1
Whether he’s fighting gun-toting dinosaurs, teaming up with Ninja Moon Warriors, or answering readers’ questions via his insightful advice column, “Ask Axe Cop,” the adventures of Axe Cop and his incomparable team of crime fighters will delight and perplex even the most stoic of readers.
Better Nate Than Ever
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * A Slate Favorite Book of the Year
Tim Federle writes a warm and witty debut that’s full of broken curfews, second chances, and the adventure of growing up – because sometimes you have to get 400 miles from your backyard to finally feel at home.
Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon
A Newbery Honor book * A National Book Awards finalist for Young People’s Literature * A Washington Post Best Kids Books of the Year
Perfect for middle grade readers and history enthusiasts, New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents the fascinating and frightening true story of the creation behind the most destructive force that birthed the arms race.
Out from Boneville (BONE #1)
The first book in Jeff Smith’s New York Times bestselling, award-winning graphic novel series featuring an unlikely hero who must save an idyllic valley from the forces of evil.
Close to Famous
Full of humor, unforgettable characters, surprises, and lots and lots of heart, this is Joan Bauer at her most engaging.
Does My Head Look Big In This?
When sixteen-year-old Amal decides to wear the hijab full-time, her entire world changes, all because of a piece of cloth…
Ender’s Game (The Ender Quintet)
1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel * 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel
The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long.
Ender’s two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Friends with Boys
A coming-of-age tale with a spooky twist! Funny, surprising, and tender, Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks is a pitch perfect YA graphic novel full of spooky supernatural fun.
The Giver (Readers Circle)
This haunting story centers on Jonas who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment.
Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.
The Grimm Legacy
Elizabeth has just started working as a page at the New York Circulating Material Repository – a lending library of objects, contemporary and historical, common and obscure.
Before she knows it, she and her fellow pages are suddenly caught up in an exciting, and dangerous, magical adventure.
The Hunger Games (Book 1)
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender.
Life as We Knew It
Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all, hope, in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.
The Lions of Little Rock
Winner of the New-York Historical Society Children’s History Book Prize * A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
As twelve-year-old Marlee starts middle school in 1958 Little Rock, it feels like her whole world is falling apart. Until she meets Liz, the new girl at school.
Liz is everything Marlee wishes she could be: she’s brave, brash and always knows the right thing to say. But when Liz leaves school without even a good-bye, the rumor is that Liz was caught passing for white.
Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life
James Patterson’s debut middle-grade novel addresses some of middle schoolers’ biggest issues: bullies, first crushes, and finding out what makes each of us special, all with a hilarious main character and fantastic in-text illustrations that are sure to have young readers begging for more!
The Mother-Daughter Book Club
Acclaimed author Heather Vogel Frederick will delight daughters of all ages in a novel about the fabulousness of fiction, family, and friendship.
One Crazy Summer
In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.
The Kane Chronicles, Book One – The Red Pyramid
If you haven’t yet read the Kane Chronicles, Rick Riordan’s action-adventure trilogy based on Ancient Egyptian mythology…
Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them–Set–has his sights on the Kanes.
To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe — a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.
Smile
Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth.
What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached.
Stormbreaker (Alex Rider)
They said his uncle Ian died in a car accident. Alex Rider knows that’s a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle’s car confirm the truth.
Nothing can prepare him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for Britain’s top-secret intelligence agency.
Titanic: Voices From the Disaster
In this award-winning book, critically acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the voices and stories of real Titanic survivors and witnesses to the disaster.
Like this summer reading book list? Don’t miss out on other age-appropriate summer reading lists for all the kiddos – from Kindergarten all the way through 8th grade!
Looks like some good ones in there! My middle schooler just started Detectives in Togas, to go along with our study of ancient Greece.
What a great idea to tie it into a broader theme!
What a GREAT list. I’m so good with younger kid books, but I am having a hard time finding books for older boys. Thanks for compiling this. I’m sure I’ll be pulling it up on my phone at the library. 🙂
I do the same thing, Hilary 🙂 Let me know which books are home runs with your boys. I’m always curious what other kiddo’s reactions are.