MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS
SUGGESTED SUPPLEMENTAL LITERATURE LIST
Young people should be encouraged to read widely and to select materials, fiction and nonfiction, that appeal to their varied interests and abilities. The following list is not comprehensive but representative of genres, titles, and authors suitable for seventh and eighth grade extended readings or thematic units. Several works (indicated by bold print) are RESERVED for in‐depth study at a particular grade level. In the event there is an objection to a particular selection, alternative selections are available. This literature list is a DYNAMIC list and will continue to be updated through staff development or use of the Language Arts Literature Recommendation Form (see Appendix) to ensure ethnic diversity, age and content appropriateness, and inclusion of recent works.
Classics
Alcott, Louisa May Knight, Eric L. Dickens, Charles Doyle, Arthur C. Kjelgaard, Jim Lamb, Charles London, Jack Montgomery, L. M. Nordoff, Charles Sewell, Anna Shakespeare, W. Smith, Betty Steinbeck, John Twain, Mark Verne, Jules Wells, H.G. White, T.E. Short Stories
Dahl, Roald Henry, O. Little Women Lassie Come Home A Christmas Carol The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles (BB) Big Red (BB) Tales from Shakespeare The Call of the Wild (8th grade) (Alaskan) (BB) White Fang (8th grade) (Alaskan) (BB) Anne of Green Gables The Mutiny on the Bounty Black Beauty The Merchant of Venice (8th Grade) A Midsummer Night's Dream A Tree Grows in Brooklyn The Red Pony (8th grade) The Pearl (7th grade) Tom Sawyer (BB) The Prince and the Pauper (BB) Around the World in Eighty Days 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea The Time Machine Invisible Man War of the Worlds The Sword in the Stone Once and Future King Irving, W. Keyes, Daniel London, Jack Poe, Edgar Allen Alaska/Canadian North
Beach, Rex E. Bond, Marshall Curwood, James George, Jean C. The Iron Trail (Alaskan) Gold Hunter; The Adventures of Marshall Bond The Wolf Hunters Julie of the Wolves (Alaska Native) (7th grade) Newbery Award (BB) Water Sky (Alaska Native) Hess, Karen Hill, Kirkpatrick Hobbs, Will London, Jack Morey, Walt Mowat, Farley Roth, Arthur Markoosie Paulsen, Gary “The Wish” "The Gift of the Magi" (7th grade) "The Last Leaf" "Retrieved Reformation" "After Twenty Years" "The Ransom of Red Chief"
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" "Flowers for Algernon" "To Build a Fire" and other stories "The Tell‐Tale Heart" "Hop Frog" "The Pit and the Pendulum" Aleutian Sparrow Winter Camp (BB) Far North (ALA) The Call of the Wild (8th grade) (BB) White Fang (8th grade) Scrub Dog of Alaska (Alaskan) (BB) Kavik the Wolf Dog (BB) Lost in the Barrens (Native American) (BB) The Iceberg Hermit (Alaskan)
Harpoon of the Hunter (Alaska Native) Dogsong (Alaska Native) Newbery Honor (BB) Purdy, Anne Vanasse, Deb Former Battle Book (BB) American Library Association Award (ALA) Fairbanks North Star Borough School District English/Language Arts Curriculum 127 Hatchet Newbery Honor (BB) Tisha (Alaskan) (BB) Distant Enemy (Alaska Native) (BB) Out of the Wilderness (Alaskan) Middle School Supplemental Literature List Adopted March 22, 2011 Adventure/Survival Fiction
