7th Grade Reads

In alternating voices, friends Asha and Yesofu, one Indian and one African, find their world turned upside-down when Idi Amin decides to expel Asian Indians from Uganda in 1972.

Author: Tina Athaide

Call Number: J FICTION ATH

Thirteen-year-old Ari faces what it is to be a man while dealing with a cross-country move, his parents' separation, being bullied for his weight, and belatedly starting bar mitzvah preparations.

Author: Chris Baron

Call Number: Y FICTION BAR

An oversized youth with challenging learning disabilities is wrongly suspected of having a hand in his best friend's death, a situation that compels him to create an underground haven for himself and a bullied new friend.

Author: Leslie Connor

Call Number: ASC J FICTION CON

Twelve-year-old Clea wants to do her homework, follow instructions, pay attention in school, and play chess on the school team, but somehow she cannot focus on whatever is in front of her, and the other kids at school are starting to notice and make fun of her; when her worried parents take her to be tested she finds out that she has ADHD (only without the hyperactivity)--and with help from the psychiatrist who seems to really understand her--she is determined to learn how to focus.

Author: Alyson Gerber

Call Number: ASC J FICTION GER

Stuey and Elly Rose, who are both nine years old and enjoy exploring the nearby woods, become best friends until a family secret results in Elly's disappearance.

Author: Pete Hautman

Call Number: J FICTION HAU

Hoping to measure up to his father's expectations at the card table, ten-year-old Anthony Joplin keeps his strategy a secret until he discovers his father has been hiding one that could tear their family apart.

Author: Varian Johnson

Call Number: J FICTION JOH

Twelve-year-old Nozomi's understanding of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 is transformed when she learns how those she knows and loves were affected by the event. Includes author's notes.

Author: Shaw Kuzki

Call Number: J FICTION KUZ

When strong-willed, drama-loving eighth grader Brie Hutchens tells a lie because she isn't quite ready to come out to her mother, she must navigate the consequences in her relationships with her family, friends, and faith.

Author: Nicole Melleby

Call Number: Y FICTION MEL

Sometimes, 12-year-old Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbing him "Black Brother," Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter-skinned brother, Trey. When he's bullied and framed by the captain of the fencing team, "King" Alan, he's suspended from school and arrested for something he didn't do. Terrified, searching for a place where he belongs, Donte joins a local youth center and meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. With Arden's help, he begins training as a competitive fencer, setting his sights on taking down the fencing team captain, no matter what. As Donte hones his fencing skills and grows closer to achieving his goal, he learns the fight for justice is far from over. Now Donte must confront his bullies, racism, and the corrupt systems of power that led to his arrest.

Author: Jewell Parker Rhodes

Call Number: J FICTION RHO

Twelve-year-old Teddy investigates when a popular Texas zoo's star attraction -- Henry the hippopotamus -- is murdered.

Author: Stuart Gibbs

Call Number: J MYSTERY GIB

When their game of neighborhood spying takes a dark turn one night, pre-teen sleuths Sophie Young and Grace Yang find themselves caught in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with their bizarre guidance counselor, who may be hiding something sinister.

Author: Kristen Kittscher

Call Number: Y MYSTERY KIT

With a dad who disappeared years ago and a mother who's a bit too busy to parent, Emmy is shipped off to Wellsworth, a prestigious boarding school in England, where she's sure she won't fit in. But then she finds a box of mysterious medallions in the attic of her home-medallions that belonged to her fatherіwho may have gone to Wellsworth. When she arrives at school, she finds the strange symbols from the medallions etched into walls and books, which leads her and her new friends, Jack and Lola, to Wellsworth's secret society: The Order of Black Hollow Lane. Emmy can't help but think that the society had something to do with her dad's disappearance and that there may be more than just dark secrets in the halls of Wellsworth.

Author: Julia Nobel

Call Number: J MYSTERY NOB

While waiting to leave Mars before it burns up just like the Earth before it, Liam and his friend Phoebe discover some facts about time and space and realize that the human race is just one of the races trying to survive in space.

Author: Kevin Emerson

Call Number: J SCIENCE FICTION EME

Twelve-year-old twins Beacon and Everleigh move with their father to a weird Maine fishing village, and Beacon must uncover its frightening secret before he loses his sister forever.

Author: M. K. Krys

Call Number: Y SCIENCE FICTION KRY

Ebo is alone. His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life, the same journey their sister set out on months ago. But Ebo refuses to be left behind in Ghana. He sets out after Kwame and joins him on the quest to reach Europe. Ebo's epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his family.

Author: Eoin Colfer

Call Number: Y FICTION COL (Graphic Novel)

When Charlie is tasked to find her perfect song for a music class assignment, she discovers the music of Maria Callas, and tries to follow the singer's example in life regarding her best friends and Emile, her crush.

Author: Kyo MacLear

Call Number: Y FICTION MAC (Graphic Novel)

Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can't wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. Because really, Morgan's biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl. Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. The two become friends and suddenly life on the island doesn't seem so stifling anymore. But Keltie has some secrets of her own.

Author: Molly Knox Ostertag

Call Number: Y FICTION OST (Graphic Novel)

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are having a really tough year: Not only is their father overseas with the military and their mother working overtime to make ends meet, but each girl is struggling with her own unique problems. Whether it's school woes, health issues, boy troubles or simply feeling lost, the March sisters all need the same thing: support from each other. By coming together -- and sharing lots of laughs and tears -- these four young women find the courage to discover who they truly are as individuals... and as a family.

Author: Rey Terciero

Call Number: J FICTION TER (Graphic Novel)

From basketball dreams and family fiascos to first crushes and new neighborhoods, this anthology, written by award-winning children's authors, celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us.

Author: Edited by Ellen Oh

Call Number: J STORY COLL FLY

Flint, Michigan had been built up, then abandoned, by General Motors. In 2014, as part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Despite the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city's faucets, officials refused to listen. Through interviews with residents and intensive research into legal records and news accounts, Cooper and Aronson show not just how the crisis unfolded, but also the history of racism and segregation that led up to it, and how the people of Flint fought-- and are still fighting-- for clean water and healthy lives.

Author: Candy J. Cooper

Call Number: J615.925 COO

On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon's adventure. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped! Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe. Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth science and details of the region's culture and religion, [the author]...masterfully shows how both the complex engineering operation above ground and the mental struggles of the thirteen young people below proved critical in the life-or-death mission.

Author: Christina Soontornvat

Call Number: J796.525 SOO

A book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from 'Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween?' to 'Why is it called a traditional Indian fry bread taco?' to 'What's it like for Natives who don't look Native?' to 'Why are Indians so often imagined rather than understood?' and beyond, [this book] does exactly what its title says for young readers.

Author: Anton Treuer

Call Number: J970.004 TRE

Get to know celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the first picture book about her life.

Author: Debbie Levy

Call Number: J BIO GINSBURG

The star of Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, Diane Guerrero presents her personal story in this middle grade memoir about her parents' deportation and the nightmarish struggles of undocumented immigrants and their American children.

Author: Diane Guerrero

Call Number: J BIO GUERRERO

Shares the life story of the Olympic fencer, including how she overcame feeling out of place in her sport and how she became the first American woman to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab.

Author: Ibtihaj Muhammad

Call Number: J BIO MUHAMMAD