Allen-Stevenson Middle School Recommended Books 2020-2021 Below you will find a selection of our favorite books. Some are brand new, others are old favorites. You will find a number of these books at our virtual Book Fair. The rest can be found at bookstores and public libraries. If you see an asterisk * by the title of a book, it means that the book has won a major book award. REQUIRED READING Boys entering the Sixth Grade are expected to read the book Chains by Laurie Halse ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Anderson. Boys entering the Fifth Grade are expected to read the book Exploring the New World: ​ ​ ​ An Interactive History Adventure by Melody Herr ​ Boys entering the Fourth Grade are not required to read a specific title. ​ ​ BACK TO SCHOOL BOOK DISCUSSION In addition, all boys entering the Middle School must read the book that they will discuss ​ ​ ​ ​ with their book group when they get back to school. Check this list to see which book you will ​ ​ be reading. All images in this list are from Pixabay and are in the public domain. FICTION: ADVENTURE Stories featuring exciting plots with plenty of action and confrontations. Characters display bravery and are often pitted against nature. Bancks, Tristan ON THE RUN When Ben and his sister are suddenly packed into the car by their parents, they learn that they are going on vacation. Their drive takes them to an isolated cabin in the woods where their parents argue a lot. Ben starts to think that his parents have done something bad and are running from the police. What should he do? Courage, Tristan STORM BLOWN Fans of Lauren Tarshis's "I Survived" series will love this suspenseful tale of three young people caught up in megastorm Valerie. Filled with action, danger and life-lessons, this novel is also packed with information about the wildlife that calls Hurricane Alley home. 1 Gemeinhart, Dan SCAR ISLAND Jonathan Grisby is the newest arrival at the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys. It is dark, damp, and dismal. Since Jonathan has done something terrible he figures he deserves to be there. Just as Joseph is settling in, however, a freak accident leaves the troubled boys of Slabhenge without any adult supervision. Gibbs, Stuart SPY SCHOOL Can an average nerd become a superstar agent? Ben Ripley sure hopes so because he has been recruited by the CIA to join a spy school and his first mission starts right away! The latest in the series is Spy School, British Invasion. ​ ​ Gibbs, Stuart CHARLIE THORNE AND THE LAST EQUATION Decades ago, Albert Einstein devised an equation that could benefit all life on earth - or destroy it. Fearing what would happen if the equation fell into the wrong hands, he hid it. Now, a terrible group of men known as The Furies are about to find it. In desperation, the CIA recruits rebellious genius, Charlie Thorne into the hunt, even though this means placing her life in grave danger. Key, Watt ALABAMA MOON Ten-year-old Moon Blake has lived in the wilderness all his life. When his father dies, he has no idea how to fulfill his father’s dying wish that he make his way from Alabama to Alaska to live. What follows is an exciting series of chases, captures, and escapes! Sequel is Dirt Road ​ Home. Korman, Gordon SWINDLE What would you do if you sold a rare baseball card for $120, only to find out later that it was worth $1,000,000? Finding himself in this situation and worried about his family’s financial problems, Griffin will stop at nothing to get the card back. Sequels are Zoobreak, Framed, ​ Showoff, Hideout, Jackpot, Unleashed, and Jingle. ​ ​ ​ ​ Nielsen, Jennifer THE FALSE PRINCE This first book in the Ascendance Trilogy takes place in a faraway land where a prince was lost at sea many years earlier. The king and queen have just been murdered, and a nobleman hatches a plot to find an orphan boy to impersonate the long-lost prince so he can gain power. Four orphans compete to be the prince. Treachery follows. The Runaway King and The ​ ​ ​ Shadow Throne round out this fantastic trilogy. ​ Parry, Rosanne A WOLF CALLED WANDER Swift, a young wolf cub, lives with his pack in the mountains, learning to hunt and competing with his brothers and sisters to be the alpha wolf. After a rival pack attacks them, Swift’s family scatters and Swift is left alone, scared and in need of a new home. Swift’s journey takes him a remarkable one thousand miles across the Pacific Northwest. 