Lowry, Lois Martinez, Floyd Morey, Walt Morey, Walt Hobbs, Will Paulsen, Gary White, Robb Death Walk Far North Ghost Canoe Canyons Dogsong (Alaska Native) Newbery Honor (BB) Hatchet Newbery Honor (BB) Deathwatch (BB) American) Hoops (African American) Petey (ALA) (BB) The Wolfling Z for Zachariah (BB) The Language of Goldfish My First Love and Other Disasters (BB) Jacob Have I Loved Newbery Award (BB) Canyons Dogsong (Alaska Native) Newbery Honor Mikaelsen, Ben North, Sterling O'Brien, Robert C. Oneal, Zibby Pascal, Francine Paterson, K. Paulsen, Gary Nothing But the Truth Newbery Honor (BB) Blume, Judy Bodett, Tom Bonham, Frank Byars, Betsy Clavell, James Coville, Bruce & Yolen, Jane Conly, Jane Leslie Cooney, Caroline Cormier, Robert Creech, Sharon Myers, Walter D. Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Avi The Giver Newbery Award (BB) Spirits of the High Mesa (Hispanic) Gentle Ben Scrub Dog of Alaska (Alaskan) (BB) Death Walk (8th grade) Kavik the Wolf Dog (BB) Scorpions (African American) Somewhere in Darkness (African Tiger Eyes Williwaw (Alaskan) Durango Street (BB) Cracker Jackson (child abuse) The Children's Story (BB) Hatchet Newbery Honor (BB) Tracker (BB) Freak the Mighty (BB) Esperanza Rising (Hispanic) (Pura Belpre) Holes Newbery Award (ALA) (BB) Maniac Magee Newbery Award (BB) There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock (BB) Star Girl (ALA) (BB) Haveli (Pakistan) (ALA) (BB) Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind Newbery Honor (Pakistan) (BB) Stuck in Neutral (mature issues)
Journey to Topaz (BB) Distant Enemy (Alaskan) (BB) Out of the Wilderness (Alaskan) Dicey's Song Newbery Award Homecoming (BB) Solitary Blue (BB) Deathwatch (BB) Child of the Owl (Asian American) My Darling, My Hamburger The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man‐in‐
the‐Moon Marigolds Pigman (BB) Philbrick, Rodman Ryan, Pam Sachar, Louis Spinelli, Jerry Armageddon Summer Crazy Lady Newbery Honor The Face on the Milk Carton (BB) The Chocolate War (BB) I Am the Cheese (8th grade) Walk Two Moons Newbery Award Staples, Suzanne (BB) Daly, Maureen Danziger, Paula Eckert, Allan W. Ellis, Deborah Farmer, Nancy Seventeenth Summer Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice? (BB) Incident at Hawk's Hill Breadwinner (Afghanistan) (BB) Girl Named Disaster (African) Newbery Trueman, Terry Uchida, Yoshiko Vanasse, Deb Voigt, Cynthia Honor (BB) George, Jean C. Julie of the Wolves (Alaska Native) (7th grade) Greene, Shep Green, Bette The Talking Earth (American Native) Water Sky (Alaska Native) The Boy Who Drank Too Much The Summer of My German Soldier (BB) I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (BB) The Trouble with Lemons The Outsiders (7th grade) (BB) Tex (BB) That Was Then, This is Now (8th grade) Avi Greenberg, Joanne Hayes, Daniel Hinton, S.E. Ho, Minfong Holman, Felice Houston, James White, Robb Yep, Laurence Zindel, Paul Anderson, Laurie Rumble Fish (7th grade) Clay Marble (Asian) Slake's Limbo (BB) Frozen Fire: A Tale of Courage (Alaska Fever, 1793 (BB) Chains Crispin: The Cross of Lead Newbery Award Choi, Sook Nyul Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Asian) (BB) Clapp, Patricia Collier, James, L. The Falcon Bow (Alaska Native) Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack California Blue Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place No More Dead Dogs Onion John Newbery Honor (BB) The Contender Fairbanks North Star Borough School District English/Language Arts Curriculum Historical Fiction
