Must Reads for MS?

[Tiffany Whitehead]

In the middle of this school year, I will be moving from the library in a 2nd-3rd grade school to a middle school. I've been completely absorbed in younger children's books for a few years now, so I need some recs on popular MS level books that I should read before I make the transition. So what do you suggest?

[Julie Hoy]

Tiffany,
I'm in the same situation as you. My background is PreK-5 (19 years!) and now I'm going into an 8th & 9th grade school. Any & all suggestions are welcome!

Jeanne,
Your graffiti wall is an excellent idea! Thanks!

Julie

[Maureen Olsen]

Your State Awards nominees would be a great place to start. If you are not aware of a web site for these, you can view all state lists on FLR Titlewave. Students at my middle school are also very much into The Hunger Games, Cirque du Freak, Maximum Ride, Twilight, and The Lightning Thief. These are all series books. Happy reading!

[Nancy Antonuccio]

We have 6th through 8th graders at our middle school and I have found that series books are extemely popular. I created a separate series section and rotate books in an out of there just to create visabilty. When books are in the series section I usually have a waiting list for many of them. All of the same that were previously mentioned are also popular at our school along with Dan Gutman's Baseball series for the boys and the Clique series for the girls. Gary Paulsen is another good author for those that like outdoor adventure and survival. Stormbreaker was our top circulating book for the year.

The 8th graders are an entirely different reader. They really enjoy Sarah Dessen's books. Gym Candy is a good one for boys that are into sports. Unwind is very suspenseful. A Child Called It has been on the top 10 for all 3 years that I've been at the middle school.

We also use a book review wall where students can write "informal" reviews on books. They read the reviews to get new ideas for their next read. They seem to really like this!

Enjoy! This is a really fun age!

[J.Robertson]

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger will appeal to those students who liked the Wimpy Kid series even though this one isn't supported with graphic drawings. It's suitable for a lower reader, and content will appeal to both genders.
Gimme a Call by Sarah Mlynowski will really appeal to grade eight girls. Details about the book can be found here: http://web.me.com/janicerobertson Scroll to find it. If you look at the podcasts page, found at the same URL, the one about switching bodies contains some great reads as well.
Hope that helps.

[Sue Kraus]

Check out my website. http://sites.google.com/site/oakridgemediacenter/
On it I have a link to my Google books -- Mrs. Kraus Recommends. These are all books I've read and liked. I only put books on that I've read and would/do recommend to my middle schoolers. If you have any questions about any of them, just let me know. :-)

[Karen Yingling]

Start with a lot of middle school blogs! It will take you a while to get up to speed on reading the actual books, but you can get brief descriptions from blogs that will help you to hand students a war book, or a fantasy book, etc. Good luck! It's taken me almost 14 years, but I've read almost every fiction book in my school library!