Good Young Adult Books (for grades 5-7)

[Lenore103]

I need some good titles for 5th-7th grade for my young adult literature course. (For example: The Giver, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, A View from Saturday, etc) They don't have to be Newbery winners or even nominated for one, but they have to be age-appropriate and preferably interesting to read. What books did you read in upper elementary that you enjoyed?

[Runa]

Harry Potter, if you could figure out a way to incorporate it, would be a huge hit. I can't really think of any other books, I know I hated the books we had to read through middle/high school, so I'm probably not going to be a huge help here.

[SarahDave]

I don't know if this would suit your needs or whatever, but I read and really enjoyed the Redwall series when I was about that age. I hope this wasn't completely unhelpful

[Kenny]

"Good Young Adult Books" is an oxymoron.

[Lae]

The Devil's Arithmetic i remember doing, maybe Looking for Alaska, or...

[Lae]

Sorry, i read those in 5th Grade...(^_^;) i was a bit of a bookworm...i forget the definition of Normal a lot...

[Erika]

"A mango shaped space" is really good. Its about a girl with synesthesia and its for about that age group.
"Ender's game" is amazing.

[Marie]

One I came across on my own but that I really enjoyed was Jason's Gold by Will Hobbs (that one was about the Yukon gold rush... very good). A few others...
-Hatchet - Gary Paulsen
-The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
-Holes - Louis Sachar
-Randall's Wall - Carol Fenner
-Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume
-Sounder - William H. Armstrong
-From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is pretty recent, but really a pretty cute story (yes, I have read it...). I don't know if it would really qualify as a book for a literature class though. It's sort of just a fun read. Hope those help though.

[ayourdyourd]

I second The Outsiders and Ender's Game. Also, it's never too early to start them on To Kill A Mockingbird.

When I was in 6th grade (10 years old) we read a good deal of out-of-the-ordinary literature. I can't remember precisely why these books were good, but titles that I remember loving were Elizabeth George Speare's The Bronze Bow and Katherine Paterson's Lyddie.

My 6th grade teacher also started us on Shakespeare...? I think I was the only one who really enjoyed it, but reading Julius Caesar at age 10 changed my life.

[Alison Berry]

The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper is very good, as is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle and

I remember reading these around middle school age.