6th Grade Reads

24 hours in nowhere / Dusti Bowling

Dog driven / Terry Lynn Johnson

Disney after dark / Ridley Pearson

Beyond the bright sea / by Lauren Wolk

Crenshaw / Katherine Applegate

Josephine against the sea / Shakirah Bourne

The adventurers guild / Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

The school for good and evil / Soman Chainani ; illustrations by Iacopo Bruno

The thirteenth fairy / Melissa de la Cruz ; [illustrated by James Madsen]

Kiki Kallira breaks a kingdom / Sangu Mandanna

Stella by starlight / Sharon M. Draper

It all comes down to this / Karen English

A place to belong / Cynthia Kadohata ; illustrated by Julia Kuo

Doll bones / Holly Black with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler.

View from Pagoda Hill / Michaela MacColl

Esperanza rising / Pam Munoz Ryan

Hollow chest / Brita Sandstrom ; with drawings by Dadu Shin

Camp Murderface / Josh Berk & Saundra Mitchell

What lives in the woods / Lindsay Currie

One for sorrow : a ghost story / Mary Downing Hahn

Best nerds forever / James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein ; illustrated by Charles Santoso

The peculiar incident on Shady Street / Lindsay Currie

The usual suspects / Maurice Broaddus

Finally, something mysterious / Doug Cornett

The mysterious disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) / David Levithan

The unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair / Amy Makechnie

Fighting words / Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

While I was away / Waka T. Brown

Out of my heart / Sharon M. Draper

Three times lucky / Sheila Turnage.

Many points of me / Caroline Gertler ; [illustrations by Vesper Stamper]

The other boy / M. G. Hennessey ; illustrated by Sfé R. Monster

A soft place to land / Janae Marks

The miscalculations of lightning girl / Stacy McAnulty

Honestly Elliott / Gillian McDunn

The undercover book list / Colleen Nelson

The double life of Danny Day / Mike Thayer

It all begins with jelly beans / Nova Weetman

Space case : a moon base alpha novel / Stuart Gibbs

Found / Margaret Peterson Haddix

Brother from a box / Evan Kuhlman ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

Cosmic / Frank Cottrell Boyce.

One small hop / Madelyn Rosenberg

A time traveler’s theory of relativity / Nicole Valentine

Sidetracked / Diana Harmon Asher

The Brooklyn nine : a novel in nine innings / Alan Gratz

Ten thousand tries / Amy Makechnie

Book List: 6th Grade Reads

Sachem Public Library

24 hours in nowhere / Dusti Bowling

Welcome to Nowhere, the least livable town in the United States. For Gus, life there is made worse by Bo Taylor, Nowhere's biggest bully. When Bo tries to force Gus to eat a dangerously spiny cactus, Rossi Scott, one of the best racers in Nowhere, comes to his rescue—but in return she has to give Bo her prized dirt bike. Determined to buy it back, Gus agrees to go searching for gold in Dead Frenchman Mine.

Dog driven / Terry Lynn Johnson

McKenna, fourteen, is losing her vision to Stargardt's disease, but that will not stop her from competing in a rigorous new sled dog race through the Canadian wilderness.

Nowhere boy / Katherine Marsh

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed, a Syrian refugee, and thirteen-year-old Max, an American boy, are bound by a secret that sets them on the adventure of a lifetime.

Pony / R. J. Palacio

A modern classic about a boy on a quest to rescue his father, with only a ghost as his companion and a mysterious pony as his guide.

Northwind / Gary Paulsen

When sickness decimates his fishing village, an orphan named Leif flees north in a cedar canoe, journeying along a brutal but beautiful coastline.

Disney after dark / Ridley Pearson

Finn Whitman and his fellow DHIs, teenagers chosen to serve as actors for a new technology, investigate strange occurrences at Disney theme park attractions, racing to uncover a supernatural force that could destroy the world.

Beyond the bright sea / by Lauren Wolk

Set adrift on the ocean in a small skiff as a newborn, twelve-year-old Crow embarks on a quest to find the missing pieces of her history.

Crenshaw / Katherine Applegate

Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again. Crenshaw is a cat. He's large, he's outspoken, and he's imaginary. He has come back into Jackson's life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything?

Josephine against the sea / Shakirah Bourne

When she discovers her father's new girlfriend, Mariss, is actually a sea creature eager to take her place as his first love, Josephine must convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save her dad from Mariss' clutches.

The adventurers guild / Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

Conscripted into the dangerous Adventurers Guild, best friends Zed and Brock must defend what is left of humanity against terrible monsters in this epic fantasy.

The school for good and evil / Soman Chainani ; illustrations by Iacopo Bruno

Best friends Sophie (princess wannabe) and Agatha (witchy loner) are headed to the School for Good and Evil, but their assumed destinies are reversed.

The thirteenth fairy / Melissa de la Cruz ; [illustrated by James Madsen]

A bullied teen is summoned by a character from her favorite books into a magical world that is being threatened by an evil queen.

