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Battle of the Books

6th Grade Books

New for the 2024-2025 school year!

Battle of the Books is a fun, optional program for sixth graders.  Students form a team of one to three people and then as a team, they read the fifteen books that are on the Battle of the Books list. In late spring, Richmond Middle School will face off with the Marion Cross sixth grade teams for the Book Battle. This involves a Jeopardy-style game with the categories of:  plot, genre, character, setting, and tricky. This friendly competition encourages students to explore books they might not otherwise read and builds community around shared reading experiences. The books for The Battle of the Books are available in the RMS library, on Sora, and through the Howe Library.

Two Tribes book cover

By Emily Bowen Cohen

Mia is still getting used to living with her mom and stepfather, and to the new role their Jewish identity plays in their home. Feeling out of place at home and at her Jewish day school, Mia finds herself thinking more and more about her Muscogee father, who lives with his new family in Oklahoma. Her mother doesn’t want to talk about him, but Mia can’t help but feel like she’s missing a part of herself without him in her life.

Graphic Novel

Hamra and the Jungle Memories book cover

By Hanna Alkaf

The day of Hamra’s 13th birthday begins without fanfare. Her mother is still at work at the hospital, her father is exhausted from delivering food to families isolated by the pandemic, she both worries about and is irritated by her aging grandfather and dementia-challenged grandmother, and she’s facing a day of remote school at the dining room table.

Fairy Tales/Folklore, Science Fiction/Fantasy

The Fire, The Water, and Maudie McGinn book cover

by Sally Pla

Maudie always loves summers with Dad.  This year, though, wildfire forces them to stay in her dad's seaside hometown, and a secret about Maudie's new stepdad overshadows everything.

Realistic

The Lost Year book cover

By Katherine Marsh

Three compelling storylines move back and forth between the first months of the pandemic in 2020, and Ukraine and Brooklyn in 1932 and 1933. Matt, 12 (white), is an only child living with his mother and great-grandmother, Nadiya, known as GG, during lockdown. He’s lonely, bored, chafing at his mother’s rules, and alternately angry at and worried about his dad, a journalist based in Paris.

Historical Fiction

What Happened to Rachel Riley book cover

By Claire Swinarski

In this engrossing and inventive contemporary middle grade novel that's Where'd You Go, Bernadette with a #MeToo message, an eighth grader uses social media posts, passed notes, and other clues to find out why a formerly popular girl is now the pariah of her new school. 

Mystery, Realistic Fiction

Slug Fest book cover

By Gordon Korman

Yash is a local sports legend, but a mistake in his credit means he has to attend summer school for, of all things, PE!  Trapped for the summer with the other "slugs", Yash winds up building a new kind of team.

Realistic

15 Secrets to Survival book cover

by Natalie D. Richards

Four squabbling kids are sent to the Montana wilderness to learn survival skills and teamwork, but when their instructor disappears with a storm on its way, they must pull together to find him and survive the bitter cold.

Adventure

Duel book cover

By Jessixa & Aaron Bagley

Sibling rivalry comes to a head when Lucy's older sister humiliates her on her first day of middle school, causing her to challenge Gigi to a fencing duel!

Graphic Novel

Grounded For All Eternity book cover

By Darcy Marks

Malachi and his friends are kids from Hell.  (The suburbs, not the fiery pit part.). But when they accidentally let a soul escape, they have one night to find it and save the world.  How hard can it be to find one evil soul?  On Halloween?  In Salem?

Fantasy/Scary

SIMON SORT OF SAYS book cover

By Erin Brow

Simon has just moved to the National Quiet Zone, a place where the internet is banned!  As he adjusts to life, his new friends, and the attack peacock that came with the house, the tragedy that sent his family to this town is just waiting to be revealed. 

Realistic

The Mona Lisa Vanishes book cover

by Nicholas Day

100 years ago, the Mona Lisa wasn't that well-known...until she was stolen!  Follow the heist, and the global hunt for DaVinci's masterpiece!

Nonfiction

MASCOT BOOK COVER

by Charles Waters & Traci Sorell

What if your school's mascot was considered racist, but not by anyone?  A class assignment to debate the issue draws six middle school students into an increasingly ugly fight throughout town.

Realistic