Blubber by Judy Blume
Jill goes along with the rest of the fifth-grade class in tormenting a classmate and then finds out what it’s like when she, too, becomes a target.
Frindle by Andrew Clements
When he decides to turn his fifth grade teacher’s love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control.
Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy by Diane Stanley
Eighth-grader Franny and her friends investigate why most of the students at their exclusive boarding school are brilliant, beautiful, and perfectly behaved.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L Konigsburg
Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle
Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg’s father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur
While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven-year-old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with losing her father and sister in a car accident, and then being abandoned by her grief-stricken mother.
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1970s television game show, “The $20,000 Pyramid,” a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.
All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall
Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other community members relate how a school project to build the world’s largest tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone involved.
The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills
While dealing with her parents’ separation and her best friend’s distance, Amanda is able to work out some of her anxiety through her fifth-grade project–writing a diary from the point of view of a ten-year-old girl whose brothers fight on opposite sides in the Civil War.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
When thirteen-year-old Ali spends the summer with her aunt and cousin at the family’s vacation home, she stumbles upon a secret that her mother and aunt have been hiding for over thirty years.
Horns & Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson
Along a magic-saturated stretch of the Mississippi River near Blue Wing, Minnesota, twelve-year-old Claire and her bullying cousin Duke are drawn into an adventure involving Bodacious Deepthink the Great Rock Troll, a helpful fairy, and a group of trolls searching for their fathers.
Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop
Twelve-year-old Grace does her best working at the mill to bring in more money for her family, and when Grace writes a secret letter to the Child Labor Board describing her working conditions, things change when a concerned reporter shows up to get the story.
Wenny Has Wings by Janet Lee Carey
Having had a near-death experience in the accident that killed his younger sister, eleven-year-old Will tries to cope with the situation by writing her letters.
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents’ divorce.
Holes by Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his family’s bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright
A dollhouse filled with a ghostly light in the middle of the night and dolls that have moved from where she last left them lead Amy and her retarded sister to unravel the mystery surrounding grisly murders that took place years ago.
The Witches by Roald Dahl
A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a plot by witches to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.
Million Dollar Putt by Dan Gutman
Assisted by his neighbor, Birdie, blind thirteen-year-old Ed “Bogie” Bogard will win one million dollars if he can sink a ten-foot putt in Hawaii’s fifth annual Angus Killick Memorial Tournament.
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Science fair: a story of mystery, danger, international suspense, and a very nervous frog by Dave Barry
The president of Kprshtskan is plotting to infiltrate the science fair at Hubble Middle School in Maryland in order to take over the United States government, but when Toby Harbinger, an ordinary student, makes up his mind finally to win the fair, the terrorists’ plans go awry.