The literary canon for middle school students has grown over the years to encompass novels that deal with multicultural issues, racial issues, sexual issues, and coming of age issues. Middle school students can read classic literature such as Where the Red Fern Grows or something more modern such as Speak. Middle school English and reading teachers can take advantage of this broadened literary canon to teach a variety of issues that affect students by assigning the following books.
Bridge to Terabithia
This book by Katherine Paterson tells the story of two kids, Jess and Leslie, who become friends after competing to be the fastest runners in the school. Leslie and Jess create a fantasy world called Terabithia, where they let their imaginations run wild and form a strong bond. The friends learn to overcome teasing from classmates about their friendship and learn how to embrace their individuality. Terabithia becomes the place where the two kids can enjoy being kids without having to worry about the realities of their lives. When Leslie drowns after trying to enter Terabithia by herself, Jess must learn to cope with her death and relearn how to find the magic in Terabithia and his childhood.
Because of Winn Dixie
Kate DiCamillo writes a story perfect for middle school aged kids who can relate to a story about family issues and meeting and making new friends. India is the main character who finds a grungy old dog at the local Winn-Dixie. The dog helps India make friends in her new town, while at the same time helping her father open up about why her mother left the family. It’s because of Winn-Dixie that India can come to terms with her mother’s abandonment.
Holes
Holes is a novel by Louis Sachar and tells the story of Stanley Yelnats as he serves time at a work camp for a crime he didn’t commit. The story tells the background of a variety of boys with names like X-Ray, Zero, Squid, and Armpit. The warden of the camp forces the boys to dig large holes each day as part of their punishment. Stanley realizes she’s looking for treasure, rumored to be hidden somewhere at the camp by Kissin’ Kate Barlow, a former outlaw. As the story goes on, Sachar intertwines three different stories to connect the boys and the camp together. The experiences at the camp make all the boys more confident and stronger than when they entered the camp.
The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton’s popular novel follows a gang of boys that call themselves the “Greasers.” The Greasers fight the “Socs”, also known as the socialites. The Greasers are the main characters, including Ponyboy, Darry, Dally, Sodapop, Johnny and Two-bit. The story follows the boys as they fight, flirt, murder, run away, and learn to cope with the deaths of Johnny and Dally. This novel is popular with middle school kids because its timeless theme of conflict and revenge is something kids relate to and enjoy reading about.
Bud, Not Buddy
Written by Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy tells the story of a 10 year old African-American boy, Bud. Bud’s mother died when he was young, causing him to be raised in an orphanage for a short time. Eventually he goes to an abusive foster family and decides to run away and find his father. He only has one clue that gives him an idea about who his father is, and he heads off to Michigan looking for Herman E. Calloway. When he finally finds Herman, he realizes that Herman is his grandfather and not his father.
The Midwife’s Apprentice
Karen Cushman writes a story that shows kids they aren’t always as ugly or dumb as they may think they are. This story follows a young girl discovered by a temperamental midwife who names her Beetle. The girl goes on to adopt the name Alyce and learns midwifery skills and helps deliver babies. After failing at delivering a baby, the girl leaves the town and gets a job at an inn. After a visiting couple need her to deliver their baby, she gains confidence and goes back to the midwife to enhance her skills. This story is set during medieval times.
Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank is a young girl hiding with her family from the Nazi’s during WWII. Anne and her family hunker down in a small area above an office with another family. They must remain quiet during Nazi searches and get all information about the war from a small radio. Anne matures during the time of her journal writing, documenting thoughts about the war and her internal struggles. The diary ends abruptly because the family is discovered by Nazis and arrested. A surviving family member finds Anne’s diary and has it published.
Where the Red Fern Grows
This novel, written by Wilson Rawls, follows a young farm boy named Billy whose sole desire is to own dogs. Billy earns enough money to buy the dogs and has his grandfather order him a pair of hounds he names Old Dan and Little Ann. The story follows Billy as he trains the hounds to chase raccoons. Once Billy’s hounds become known as great coon catchers, Ruben and Rainie Pritchard place a bet that Billy’s hounds can’t catch the ghost coon. When they do, Billy refuses to kill it and the boys start to fight, ending in Ruben’s death. Near the end, Billy must deal with Old Dan’s death after he’s injured by a mountain lion and Little Ann’s death after sorrow for Old Dan causes her to die also.
