Short Thought Provoking Novels for Middle School

[NewIma]

I am trying to encourage my dd12 to read one novel a month on top of school but she is pretty resistant. She likes to read, but is intimidated by books she deems too long. I'm looking for suggestions for quality, thought provoking books that are also on the short side! 

[Farrar]

I made a list for that!

https://farrarwilliams.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/short-but-meaty-middle-school-books-for-less-prolific-readers/

[Lori D.]

Since you're looking to encourage reading *beyond* assigned school reading, I'd let her select books that are of high interest to HER, even if they are short and below her reading level, or are not very "profound" or thought-provoking. The point is to keep her reading and enjoying reading, right? For example, the thought-provoking books can be done aloud together as the assigned school reading.

Also: what are her interests? Starting with books of the type that *interest* her makes it more likely she'll keep persevering, even if the books are thicker than she is thinking she can manage. We might be able to come up with more matches for her if we knew what books she has read and enjoyed in the past.

If long books intimidate her right now, then let her pick from a book basket that has most shorter works (see below for ideas), graphic novels (see below), and longer books with lots of illustrations (ex: The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Selznik) or Leviathan (Westerfeld), and a few high interest books in the 250-300 page range to slowly encourage 'stretching' her reading stamina.

What about an anthology of short stories? Or collections of fairy tales, or myths, or legends? It's a thicker book, but each story is finished in one short reading session. It makes reading all the way through a thicker book easier -- one bite at a time.

One last thing: might reading be intimidating because of an undiagnosed vision issue or eye convergence issue? Reading can be exhausting and even painful if there are physical issues that are preventing reading from being a relaxing or easy activity. Just a thought.

Here are some shorter titles -- some are "thought-provoking", but some are well-written and fun, to keep alive an interest in reading:

100-125 pages
Gilgamesh the Hero (McCaughrean) -- 96 pages
Sarah Plain and Tall (MacLachlan) -- 112 pages
Frindle (Clements) -- 112 pages
Sounder (Armstrong) -- 116 pages

125-150 pages
The Rumpelstiltskin Problem (Velds) -- 128 pages -- 6 humorous short stories
Tenggren's Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights -- 128 pages -- collection of short tales
A Long Walk to Water (Park) -- 128 pages
Bull Run (Fleischman) -- 128 pages
Love That Dog (Creech) -- 128 pages
The 13 Clocks (Thurber) -- 128 pages
How to Eat Fried Worms (Rockwell) -- 128 pages
The Ordinary Princess (Kaye) -- 132 pages
The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill) -- 140 pages
The Cay (Taylor) -- 144 pages
The Midwife's Apprentice (Cushman) -- 144 pages
Riding Freedom (Ryan) -- 147 pages
A Long Way from Chicago (Peck) -- 148 pages

150-175 pages
Among the Hidden (Haddix) -- 153 pages
Tuck Everlasting (Babbit) -- 160 pages
The Incredible Journey (Burnford) -- 160 pages
Baby Island (Brink) -- 160 pages
Number the Stars (Lowry) -- 160 pages
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsberg) -- 168 pages

175-200 pages
Stories from Shakespeare (McCaughrean) -- 176 pages
The House with a Clock in its Walls (Bellairs) -- 179 pages
Catherine Called Birdy (Cushman) -- 192 pages
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken) -- 192 pages
The Great Wheel (Lawson) -- 192 pages
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) -- 192 pages
Nancy Drew books (Keene) -- usually in the 180-200 page range, with illustrations

200-225 pages
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Lewis) -- 208 pages
The Because of Winn-Dixie (DiCamillo) -- 208 pages
Coraline (Gaiman) -- 208 pages
Two Are Better Than One (Brink) -- 220 pages
Knight's Castle (Eager) -- 224 pages
The School Story (Clements) -- 224 pages
By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman) -- 224 pages

225-250 pages
Holes (Sachar) -- 233 pages
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien) -- 240 pages
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi) -- 240 pages
No More Dead Dogs (Korman) -- 240 pages
The Giver (Lowry) -- 240 pages
American Born Chinese (Yang) -- 240 pages -- graphic novel
El Deaf (Bell) -- 248 pages -- graphic novel
Dealing with Dragons - 1st of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Wrede) -- 244 pages
Below the Root (Snyder) -- 248 pages
A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) -- 256 pages
I Am Malala (young reader's edition) (Yousafzai/McCormick) -- 256 pages

Edited November 23, 2018 by Lori D.

