20 Terrific Books for 7th Graders
I’ve rounded up some of my favorite books for a 7th grader to read. Pop in your email address below and I’ll sent this printable book list right to your inbox!
Throughout this school year, I’ve been working on book lists by grade with 20 books for each grade level (you can see all of them here).
I’ve pretty much finished the elelmentary school levels and am now working my way into middle school (I currently have a seventh grader!)
It’s a lot of fun finding books that are good mix of classics and newer titles and a wide range of genres, some that are easier reads and some that will challenge readers a bit.
Here are the 20 books I would choose for 7th graders (roughly 2 per month during the school year)!
20 BOOKS SEVENTH GRADERS WON’T WANT TO PUT DOWN
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Stargirl arrives at Micah High and enchants everyone with her strange and wonderful personality, particularly the narrator, Leo. But when she begins cheering for both the home team and the opposing team, the school turns on her. And Leo, desperately in love with her, pressures her to conform. I read this one during my masters in library science and absolutely loved it. (Full review here)
New Kid by Jerry Craft
I picked up this one in 2019 when my Children’s Literature Book Club was reading it and I blazed through it in a day! Such a wonderful, warm tale of a middle schooler who is going to a rich, private school as one of the few people of color. It’s smart and funny and I loved every page. (See the full review here)
Refugee by Alan Gratz
If you have a reader who also enjoys a little bit of historical fiction, Alan Gratz has some amazing historical fiction middle grade books including this one. This one in particular follows three different children all looking for refuge – a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany, a Cuban girl in 1994, and a Syrian boy in 2015.
Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
This is one of the books where I feel deeply sorry for anyone who read this book on paper instead of listening. It’s just SO tremendously well done with the musical accompaniment really bringing the magic of this book to life.
I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Martin Ganda
This is a fantastic non-fiction story of two international pen pals that start as a school project and become lifelong friends. I included this one on the 2018 Summer Reading Guide. (Full review here)
The Giver by Lois Lowry
This Newbery Winner is a classic (which makes me feel old because I remember when it came out), and it’s included on many school reading lists. I didn’t read this one until I was in college and then loved it so much I read it aloud to Bart a few years later. If you haven’t read the dystopian middle grade novel, it’s definitely worth a listen.
Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
I love Gary D. Schmidt books and this is my favorite of his! I just LOVE this middle grade about a boy suffering through his seventh grade year. The Vietnam War is raging and his home life is a complicated by his ambitious father and his teenage sister, but the worst thing is that every Wednesday every other student goes to religious education and he has to stay in the classroom and study Shakespeare with his teacher. This book is funny, smart, and 100% fantastic. I have recommended it hundreds and hundreds of times. The companion novel, Okay for Now, is just as good. (Full review here)
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
This book is just SO GOOD. I was worried my girls wouldn’t be into it (it’s about a young boy in the Ozark and his hunting dogs), but they were SO into it. I absolutely cried my face off at the end of it, which is always a sign of the very best books. Also, don’t miss his other, lesser known book, Summer of the Monkeys, about a boy who discovers a tree full of monkeys.
Glitch by Laura Martin
We loved this time travel novel! It switches back and forth between the POV of the main girl and boy (there are two different narrators for the audio version) and it’s quick moving with lots of fun history moments woven in. In fact, I loved it so much, it nabbed a spot on last year’s Summer Reading Guide!
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong
I first learned about Shackleton in college when a friend wrote a paper about him and I was hooked on this incredible story of Ernest Shackleton and his 27 men who got trapped in ice as they attempted to cross Antarctica and then spent five months camping on ice floes, finally navigating 800 miles of open ocean in a tiny boat to find a rescue ship. I can’t stop thinking about this one!
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
This was a favorite of mine growing up about a young girl who sets out alone on as ship to rejoin her family in America and finds herself in the middle of a mutiny and then tried for murder. I had read this one aloud to my older girls – I hadn’t read it since the 90s! It’s so fun to revisit these beloved books from my childhood and I’m glad I forced myself to not re-read them in the last decade so that they’d be new and fresh to me when I read them aloud! We were all SUPER into this book.
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
I absolutely loved this book as a child and it was a delight to see my daughter pick up this beloved historical fiction novel about a 12-year old girl who finds herself alone on a Pacific island after she jumps from a rescue ship and spends eighteen years fighting for survival on her own.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I loved this book! It’s a true classic. Ponyboy has his life all mapped out – stick with his brothers, trust his greaser friends, and watch out for the rich Soc kids looking for trouble. But when a fight goes way too far one night, everything he thought he knew about loyalty, friendship, and survival is shattered.
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick
This book is young adult at its finest. I can’t say enough good things about this novel about a teenage boy whose younger brother is diagnosed with cancer (Full review here).
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
When I was really trying to make progress through the Newbery award winners several years ago, I was prepared to suffer through this one that takes place in first-century Israel. And then I just LOVED every second of it.
Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson
My husband and now my two oldest daughters are HUGE Brandon Sanderson fans and this was the first book I’ve read by him! This one takes place in the future where pilots are the heroes of the human race and Spensa dreams of becoming one like her father. But her father’s actions years earlier look like they’ll keep her from recognizing her dream.
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Winnie Foster is shocked to discover that the spring on her family’s property is magical and grants immortality to the drinker, and even more shocked to meet a family that’s drunk from the spring and now will keep living forever.
Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson
This middle grade murder mystery had rave reviews and I was in almost immediately. It was a quick read with a twist I did not see coming!
No Purchase Necessary by Maria Marianayagam
This is a book club pick for 2026 and I often like to read them aloud to my kids during the summer. This one is about a boy who gets peer-pressured into stealing a candy bar and then, when the boy who told him to do it, rejects it, he opens it to discover it is a million dollar prize winning candy bar.
Hattie Big Sky by Kirbie Larsen
For a girl like me, raised on Little House on the Prairie and Caddie Woodlawn, Hattie Big Sky was like finding a long lost friend. This is a slightly more grown-up version of those books, but still retains the same feel. I loved Hattie Big Sky from the first moment to the last. Also, the audio by Kirsten Potter is fantastic! (Full review here)
And if you’d like a printable copy of this list that you can take to your library or screenshot on your phone for easy access, just pop in your email address below and it’ll come right to your inbox!
