Nyack Middle School Summer Reading Suggestions: 6th Grade Book Recommendations

Meet John and Philippa Gaunt, twelve-year-old twins who one day discover themselves to be descended from a long line of djinn. All of a sudden, they have the power to grant wishes, travel to extraordinary places, and make people and objects disappear.

No one ever told Margaret Simon that eleven-going-on- twelve would be such a hard age. When her family moves to New Jersey, she has to adjust to life in the suburbs, a different school, and a whole new group of friends.

Is it just Chet, or is everyone acting just a little bitstrange?
One by one, the students at Emerson Hicky Elementary are becoming mindless goody-goodies.
Everyone is acting like . . . well, a zombie.
Chet loves a good nap--but this is one he's got to avoid at all costs. Can he save the school? Or will Chet and Natalie be the next in line at the chalkboard?

A priceless Vermeer painting is missing and it is up to Petra and Calder to find it following the thief's trail of clues printed in the newspaper.

Increasingly alienated from his widowed father, Vernon joins his friends in ridiculing the neighborhood outcasts' Maxine, an alcoholic prone to outrageous behavior, and Ronald, her retarded son. But when a social service agency tries to put Ronald into a special home, Vernon fights against the move.

Faced with a dull summer in the city, Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha suddenly find themselves involved in a series of extraordinary adventures after Jane discovers and ordinary looking coin.

Joe Stoshack lives for baseball. He knows everything there is to know about the game -- except how to play well. His specialty is striking out.

Mac Slater isn't the coolest kid in school, but he loves to take big risks. And it is one of his biggest; an attempt to jump over forty kids with a flying bicycle; that catches the attention of Tastemakers, a new Internet company looking for trend-spotting correspondents in up-and-coming cities like Mac's beach front town. But the coolest girl in school is also up for the title of Tastemaker, and Mac has just one week to prove he has what it takes to get the job. Readers will love getting the inside scoop along with Mac on the newest technology and trends!

Edward Tulane, a cold hearten, proud toy rabbit, loves only himself until he is separated from the little girl who adores him. He travels across the country, acquiring new owners and listening to their hopes, dreams and histories.

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

Capricorn Anderson had never watched a television show before. He'd never tasted a pizza. He had never even heard of a wedgie. He was homeschooled by Rain, the only person he knew in the world. Life was simple for Cap. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums and is hospital-ridden, he has to attend the local middle school and live with his new guidance counselor and her irritable daughter. Will Cap survive the changes?

No matter that few of its young readers will be Shakespeare buffs; this fast paced story showcasing life behind the scenes at the Globe Theater in its heyday artfully sets the stage for future reading and play-going.

When a cartoon appears in the school newspaper making fun of his tendency to talk a lot, Mac, the goalie for the Cougars soccer team, is determined to find out who is responsible.

BONE is the incredible comic book saga of the unwitting hero who must save an idyllic valley from the forces of evil.

Enola Holmes is hiding from the world's most famous detective; her own brother, Sherlock Holmes. But when she discovers a hidden cache of bold, brilliant charcoal drawings, she can't help but venture out to find who drew them: young Lady Cecily, who has disappeared from her bedroom without a trace.

Starting with her birthday in March, every chapter brings a new month and a new event in Winnie's life.

For the first 12 years of her life, Esperanza Ortega is pampered by servants and sheltered by her doting parents on their ranch in Aguascalientes, Mexico. But a sudden tragedy shatters that world of wealth and privilege. Homeless and destitute, she and her mother emigrate to California to work in the fields and start a new life.

Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage. Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.

In thirteenth century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from horrendous second marriage, 12 year old Haoyou has a life changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.

Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control his temper, learn the truth from his mother that his father is the Greek God Poseidon, and is sent to Camp Half Blood where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter of Athena. Would he survive his new school?

Once again, Newbery Medal-winning author Jerry Spinelli uses great wit and humor to create the unique story of Zinkoff as he travels from first through sixth grades. Loser is a touching book about the human spirit, the importance of failure, and how any name can someday be replaced with hero.

Sage's first novel of an enthralling fantasy trilogy leads listeners on a fantastic journey filled quirky characters and a yearning to uncover the mystery at the heart of this inventive story.

Charlie Bone has discovered an unusual gift-he can hear people in photographs talking! His scheming aunts decide to send him to Bloor Academy, a school for genius's where he uses his gifts to discover the truth despite all the dangers that lie ahead.

ARE YOU A GIFTED CHILD Looking for special opportunities? When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests. But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. But with their new-found friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?

Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a research experiment at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

The year is 1763. Gideon Seymour, thief and gentleman, is hiding from the villainous Tar Man. Suddenly the sky peels away like fabric, and from the gaping hole fall two curious-looking children. Peter Schock and Kate Dyer have fallen straight from the twenty-first century, thanks to a faulty experiment with an anti-gravity machine. Can they return home?

Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court--but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense.

A continuation of the Explorers series by award-winning author Sandra Markle,Animals Marco Polo Sawbrings to life the amazing, exotic animals Marco Polo encountered during his explorations in Asia, how the animals sometimes affected the outcome of the journey, and even helped the explorer survive!

Beautiful spotted coats conceal these elusive cats in their rocky, high-altitude habitat; a place where temperatures are often cold enough to freeze human tears.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two misfit teens in Depression-era Cleveland, escaped into the worlds of science fiction and pulp magazine adventure tales and went on to create one of the most famous comic-book heroes of all time. Full color.

For Apollo 11, the first moon landing, is a story that belongs to many, not just the few and famous.

A Newbery Medalist ("The Whipping Boy") delivers an engaging biography of Mark Twain focusing on his early days, from his childhood in Missouri to his adventures as a young man in the Wild West. Illustrated with archival photos and drawings, it also includes a sampler of Twain's novels.