Kiki Kallira breaks a kingdom / Sangu Mandanna

Drawn into the mystical world she created, 11-year-old Kiki Kallira must battle against her fear and anxiety to save two worlds--the real and imagined--from the wrath of an ancient deity bent on total destruction.

Airborn / Kenneth Oppel

Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

Stella by starlight / Sharon M. Draper

When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.

It all comes down to this / Karen English

In the summer of 1965, Sophie's family becomes the first African Americans to move into their upper middle-class neighborhood in Los Angeles. When riots erupt in nearby Watts, she learns that life and her own place in it are a lot more complicated than they had seemed.

A place to belong / Cynthia Kadohata ; illustrated by Julia Kuo

Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an incarceration camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.

Doll bones / Holly Black with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler.

Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.

View from Pagoda Hill / Michaela MacColl

Ning, a Chinese American girl, struggles to find her place in the world and is forced to leave her home in Shanghai to go to America with a father she barely knows.

Esperanza rising / Pam Munoz Ryan

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

Hollow chest / Brita Sandstrom ; with drawings by Dadu Shin

When his brother Theo returns home from World War II cold and distant, Charlie soon discovers that Theo's heart has been consumed by a war wolf, which lives off of grief, and must get Theo's heart back before it's too late.

Wolf Hollow / Lauren Wolk

Twelve-year-old Annabelle must learn to stand up for what's right in the face of a manipulative and violent new bully who targets people Annabelle cares about, including a homeless World War I veteran.

Camp Murderface / Josh Berk & Saundra Mitchell

Camp Sweetwater is finally reopening, three decades after it mysteriously shut down. Campers Corryn Quinn and Tez Jones are so ready to take their summer by storm, but before they can so much as toast one marshmallow, strange things start happening.

What lives in the woods / Lindsay Currie

Ginny is unhappy when her family moves from Chicago to upstate Michigan for the summer; her father has a job restoring a 1930s mansion, but there are rumors about Woodmoor and the forest next to it. Ginny is soon convinced that the rumors are true, because something or someone is haunting the house, and she plans to investigate.

One for sorrow : a ghost story / Mary Downing Hahn

When unlikeable Elsie dies in the influenza pandemic of 1918, she comes back to haunt Annie to make sure she'll be Annie's best--and only--friend.

Best nerds forever / James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein ; illustrated by Charles Santoso

Rendered a ghost by a bicycle accident, young Finn McAllister teams up with fellow spirit Isabella Rojas to commit invisible pranks on the living, before discovering that they cannot move on to the afterlife.

Nightbooks / J.A. White

Imprisoned by Natacha, a witch, in a New York apartment, Alex must tell her a new scary story every night in order to stay alive.

The peculiar incident on Shady Street / Lindsay Currie

When lights start flickering and temperatures suddenly drop, twelve-year-old Tessa, sensing her new house may be haunted, recruits some new friends to help her unravel the mystery of who or what is trying to communicate with her and why.

The usual suspects / Maurice Broaddus

Thelonius Mitchell is tired of being labeled. He's in special ed, separated from the "normal" kids at school who don’t have any “issues.” When a gun is found at a neighborhood hangout, Thelonius and his pals become instant suspects and he isn't about to let that label stick.

Finally, something mysterious / Doug Cornett

Paul has always thought that Bellwood was a strange town, but also a boring one. When hundreds of rubber duckies appear on the lawn of poor Mr. Babbage, finally, there is something to investigate. Paul is convinced that uncovering who deposited the duckies will bring some sense to an upside-down world.

OCDaniel / Wesley King

A thirteen-year-old boy's life revolves around hiding his obsessive compulsive disorder until a girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the first time and he gets a mysterious note that changes everything.

The mysterious disappearance of Aidan S. (as told to his brother) / David Levithan

Aidan disappeared for six days, then reappeared just as suddenly as he vanished. The story he tells is impossible, but it's the story he's sticking to. His brother, Lucas, wants to believe him, but being on Aidan's side would mean believing in the impossible.

The unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair / Amy Makechnie

As ten-year-old Gwyn searches for a missing neighbor in her new town in Iowa, she learns much about her mother, who grew up there but has suffered from memory loss since Gwyn was four.

Vanished! / James Ponti

In Washington, D.C., twelve-year-old Florian Bates, a consulting detective for the FBI, and his best friend Margaret must uncover the truth behind a series of private middle school pranks that may or may not involve the daughter of the President of the United States.

Hope Springs / Jaime Berry

Eleven-year-old crafter Jubilee Johnson's assumptions about her vagabond life, her estranged mother, and her idol, television's perfect crafter Arletta Paisley, start to change after Jubi and her grandmother move to a small Texas town.

Fighting words / Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ten-tear-old Della has always had her older sister, Suki: When their mom went to prison, Della had Suki. When their mom's boyfriend took them in, Della had Suki. When that same boyfriend did something so awful they had to run fast, Della had Suki. Suki is Della's own wolf--her protector. But who has been protecting Suki?

While I was away / Waka T. Brown

When twelve-year-old Waka's parents suspect she cannot understand the basic Japanese they speak to her, they make a drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her grandmother.

