Falling in Love with Middle School Books All Over Again

A package landed on my desk at school on Thursday. It was one of the highlights of my week. It was from Book Depository and contained New Kid by Jerry Craft and The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. 

In the shift to a new teaching assignment and a new school, all my familiarity with 10th and 11th grade books amassed over the last 8 years has suddenly lost currency, and I’m starting over with books that will entice 6th and 7th graders to read. In the beginning, it seemed like a daunting task. The first day of school in mid-April when I asked students via distance learning what they’d last enjoyed reading, I hadn't read anything they mentioned! So I asked if they owned the books, if I could borrow them. When we finally meet. In a real classroom. Whenever that may be. How can we even share books isolated at home in a non-English speaking country? 

Eventually I realized I did have some resources. I sifted through the boxes containing the portion of my former classroom library that had made the packing cut. I was looking for any books that might be on a middle school level. And I found about 30! So I’m working my way through all the books I’d either never read, or haven’t read in the 27 years since I last taught middle school! So far that’s The Giver Quartet and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Some I have kept up with as I worked to help implement a school-wide reading program previously—like Kwame Alexander's The Crossover and Booked, Alan Gratz's Samurai Shortstop and Grenade, and Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming. A number of others are still in a to-read stack, including the Eragon series. 

Then I combed our small school library for tempting possibilities. I was delighted to find a list of gems, from which I’ve been busy reading Starry River in the Sky, Because of Winn-Dixie, Maniac Magee, and Walk Two Moons. Still in my to-read stack from there: Star Girl and The Thief Lord. I can always go back for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and a whole shelf of Roald Dahl.

Finally, I asked for recommendations from a couple of reading friends with middle school kids. I compiled a long list and batched them to order as I’d be able to get to them. I ordered my first 5, not even knowing if they’d ship in this crazy pandemic world, or how long they’d take to arrive. (Japan Post is will send letters but not packages to the US, and the masks we ordered from Amazon Japan took a month longer than projected!)

Which brings me to the excitement this past Thursday, when the first 2 books of my order arrived. I’ve already finished New Kid and started into The Mysterious Benedict Society. It’s a pretty thick one, so it might last me the rest of the weekend! And as the world begins to open up again, it’s beginning to seem I might really get some kids in a classroom in the next couple of weeks. When I do, I’ll have some books to share with them! After all, even in Japan, summer vacation is coming—only 6 weeks, and not until mid-July—but I’ll see if I can get some 6th and 7th graders to take home some books by then!

I know that I’ve fallen in love with middle school books all over again! 
Here were some of my favorites:

• New Kid by Jerry Craft—A new graphic novel about fitting in, making friends, being kind, being just, dealing with parents and teachers, and growing up. It’s smart, funny, poignant, and deals with real issues without any red flags. I loved it.
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech—I real this a long time ago when my oldest daughter was in middle school and loved it then. I loved it again. I don’t think we ever outgrow the need to grow in our understanding of other people.
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo—I’ll have to admit that I’d never read a Kate DiCamillo book, though my younger daughter was at one time in love with The Tale of Despereaux. One of my current 6th graders named this as her favorite book, and I’m definitely feeling her. I’ll be collecting more of Kate DiCamillo. 
• The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry—I’d read The Giver before, but not the rest, so I decided I’d better get the full effect and start from the beginning. A lot to think about embedded in fairly compelling stories—as long as you don’t poke too deeply into the world-building.
• Starry River in the Sky by Grace Lin—A bit of a slow start, but as the Chinese folktales told by different characters began to come together, it became a beautiful reflection on family, belonging, compassion, selfishness, forgiveness, and what our stories say about us.

What middle stories would you recommend for me and my students?