Summer Reading 2021: Middle School

It’s been two years since Georgia’s dad passed away, and her life still feels far from normal. (Booklist)
When Georgia finds a secret sketch her late father (a famed artist) left behind, the discovery leads her down a path (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art) that may reshape everything holding her family and friends together.

---

When twelve-year-old Edie finds letters and photographs in her attic that change everything she thought she knew about her Native American mother's adoption, she realizes she has a lot to learn about her family's history and her own identity.
✸ Check out this eBook through the NYPL

---

For most of her eleven years, Delly has been in trouble without knowing why, until her little brother, R.B., and a new friend, Ferris, help her find a way to be good--and happy--again. But Ferris, who is silent / selectively mute, hides a sad and terrible secret.

---

Caitlin, a 10-year-old girl on the autism spectrum (who struggles to understand emotions) tries to process that her brother died in school shooting.
✸ Check out this eBook through the NYPL

---

Ever since her father died in a terrible accident, Maddy Gaines has worried a lot. She calls the police so often that she's on a first-name basis with the Sheriff. When a new boy moves to town, Maddy is convinced that he's not who he says he is-he's a boy who went missing six months ago. Maddy, her dog, her best friend, and her stepdad team up to see what he's hiding.

---

Flint loves to draw. In fact, he’s furiously trying to finish his comic book so he can be the youngest winner of the “Find a Comic Star” contest. He’s also rushing to finish because he has keratoconus—an eye disease that could eventually make him blind.

---

Moving from Boston to small-town Georgia after losing his best friend in a devastating accident, Ali bonds with Coralee, a girl who may be putting both of them in danger.

---

As ten-year-old Gwyn searches for a missing neighbor in her new town in Iowa, she learns much about her mother, who grew up there but has suffered from memory loss since Gwyn was four.

---

Finley Hart is sent to her grandparents' house for the summer, but her anxiety and overwhelmingly sad days continue until she escapes into her writings which soon turn mysteriously real...

---

Ten-year-old Jesse Aarons, who has lived all his life on a farm in Virginia, becomes friends with Leslie Burke, a "city girl" who has moved into a farmhouse down the road and opens doors to culture and imaginative play. But then tragedy strikes.

---

At her grandmother's funeral, Emma notices strange spots are appearing on her skin. Soon, she’s diagnosed with vitiligo—a condition that makes patches of her skin lose their color—and the magic in her world is suddenly replaced with school bullies and doctor appointments.

---

Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident.

---

Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

Check out this eAudiobook through the Brooklyn Public Library
Check out this eAudiobook through the New York Public Library
Check out this eBook through the Queens Public Library

---

Starting middle school brings all the usual challenges for twelve-year-old Fern. She feels invisible -- until an unthinkable tragedy occurs, and Fern feels not only more alone than ever, but also responsible for the death that has wrenched her family apart.

---

When a Great White shark appears in the water near her sleepy town (triggering a devastating tragedy) a 12-year-old girl must pick up the work of her late marine-biologist mother to lift the cloud of grief hanging over her community.

"I felt like I was on the journey with them. I felt like one of the characters. I really loved it!" - Sarah

---

ZJ's friends Ollie, Darry and Daniel help him cope when his father, a beloved professional football player, suffers severe headaches and memory loss that spell the end of his career.

---

Cora is still grappling with the death of her beloved sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of the fact that her brother was the shooter. When the two girls meet, they try to open a wormhole in the universe to prevent the shooting from having occurred.

---

After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting--things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into her imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone.

---

Stella used to be a bomb-sniffing dog, but after a terrible accident, she goes to live on a farm to recover from her fear of loud noises. Stella has every reason to love her new family, especially the young human named Chloe who smells like chocolate chip cookies, and something else, a strange chemical she can't quite identify. Chloe has epilepsy, and a chemical inside her body surges just before she has a seizure. Stella's nose makes the connection. But how can she convince her new family that she can be a new kind of service dog and hopefully save Chloe's life?

Check out this eBook through the Brooklyn Public Library

---

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

---

Evvy Hoffmeister is thirteen years old when her family brings her to Loon Lake Sanatorium to get cured of tuberculosis (TB). Evvy is frightened by her new surroundings; the rules to abide are harsh and the nurses equally rigid. But Evvy soon falls into step with the other girls in her ward. Together, the girls brave the difficult daily routines. Will they all suvive, though?

---