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Reading Beyond
Challenging Middle Grade Reads 2019 |
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Small spaces
by Katherine Arden
Finding solace in books in the wake of a tragic loss, 11-year-old Ollie rescues a book from being destroyed and discovers within its pages the chilling story of a girl who made a fateful bargain with a sinister specter.
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School of the dead
by Avi
Unexpectedly befriending the supernatural-enthusiast uncle he previously found eccentric, Tony is devastated when his uncle dies suddenly and appears to him in ghost form at Tony's new school, where rumors are circulating about a missing student.
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City of ghosts
by Victoria Schwab
Surviving a near-fatal accident that gives her the ability to enter the spirit world, the daughter of television ghost-hunters visits with her ghost best friend and meets another girl who shares her abilities before realizing the dangers that come with her powers.
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Nightbooks
by J. A White
A young boy is imprisoned by a witch in a New York apartment and must tell her a new scary story each night in order to stay alive. By the author of the Thickety series.
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Flunked
by Jen Calonita
Tossed into Cinderella's stepmother's reform school for fairy-tale villains after stealing a hair clip, 12-year-old petty thief Gilly meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, who reveal the school's true evil purpose.
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The school for good and evil
by Soman Chainani
Best friends Sophie (princess wannabe) and Agatha (witchy loner) are headed (via kidnapping) to the School for Good and Evil, but their assumed destinies are reversed: Sophie's dumped into the School for Evil for Uglification and Henchmen Training classes, while Agatha attends Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication at the School for Good, and when a certain prince charming (son of King Arthur) is thrown into the mix, anything can happen!
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The Land of Stories : the wishing spell
by Chris Colfer
Using a mysterious book to travel to a land of wonder and magic, twins Alex and Connor meet a host of classic fairy tale characters and nefarious monsters before discovering that returning back home will be more difficult than anticipated.
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A tale dark & Grimm
by Adam Gidwitz
In a mischievous and utterly original debut, Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm-inspired tales that have never been more irreverent or subversive, as the siblings learn to take charge of their destinies and become the clever architects of their own happily ever after.
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The eighth day
by Dianne K Salerni
A modern tale inspired by Arthurian legend finds Jax Aubrey discovering that he is a Transitioner capable of living for a secret 8th day of the week, a finding that helps him bond with others like himself before learning that some people want to use the Eighth Day to destroy the rest of the world.
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The iron trial
by Holly Black
Warned away from magic all of his life, Callum endeavors to fail the trials that would admit him to the Magisterium only to be drawn into its ranks against his will and forced to confront dark elements from his past.
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School for sidekicks
by Kelly McCullough
Dreaming of becoming a superhero despite the fact that he has no unusual abilities, nerdy Evan is sent to superhero school when he inadvertently survives a supervillain death ray attack, a situation that pits him against the school's director.
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The Boundless
by Kenneth Oppel
Accidentally acquiring the key to a train car containing a priceless treasure, young Will Everett is targeted by sinister figures from his past and must enlist the help of members of a traveling circus in order to survive.
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Space case
by Stuart Gibbs
While living on a moon base with fellow lunarnauts, Dashiell Gibson investigates the murder of one of the moon's most prominent doctors
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Tesla's attic
by Neal Shusterman
Moving into a ramshackle Victorian house after his home burns down, 14-year-old Nick discovers a cache of odd antiques in the attic, where his new friends and he become unwitting subjects in a perilous scientific plan by a devious inventor.
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The true meaning of Smekday
by Adam Rex
Twelve-year-old Gratuity Tucci has a hard time writing an essay on "The True Meaning of Smekday" due to her complex life after Earth was overtaken by aliens and her mother was kidnapped and taken to Happy Mouse Kingdom in Florida.
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Once was a time
by Leila Sales
In World War II England, ten-year-old Lottie is transported via a portal to present day Wisconsin, where she must find her way back to her family and her best friend, Kitty.
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You're invited
by Jen Malone
When 12-year-old Sadie is fired from her mother's wedding planning company after a disastrous mishap, she starts her own party planning business and recruits her three best friends to join her. Simultaneous and eBook.
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Restart
by Gordon Korman
A standalone novel in the vein of No More Dead Dogs follows the experiences of a former bully who gets a chance at redemption after a memory-impairing accident tests whether he can change or will revert to his previous ways.
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Goodbye stranger
by Rebecca Stead
Three best friends—a haunted accident survivor, a girl who faces a difficult choice to please the boy she likes and a girl who claims she can see through everyone's games—find their resolve to avoid fighting tested during their seventh-grade year.
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My basmati bat mitzvah
by Paula J Freedman
Busily studying for her upcoming bat mitzvah, Tara Feinstein misses her maybe-boyfriend Ben-O and worries that her best friend has been spending too much time with a stuck-up classmate, a situation that is complicated by her efforts to bridge her Indian and Jewish identities.