[Condessa]

A couple of short-but-deep ones that popped into my head were Flowers for Algernon and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

[NewIma]

Thank you so much!! This is exactly what I am looking for. Here is our situation in more detail. For fun dd12 (newly 12) is pretty much only interested in reading graphic novels or easy books below her reading level like Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I've been trying to expand her reading with limited success. I've gotten her to read The Giver by saying when she was done we'd watch the movie together. She really enjoyed Brandon Mull's Fablehaven books on her own but hasn't picked up anything else like it. Right now we are doing Book It and her challenge is to read one novel a month but she keeps checking out books and then deciding they are too long. In the end she has read 3 Karen Cushman books but now we need something else!

[Lori D.]

I added a few more ideas to the list in my post above. Some are more at a grade 4-6 level, but it sounds like perhaps that is more her speed right now.

6 hours ago, NewIma said:

...dd12 (newly 12) is pretty much only interested in reading graphic novels or easy books below her reading level like Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I've been trying to expand her reading with limited success... she keeps checking out books and then deciding they are too long...

Quite often a student with mild issues can "mask" their disability or "fake it" -- until about 6th/7th grade when the workload increases and the reading level jumps up (both in length and in difficulty).

Some of your descriptions sometimes can apply to a student with stealth dyslexia, or a vision convergence issue, or a mild learning disability. Things like: preferring audiobooks/read-alouds, or preferring short books, books with big type/wide line spacing, books with easier/shorter words, and books with illustrations. Hopefully that is not what is going on with DD, but you might consider testing to rule out any of these concerns, esp. if you are seeing any small signs of possible issues in other areas.
 

6 hours ago, NewIma said:

...I've been trying to expand her reading with limited success. I've gotten her to read The Giver by saying when she was done we'd watch the movie together. She really enjoyed Brandon Mull's Fablehaven books on her own but hasn't picked up anything else like it...

... In the end she has read 3 Karen Cushman books but now we need something else!

Or, another possibility suggested by this is that she's just not that interested in reading (some people never are), and/or hasn't found an author or the kinds of books that spark her interest yet. If she has enjoyed (and esp. if she has looked for / asked for) Karen Cushman books, then maybe she has found an author and a genre she enjoys, so maybe stick with that for awhile to nourish a budding interest??
 

6 hours ago, NewIma said:

...Right now we are doing Book It and her challenge is to read one novel a month but she keeps checking out books and then deciding they are too long...

Maybe help her with some scaffolding until she can clear the hurdle of longer books on her own. When she starts to think the book is too long, switch to aloud together buddy reading ("you read a page, I read a page") to keep interest up and so it's not so exhausting for her. (Esp. if she has vision convergence issues, it can be tiring to down-right painful to read for very long.) Help her have success in getting through a longer book. Usually there are several scenes of high excitement deeper in a book, and helping her keep going through the "quieter" passages until the next "exciting" scene will help her succeed in getting all the way through the longer book.

Just a few rambling thoughts. BEST of luck! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited November 22, 2018 by Lori D.

[TABmom]

Since the movie idea worked before, maybe try reading Wonder or a Wrinkle in Time and watching the movies after? Or maybe Harry Potter? 

[Arctic Bunny]

I really think you have to decide if this reading is for pleasure or for learning. My younger DS would not read a book for pleasure unless it had a dog in it until he was.... 10? Challenging, to say the least. (Especially since as he got to higher levels, dogs in books tend to die!) Then he found Diary of a Wimpy Kid at school. Didn’t love them, but there were lots of them in a school library where the pickings were slim. Then he suddenly discovered Rick Riordan’s myth books.... and Lemony Snickett, and now Artemis Fowl. All books that I wouldn’t have suggested to him, and are not on many educational reading lists....

