Inside: Find middle school novel descriptions that help students build perspective by seeing themselves and others in the texts. As students read literature that normalizes their own experiences, they will also build compassion and respect for one another. Students find validation in their own experiences while seeing that life is different for everyone.
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The Only Thing That Stays the Same
Confession: I’ve been teaching since overhead projectors were around. To be fair, they were phasing out, but still there nonetheless. I’ve experienced the stained hand from modeling a reading strategy for my students. Why bring up the ancient past? To point out that in education, things change. In fact, in education, the only thing that stays the same is change – even how we address novels.
Consider reading novels. How are you using novels in your middle school class? Literature circles? Whole class? The narrative is shifting. Whole class novels are still popularly used, but Kate Roberts shared a different approach in her professional learning book, A Novel Approach. Roberts advocates for teaching at a quicker pace through full-class novels. Specifically, not stopping to teach every single detail.
I’ve used both methods and feel they serve different purposes and engage different types of students. You must consider the make-up of your class, the time allotted for the novel, and overall student engagement. Literature circles require more responsibility independence, and a front-load of prep work. Full-class novels work well for busy classes, striving readers, and building classroom communitiy around a text.
Building Book Culture in Middle School
However you utilize middle school novels, be sure they are part of your class! Let your students have the rare opportunity to fall in love with books. You’ll never go wrong by reading YA with your students, advertising books to your students, and encouraging a community of ongoing book talk.
In this time of increased standardized testing, stand out by taking 2 minutes of your day to show students what you’re reading. Don’t let the pressure for scores override you sharing your love of reading with students.
Show engaging book trailers, participate in first chapter Friday, but most of all, give them time and space to read. How do I make this successful? When they read, I read. Every time. I put aside my endless to-do list and walk around my classroom with a book in hand.
Is it convenient? Not really. Does it work? Yes! Reading when my students read produces readers who see the act of reading as valuable. For other middle school novel suggestions, see my post on novels for gifted students.
16 Middle School Novels
Bring on the best novels to share with your middle schoolers! There’s an overwhelming amount of literature available, so I’m sharing some of my classroom favorites that specifically aim to encourage compassion and perspective among their readers. Primary topics are included in italics to make selecting a class novel easier.
- Fish In A Tree – By Lynda Mullaly Hunt – Learning differences, overcoming challenges, Education, Friendship
- Out of My Mind – By Sharon Draper – Learning and physical differences, Giftedness, Advocacy, Communication
- Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie – By Jordan Sonnenblick – Experiencing Grief, overcoming challenges, relationships, Cancer
- Ghost Boys – By Jewell Parker Rhodes – Racism, historical racism, Social justice, Speaking up
- Ghost – By Jason Reynolds – Trauma, lying, determination, friendship, mentorship
- Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus – By Dusti Bowling – physical differences, friendship, determination
- Starfish – By Lisa Fipps – Body positivity, friendship, self-confidence
- Free Lunch – By Rex Ogle – Poverty, abuse, the education system, friendship, and coping with trauma
- Counting By Sevens – By Holly Goldberg Sloan – Giftedness, friendship, grief, determination, hope, family
- OCDaniel – By Wesley King – Mental health, OCD, finding yourself, mystery, friendship, Stigmas, Judging others
- Refugee – By Alan Gratz – Refugees, Choices and change, opression, cruelty vs. kindness, coming of age, trauma,
- New Kid – By Jerry Craft – Change, friendship, racial prejudice, educational system, bullying, classism
- Blended – By Sharon Draper – Divorce, blended families, identity, socioeconomic class issues, family pressure, police violence
- Amal Unbound – By Aisha Saeed – Bravery, change, Indentured servitude, access to education
- House Arrest – By K. A. Holt – Juvenile crime, poverty, dealing with negative emotions, coping with difficult situations
- Unplugged – By Gordan Korman – Technology, friendship, inner peace, true meaning of life, family expectations, lying and honesty
Why Compassion Matters
When choosing your novel, consider what type of perspective your students need to build. Do they need to see their own situation as something others also experience? Do they need to think outside their experience in order to better understand their peers?
As a middle school teacher, I see many teachers building meaningful relationships with their students. However, even when such great relationship skills are modeled, students still struggle to be kind to one another. The things they say to each other – not incredibly understanding.
As a language arts teacher, it’s my joy to continually model showing compassion to others. Every text we read together is in hopes that my students will better understand themselves and the world around them.
If you’re looking for other texts that can be used for SEL (social emotional learning), read my post on middle school poems that will inspire confidence in students.