Native) (BB) Kerr, M.E. Klass, David Konigsburg, E.L. Korman, Gordon Krumgold, Joseph Lipsyte, Robert The Tamarack Tree The Bloody Country My Brother Sam is Dead Newbery Honor (BB) Conrad, Pam Curtis, Christopher Paul Prairie Songs (BB) The Watsons Go to Birmingham (African American) Newbery Honor (BB) 128 Middle School Supplemental Literature List Adopted March 22, 2011 Cushman, Karen Catherine, Called Birdy Newbery Peck, Richard Tolan, Stephanie Honor (ALA) (BB) The Midwife’s Apprentice Newbery Award (BB) Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker Fire From the Rock Johnny Tremain Newbery Award (BB) Letters from Rifka (Jewish) (BB) Out of the Dust Newbery Award Legend Days (American Native) Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey DeFelice, Cynthia Draper, Sharon Forbes, Esther Hesse, Karen Highwater, Jamake Honor
Sports Fiction
Brooks, Bruce Lipsyte, Robert Ghost Canoe Ghost in the Tokaido Inn Across Five Aprils (8th grade) Newbery Adoff, Arnold Dahl, Roald Filipovi’c, Zlata Frank, Anne Honor (BB) Keith, Harold Lasky, Kathryn No Promises in the Wind Rifles for Watie Newbery Award (BB) True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad Gone With the Wind Mary, Bloody Mary The Legend of Tarik Mitchell, Margaret Meyer, Carolyn Myers, W. D. O'Dell, Scott Patterson, Catherine Paulsen, Gary Hickman, Homer Murphy, Claire & Haigh, Jane Herriot, James Kawagley, Dolores Keller, Helen American) Soldier’s Heart The Wave (8th grade) The Light in the Forest (American Schaefer, Jack Shaara, Michael Speare, Elizabeth Shane (8th grade) (BB) The Killer Angels The Witch of Blackbird Pond Newbery Ambrose, Stephen Armstrong, Jennifer American) Beals, Melba Patillo Cox, Loretta Award (BB) Steele, William O. Taylor, Mildred Taylor, Theodore Yates, Elizabeth The Perilous Road Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (African Crowe, Chris American) Newbery Award (BB) Let the Circle Be Unbroken (African American) (BB) The Land Coretta Scott King Award Dahl, Roald Fleischman, John Gunther, John Hersey, John Jones, Ron Levine, Karen McKissack, Patricia Morrison, Toni The Cay Amos Fortune, Free Man (African American) Newbery Award Yep, Lawrence Yolen, Jane Hiroshima Dragonwings (Asian American) (BB) The Devil’s Arithmetic (BB) Girl in a Cage Mowat, Farley Muir, John Murphy, Jim Humor
Bauer, Joan Korman, Gordon Peck, Richard Hope Was Here Newbery Honor (BB) No More Dead Dogs Long Way from Chicago Fairbanks North Star Borough School District English/Language Arts Curriculum Malcolm X (African American) Boy (BB) Zlata’s Diary (BB) The Diary of a Young Girl (8th grade) Lincoln, A Photobiography Newbery Award (BB) The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights Newbury Honor Rocket Boys Gold Rush Women (Alaskan) (BB) Children of the Gold Rush (Alaskan) (BB) All Creatures Great and Small (BB) Yupik Stories (Alaska Native) The Story of My Life Non-Fiction
Native) (BB) Friedrich Girl in Blue Wolf by the Ears (BB) After the Dancing Days Under the Blood Red Sun (Japanese The Moves Make the Man (BB) The Contender (BB) (BB) Sarah Bishop Liddie Nightjohn (African American) Sarny: A Life Remembered (African Richter, Hans P. Rinaldi, Ann Rostkowski, Margaret Salisbury, Graham Freedman, Russell (African American) The Glory Field (African American) Rhue, Morton Richter, Conrad Biography/Autobiography/
Memoir
(American Native) Newbery Honor Hobbs, Will Hoobler, Dorothy Hunt, Irene A Year Down Under Newbery Award Surviving the Applewhites Newbery The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance (BB) Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High (abridged) Winter Walk; A Century‐old Survival Tale from the Arctic (Alaska Native) Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case Boy (BB) Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science (BB) Death Be Not Proud Hiroshima (8th grade) (BB The Acorn People Hana’s Suitcase Black Diamond Remember: The Journey to School Integration Coretta Scott King Award Never Cry Wolf (Alaskan) (BB) Stikeen (Alaskan) An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic, 1793 Newbery Honor (Sibert Medal)