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Making bombs for Hitler
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
A tale inspired by a lesser-known aspect of World War II describes how young Lida loses her parents and is torn from her sister, even though she is not Jewish, by Nazis who place her in a brutal work camp with other Ukrainian children to make bombs for the German army.
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Just a drop of water
by Kerry O'Malley Cerra
"Jake and Sam are best friends, but after the attacks on September 11, their friendship is in danger of crumbling as Sam and his family succumb to hatred for being Muslim American."
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A night divided
by Jennifer A Nielsen
When her family is abruptly divided by the rise of the Berlin Wall, 12-year-old Gerta harbors forbidden thoughts about freedom and reuniting with her loved ones before a coded message from her father inspires a daring plan.
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Projekt 1065
by Alan Gratz
Living with his family in Berlin, Michael O'Shaunessey, the son of the Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany, works as a spy like his parents and participates in the horrific activities of the Hitler Youth in order to gain inside information for the British Secret Service.
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The battle of Junk Mountain
by Lauren Abbey Greenberg
Twelve-year-old Shayne looks forward to spending her summers with her grandmother, but she is disappointed when her best friend is more interested in boys than making bracelets and her grandmother's hobby becomes a hoarding problem.
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See you in the cosmos
by Jack Cheng
"Eleven-year-old Alex Petroski, along with his dog, Carl Sagan, makes big discoveries about his family on a road trip and he records it all on a golden iPod he intends to launch into space."
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The honest truth
by Dan Gemeinhart
Struggling to lead a normal life filled with friendships and hobbies despite a serious illness, young Mark runs away with his camera and his dog to pursue his dream of climbing to the top of Mount Rainier. A first novel.
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The jigsaw jungle
by Kristin Levine
Questioning everything she ever believed when her beloved father goes missing and then reveals that he has actually left the family, Claudia assembles a scrapbook of emails, receipts, phone transcripts and other records to make sense of everything before receiving a cryptic message and puzzle piece that lead to a perspective-changing treasure hunt.
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Scar Island
by Dan Gemeinhart
Twelve-year-old Jonathan Grisby has been sent to the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys, a former lunatic asylum which is currently run by a sadist who enjoys punishing the boys and setting them against each other; but when a lightning strikekills all the adults the boys find themselves suddenly free--and trapped on Scar Island which seems to be sinking into the ocean.
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Masterminds
by Gordon Korman
When a group of kids discover they were cloned from the DNA of some of the greatest criminal masterminds in history for a sociological experiment, they likewise realize they can trust no one—least of all their own parents.
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The great Greene heist
by Varian Johnson
When his ex-girlfriend and an ill-intentioned rival with ties to the principal run for school president, reformed con artist Jackson Greene secretly assembles a crack team to ensure the election is run fairly, an effort that is complicated by Jackson's enduring feelings for his ex.
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The Maypop kidnapping
by Cynthia Surrisi
"Quinnie's teacher has disappeared. Quinnie suspects a kidnapping but her mom, even though she's the sheriff of their small Maine town, disagrees. So Quinnie teams with her glamorous new neighbor to investigate the mystery."
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New kid
by Jerry Craft
Enrolled in a prestigious private school where he is one of only a few students of color, talented seventh-grade artist Jordan finds himself torn between the worlds of his Washington Heights apartment home and the upscale circles of Riverdale Academy.
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Click
by Kayla Miller
"A debut graphic novel about friendship and finding where you ""click"" in middle school follows the efforts of a once-popular fifth-grader who struggles to find her place in a school variety show when her friends form separate groups without her."
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The sand warrior : The Sand Warrior
by Mark Siegel
A debut entry in a groundbreaking sci-fi fantasy adventure series depicts five imperiled worlds that will be rendered extinct unless five ancient and mysterious beacons can be lit in the wake of erupting wars during which three unlikely heroes make surprising discoveries about their homes and themselves.
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Space dumplins
by Craig Thompson
In a highly acclaimed graphic novelist's debut book for young readers, Violet Marlocke sets out with a group of misfit friends on an outer space mission to save her father who has gone missing during a hazardous job, leading them all into a grand space adventure filled with quirky aliens, awesome spaceships and sharp commentary on our environmentally challenged world.
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Brown girl dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson
In vivid poems that reflect the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, an award-winning author shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in both the North and the South.
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Fashion rebels : style icons who changed the world through fashion
by Carlyn Beccia
Complemented by personal style tips, DIY projects and fashion timelines, a visual introduction to 25 of history's most influential fashion icons that includes portraits of figures ranging from Marie Antoinette to Coco Chanel discusses how their vision impacted culture throughout the world.
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Somerset County Library System of New Jersey1 Vogt Drive
P.O. Box 6700
Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807
(908) 526-4016www.sclsnj.org/ |
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