Dear Students and Parents,
The Fulton County School System strongly believes in developing readers who
read both for information and for pleasure. Books on the Summer Reading List
vary in subject matter and level of difficulty. Our intent is to provide students and
their parents with a wide range of authors and styles of writing in both fiction and
non-fiction, and to allow students to select reading materials that match their
interests.
Lexile levels are indicated for most books, and they address vocabulary and
sentence structure. When vocabulary is repeated often and sentences are more
simply written, a text has a lower Lexile scores. Texts with less frequently-used
vocabulary and with complex sentence structures have higher Lexile scores.
However, Lexile levels do not address subject matter. While a text may have a
lower Lexile number, the contents could be more mature. Parents should be
actively involved in assisting with their children’s reading choices. The short
descriptions with each book title should assist you in your selections.
Enjoy your summer reading.
Fulton County Schools English/Language Arts Department
Fulton County Schools Media Services Department
Fulton County Middle School Summer Reading List 2012
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains. After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave
named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War. (Historical Fiction)
Lexile 780
Angleberger, Tom. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Sixth-grader Tommy and his friends
describe their interactions with a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn by their weird classmate
Dwight, as they try to figure out whether or not the puppet can really predict the future. Includes
instructions for making Origami Yoda. (Humor) Lexile 760
Baratz-Logsted, Lauren. The Education of Bet. Denied an education because of both her
gender and background, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth cuts her hair and alters suits belonging to Will,
her wealthy patron's grandnephew, to take his place at school while Will pursues a military career
in nineteenth-century England. (YA)
Bauer, Joan. Close to Famous. When Foster McFee and her mother end up in Culpepper, W. VA,
they meet several quirky residents of the town and quickly start making better lives for
themselves. Lexile 540
Bausun, Ann. Unraveling Freedom. Bausum examines America during the time of WWI and
details how freedoms were curtailed for German Americans, socialist and peace advocates of the
time. (NF) Lexile 1250
Beil, Michael D. The Red Blazer Girls: the ring of Rocamadour. A mystery is solved by three
Catholic school friends in red blazers with some middle school puzzles, math and a bit of romance
thrown in. (Mystery) Lexile 720
Buckingham, Royce. The Dead Boys. Timid twelve-year-old Teddy Mathews and his mother
move to a small, remote desert town in eastern Washington, where the tree next door, mutated by
nuclear waste, eats children and the friends Teddy makes turn out to be dead. (Suspense) Lexile
850
Carroll, Michael. Super Human. A ragtag group of young superheroes takes on a powerful
warrior who is transported from 4,000 years in the past to enslave the modern world. (Fantasy)
Lexile 690
Dashner, James. The Maze Runner Trilogy. Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no
memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds
himself if he is to escape. (YA) Lexile 770
Demas, Corinne. Everything I Was. Thirteen-year-old Irene helps in her grandfather's plant
nursery, makes new friends, and begins to learn what she really wants and needs after her father,
having lost his job as an investment banker, moves her and her mother to his father's farmhouse
upstate. (FIC)
Dunmore, Helen. Ingo. As they search for their missing father near their Cornwall home, Sapphy
and her brother Conor learn about their family's connection to the domains of air and of water.
(Fic) Lexile 640
Fulton County Middle School Summer Reading List 2012
Edwardson, Debbi Dahl. My Name is Not Easy. Alaskans Luke, Chickie, Sonny, Donna, and
Amiq relate their experiences in the early 1960s when they are forced to attend a Catholic boarding
school where, despite different tribal affiliations, they come to find a sort of family and home.