[Terabith]

They don't do anything for me, but the Warriors books appeal to a ton of kids that age, including my own kids, and there are a million of them.  Has she read Harry Potter or Rick Riordan?  Roald Dahl?  What has she enjoyed listening to?  

[Alice]

There are some great graphic novels out there...

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
El Deafo by Cece Bell 
the ones by Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Sisters, Drama) 
maybe not so though provoking but if your goal is to get her to read more, The Baby-Sitters Club books were recently remade into graphic novels. My daughter devoured those. 

Maybe less intimidating because it’s less words on a page would be some of the excellent novels in verse...

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Crossover or others by Kwame Alexander 
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan 

 I also agree with the idea that reading for pleasure should be reading for pleasure, even if it’s “below” reading level. 

[acresoft]

If she picks something that she likes, that's great. Christian Book has some nice options.

Another option is a book with lots of short stories in it. Example: In Grandma's Attic

There is also the Who Was biographies.

[Lori D.]

Adding one more thought:

I used to recommend Call of the Wild (or White Fang) as good, short, early classics for middle schoolers, but I just did Call of the Wild last year in my grade 7-8 homeschool co-op class, and every single student who had any kind of learning issue (dyslexia, delayed reader, struggling writer, ADD, etc.) could NOT get through that book. And it's only a little over 50 pages. The language -- vocabulary and sentence structure -- and concepts were too old-fashioned and unfamiliar to them and they could not jump the hurdle. The 8th graders who had no learning issues did fine with it.

Similarly with Animal Farm (Orwell), A Christmas Carol (Dickens) or The Time Machine (Wells) or The Invisible Man (Wells) -- they are short, but the concepts (Animal Farm) and old vocabulary/sentence structure (Charles Dickens & H.G. Wells works), can be overwhelming to a middle schooler who is not a strong reader. Just throwing that out there, for anyone with a student who is struggling with reading stamina -- older classics, even if they are short, may still be too tough at this age.

[cabercro]

There is a beautifully written but largely unknown novel called "I Had Seen Castles" by Cynthia Rylant (who wrote Missing May and other more popular books). It's under 100 pages with short chapters and very poetic language. It's a WW2 novel from the POV of an American soldier, looking back on wartime as an old man. It does a lovely job of explaining the emotions of the time as it explains how he, all his family members, friends, and girlfriend react to the war. There's so much richness to delve into: themes of growing up, war vs. pacifism, love, etc. 

Be aware, it does not sugarcoat things. There are brief but extremely descriptive moments of drinking, "tea", and war violence. They are tastefully handled, but important to the story. You may want to pre-read it depending on your comfort level with such topics.

[NewIma]

So I guess another question here is do I worry if she primarily only reads easier books for fun? Is that a problem in and of itself or should I just let it go? When does it become a problem? We are doing lightening lit 7 and so she is currently reading Tom Sawyer for school and we also do audio books and read alouds. 

[Arctic Bunny]

I have many books that are old friends, not because of how challenging they were to read, or what “must-read” list they were on. I’ve been in book clubs where I’ve read selections outside of my comfort zone, and some I’ve liked and some I haven’t. But I would hate to be told I could only read selections picked by someone else.

I really believe that it is important to find reading enjoyable, and that happens by reading what you enjoy. Magazines, graphic novels, comics, Hardy Boys, Wimpy Kid.... all have their place.

[Farrar]

22 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Adding one more thought:

I used to recommend Call of the Wild (or White Fang) as good, short, early classics for middle schoolers, but I just did Call of the Wild last year in my grade 7-8 homeschool co-op class, and every single student who had any kind of learning issue (dyslexia, delayed reader, struggling writer, ADD, etc.) could NOT get through that book. And it's only a little over 50 pages. The language -- vocabulary and sentence structure -- and concepts were too old-fashioned and unfamiliar to them and they could not jump the hurdle. The 8th graders who had no learning issues did fine with it.

