Reading Recommendations for Sixth Grade
Sixth Grade
Happy Summer! Please choose two books from the list below and one book of your own
choosing to read over the summer. Have fun perusing, choosing and diving into the
books you chose. Remember, “You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax,
all you need is a book.” -Dr. Seuss
The Best Man by Richard Peck Archer Magill has spent a lively five years of grade school
with one eye out in search of grown-up role models. Three of the best are his grandpa,
the great architect; his dad, the great vintage car customizer. ©2017 Grade Level 5-6
Talking Leaves by Joseph Bruchac When his father, Sequoyah, comes back from a long
period of absence, Uwohali is excited to reconnect. However, his father’s mind seems far
away and everyone thinks he’s crazy. As this story based on a major historical event
unfolds, Uwohali and the readers find out that the engenius Sequoya is actually trying to
invent the first Cherokee alphabet!. ©2017 Grade Level 5-7
A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord: When Lily’s blind dog, Lucky, slips his collar and runs
away across the wide-open blueberry barrens of eastern Maine, it’s Salma Santiago who
manages to catch him. ©2017 Grade Level 5-7
How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind
Humanity’s Greatest Adventure by John Rocco The Moon landing is one of the most
ambitious, thrilling, and dangerous ventures in human history. This book tells the
stories of the 400,000 unsung heroes–the engineers, mathematicians, seamstresses,
welders, and factory workers–and their innovations and life-changing technological
leaps forward that allowed NASA to achieve this unparalleled accomplishment. Robert F.
Sibert Informational Book Award ©2020 – Grade Level 5-6
Indian No More: Regina finds a whole new world in her neighborhood on 58th Place.
She’s never met kids of other races, and they’ve never met a real Indian. Best Books of
2019, American Indians in Children’s Literature ©2019 Grade Level 6-8
Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter by Beth Fantaskey: It’s 1920s Chicago—the
guns-and-gangster era of Al Capone—and it’s unusual for a girl to be selling the Tribune
on the street corner. But ten-year-old Isabel Feeney is unusually obsessed with being a
news reporter. ©2017 Grade Level 5-7
Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina: Merci Suarez knew that sixth grade would
be different, but she had no idea just how different. For starters, Merci has never been
like the other kids at her private school in Florida, because she and her older brother,
Roli, are scholarship students. 2019 Newbery Medal ©2018 Grade Level 5-7
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani: Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha
seldoms speaks and writes to her dead mother in a night diary. It’s 1947, and her country
(India) was just split into two countries: Pakistan and India. For the family’s safety, they
have to take a dangerous journey to a new home. 2019 Newbery Honor Book ©2019
Grade Level 5-7
Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Grey D. Schmidt: Carter Jones suddenly has an English
butler who insists on helping his family during a time of grief: teaching and letting
Carter drive the huge family car and taking over the school soccer field so everyone can
play cricket, among other absurd and humorous events. ©2020 Grade Level 5-7
Pie by Sarah Weeks: When Alice’s Aunt Polly, the Pie Queen of Ipswich, passes away, she
takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will,
Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo . . .
and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.