2 Paulsen, Gary MR. TUCKET Imagine being separated from your parents while traveling westward by wagon train. Now imagine being captured by Pawnee Indians. Both of these things happen to 14-year-old Francis Tucket, and that's just the start of his adventures! Mr. Tucket and all four sequels are available in a compendium called Tucket’s Travels. ​ ​ Sachar, Louis HOLES* As further evidence of his family's bad fortune, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a nightmarish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself. Sequel is Small Steps. ​ ​ Walden, Mark H.I.V.E. Tactical Education, Stealth and Evasion, and Villainy Studies are all subjects studied at H.I.V.E., a school that turns kids into super villains. Nobody is allowed to leave the school, which sets up an enormous challenge for Otto Malpense and his friends as they figure out how to escape. Latest in the series is Deadlock. ​ ​ Westerfeld, Scott HORIZON When a plane crash-lands in the arctic, eight kids step from the wreckage expecting to see nothing but snow. Instead they find themselves lost in a strange jungle. The kids must learn to work together to survive, but rivalries threaten to tear them apart. Not everyone will make it out of the jungle alive. Delve further into the experience by playing the Horizon game on the ​ ​ Scholastic website. FICTION: FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Fantasy stories are deliberately freed from reality. High fantasies take place in another world (e.g., Harry Potter). Low fantasies ​ ​ feature magical events in this world (e.g., Powerless). Science ​ ​ fiction is based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and frequently portrays space or time travel and life on other planets. Applegate, Catherine ENDLING: THE LAST After her dairne pack is hunted down and killed, Byx fears she may be the Endling, the last of her species. So Byx sets out to find safe haven and to see if the legends of other hidden dairnes are true. Along the way, she meets new allies and together they uncover a secret that may threaten every creature in their world. Sequel is Endling: The First. ​ ​ Buckley, Michael NERDS Jackson Jones finds his popularity takes a nosedive in the time it takes to be fitted for braces with headgear. He comes across the underground headquarters of a group of outcasts called NERDS, who, with the help of technology "upgrades," turn weaknesses into superpowers. Naturally, Jackson joins the crime-fighting crew. Sequels are M is for Mama’s Boy, The ​ ​ ​ Cheerleaders of Doom, The Villain Virus, and Attack of the Bullies. ​ ​ ​ 3 Armstrong, Kelley A ROYAL GUIDE TO MONSTER SLAYING Rowan has always known that she will be queen one day but she openly envies her twin brother, Rhydd, who is destined to be the royal monster hunter. When the current royal monster hunter is tragically killed and Rhydd is permanently injured by a gryphon, it is up to Rowan to prove she can protect her kingdom before others take over the kingdom. Chokshi, Roshani ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME Although Aru Shah lives in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, her classmates don’t believe her claim that the museum's Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. Aru unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the God of Destruction. The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers and journey through the Kingdom of Death. How is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that? Latest in the series is Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes. ​ ​ Cody, Matthew POWERLESS When Daniel Corrigan moves to Noble's Green, he notices that some of the kids there seem rather odd. It turns out they have superpowers! Destined to lose their powers, as well as all memory of ever having them, when they turn 13, it is up to Daniel to find out who or what is sapping his friends' unusual abilities. The adventure continues in Super and Villainous. ​ ​ ​ Edge, Christopher THE INFINITE LIVES OF MAISIE DAY On Maisie Day's 10th birthday she comes down the stairs and seemingly enters an alternate universe; no one is in the house and when she opens her front door, a gaping black abyss appears before her. Maisie is caught in a seemingly infinite loop, reliving her birthday again and again. Fans of A Wrinkle in Time will be fascinated by this book! ​ ​ Flanagan, John THE RUINS OF GORLAN Will hopes to become a knight. Instead, he ends up as a ranger's apprentice, joining a secretive corps that uses stealth, woodcraft, and courage to protect the kingdom at a time when it is under attack by evil magic forces. The latest book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series is The Royal Ranger.