6th Grade (Age 11)

Addie is super tall and super smart. Joe is gay. Skeezie is sloppy and tough looking, and Bobbie, the narrator, is overweight and vulnerable since the death of his mother. They’ve been friends for years and hold a forum once a week to talk about important things. Although they’ve been called names all their lives, they have had one another for support. For their seventh-grade election, they form a new political party, called the No-Name Party whose slogan is, “Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will break our spirit.” They propose a moratorium on name-calling for one …

The fabulous foursome readers embraced as The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search–a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids’ adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain.

With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all–a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place …

In this award-winning book, a traveling woolly mammoth helps demonstrate how things work, from levers and plows to zippers and microchips. With colorful, kid-friendly illustrations on almost every one of its 400 pages, this engaging reference covers electricity, computers, machines, motors, magnetism, and more!

The Spiderwick Chronicles leave the old-fashioned charm of New England far behind and head south for some fiendish faerie fun in the hot Florida sun. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas only thinks his life has been turned upside down after his developer father remarries and moves his new wife and daughter into the soon-to-be completed Mangrove Hollow. But an “expedition” to a nearby lake turns up a little nixie with a giant problem - the huge, lumbering, fire-breathing variety - and it’s up to Nick; his stepsister, Laurie; and his big brother, Julian (plus a familiar face from the original Spiderwick Chronicles) …

A textbook in disguise, this fascinating volume embraces both the math enthusiast and the clock-watching math victim holding his breath until the period is over. It’s not Alice in Wonderland, but it has that feel when Robert, who is no math wizard, has recurrent dreams of a number devil set on teaching him math concepts. In a series of 12 dreams Robert discovers the amazing world of numbers from the meaning of zero to numbers that expand without end. This international best-seller adds fun and adventure to math and teaches readers about logic in the process.

This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth’s gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet lovable Humbug, the Mathemagician, and the not-so-wicked “Which,” Faintly Macabre, who gives Milo the “impossible” mission of returning two princesses to the Kingdom of Wisdom.

Four U.S. presidents have been killed in office. Attempts have been made on six other presidents’ lives. Journalist Rebecca C. Jones uses newspaper accounts to research the motives of the assailants and the events leading up to each attack.

Percy Jackson’s seventh-grade year has been surprisingly quiet. Not a single monster has set foot on his New York prep-school campus. But when an innocent game of dodgeball among Percy and his classmates turns into a death match against an ugly gang of cannibal giants, things get . . . well, ugly. And the unexpected arrival of Percy’s friend Annabeth brings more bad news: the magical borders that protect Camp Half-Blood have been poisoned by a mysterious enemy, and unless a cure is found, the only safe haven for demigods will be destroyed. In this fresh, funny, and hugely anticipated …