Academy Logo

May 23, 2023


Dear Rising Sixth Grade Families,


We are excited to provide summer reading options for our incoming sixth-graders as their time to join our Middle School approaches. Every spring our librarians and language arts faculty spend much time thinking about how to maintain our students’ literary engagement. Their experience in education and understanding of literature for middle school readers is an asset to our school. With that, the summer reading program is designed to promote reading as an enjoyable and worthwhile activity as well as to help maintain reading skills, reducing the effect of the “summer slide.” Students are required to choose one book from a curated list of titles to read over the summer, but we hope that they will use some of their extra time to read many more books of their choosing. The range of selections on this list take into consideration the varied interests, abilities, learning styles and maturity levels of the students across all middle school grades in addition to including appeal and points of view that are consistent with our school’s educational mission.


Titles, book covers and links to reviews can be viewed on the libraries’ webpage and are also available under Middle School Resources on the Family Resources Page of the school’s website. Families are encouraged to review this list and talk with their children about the possible choices in order to help find books that are most suitable for them.


We hope that you might also find a title or two that you would like to read this summer and join your children in the fun as well.


Regards,


Shaka Arnold

Head of Middle School


Stacy Nockowitz and Gwen Nzimiro

Librarians


Middle School Summer Reading 2023


Adventure / Mystery

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling

Alone by Megan Freeman

Brother’s Keeper by Julie Milford

Greenglass House by Kate Milford

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson


Classics

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank


Fantasy / Science Fiction

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation by Sylvia Liu

The Eye of Ra by Ben Gartner

Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Muños Ryan

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat


Historical Fiction

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson

The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman

The Poet Slave of Cuba by Margarita Engle

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee


Nonfiction

We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance by Deborah Hopkinson

Born to Fly: The First Women’s Air Race Across America by Steve Sheinkin

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat

Playlist: The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound by James Rhodes

The In-Between by Katie Van Heidrich


Realistic Fiction

Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds

Jennifer Chan is Not Alone by Tae Keller

In the Key of Us by Mariama Lockington

Linked by Gordon Korman

Diamond Willow by Helen Frost