(Historical Fiction) Lexile 830
Ellis, Deborah. No Ordinary Day. Valli is a homeless orphan surviving by her wits in Kolkata,
India, when a kind doctor befriends her to treat her numb, injured feet which the doctor recognizes
as a symptom of leprosy. (Realistic Fiction) Lexile 580
Evans, Richard Paul. Michael Vey, Prisoner of Cell 25. Fourteen-year-old Michael discovers he
has special electrical powers and, with the help of his best friends, becomes aware that there are
other teens with similar powers, but something or someone is hunting them and, after Michael's
mother is kidnapped, he will need to rely on his powers and his friends to rescue his mom, protect
himself, and save the others. (Sci Fi) Lexile 550
Gonzalez, Christina Diaz. The Red Umbrella. In 1961 after Castro has come to power in Cuba,
fourteen-year-old Lucîa and her seven-year-old brother are sent to the United States when her
parents, who are not in favor of the new regime, fear that the children will be taken away from
them as others have been. The red umbrella, at first is a symbol of shame but by the end of this
story becomes one of pride as Lucia comes to fully understand the power of love and family.
(Historical Fiction)
Grant, Michael. The Call: Magnificent 12. Mack MacAvoy, a seriously average twelve-year-old
boy, is faced with a difficult decision when a three-thousand-year-old man appears in the boys'
bathroom and informs him that he is one of the Magnificent Twelve and is needed to find his eleven
teammates and save the world. (Fantasy) Lexile 710
Grimes, Nikki. Planet Middle School. Joylin is an athletic African American tomboy in this novel
in verse, and as she and her friends start growing up and changing she has to deal with all the
crazy feelings and the new interest in boys, girly clothes, etc. (Realistic Fiction) Lexil2 680
Grisham, John. Theodore Boone: The Abduction. Theodore Boone returns in another
investigation triggered by the middle of the night disappearance of his friend, April, from her
bedroom. (Mystery) Lexile 680
Hiaasen, Carl. Chomp. The difficult star of the reality television show, "Expedition Survival,"
disappears on location in the Florida Everglades, where they were filming animals from the wildlife
refuge run by Wahoo Crane's family, and Wahoo and classmate Tuna Gordon set.(Adventure)
Higgins, F.E. The Eyeball Collector. Hector Fitzbaudly travels to Pagus Parvus and Withypitts
Hall on his quest for vengeance against the man responsible for his poverty, but his adversary, the
Eyeball Collector, is a master of disguises who steals jewels from the wealthy to make false
eyeballs. (Horror)
Hirsch, Jeff. The Eleventh Plague. Twenty years after the start of the war that caused the
Collapse, fifteen-year-old Stephen, his father, and grandfather travel post-Collapse America
scavenging, but when his grandfather dies and his father decides to risk everything to save the
lives of two strangers, Stephen's life is turned upside down. (Science Fiction) Lexile 790
Laurie, Peter. Manatee Scientist: Saving Vulnerable Species. Three different manatee
species in Florida, Senegal and the Amazon are explored along with the scientists studying them
and trying to save the endangered species.(NF) Lexile 1210
Meloy, Maile. The Apothecary. Fourteen-year-old Janie Scott, newly arrived in London from Los
Angeles in 1952, becomes friends with a mysterious apothecary (pharmacist) and his son,
Benjamin Burrows, and is drawn into a dangerous adventure with Benjamin when his father is
kidnapped and Russian spies try to steal his book of secrets. Lexile 740
Fulton County Middle School Summer Reading List 2012
Morpurgo, Michael. An Elephant in the Garden. Set during World War II in Dresden, Germany,
a family takes in a young orphan elephant from the zoo to save its life in case bombing comes to
the city. When the Allied bombing does start in Dresden, the mother and her two children flee to
the west with the elephant baby. (Historical Fiction) Lexile 890
Morris-Lipsman, Arlene. Presidential Races: the Battle for Power in the United States.
Describes how election campaigns for the office of president of the United States have changed
from the time of George Washington to the Bush vs. Kerry campaign of 2004.
O'Connell, Caitlin. Elephant Scientist. An American, Caitlin O'Connell, started researching
elephant behavior in 1992 in Namibia in order to prevent farm crop destruction by the elephants.