Lord of the Flies
When a group of privileged British boys end up stranded on a deserted island after their plane is shot out of the sky, a slew of happy and tragic events occur as the boys deal with a need for control. William Golding uses the main characters of Jack, Ralph, and Piggy to explore how young kids create a hierarchy in a group. The other boys are simply followers in a power struggle between Jack and Ralph, and they must choose a side. Having to kill for food brings out the animalistic nature of the boys, and Golding shows how, without direction, young boys become like brutal savages, killing each other out of anger. It’s not until officers discover the boys on the island do the boys realize what they’ve done.
The Twenty One Balloons
This novel is a Newbery Award winner and was written by William Pene du Bois. The book centers around Professor Sherman, a man who teaches high school. After becoming bored with his life, he leaves in a hot air balloon to explore the world. Instead, he ends up on an island called Krakatoa. The island is full of diamond mines and the few inhabitants on the island thrive off greed and laziness. The novel shows how the professor helps the people of Krakatoa realize that relationships are more important than material things.
The Breadwinner
Deborah Ellis writes a gripping novel about a young girl in Afghanistan who must help her family survive under Taliban control. Parvana is an 11-year old girl who loses her father to the Taliban. Since women aren’t allowed out without a male chaperone, Parvana, her mother, her sisters, and her baby brother are stuck inside their small home. After a few days, food runs out. The family faces starvation until Parvana decides to disguise herself as a boy to get food for her family.
The Egypt Game
Zilpha Keatly Snyder uses The Egypt Game to demonstrate how a child's imagination can create a whole new world. When April Hall moves in with her grandmother she meets Melanie Ross. At first the girls don’t think they’ll get along, but soon they find that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. The girls create the Egypt game in a storage yard and keep it secret. After a local girl gets killed, all the kids are kept indoors. The kids begin to wonder if their Egypt game is the cause of the strange events happening in town.
Dicey’s Song
Cynthia Voigt covers the struggles of family life in Dicey’s Song. After Dicey’s mom ends up in a mental facility, Dicey and her siblings, James, Maybeth, and Sammy are sent to live with their grandmother. The kids all struggle with the adjustment, having trouble fitting in at school and keeping their grades up. Dicey starts to take over the role of mother as her grandmother needs help with the younger siblings. Together the family learns to overcome their struggles and accept the death of their mother near the end of the novel.
Dragonwings
This book follows a Chinese boy named Moon Shadow Lee as he leaves China and joins his father in California. The family originally lives in Chinatown, but a murder causes them to leave Chinatown. They relocate and Moon Shadow’s father starts building a flying machine called Dragonwings. The author, Laurence Yep, covers historical events such as the Wright brothers and the San Francisco earthquake throughout the story. The story also deals with the issue of Chinese immigration and prejudices towards the Chinese in early America.
Walk Two Moons
Sharon Creech writes this novel from the viewpoint of Salamanca Hiddle, a young girl on a trip to visit where her mother’s buried. Salamanca tells the story of her best friend Phoebe to her grandparents, and includes memories of her mother during the story. While traveling, Sal’s grandmother gets bitten by a snake and her health starts to fail. The rest of the story has Sal telling her life story with a sense of urgency. Near the end, Sal loses her grandmother but begins to rebuild her life with her father on their farm.
Esperanza Rising
The author, Pam Munoz Ryan, uses the experiences of her own grandmother to craft the novel. Esperanza is a soon to be 13-year old girl who lives a very wealthy, materialistic life. When her father is murdered, the girl flees her father’s stepbrothers with her mother and heads for America. Instead of all the lovely things she’s used to, Esperanza must work hard labor to survive. Through her experiences, Esperanza learns about social rank and how to rise above in a new land.
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