Thayer Summer Reading- Middle School
Get your summer reading books at Buttonwood Books and Toys! Orders can be picked up in person at the store or shipped via USPS. Please double check the Thayer Website for specifics on each grade.
All books are grouped by grade with the required book for all grades, The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat listed at the top.
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Directions from your school:
Middle school students will read at least three books this summer.
First, all Middle School students will read the novel The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat, which will serve as our community read in advance of a virtual visit from the author in September. Christina Soontornvat’s website has a page devoted to the novel, including a discussion guide that might prove useful and/or helpful. The Last Mapmaker is available as an audiobook, as are most of the grade-specific texts that follow, and we encourage students to utilize audiobooks for their summer reading if it’s helpful and/or preferred.
Additional grade-specific expectations are outlined below. Though we’re only encouraging, not requiring, students to read a self-selected title beyond those listed, we certainly hope they will do so. We’ve built and maintained over the past few years a website called the “TAMS Independent Reading Guide,” which houses links to prominent book awards and book lists, in addition to hundreds of book recommendations from TAMS students themselves. You’ll also find a section of the site built by Ms. Francois, our librarian, that includes book talks, a featured author, and free choice summer reading suggestions.
This is the required book for grades 5-8.
From Christina Soontornvat, the visionary and versatile author of three Newbery Honor Books, comes a high-seas adventure set in a Thai-inspired fantasy world.
This is the second required book for 5th grade.
A red oak tree and a crow help their human neighbors work out differences, in this beautiful, nuanced novel from Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate.
This is an option for the third required book for 5th grade.
In this powerful, New York Times—bestselling middle-grade novel, Newbery Honor author Ann M. Martin tells the story of a girl who's on the autism spectrum, and the dog she loves.
This is an option for the third required book for 5th grade.
From Johnnie Christmas--the illustrator of Margaret Atwood's Angel Catbird books--a middle grade, stand-alone graphic novel about a girl facing her fears. Newly relocated to Florida Bree's only available school elective is swimming. Like many in her black community, she doesn't know how to swim and fears it. But with the help of a supportive neighbor Bree thrives and is good enough to help the school start to enter competitions.
This is the second required book for 6th grade.
Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
The highly anticipated follow-up to the runaway hit graphic memoir Real Friends.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
A National Book Award Finalist, this remarkable graphic novel is about growing up in a refugee camp, as told by a former Somali refugee to the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
Newbery Medal-winning middle grade novel in verse about twelve-year-old twins and basketball stars Josh and Jordan Bell who must learn to deal with problems on and off the court as they navigate homework, first crushes, family and, of course, basketball.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
Contemporary school story set in small-town Louisiana is about friendship, family, lies, and being true to yourself and your dreams. A tour-de-force from a bestselling and award-winning author that will appeal to fans of Kate DiCamillo and Rebecca Stead.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
"Powerful.... Johnson writes about the long shadows of the past with such ambition that any reader with a taste for mystery will appreciate the puzzle Candice and Brandon must solve." -- The New York Times Book Review
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
Two heavy-hitters in children's literature deliver a critically acclaimed, bestselling biographical novel of cultural icon Muhammad Ali.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
A gut-wrenching, startling historical thriller about communist Romania and the citizen spy network that devastated a nation, from the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
Two teens must learn the “art of killing” in this Printz Honor–winning book, the first in a chilling new series from Neal Shusterman, author of the New York Times bestselling Unwind dystology.
This is an option for the third required book for 6th grade.
From Newbery Honor–winner Margi Preus, a gripping middle-grade fantasy about a girl who must save the children of her world from being “windswept"
This is the second required book for 7th grade.
A tour de force from acclaimed author Alan Gratz (Prisoner B-3087), this timely -- and timeless -- novel tells the powerful story of three different children seeking refuge.
This is an option for the third required book for 7th grade.
The bestselling memoir by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
This is an option for the third required book for 7th grade.
America's favorite sport and Native American history collide in this thrilling true story for middle-grade readers, about one of the nation's greatest football teams.
This is the second required book for 8th grade.
Jacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of Red at the Bone, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.
This is an option for the third required book for 8th grade.
In this captivating and lavishly illustrated young adult edition of her award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller, Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of a former Olympian's courage, cunning, and fortitude following his plane crash in enemy territory. This adaptation of Unbroken introduces a new generation to one of history's most thrilling survival epics.
This is an option for the third required book for 8th grade.
An inspiring true story, perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, about an American woman who pioneered codebreaking in WWI and WWII but was only recently recognized for her extraordinary contributions.