129 Middle School Supplemental Literature List Adopted March 22, 2011 Myers, Walter Dean Paul, Francis L. Paulsen, Gary Purdy, Anne Malcom X: By Any Means Necessary Keyes, Daniel (African American) Kahtahah (Alaska Native) Shusterman, Neal Sleator, William Verne, Jules Wells, H.G. My Life in Dog Years Woodsong (BB) Tisha (BB) Fantasy
Alexander, Lloyd Bach, Richard Barron, T. A. Cassedy, Sylvia Colville, Bruce Cooper, Susan Farmer, Nancy Funke, Cornelia Jacques, Brian LeGuin, Ursula L'Engle, Madeleine Lewis, C.S. McCaffrey, Anne McKinley, Robin Paolini, Christopher Pierce, Tamora Pullman, Phillip Rex, Adam Riordan, Rick Rowling, J.K. Tolkien, J.R.R. Wrede, Patricia Yolen, Jane "Flowers for Algernon" short story version Eyes of King Midas Interstellar Pig (BB) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea The Time Machine Invisible Man War of the Worlds Poetry
Book of Three (BB) The High King (BB) Newbery Award Westmark Jonathan Livingston Seagull Lost Years of Merlin Behind the Attic Wall Dragonslayer (BB) The Dark Is Rising Newbery Honor (BB) The Sea of Trolls The Land of the Silver Apples The Islands of the Blessed Inkheart Thief Lord Redwall series (BB) A Wizard of Earthsea (BB) A Wrinkle in Time Newbery Award (BB) A Wind in the Door A Swiftly Tilting Planet (BB) Many Waters The Chronicles of Narnia Dragonsinger (7th grade) (BB) The Blue Sword Beauty (BB) Eragon Wild Magic (BB) Golden Compass The True Meaning of Smekday The Lightening Thief Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone The Lord of the Rings Dealing with Dragons (BB) Dragon’s Blood (BB) Adoff, Arnold I Am the Darker Brother, rev. ed. (African American) Bierhorst, John Brooks, Gwendolyn Carlson, Lori ed. Clinton, Catherine ed. Dickinson, Emily Dunning, Stephen, ed. Frost, Robert Giovanni, Nikki Glenn, Mel Hughes, Langston Koch, Kenneth Molloy, Paul, ed. Nash, Ogden Nye, Naomi Shihab Rasmussen, Knud Sandburg, Carl Service, Robert In the Trail of the Wind: American Indian Poems and Ritual Orations (American Native) Selected Poems (African American) Cool Salsa (Hispanic) I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry I'm Nobody! Who Are You? and other poems Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle (anthology) You Come Too and other poems Ego Tripping (African American) Jump Ball: A Season in Poems Selected Poems (African American) Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? l00 Plus American Poems (anthology) Collected Poems of Ogden Nash This Same Sky Beyond the High Hills (Alaska Native) Early Moon and other poems The Spell of the Yukon and other poems (Alaskan) (BB) Collected Works of Robert Service (Alaskan) Former Battle Book (BB) American Library Association Award (ALA) Science Fiction
Asimov, Isaac Bond, Nancy Bradbury, Ray Card, Orson Scott Christopher, John Clarke, Arthur C. Collins, Suzanne Crichton, Michael Farmer, Nancy Haddix, Margaret Heinlein, Robert Fantastic Voyage String in the Harp The Illustrated Man Something Wicked This Way Comes Ender’s Game Ender’s Shadow (BB) White Mountain Trilogy (BB) Childhood's End The Hunger Games Timeline The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (ALA) (BB) House of the Scorpion Newbery Honor (BB) Among the Hidden (BB) Citizen of the Galaxy Fairbanks North Star Borough School District English/Language Arts Curriculum 130 Middle School Supplemental Literature List Adopted March 22, 2011