BOOKS FOR ADVANCED READERS
NORTHWESTERN MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS & STUDENTS ASSIST IN SELECTING BOOKS FOR ADVANCED READERS!
With the advances in the publishing world, this is an exciting time to be a middle grades educator and reading promoter. In recent years, progress has been made with the publication of high quality literature appropriate for advanced middle grades readers. Through this literature, the unique intellectual, emotional and literary needs of middle grades readers reading above grade level are met. Through the Books for Advanced Middle Grades Readers project, a committee consisting of middle grades educators and students committed to find a way to meet the important needs of this group of students who have been historically overlooked by publishers and educators alike. Traditionally, it was assumed these students could manage on their own, but that is not a fair or equal assumption. Advanced readers need as much personalized time and attention selecting appropriate reading materials as do struggling readers.
To that end, a committee of library media specialists, in cooperation with classroom teachers and advanced readers in grades 6-8 throughout Indiana collaborated to develop a list of recommended books for advanced readers in the middle school. Begun in 2005, the committee’s work is ongoing, and the list is continually changing and evolving as the publishing world and advanced readers continue to change.
It is the committee’s goal to provide intellectually stimulating and high reading level books that have been reviewed and recommended by students, educators, and committee members. Books were selected for review based on Lexile, a published reading level, and/or the intellectually stimulating nature of the reading, which taps the imagination, both intellectually and in an entertaining fashion.
The committee strongly recommends that when selecting a book for yourself, your students, or your child, please keep in mind that children mature at different rates. Not every book is appropriate for every child at every age. When choosing a book, always rely on your wisdom and good judgment. Continue to encourage students and parents to read together as a family and enjoy lively discussions about they are reading.
ADVANCED READERS READING LISTS
CLASSICS
Author | Adam | Alexie | Alphin | Anderson | Anderson | Anderson | Anderson | Anderson | Avi | Bartoletti | Bass | Bauer | Bauer | Beddor | Bell | Bissinger | Bodeen | Bray | Brian | Brown | Bryson | Buckley-Archer | Carvell | Chabon | Clancy | Clements | Collins | Connor | Cormier | Crutcher | Curry | Curtis | Curtis | Curtis | Cushman | Cushman | Delaney | Denenberg | Dhami | Dickinson | Draper | Draper | Elliott | Ellis | Ende | Farmer | Farmer | Feinstein | Flamel | Fleischman | Fletcher | Follett | Frost | Frost | Frost | Funke | Gantos | Gilmore | Gordon | Gottleib | Green | Grimes | Gruber | Haddon | Hannigan | Hardinge | Hesse | Hoffman | Hoffman | Horvath | Hosseini | Houston |
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Tilte | Hitchhiker's Guide SERIES | Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Ghost Soldier | Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing | Chains | Pox Party | Speak | Wintergirls | True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle | Boy Who Dared | Sign of the Qin SERIES | Am I Blue? Coming out of the Silence | Rules of the Road | Looking Glass Wars SERIES | Nick of Time | Friday Night Lights | Compound | Going Bovine | Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys | DaVinci Code | Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail | Gideon SERIES | Sweetgrass Basket | Summerland | Hunt for Red October | Things Not Seen SERIES | Hunger Games SERIES | Miss Birdie Chose a Shovel | Chocolate War | Athletic Shorts: six short stories | Black Canary | Bucking the Sarge | Elijah of Buxton | Watsons Go to Birmingham | Catherine, called Birdy | Midwife's Apprentice | Last Apprentice SERIES | Pandora of Athens: 399 BC | Bindi Babes | Ropemaker | Fire From the Rock | Just Another Hero | Give Me Liberty | Breadwinner | Neverending Story | House of Scorpion | Land of the Silver Apples, The | Cover-Up | Secrets of the Immortal SERIES | Bull Run | Shadow Spinner | Pillars of the Earth | Braid, The | Crossing Stones | Keesha's House | Inkheart SERIES | Joey Pigza SERIES | Exchange Student | Deeper SERIES | Stick Figure: a Diary of My Former Self | An Abundance of Katherines | Jazmin's Notebook | Witch's Boy | Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night | Ida B | Fly by Night | Out of the Dust | Indigo SERIES | Water Tales SERIES | Vacation | Kite Runner | New Boy |
CONTEMPORARY
Author | Alcott | Alcott | Austen | Austen | Barrett | Baum | Buck | Christie | Cooper | Craven | Defoe | Dickens | Dickens | Dickens | Dickens | Dickens | Dickens | Doyle | Fitzgerald | Fitzgerald | Forbes | Frank | Frank | Gaines | Golding | Hawthorne | Herbert | Hinton | Hughes | Hugo | Hunt | Hunt | Huxley | Irving | Kipling | Kipling | Knowles | Lee | LeGuin | Lewis | London | London | Miller | Miller | Mitchell | Montgomery | O'Dell | O'Neill | Orczy | Orwell | Orwell | Poe | Poe | Sewell | Shakespeare | Shakespeare | Shakespeare | Shakespeare | Shakespeare | Shakespeare | Shelley | Steinbeck | Stevenson | Stowe | Steinbeck | Tolkein | Tolkein | Twain | Twain | Twain | Upton | Verne |
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Title | Eight Cousins | Little Women SERIES | Pride and Prejudice | Sense and Sensibility | Lilies of the Field | Wizard of Oz SERIES | Good Earth | Then There Were None | Last of the Mohicans | I Heard the Owl Call My Name | Robinson Crusoe | Christmas Carol | David Copperfield | Great Expectations | Hard Times | Oliver Twist | Tale of Two Cities | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes SERIES | Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Great Gatsby | Johnny Tremain | Alas, Babylon | Diary of Anne Frank | Lesson Before Dying | Lord of the Flies | Scarlet Letter | Dune | Outsiders | Raisin in the Sun | Hunchback of Notre Dame | Lottery Rose | Up a Road Slowly | Brave New World | Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Captains Courageous | Jungle Book | Separate Peace | To Kill a Mockingbird | Screwtape Letters | Screwtape Letters | Call of the Wild | White Fang | Crucible | Death of a Salesman | Gone with the Wind | Anne of Green Gables SERIES | Island of the Blue Dolphins | Long Day's Journey into Night | Scarlet Pimpernel | 1984 | Animal Farm | Pit and the Pendulum | Tell-tale Heart | Black Beauty | Hamlet | History Plays | Macbeth | Midsummer Night's Dream | Romeo and Juliet | Twelfth Night | Frankenstein | Of Mice and Men | Treasure Island | Uncle Tom's Cabin | Pearl | Hobbit | Lord of the Rings SERIES | Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | Jungle | 20,000 Leagues under the Sea |