Out of my heart / Sharon M. Draper

Because she loves horses but is scared of them, Melody wants to conquer her fears, so she hopes a summer camp will be the place to welcome someone with cerebral palsy who wants to learn to ride.

Three times lucky / Sheila Turnage.

Washed ashore as a baby in tiny Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, Mo LoBeau, now eleven, and her best friend Dale turn detective when the amnesiac Colonel, owner of a café and co-parent of Mo with his cook, Miss Lana, seems implicated in a murder.

Many points of me / Caroline Gertler ; [illustrations by Vesper Stamper]

When Georgia finds a secret sketch her late father--a famed artist--left behind, the discovery leads her down a path that may reshape everything holding her family and friends together.

The other boy / M. G. Hennessey ; illustrated by Sfé R. Monster

Shane is just a regular boy. He loves pitching for his baseball team, working on his graphic novel, and hanging out with his friend Josh. But Shane is keeping something private, something that might make a difference to his teammates, to Josh, and to his new crush, Madeline. When a classmate threatens to reveal his secret, Shane's whole world comes crashing down.

A soft place to land / Janae Marks

Twelve-year old Joy dreams of writing music for the movies, but first she has to survive her family's move into a small apartment when her father loses his job.

Ungifted / Gordon Korman

Due to an administrative mix-up after pulling a major prank at middle school, troublemaker Donovan Curtis is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction, a special school for gifted and talented students.

The miscalculations of lightning girl / Stacy McAnulty

A lightning strike made Lucy, twelve, a math genius but, after years of homeschooling, her grandmother enrolls her in middle school and she learns that life is more than numbers.

Honestly Elliott / Gillian McDunn

Struggling with ADHD, loneliness, and connecting with his divorced father who would rather see him embrace sports Instead of cooking, sixth-grader Elliott finds an unlikely friend in popular, perfect Maribel when the two are paired in a school-wide contest.

The undercover book list / Colleen Nelson

An anonymous correspondence between two seventh graders becomes an unlikely friendship after they start leaving notes in a school library book.

Loser / Jerry Spinelli

Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance along with the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.

The double life of Danny Day / Mike Thayer

Danny Day, age eleven, lives every day twice, which allows him to skip class, play video games for hours, and try to bring down bullies at his new middle school.

It all begins with jelly beans / Nova Weetman

When they are selected to read speeches at their elementary school graduation, an unlikely friendship develops between two sixth-graders, one popular and one a misfit, who are facing family problems and health issues.

Space case : a moon base alpha novel / Stuart Gibbs

Dashiell Gibson, who lives on Moon Base Alpha, has to solve a murder of one of the moon's most prominent doctors.

Found / Margaret Peterson Haddix

When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces.

Brother from a box / Evan Kuhlman ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

Sixth-grader Matt Rambeau finds out what it is like to have a brother when his father, a computer genius, creates a robot kid that goes to school with Matt, shares his feelings and ideas, plays, does chores, fights for his "life" when chased by spies, and becomes a part of the family.

Cosmic / Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Liam Digby is so unusually tall that people think he should act like an adult, which leads him to compete against adults for a chance to go into space.

Jinxed / Amy McCulloch

After fourteen-year-old Lacey Chu repairs a highly advanced smartphone/robotic pet companion, or baku, called Jinx, the baku gets her into her dream school, Profectus, where she is exposed to dangerous secrets.

One small hop / Madelyn Rosenberg

Discovering what may be the last surviving bullfrog in a near-future North America, Ahab and his friends decide to locate another bullfrog on the black market to save all of frogkind, with unexpected results.

Checked / Cynthia Kadohata

To help his dog through cancer treatment, Conor gives up hockey and finds himself considering who he is without the sport that has defined him, and connecting more with his family and best friend.

A time traveler's theory of relativity / Nicole Valentine

Days before his thirteenth birthday, science-lover Finn learns that the women of his family are time travelers and he is expected to help locate his missing mother.

Sidetracked / Diana Harmon Asher

Joseph Friedman is friendless and puny, with ADD to boot. He spends most of his time avoiding the class bully and hiding out in the Resource Room, but the Resource Room teacher encourages him to join the school cross country team where he meets Heather, a new student who's tough, athletic and refuses to be pushed around by anybody.

The Brooklyn nine : a novel in nine innings / Alan Gratz

Follows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience American life and play baseball.

Kid owner / Tim Green

When Ryan learns his estranged father left him the Dallas Cowboys in his will, it is all Ryan can do to keep his dad's other son from snatching the team away.

Travel team / Mike Lupica

After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national prominence, twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.

Ten thousand tries / Amy Makechnie

Twelve-year-old Golden Maroni starts eighth grade determined to be master of his universe, but learns he cannot control everything on the soccer field, in his friendships, and especially in facing his father's incurable disease.

The comeback / Alex O'Brien

On the surface, Chris is pretty average, playing hockey and having friends. Underneath it all, Chris is depressed. He quits his hockey team, feeling he has let them down, but his doctor suggests he try another sport. Chris starts playing soccer, and the positive benefits start to take effect.

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6th Grade Reads

Book List: 6th Grade Reads

Sachem Public Library