This year I added a few that I've read over the school year. I won't be posting about any of the ones I included last year, some of which are still on my 2016 Summer Reading Suggestions I give my students at the end of the school year.
As a 6th grade Language Arts teacher, I am always trying to give my students new suggestions on really good books to read. Please keep in mind that I attempt to keep the list as clean as possible and I also try to stay away from really popular titles in hopes that you might discover little diamonds waiting for you!
The False
Prince (Ascendance
Trilogy) by Jennifer Nielsen—Fantasy
Sage has
grown up an orphan, making his way by stealing what he needs. One day a rich man buys him from the home
he’s in, along with two other boys who look oddly like him. Only when they arrive do they learn that they
are look-alikes for the assumed dead prince and this man is training them to
become his replacement. Whoever can
assume the role of Prince Jaron the best will be taken to the palace to
rule. The ones who can’t, won’t live to
tell the tale. Funny and full of
adventure. Fast-paced and enjoyable. All three books are enjoyable, but the first one is the best.
A Curious Tale of the In-Between
by Lauren DeStefano—Fantasy
Pram can talk to ghosts, but
she’s learned not to allow her aunts in on this knowledge. When it’s decided that home-schooling won’t
be enough for her anymore, she’s sent to school where she makes her first
living friend. It isn’t long before
she’s helping Clarence in his search to speak one more time to his mother who
just died. In their search, Clarence and
Pram encounter an evil force who realizes Pram’s power is something it could
use and now Pram and Clarence are in danger, but are unaware of what lies
ahead.
Serafina and the Black Cloak
by Robert Beatty—Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Serafina has spent her life in
the cellar rooms beneath the Vanderbilt mansion, hidden by her father from the
world. At night she prowls the grounds
and explores the mansion, until one night she witnesses a little girl being
captured by a man in a cloak. She just
disappears before Serafina’s eyes and now the man is after her. For the first time she meets someone else,
Braeden Vanderbilt, the owners’ nephew, and he helps her in the search for the
man in the cloak as more and more children go missing.
Circus Mirandus
by Cassie Beasley—Fantasy
If you have a Harry Potter fan,
they’ll want to read this one. Micah’s
grandfather is dying and his great Aunt has come to stay, making Micah’s life
difficult and limiting his time with his grandfather before the inevitable. But Micah knows there is another way, that
Circus Mirandus could change it all.
After hearing his grandfather’s stories of the magical circus, Micah on
a search to find it in hopes that it will save his grandfather, and keep Micah
from the awful fate of living with his great Aunt.
The Thing About Jellyfish
by Ali Benjamin—Realistic Fiction
After Suzy’s friend dies in a
tragic drowning accident, she decides that she will not speak until she has a
reason for the event. It comes to her
attention that jellyfish could have been the cause her friend’s death and she
begins researching and looking for answers.
Told in both present time when Suzy is struggling to come to terms with
such a great loss, and in flashbacks through the arc of her friendship, it is
truly a heartbreaking story as Suzy tries to understand why something like this
could happen.
Life in
Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty
Copeland—Nonfiction, Memoir
Misty
Copeland takes us through her life, beginning with the frequent moves during
her young childhood, to living in a hotel with her family, discovering dance,
finding a place for herself in the dance world, and her rise to soloist with
the American Ballet Theater. Just this
past summer, Copeland was named a principal with the American Ballet Theater
and she is the first female African American principal dancer for the ABT. Her story is inspirational for both dancers
and non dancers.
Don't forget to head back to last year's post for other books that I hope every child reads at some point before they become an adult.
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