Ella Enjoyed: 5 Good books For 7th Graders
It’s been too long since an Ella Enjoyed post!
Hilariously, all five of the books she picked this time were ones I read aloud to the girls, so I must be picking some good ones for our (most) nightly reading!
Ella Enjoyed: good books for 7th graders
Glitch by Laura Martin
This was one of the books on my list to read to the girls this year and we loved this time travel novel! It switches back and forth between the POV of the main girl and boy which is a little tricky for Tally to keep track of, but it’s quick moving and lots of fun history moments woven in. In fact, I loved it so much, it nabbed a spot on this year’s Summer Reading Guide!
What Ella has to say: I haven’t read a ton of time travel novels, but this definitely made me want to read more. It’s really engaging, plus I learned a bunch of history facts! This was probably one of my top-three books that my mom has read aloud to us this year (at least so far!).
Sparrows in the Wind by Gail Carson Levine
I’ve never thought any of Gail Carson Levine’s books have come in even close to matching the splendor of her debut novel, Ella Enchanted, but I was surprisingly mesmerized by this retelling of the Trojan War, complete with a cursed main character. I read it aloud to the girls and the chapters just felt like they flew by every night.
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!
What Ella has to say: As you already know if you read any of the other Ella Enjoyed posts, I always say I don’t love non-fiction. But the more I read, the more I warm to it. This was one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read and it was, in fact, non-fiction! There are lots of pictures, tons of cool facts, and just an unbelievable story. I definitely want to watch the documentary about Shackleton ship, which was just found, and I bet it will be even more exciting now that I know the story of the Endurance.
I read this book to my girls a few months ago. It was kind of a slow start for me and I’ll admit that journey books aren’t really my favorite, but at the halfway mark, I definitely got more into this story about a young girl who is orphaned when her parents are killed by pirates and their will insists that she must go visit and deliver gifts to her father’s 10 sisters. (Jaclyn Moriarty is sister to Liane Moriarty who has written a ton of popular books including What Alice Forgot, which is one of my very favorite books).
I didn’t know much about Charlie Chaplin but this had been sitting on my shelf for years after I read and loved Sid Fleischman’s Houdini biography. This was a little dense for the two little girls but the big girls and I really loved it.
What Ella has to say: This is another example of a really interesting non-fiction novel that I really enjoyed. I have always loved biographies and have read a good portion of the “Who Was?” books, but this was an especially interesting one. I didn’t know that much about Charlie Chaplin before we read this book, but now I know all sorts of interesting things that happened in his life!
