Here is a list of books that the authors of the Common Core Standards have listed as exemplars for Middle School Students. I believe this is a great resource because it provides parents, teachers, and most importantly students, a heads up as to what to look for in the upcoming middle school reading  and core curriculum areas. Parents can also give selected texts from this list to their budding middle school child as a “gift/s” over the summer to read. Therefore, when they get into the new school year they will be at advantage when compared to the average middle school student who did not even look at a book over the entire summer. Consequently, if you know of a parent or student who will be going into middle school, or is in middle school, I would forward this list of books for middle school to them.

Stories For Sixth, Seventh and Eight Graders (Middle School)

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time
Cooper, Susan. The Dark Is Rising
Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings
Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Hamilton, Virginia. “The People Could Fly.”
Paterson, Katherine. The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks
Cisneros, Sandra. “Eleven.”
Sutcliff, Rosemary. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad

Drama For Sixth, Seventh and Eight Graders

Fletcher, Louise. Sorry, Wrong Number
Goodrich, Frances and Albert Hackett. The Diary of Anne Frank: A Play

Poetry For Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Graders

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain!”
Carroll, Lewis. “Jabberwocky.”
Navajo tradition. “Twelfth Song of Thunder.”
Dickinson, Emily. “The Railway Train.”
Yeats, William Butler. “The Song of Wandering Aengus.”
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.”
Sandburg, Carl. “Chicago.”
Hughes, Langston. “I, Too, Sing America.”
Neruda, Pablo. “The Book of Questions.”
Soto, Gary. “Oranges.”
Giovanni, Nikki. “A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long.” 

Informational Texts: English Language Arts For Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Graders

Adams, John. “Letter on Thomas Jefferson.”
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself
Churchill, Winston. “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 40.”
Petry, Ann. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley: In Search of America

English Language Arts For Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Graders

Informational Texts: History/Social Studies

United States. Preamble and First Amendment to the United States Constitution . (1787, 1791).
Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember
Isaacson, Phillip. A Short Walk through the Pyramids and through the World of Art
Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire
Greenberg, Jan, and Sandra Jordan. Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist
Partridge, Elizabeth. This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie
Monk, Linda R. Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution
Freedman, Russell. Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Informational Texts: Science, Mathematics, and Technical Subjects

Macaulay, David. Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction
Mackay, Donald. The Building of Manhattan.
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus. The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure.
Peterson, Ivars and Nancy Henderson. Math Trek: Adventures in the Math Zone
Katz, John. Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho.
Petroski, Henry. “The Evolution of the Grocery Bag.”
“Geology.” U*X*L Encyclopedia of Science
“Space Probe.” Astronomy & Space: From the Big Bang to the Big Crunch
“Elementary Particles.” New Book of Popular Science
California Invasive Plant Council. Invasive Plant Inventory

Closing

If you are a middle school teacher who is using the Core Curriculum, I would be very interested in hearing from you. I would also like to request that you add the books that you have used for your middle school students in previous years that have proven to be very effective.