I am trying to "jazz up" the 6th grade summer reading list at my school. We will have one novel that will serve as a main novel and we will have one main novel that will jump start our year. Below are some titles we've discussed but fill free to add more!
Esperanza Rising
By: Ryan, Pam Munoz
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Lexile: 750
Peak (May 2007)
By: Smith, Roland, 1951-
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
Lexile: 780 [view chart]
Smile (Feb 2010)
By: Telgemeier, Raina
An autobiography in graphic novel format describes how the author lost two of her front teeth in an accident when she was twelve, and her subsequent struggles with various corrective dental techniques throughout adolescence.
Lexile: 410
Sixth-grade: Glommers, Norks, and Me (Jan 2005)
By: Papademetriou, Lisa
As she starts middle school, soccer-playing sixth-grader Allie Kimball worries about losing her best friend and being considered a "nerd," but ultimately makes important decisions about how to treat others and remain true to herself.
Lexile: 650
The Big Field (Mar 2008)
By: Lupica, Mike
When fourteen-year-old baseball player Hutch feels threatened by the arrival of a new teammate named Darryl, he tries to work through his insecurities about both Darryl and his remote and silent father, who was once a great ballplayer too.
Lexile: 970
Scat (Jan 2009)
By: Hiaasen, Carl
Nick and his friend Marta decide to investigate when a mysterious fire starts near a Florida wildlife preserve and an unpopular teacher goes missing.
Lexile: 810
Bud, not Buddy (Oct 1999)
By: Curtis, Christopher Paul
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Lexile: 950
