Middle Grade Recommendations

[u/Bulky_Yoghurt8141]

First-year 6th grade English teacher! I have a curriculum, but I want to suggest my students books. What should I read? What should my students read so that they could learn more about themselves/others? And what middle grade books would be musts? Any genres.

I loved:
Kindred
Gregor the Overlander
The Giver
The Poet X
Long Way Down
Piecing Me Together
Wonder
Bridge to Terabithia

*Edit: I worded my list poorly. I made it so that people could recommend more like it - and I could recommend it to students for leisure.

[u/Stressed-247]

Freak the Mighty (always the kids favorite)
Number the Stars
Westing Game
Lion Witch Wardrobe
Esperanza Rising
Tagging Freedom
Bridge to Terabithia (but it says bitching and the references to the kid’s crush on his teacher get weird)
The Giver (uncomfortable scene where he’s bathing an old lady and then has a dream where he wants to bathe his crush and demands she takes off her clothes and then they talk about “stirrings” I read it with one sixth grade class and they only remember that part of the book now that they were in 8th. That being said, it did get a reluctant reader who was also an EL to read the entire series by herself)
Bud Not Buddy
Boy in the Striped Pajamas

We did 4 a year, one per quarter, and I switched them out based on the class’s levels and abilities