7th Grade Book Club Books

THEMES: Ethics of lying, wealth and class, family secrets, corporate greed

Weatherby is a new kid to the Boston School on a sailing scholarship: Old school phone booths, friends with kids who go to the country club, a famed school secret society… and a boy, Jack, who seems to hate her guts. When Jack, Weatherby, and three of their friends are contacted via an anonymous message, they think they’re getting invited to the famed Liars Society, only to unravel a deep secret about the Hunt family that involves Weatherby. Plenty of character setup and worldbuilding makes for a slightly slower start, but Gerber’s writing is engaging as always, and the second half of the book is wonderfully fast-paced. Middle schoolers looking for a tightly plotted mystery with characters to root for will love this one.

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Learn more about sailing, research secret societies, learn to use an old payphone

THEMES: Family secrets, vocabulary, twin relationships, trust

Meet 13-year-old twins Hope and Gordon. They’ve just discovered that their dad was Brandon Winterton (of the wealthy dictionary magnate family). Unfortunately, Hope can’t stand rich people, especially since the twins and their mom barely make ends meet and live in a motel. But their fortune is about to change. When Gordon enters the family into the Winterton Bee, they’re thrust into the midst of the family’s secrets, with a deadly enemy and a scavenger hunt set up by the family’s dead matriarch. This is a fast-paced mystery with plenty to gnaw on between the twin relationship, family drama, character development, and flashbacks that help readers learn more about the Winterton family. This one does touch a bit on addiction, and there’s a scene where the kids’ lives are in danger, but all ends well!

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Organize a spelling bee, plan a scavenger hunt

THEMES: US history, the science of time travel, ethics of time travel and changing history

Cadets Regan Fitz and Elliot Mason are two “Glitchers” in an academy for learning how to time travel and stop “Butterflies”—rebels traveling through time to change history—from successfully changing American history. Regan is the daughter of the school principal, and Elliot can’t stand her because he thinks she’s a snob. But when a letter from future Regan with a warning about the future threatens to disrupt his career plans, Elliot must team up with Regan to prevent a future disaster. Glitch is a thrilling, sci-fi time travel romp anchored by two formidable protagonists, their burgeoning unlikely friendship, and the United States’s turbulent history.

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Choose a time period of US history to travel back to and discuss why that’s your preferred choice

THEMES: Immortality, Greek mythology, changing friendships, mistakes and forgiveness

Apple and Dorothy are half-gods, descendants of the Greek gods Zeus and Hera and Pandora, respectively. When Dorothy’s mother refuses to return to Olympus one solstice, she becomes a full human and is soon killed in a car accident, leaving Dorothy and her father grieving. Motivated by a promise she made to Dorothy’s mother, Apple befriends Dorothy. But when the gods rule that all half-gods must return home to Olympus and take their place as gods or remain human, Dorothy chooses Earth, to Apple’s dismay. Apple’s fear of losing Dorothy leads her to make a decision with terrible consequences. As a non-fantasy reader, I loved this book — how clever, creative, and profound it is, especially in the way it approaches friendship and grief. I think fans of Greek mythology will love it.

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Learn about the gods in Greek mythology

THEMES: Ambition, achievement and self-worth, running as a meditative practice

This 5-star romance about two overachieving rivals is perfect for tweens and young teens. Grace feels like being smart is all she has. She doesn’t seem to good at social situations and can’t figure out fashion and styling like her friends. So she holds on to book smarts and finds worth in her grades — and in competing with her former best friend, Jonah. Their friendship exploded after his dad’s sudden illness and death. Now, it’s the end of 8th grade, and Jonah’s won the coveted top scholar spot, leaving Grace with no raison d’etre. She decides to compete in a half marathon that she finds out Jonah is training for, so she has one last chance to beat him, and she ends up learning a lot about what really matters in life. The romance is sweet and swoony, and Grace and Jonah’s dialogue is so authentic and left me an adult with heart eyes while feeling age-appropriate.

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Organize a writing workshop, plan marathon training, think about what it would mean to pursue balanced ambition

THEMES: Ballet and body image, sexual harassment, evolving friendships

This book focuses on Monique (Mo) and Rasheeda (Sheeda)’s friendship and how it changes over a summer when both girls are drawn into different pursuits. Mo is off at a ballet intensive with Mila, while Sheeda is stuck at church (with her church “friends”) feeling like she has no life. At the ballet intensive, Mo comes face to face with her competitive attitude which is fueled by feelings of not “fitting in” with the mostly white, skinny ballet dancers. Even though she makes a couple of friends (who basically lovingly force her to befriend them), she’s insecure at times, afraid to be vulnerable because everything feels so different. On the other hand, Sheeda is desperate for something new. Unfortunately, she falls into a risky situation with Mo’s brother whom she happens to have a crush on. Will Mo and Sheeda’s friendship survive the summer? This is a compulsively readable upper middle-grade book (more mature than the average but not quite YA) that explores a horde of important themes.

THEMES: Navigating a cancer diagnosis, intergenerational friendships, rock and roll music

When Ross is diagnosed with a rare lacrimal gland cancer (in his eye), it’s like a new trial for his seventh-grade existence. Add to that the fact that his mom died from cancer years before, he’s going blind in one eye, his best friend is moving away soon, and mean kids at school are making terrible memes about his illness, and you have a dumpster fire of a year waiting to happen. Or is it? This is a brilliant, funny, and thoughtful middle grade book about navigating a cancer diagnosis in 7th grade.