In this book with photography by her husband and fellow researcher, readers learn about her
studies of elephant's vibration hearing through their feet. (NF) Lexile 1260
O'Connor, Barbara. The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester. After Owen captures an enormous
bullfrog, names it Tooley Graham, then has to release it, he and two friends try to use a small
submarine that fell from a passing train to search for Tooley in the Carter, Georgia, pond it came
from, while avoiding nosy neighbor Viola. (Adventure) Lexile 770
Osborne, Linda Barrett. Miles to Go for Freedom; Segregation & Civil Rights in the Jim
Crow Years. This book highlights many primary documents and photographs from the Library of
Congress to illustrate the Jim Crow era in the late 19th century through the mid-20th century
throughout our nation. (NF)
Palacio, RJ. Wonder. Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial
abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth
grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunts and fear of his
classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
Patterson, James. Middle School, the worst years of my life. When Rafe Kane enters middle
school, he teams up with his best friend, "Leo the Silent," to create a game to make school more
fun by trying to break every rule in the school’s code of conduct. (Humor) Lexile 700
Prineas, Sarah. The Magic Thief. Young homeless Conn meets up with wizard Nevery Flinglas
when he tried to pick his pocket and soon becomes his apprentice as they try to thwart the
dwindling supply of magic in the fantasy city. (Fantasy) Lexile 680
Reinhardt, Dana. The Summer I Learned to Fly. Thirteen-year-old Drew starts the summer of
1986 helping in her mother's cheese shop and dreaming about co-worker Nick, but when her
widowed mother begins dating, Drew's father's book of lists, her pet rat, and Emmett--a boy who is
on a quest of his own--help her cope. (YA)
Lexile 750
Rorby, Ginny. Lost in the River of Grass. When two Florida teenagers become stranded on a
tiny island in the Everglades, they attempt to walk ten miles through swampland to reach
civilization. (Adventure) Lexile 750
Schmidt, Gary D. Okay for now. When Doug Swieteck's family moves from New York City to a
small town in upstate New York, Doug is miserable-until he meets a great girl and learns, from a
book of Audubon prints, how to draw. Schmidt’s way with words is in fine form in this title where
he manages to break our hearts and tickle our funny bones with equal intensity. Doug is a
character that will not soon be forgotten and his redemption that comes through the help of a
patient librarian, will stick with readers long after the final page is read. (Historical Fiction) Lexile
850
Fulton County Middle School Summer Reading List 2012
Soto, Gary. Hey 13! A collection of thirteen short stories about the ups and downs of being
thirteen years old. (Story Collection) Lexile 760
Stephens, John. The Emerald Atlas. Kate, Michael, and Emma have passed from one orphanage
to another in the ten years since their parents disappeared to protect them, but now they learn
that they have special powers, a prophesied quest to find a magical book, and a fearsome enemy.
(Fantasy) Lexile 720
Stiefvater, Maggie. Scorpio Races. Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick
competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying
to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. (YA) Lexile
840
Stracher, Cameron. Water Wars. In a world where millions of people have already died and
water is so scarce that it is more precious than gold or oil, what would you do to save the one
person who knows where the water is? Kai has a secret and Vera has to find him before something
happens to him and his secret.(Science Fiction) Lexile 750
Uehashi, Nahoko. Moribito : Guardian of the Spirit. The wandering warrior Balsa is hired to
protect Prince Chagum from both a mysterious monster and the prince's father, the Mikado. This
title is the English translation of a book first published in Japan from which a series of graphic
novels and animated movies were born. Balsa is a strong female protagonist that will resonate with
independent girls and the on-point descriptions of the martial arts battles in which she fights will
please the boys. This is an imaginative fantasy with a feel of feudal Japan that will have readers
asking for Book 2 in the series. (Fantasy) Lexile 840
Van Draanen, Wendelin. Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher . Sammy Keyes enters 8th grade
with a bit of romance, death threats to her new homeroom teacher and a lavender bridesmaid's dress
and heels for her last-minute wedding appearance. (Mystery) Lexile 750
Some title annotations used in this list are reproduced with the permission of Follett Library Resources,
Inc. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.