I just came across this list from a gifted school and thought it may be helpful
5th and 6th Grade Suggested Reading
•A Gathering of Days and others by Joan Blos
•The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Pen Wright
•Dragon’s Gate by Laurence Yep
•National Velvet by Enid Bagnoldi
•The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
•Saavy Ingrid Law
•The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
•Rules of the Road and any other by Joan Bauer
•Skellig by David Almond
•Silverwing Trilogy and any other by Kenneth Oppel
•When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
•The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 and others by Christopher Paul Curtis
•The Angel Factory by Terence Blacker
•Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
•Stargirl and Loser by Jerry Spinelli
•How about a Newberry book such as Holes by Louis Sachar, A View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, or And Now Miguel or Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
For the 7th & 8th grade reading lists, see the back of this sheet.
7th Grade Required Reading
•Boys: No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt
•Girls: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
8th Grade Required Reading.
•The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter.
7th and 8th Grade Suggested Reading
•Crossbreed or Incident at Hawk’s Hill by Allan Eckert
•Angel on the Square or Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
•October Sky by Homer Hickman Jr.
•Stand Tall and others by Joan Bauer
•Eldest by Christopher Paolini
•Inkspell, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
•Ithaka by Adele Geras
•The Giver, Gathering Blue, The Messenger by Lois Lowry
•Among the Enemy and others by Margaret Peterson Haddix (science fiction)
•The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
•Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (great Civil War fiction)
•Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
•Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
•Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
•Kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata, Criss Cross Lynne Rae Perkins, When You Reach Me and other recent Newberys
•Lunch Money by Andrew Clements
•The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian
•The Pretties, The Uglies by Scott Westerfield
•Try a classic such as The Secret Garden or The Little Princess by Frances Burnett or The Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings or Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
•Sink your teeth into an award winning adult-size biography such as Truman, John Adams, 1776 (by David McCullough) Helen Keller, the Story of My Life, Up From Slavery (Booker T. Washington)