Middle School Book Club

I am sponsoring a 7th grade book club this semester at my school. Even though I am having to deal with the 7th grade beast (I so admire middle school teachers), I love reading books for an “older” audience. Book selection has been a little bit of a challenge. I can’t get the students to agree on one book choice, and it has been tricky to find appropriate books.

Below is my working list for the book club. Several I have ruled out because I think they are better suited for a high school kid. A few were recommended to me, and they are in my “to read” pile.

In the end, I probably could have had a dystopian society book club because the students picked between Maze Runner and Divergent as the first book pick, then traded books with each other, then read the sequels. We just moved on to the Fairy Tale/Fantasy genre, which I forced on them because I wanted to go see the Oz movie as an after school field trip.

The students unanimously picked The Recruit to read after we finish the Fairy Tale books. I anticipate that decision will change by the next meeting. Anything I could add as suggestions to my students? Any advice about the books in the “to read” list?

Dystopian

• The Maze Runner series by Dashner
• Divergent series by Roth
• Matched trilogy by Condie
• Ship Breaker by Bacigalupi (slow start, high school)
• The Chocolate War by Cormier (high school level)
• Life as We Knew It series by Pfeffer (high school level– could not put this book down)
• City of Bones, Mortal Instruments series by Clare (8th grade+)

Fairy Tale

• Entwined by Dixon
• Wizard of Oz series by Baum
• Peter Pan by Barrie
• Peter and the Starcatchers series by Barry
• The Grimm Legacy by Shulman

Mystery/Spy

• The Recruit, CHERUB series by Muchamore

On My To Read List

• Gods Among Us (Divine Masquerade Series) by D.C. Belton
  
• Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson
• The Apothecary by Ian Schoenherr
• Red Scarf Girl by Jiang