AMS Summer Reading List: Grade 6

Looking for to give your middle schooler a good read this summer? Look no further.

The Amherst Middle School library has a suggestd reading list that is sure to include a great book to capture your child's imagination. There is also plenty of great nonfiction (NF) and graphic novels (GN) to comb through.

Got a suggestion for a great book? Let everybody know in the comments below! Also, if your student has already read one of these books, tell us what they thought.

Great Summer Reads For 6th Graders

Alexander, Lloyd: The Gawgon and the Boy

When David, ill with pneumonia, is tutored by his aunt she feeds his active imagination with the likes of Napoleon, daVinci, Sherlock Holmes, and Shakespeare.

Balliett, Blue: Chasing Vermeer

When strange and seemingly unrelated events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year- olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal. Don’t miss The Wright 3 and The Calder Game.

Boyce, Frank Cottrell: The Unforgotten Coat

When two Mongolian brothers inexplicably appear one morning in her sixth grade class, Julie, who lives in a town near Liverpool, England, named Bootle, becomes their new friend and "Good Guide," navigating them through soccer, school uniforms, and British slang.

Buckley-Archer, Linda Gideon the Cutpurse

Ignored by his father and sent to Derbyshire for the weekend, twelve-year-old Peter and his new friend, Kate, are accidentally transported back in time to 1763 England where they are befriended by a reformed cutpurse. Followed by The Time Thief, then The Time Quake.

Clayton, Emma: The Roar

In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, twelve-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so. Next read The Whisper.

NF) Cobb, Vicki Science Experiments You Can Eat (J 507 CO)

Experiments with food demonstrate various scientific principles and produce an eatable result. Experiments include rock candy, grape jelly, cupcakes, and popcorn.

Collins, Suzanne: Gregor the Overlander [Book 1 of the Underland Chronicles]

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. Also read (2) Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, (3) Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, (4) Gregor and the Marks of Secret (5) Gregor and the Code of Claw.

Dowell, Frances O’Roark: Shooting the Moon

When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam, twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the army world that she has grown up in. [shooting refers to photography]

Draper, Sharon M.: Out of My Mind

Considered by many to be mentally retarded, an impatient student with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.

Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart

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. Next comes Inkspell, then Inkdeath.

Greenwald, Lisa My Life in Pink and Green

When the family's drugstore is failing, seventh-grader Lucy uses her problem solving talents to come up with a solution that might give new life to the business, along with helping the environment.

NF) Grogran, John Marley: A Dog like No Other

The author tells about his loveable Labrador retriever named Marley.

Hiaasen, Carl: Chomp

When the difficult star of the reality television show "Expedition Survival" disappears while filming an episode in the Florida Everglades, Wahoo and classmate Tuna Gordon set out to find him while avoiding Tuna's gun-happy father. If you like this eco-fiction, read Hoot, Flush, and Scat.

Holt, Kimberly Willis: When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

In a small Texas town, Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world. Zachary needs a friend. Can Toby and Cal supply that need?

Konigsburg, E.L.: The View from Saturday

Four students, with their own individual stories, develop a special bond and attract the attention of their teacher, a paraplegic, who chooses them to represent their sixth-grade class in the Academic Bowl competition.

Law, Ingrid: Savvy

Learn how Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family -- uses her talent. Available as an AMS library e-book. Next read Scumble.

Lupica, Mike: The Batboy

Even though his mother feels baseball ruined her marriage to his father, she allows fourteen-year-old Brian to become a bat boy for the Detroit Tigers, who have just drafted his favorite player back onto the team. Available as an AMS library e-book.

Riordan, Rick: The Lightning Thief

After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series: (2) The Sea of Monsters, (3) The Titan’s Curse (4) The Battle of the Labyrinth.

Schlitz, Laura Amy: The Drowned Maiden’s Hair

Eleven-year-old Maud is adopted by three spinster sisters who are moonlighting as mediums and want her to play a role in their séances. Available as an AMS library e-book.

Selznick, Brian: Wonderstruck

Having lost his mother and his hearing in a short time, twelve-year-old Ben leaves his Minnesota home to seek the father he never knew in New York City, and meets there Rose, who is also longing for something missing from her life. Ben's story is told in words; Rose's in pictures.

GN) Smith, Jeff Bone: Out from Boneville (graphic novel)

Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are run out of their home, Boneville, and become separated in the wilds, but better fortune begins when the three cousins reunite at a farmstead in a deep forested valley, where Fone meets a young girl named Thorn. There are more titles in this series.

Stewart, Trent Lee: The Mysterious Benedict Society

After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules. Sequel: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey and The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner’s Dilemma.

Yelchin, Eugene: Breaking Stalin’s Nose

In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leaves Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs.

NF) GET A JUMP START ON WORLD LANGUAGES: Amery, Heather The Usborne First Thousand Words in French, Double-page spreads show words in context. Amery, Heather The Usborne First Thousand Words in Spanish, Double-page spreads show words in context.