GREAT BOOKS
FOR
WHEN YOU DON’T WANT TO READ
For grades 5-8 -- Located in J Fic
Byars BINGO BROWN, GYPSY LOVER. A 6th grade boy deals with the prospect of a new baby brother and a long-distance love relationship. (1989)
Cleary STRIDER. A boy deals with his parents’ divorce, joint custody of an abandoned dog, and the track team through a series of diary entries. (1991)
Cohen GHOSTLY TALES OF LOVE AND REVENGE. A collection of ghost stories. (1992)
Conrad STONEWORDS: A GHOST STORY. The ghost of an 11-year-old girl wants Zoe to travel back to the year 1870 with her to alter her tragic death. (1990)
DeFelice WEASEL. Eleven-year old Nathan makes a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge when he crosses paths with a renegade killer called Weasel. (1991)
Fleischman THE MIDNIGHT HORSE. Touch needs to rely on a ghostly magician to thwart his uncle’s plans to send him to an orphanage. (1992)
Hughes INVITATION TO THE GAME. In 2154, Lisse and her friends are bored and unemployed, until the government invites them to play The Game. (1990)
Koller IF I HAD ONE WISH. Alec wishes his little brother had never been born. Then his wish comes true. (1991)
O’Dell THUNDER ROLLING IN THE MOUNTAINS. A young Nez Perce girl relates how her people were driven off their land and forced to surrender in the late nineteenth century. (1992)
Soto TAKING SIDES. A 14-year-old basketball player faces divided loyalties when his family moves from the Hispanic inner city to a white suburban neighborhood. (1991)
Tolkien THE HOBBIT. The wizard Gandalf chooses a respectable, well-to-do hobbit to share in an adventure from which he might never return. (1984)
Yolen WIZARD’S HALL. A young apprentice wizard must save the wizard’s training hall. (1993)
YA Fic Hoover AWAY IS A STRANGE PLACE TO BE. In 2349, Abby is kidnapped from Earth to be used as slave labor on an artificial world, and must cooperate with Bryan, a spoiled rich kid, in order to escape. (1990)
For grades 7-10 -- located in YA Fic
Bunting SHARING
SUSAN. Susan
finds out at age 12 that she had been switched at birth. (1991)
Crutcher ATHLETIC SHORTS: SIX SHORT STORIES. Short stories featuring characters from Chris Crutcher’s previous novels. (1991)
Davis SEX EDUCATION: A NOVEL. Livvie and her boyfriend David learn about love and caring, pain and courage, as they take part in a semester-long sex education class. (1988)
Fleischman THE BORNING ROOM. As she lays dying in 1851, Georgina recalls growing up on the Ohio frontier. (1991)
Grant KEEP LAUGHING. A famous comedian attempts a reunion with the teenage son he abandoned years ago. (1991)
Hobbs DOWNRIVER. Teen members of a wilderness survival school abandon their adult leader and attempt to run the white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. (1996)
Klause THE SILVER KISS. A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoe come to terms with her mother’s terminal illness. (1990)
Lipsyte THE BRAVE. After leaving his Indian reservation, 17-year-old Sonny Bear tries to harnass his rage by training to box in New York. (1991)
Matas CODE NAME KRIS. 17-year-old Jesper works in the underground resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Denmark. (1990)
Nixon WHISPERS FROM THE DEAD. After a near-death experience, Sarah is able to receive other-wordly messages about a murder committed in the new house her family just moved into. (1989)
Service BEING OF TWO MINDS. Connie’s ability to share “mental visits” with the prince of Thulgaria proves useful when he is mysteriously kidnapped. (1991)
Spinelli THERE’S A GIRL IN MY HAMMERLOCK. 13-year-old Maisie faces opposition from other students, her teammates and her best friend when she joins the formerly all-male wrestling team. (1991)
Vail WONDER. 12-year-old Jessica
enters junior high only to find herself an outcast, ignored by her former
friends. (1993)
A Service of the City of Midland
ReluctantReaders
Youth
Services Book Recommendations