Día Booklist (Grades 6-8)

Created on February 23, 2023, 2:08 pm

Last Updated March 2, 2023, 11:33 am

El día de los niños / El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) is a celebration of children and wonderful books. Día honors the cultures and languages of all children. Día is celebrated yearly on April 30. For more information see dia.ala.org. Each story matters. Every child counts. This DÍA BOOKLIST was created by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Titles on this list were selected by members of ALSC’s Quicklists Consulting Committee. For printable copies of the lists go to https://www.ala.org/alsc/publications-resources/book-lists/Dia-2023

1) Neverforgotten

Author

Algorta, Alejandra

Formats:

Book, eBook, Playaway

Description

"Fabio flies through the streets of Bogotá on his bicycle, the children of his neighborhood trailing behind him. It is there that life feels right-where the world of adults, and their lies, fades away. But then one day, he simply forgets. Forgets how to ride his bicycle. And Fabio will never be the same again" -- Jacket flap. "Fabio vuela por las calles de Bogotá en us bicicleta, seguido por los niños de su barrio. Es allí donde la vida es genial,...

Author

Formats:

Description

After the death of his friend, Tony must work to make the basketball team, but when he gets the chance to join the squad as statistician, he must grapple with honoring the memory of his basketball-loving friend while also trying to fit in on the team.

3) Isla to island

Author

Castellanos, Alexis

Description

"A wordless graphic novel in which twelve-year-old Marisol must adapt to a new life 1960s Brooklyn after her parents send her to the United States from Cuba to keep her safe during Castro's regime."--

4) Karthik delivers

Author

Formats:

Description

One summer during the Financial Crisis, fourteen-year-old Karthik Raghavan makes deliveries for his father's ailing Indian grocery, but he is secretly cast in a play about the young Leonard Bernstein. Includes author's note.

5) Why humans build up: the rise of towers, temples and skyscrapers

Author

Craigie, Gregor

Series

Orca timelines volume 1

Formats:

Description

"People have been constructing tall buildings for thousands of years, for many different reasons. Castle walls kept people safe. Observatories give people a bird's-eye view. Beautiful buildings stand out in the crowd. With a growing global population, we need more space. But what does that mean for the health of the planet? Tall buildings may be part of the answer to building a sustainable future." -- Back cover.

Author

Formats:

Description

In 1980s Brooklyn, new student JJ Pankowski, an autistic punk rock lover, befriends Pie Velez, an Afro-Latinx math geek and graffiti artist.

7) Miss Quinces

Author

Description

"Sue just wants to spend the summer reading and making comics at sleepaway camp with her friends, but instead she gets stuck going to Honduras to visit relatives with her parents and two sisters. They live way out in the country, which means no texting, no cable, and no Internet! The trip takes a turn for the worse when Sue's mother announces that they'll be having a surprise quinceąera for Sue, which is the last thing she wants. She can't imagine...

8) Srta. Quinces

Author

Description

"Sue solo quiere pasar el verano leyendo y haciendo cómics en el campamento con sus amigos, pero en lugar de eso se embarca con sus padres y sus dos hermanas en un viaje a Honduras a visitar a la familia, que vive en medio del campo, ¡así que no podrá mandar mensajes y no tendrá cable ni internet! Las cosas empeoran cuando la mamá de Sue anuncia que le harán una quinceañera sorpresa a la chica, aunque esto es lo último que ella desearía....

9) A thousand questions

Author

Description

Told in two voices, eleven-year-olds Mimi, who is visiting her wealthy grandparents in Karachi, Pakistan, for the first time and Sakina, daughter of the grandparents' cook, form an unexpected friendship.

Author

Gonzalez, Christina Diaz

Description

"Can five overlooked kids make one big difference? There's George: the brain Sara: the loner Dayara: the tough kid Nico: the rich kid And Miguel: the athlete And they're stuck together when they're forced to complete their school's community service hours. Although they're sure they have nothing in common with one another, some people see them as all the same...just five Spanish-speaking kids. Then they meet someone who truly needs their help, and...

11) Invisible: A Graphic Novel

Author

Gonzalez, Christina Diaz

Formats:

eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

Description

For fans of New Kid and Allergic, a must-have graphic novel about five very different students who are forced together by their school to complete community service... and may just have more in common than they thought.

Can five overlooked kids make one big difference?

There's George: the brain

Sara: the loner

Dayara: the tough kid

Nico: the rich kid

And Miguel: the athlete

And they're stuck together

...

12) Jennifer Chan is not alone

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Mallory Moss knows the rules of middle school. The most important one? You have to fit in to survive. But then Jennifer Chan moves in across the street, and that rule doesn't seem to apply. Jennifer doesn't care about the laws of middle school ... Then Jennifer goes missing. Using clues from Jennifer's journals, Mallory goes searching. But the closer she gets, the more Mallory has to confront why Jennifer might have run ... and face the truth within...

Author

Badger, Darcie Little

Formats:

Description

"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should...

Author

Badger, Darcie Little

Formats:

Description

"Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should...

15) In the key of us

Author

Lockington, Mariama

Description

While twelve-year-old Andi has suffered from anxiety attacks ever since her mother died ten months ago, Zora starting hurting herself whenever she feels out of control; they are both at Camp Harmony, an elite summer music camp, trying to deal with their problems and also the stress of competition--but as the summer passes they find themselves increasingly drawn to each other, and maybe not just as friends.

Author

Luqman-Dawson, Amina

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Playaway

Description

After fleeing the plantation where they were enslaved, siblings Ada and Homer discover the secret community of Freewater, and work with freeborn Sanzi to protect their new home from the encroaching dangers of the outside world.

17) Ain't burned all the bright

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A smash up of art and text that viscerally captures what it means to not be able to breathe, and how the people and things you love most are actually the oxygen you most need"--

18) Operation sisterhood

Author

Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola

Description

Eleven-year-old Bo is used to it being just her and her mom in their cozy New York apartment, but when her mom gets married, Bo must adjust to her new sisters and a music-minded blended family that is much larger, louder, and more complex than she ever imagined.

19) Into the tall, tall grass

Author

Description

Yolanda sets out with family and friends to help her grandmother and discovers long-buried secrets about a family curse and the healing power of the magic surrounding her.

20) Omar rising

Author

Description

Seventh-grader Omar must contend with being treated like a second-class citizen when he gets a scholarship to an elite boarding schoo in Pakistan.