Brody's 6th Grade Book List 📚
the boy wonder who will try reading almost anything
My middle child, Brody, who just finished 6th grade, is an incredibly enthusiastic reader. He blows through books left and right, and though he certainly has his preferences, he is pretty open to trying anything, which is awesome.
I couldn’t possibly keep track of all the comics he reads (he loves the old classics like Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes, but also most graphic novels), but that’s by and large his favorite thing to fall back on. I’d say his favorite authors are Stuart Gibbs, Nathan Hale, and maybe James Ponti or Gordon Korman (I think he’s read everything those four authors have written).
Brody may be an excellent and advanced reader, but organization and fine motor skills are not his top skills. 🤷🏼♀️ With that in mind, and also his deep love of stats, I decided to sign him up with a StoryGraph account (which I already use and love) to track his reading starting in 2022! So he started the school year tracking on paper, and then moved to digital in January (with the exception of the genre tracker— we kept that going on paper). This proved fun (though still a bit hard to keep up with).
One thing that didn’t work for his Reader’s Choice challenge on the StoryGraph was the fact that StoryGraph has predetermined genres for books. This is actually something that bugs me (one of my only complaints about the StoryGraph). But no worries, we found a workaround. For every book Brody logged, he added a “tag” with the correct Reader’s Choice genre. That way he could easily see how many he had in a particular genre (these tags appear to only show when he is logged in). The tag feature could be useful in a lot of ways for a lot of readers, so I’m glad they have that!
(Notes: His class used a slightly different tracker form with slightly different genre categories from Hallee’s. He doesn’t count long books twice like she does either. Again, some of these books were chosen by his teacher to go with history lessons, and Brody chose genres for his books based on his challenge’s needs. Star ratings are Brody’s.)
If you’re new here, you can read about the inspiration for this reading challenge/program, which I talked about in the post about my daughter’s 5th grade list.
I love how much Brody reads; he’s a fun person to talk books and reading with. Here’s his very accomplished reading list from 6th grade. If you know any middle school boys looking for book recs, this list is a good starting point!
I’ve created a Bookshop.org Book List for Brody’s book list for convenience!
Brody’s 6th Grade Book List
Classic Literature
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli // 3.5 stars
Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman // 4.75 stars
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean // 3.75 stars
The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell // 2.5 stars
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien // 3.75 stars
Poetry Anthologies/Novels in Verse
Vile Verses by Roald Dahl // 3.25 stars
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander // 4 stars
Realistic Fiction
Bear Bottom by Stuart Gibbs // 5 stars
Spy School at Sea by Stuart Gibbs // 5 stars
Clean Getaway by Nic Stone // 3 stars
The 6th Grade Nickname Game by Gordon Korman // 4 stars
The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett // 5 stars
City Spies: Golden Gate by James Ponti // 5 stars
Jacky Ha-Ha by Chris Grabenstein & James Patterson // 5 stars
My Life is a Joke by Christ Grabenstein & James Patterson // 5 stars
City Spies: Forbidden City by James Ponti // 5 stars
Posted by John David Anderson // 5 stars
Historical Fiction
The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean // 2 stars
Good Masters, Sweet Ladies by Laura Amy Schiltz // 3 stars
Troublemaker by John Cho with Sarah Suk // 4.5 stars
The Well of Sacrifice by Chris Eboch // 4.25 stars
SciFi/Dystopian
The Maze Runner by James Dashner // 5 stars
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner // 5 stars
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins // 5.25 stars
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins // 5.25 stars
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins // 5.25 stars
King of Shadows by Susan Cooper // 3.5 stars
The Cloak Society by Jeramey Kraatz // 5 stars
Villains Rising by Jeramey Kraatz // 5 stars
Fall of Heroes by Jeramey Kraatz // 5 stars
Jurassic Park by Michael Crighton 5.5 stars
Fantasy
Zombies Attack by Mark Cheverton // 5 stars
Stick Dog Takes Out Sushi // Tom Watson // 5 stars
The Guardians of the Taiga by Stacy Hinojosa // 5 stars
A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig // 5 stars
Mystery
The In-Between by Rebecca K.S. Ansari // 5 stars
The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Riley by Rebecca K.S. Ansari // 4 stars
Ali Cross by James Patterson // 4.75 stars
Framed! by James Ponti // 5 stars
Vanished! by James Ponti // 5 stars
Trapped! by James Ponti // 5 stars
Ali Cross: Like Father, Like Son by James Patterson // 4.75 stars
Memoir/Autobiography/Biography
It’s Trever Noah: Born a Crime (Adapted for Young Readers) by Trevor Noah // 5 stars
When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed // 4.5 stars
Informational
It’s a Numbers Game! Baseball by James Buckley // 4.25 stars
Orca Rescue!: The True Story of an Orphaned Orca Named Springer by Donna Sandstrom // 4.75 stars
Free Choice (a few more of Brody’s faves that he often rereads)
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales
Anything written by James Patterson for kids
Alan Gratz- historical fiction
Roald Dahl (he loves to relisten to these on audio)
Amulet Graphic Novels
past favorite series: Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, Land of Stories, Wings of Fire, Warriors
Again you can view most of these books and see their beautiful covers over at the list I made on Bookshop.org (any purchase you make there through that link supports both me and indie bookstores- thank you! 🥰).
I have some big news to share very soon (nope, not writing/publishing news). Until then…
xoxo,
Nicole