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Draw a comic based on a day in your life

THEMES: Family secrets, forgiveness, basketball

When Rory moves to Cincinnati, Ohio, with her dad after her parents’ separation, she meets Abby, a tall fellow basketball lover, and the two become fast friends. Imagine their shock when they find out that their dads can’t stand each other — and not because they coach the city’s rival basketball teams but because of something that happened years ago when THEY were middle schoolers. Bishop takes us through the girls’ lives as they dig into what happened between their dads, telling the story from multiple perspectives: the girls’, their dads’, and a ball-playing nun in their lives. Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up is a fast-paced and compelling book about true friendships, family secrets, forgiveness, and basketball. 

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Cincy dwellers can do a tour of the city, interview a parent about their childhood best friend

THEMES: Stockholm syndrome, what makes a cult?

Fern and her mother have been living on The Ranch under the thumb of a charismatic leader named Ben. One day, Fern’s mom sneaks herself and Fern across the country from NY to CA, where they live in a motel in her mother’s teenage neighborhood. Although readers will know that Fern and her mom were in a cult, Fern is confused, misses the stability of living a regimented life, and worries about returning to the unstable lifestyle she and her mother had before The Ranch. Fern feels so real and relatable, and all the characters in this story feel well-rounded. Set largely in the atmospheric Driftbay area, this propulsive story of a girl learning to trust her inner voice is unforgettable and has excellent discussion potential in the classroom.

ACTIVITY IDEAS: Research what makes a cult

THEMES: Bullying within the family, finding your voice, body image issues

Wyman’s writing feels so genuine, probably because it’s based on her experience with jaw malocclusion in childhood. I read all 300+ pages in one sitting and was breathless at the end. Max is getting bullied by kids at school for her jaw problems, and her kid sister is one of the bullies. Her parents’ relationship is strained. Her dad works nights and is an alcoholic, and her mom is a chain smoker. Yet, they do their best for the kids, and it’s the kids’ normal. Eventually, Max finds her voice and stands up to her bullies in the best way.

THEMES: Immigration, the history of Jews in Europe, women’s rights

This sprawling family saga follows three generations of women over nearly 100 years and the ancestor that came before them over 400 years earlier. Behar traces the journey of a line of Sephardic Jewish women as the first one flees Toledo, Spain, to Turkey, from where one of her descendants will be exiled to Cuba and from where her daughter will flee to Miami. I flew through this historical fiction title (and you know how rare that is for me) and admired the author’s ability to keep such a saga under 300 pages and kid-appropriate. Come for the moving history of Sephardic Jews and stay for the exquisite storytelling and literary tourism. Heads up for accounts of child marriage.

THEMES: Toxic masculinity, wealth and class, sexual harassment and mental health

Gary Vo is a Vietnamese-American soon-to-be junior high schooler. Gary and his friend Preston have been at the bottom of the social totem pole forever, and Preston is determined that this is the summer they rise up the ranks. So when they’re approached by two popular classmates with an offer to join their group, the boys are all ears! The task is to steal a bracelet from Gloria Buenrostro (a popular, but mysterious A+ student) so the boys can add it to their collections of tokens from “the hottest girls” in school. Easy enough, no? That is until Gary Vo befriends Gloria and realizes that there’s more to her than meets the eye. Gloria Buenrostro Is Not My Girlfriend is a richly layered, relatable teen novel about what it means to be a man and how to be a good friend.

THEMES: What it means to be smart, effort vs talent, self-worth and self-image

Marianne Blume has convinced herself that she’s not smart. She’s gotten through school so far by charming teachers out of questioning her. But her eighth-grade teacher, Mr. Garcia, isn’t easily fooled. To pull up her grades for high school, Marianne tries to win his favor by joining the school’s trivia team (which he coaches). But as the term progresses, Marianne bonds with the trivia kids and learns that there’s more to being smart than book smart — but also, she’s more intelligent than she gives herself credit for. Bright is a deeply insightful book about labels, persistence, and self-belief, featuring themes like sisterhood, female friendships, and family.

THEMES: Family changes, multiple sclerosis, journaling

Maggie is a precocious 11-year-old who loves school and wants to be a US president when she grows up. Maggie knows that her dad’s legs don’t work like they used to, and sometimes his other limbs “fall asleep,” too. But she doesn’t yet know that he has multiple sclerosis—a degenerative and eventually terminal illness. In this slice-of-life novel, we follow Maggie through a turbulent season of life for her family, one through which her parents and sisters shield her incredibly well from her dad’s disease and its progression until they can’t anymore. The Meaning of Maggie is a heartwarming, humorous look at a family navigating turbulent times through the eyes of an unforgettable young protagonist.

THEMES: The ethics of lying, the value of a mascot in sports, potatoes (so many potential activities!)

After a series of unfortunate incidents with potatoes, Ben Hardy is sure he’s cursed. So you can imagine his terror when his family moves to Idaho and his school’s mascot is a potato! When Ben accidently causes the mascot to sprain his ankle, the coach insists that he replace the injured mascot. As the new kid, Ben is scared to tank his social status and lose his new friends and potential friendships with the cool kids, so he decides to hide his identity as the mascot. But soon, one lie leads to another and Ben’s lies threaten to topple all the good things in his new life in Idaho. My Life As a Potato is a humorous, thought-provoking story about staying true to yourself and finding your tribe as the new kid in town.