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Great Books to Read in Summer and Beyond for 6th-8th Graders

Titles selected from the 2024 Summer Reading Lists created by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). 

Click here to print a PDF version of this list.

Cover of A First Time For Everythin
Dan
Santat

From discovering punk music and Fanta to sneaking into Wimbledon, this graphic memoir is the story of how one class trip to Europe changed a middle schooler’s life forever

Cover of The Labors Of Hercules Bea
Gary D.
Schmidt

Hercules knows he’s no hero—even though he’s named after one. Assigned a Herculean task by his teacher, Herc, over the course of a year, helps out in the family nursery, and learns to accept the death of his parents and to trust and bond with those around him.

Cover of The Lost Year
Katherine
Marsh

During the COVID pandemic, thirteen year-old Matthew discovers a photo of his great-grandmother and a family secret that is connected to the Holodomor—a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1930s Soviet Union.

Cover of Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir
Pedro Martín

Pedro and his large family take an epic road trip to Mexico to bring his abuelito back to America. This hilarious graphic novel memoir has a lot of heart and will keep kids laughing.

Also available in Spanish.

Cover of The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A
Nick
Day
Brett
Helquist

A rollicking true tale of the improbable theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, set alongside the equally improbable story of its creation and the life of its painter, Leonardo da Vinci.

Cover of Remember Us
Jacqueline
Woodson

Twelve-year-old Sage experiences a summer of self-discovery as she spends her days playing basketball and watching fires overtake the beloved Bushwick neighborhood where she lives in this novel set in the 1970s.

Cover of Shakti
S. J.
Sindu
Nabi H. Ali

When the three meanest girls in school start casting spells, 12-yearold Shakti draws on ancient Indian magic to stop them but instead curses the entire town and must harness her own strength, power and empathy to save those she loves and end the hate.

Cover of Sunshine
Jarret J.
Krosoczka

This graphic novel tells the story of a summer camp for seriously ill children and their families. Sixteenyear-old Jarrett is worried that working with sick kids will be too depressing, but he quickly learns how to connect and empathize with the kids and their families.

Cover of Two Tribes
Emily
Bowen Cohen

Raised by her Jewish mother and stepfather, Mia yearns to know more about her father, a member of the Muscogee Nation, so she runs away to Oklahoma to discover more about her family—and her own identity

Cover of You Are Here: Connecting F
Ellen
Oh

Interconnected short stories told by twelve authors feature East and Southeast Asian American characters stuck together at a Chicago airport.