Similarly with Animal Farm (Orwell), A Christmas Carol (Dickens) or The Time Machine (Wells) or The Invisible Man (Wells) -- they are short, but the concepts (Animal Farm) and old vocabulary/sentence structure (Charles Dickens & H.G. Wells works), can be overwhelming to a middle schooler who is not a strong reader. Just throwing that out there, for anyone with a student who is struggling with reading stamina -- older classics, even if they are short, may still be too tough at this age.

Agreed. I did all of these (not Invisible Man, but we did do Time Machine) with BalletBoy, who is not a big reader, but who absolutely can read really well. They were all okay for him. (He liked Animal Farm, thought Time Machine was too weird, and thought parts of Call of the Wild were interesting but didn't love it.)

I did only Animal Farm of those with Mushroom, who has some language processing issues. He did fine with Animal Farm but no way could he have tackled the others.

Basically, they're great for kids who aren't big readers or hate assigned lit or need to be pushed a little but not too much with classics. They're a bad fit for kids who are behind in level for reading.

As to the above points about the purpose... I agree that you should get clear about what you want out of assigned literature before you assign. Some of the above suggestions are, IMHO, great for pleasure reading because they're light, fun books. Others are meaty but easy. Others are short but hard. If you goal with assigned reading is to get her enjoying more books, then assigning easy, gripping, plot driven books that don't necessarily have the highest literary value is a good plan. If your goal is to expose her to more literature, that's not a great plan. Neither of my boys are huge readers. BalletBoy likes that I make him read a variety of things (he still talks about Fahrenheit 451 and he really got a lot out of The Hate U Give last year). But he never reads on his own. I assign books, not to make him love reading, but to expose him to a set of books because I think reading widely is important.

[Terabith]

4 hours ago, NewIma said:

So I guess another question here is do I worry if she primarily only reads easier books for fun? Is that a problem in and of itself or should I just let it go? When does it become a problem? We are doing lightening lit 7 and so she is currently reading Tom Sawyer for school and we also do audio books and read alouds. 

No!  Honestly, when I'm reading for fun, 95% of the time I want to read books that are easy for me.  Every once in awhile, I'll challenge myself with Dostoevsky or something, but that's not an every day thing.  I think most people are like that.  Independent reading should be easy reading.  It makes sense to pair more difficult stuff with guidance for school or as a read aloud.  I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to expand what she's interested in reading, just because since she's a kid, she has no idea what's out there and what she might love.  Maybe go to the library, load up on good upper elementary books, and strew them around?  

[Soror]

Following. Dd1 has started to read a bit longer and harder works but still is a bit reluctant. She has fallen in love with Carl Hiassen, not deep books but they are decent IMO (at least the one we listened to was). I told her that we will take turns picking out books so I'm glad to have a handy list for some easy ones that a bit deeper.

[nixpix5]

On 11/24/2018 at 12:00 PM, arctic_bunny said:

I have many books that are old friends, not because of how challenging they were to read, or what “must-read” list they were on. I’ve been in book clubs where I’ve read selections outside of my comfort zone, and some I’ve liked and some I haven’t. But I would hate to be told I could only read selections picked by someone else.

I really believe that it is important to find reading enjoyable, and that happens by reading what you enjoy. Magazines, graphic novels, comics, Hardy Boys, Wimpy Kid.... all have their place.

I can relate to that as I look at my bookshelf and see my childhood copy of My Friend the Vampire lovingly laminated by me 😂 In all seriousness though some of my most cherished books as a child that never would have made a list are still in my house and being read by my kids. 

[EKS]

On 11/24/2018 at 11:50 AM, NewIma said:

So I guess another question here is do I worry if she primarily only reads easier books for fun? Is that a problem in and of itself or should I just let it go? When does it become a problem? We are doing lightening lit 7 and so she is currently reading Tom Sawyer for school and we also do audio books and read alouds. 

No, you don't need to worry.  If it's hard, it won't be fun.

(Also, FWIW, Tom Sawyer is on the difficult side.)