ZM Summer Reading for NCCS Middle School Students 2022: Humor

Being "nerdy" in middle school isn't a bad thing--I should know! Me and my friends are nerds. Some of us are geeky but funny, smart but never boring. One is a jock but not jerk. We don't quite fit. But we're funny. We're fun. We're total chaos. And we own it--until one of us is targeted by a maniac. It will take all of our nerdiest skills to Sherlock Holmes our way out of one dangerous mess. Grade 4-7

7th-grader Jack Reynolds loves making people laugh but he needs help to make his wacky MyTube channel take off, and making friends is not exactly his strong suit. Grade 5-7

Three unlikely friends meet in a middle school pottery class and learn how to piece their lives back together again, all the while discovering that that some things can never be unbroken-and that's okay too. Grade 5-8

Maggie Diaz of Miami is excited to start seventh-grade with her best friends, Zoey and Julian, and finally getting a cellphone of her own; but after school her friends are wrapped up in their various clubs, her mother is attending college, and her older sister Caro has her sports and tutoring, so Maggie decides that she will find a club to join as well--but trying out ALL the different clubs while still juggling school work is exhausting and confusing--and soon it seems like everybody is mad at her, and the cellphone of her dreams is getting further and further away. Grade 5-8

Twelve-year-old Jake McQuade--the smartest kid in the universe--goes to a camp for geniuses, where he goes up against the Virtuoso quantum computer, the smartest machine in the universe. Grade 5-7 (Lexile: 650)

Cooper just wants to spend the summer before 7th grade drawing and having adventures with his best friend, Nacho. Anything to keep his mind off the fact that his dad's new girlfriend and his mom's announcement that she's going to start dating. But when one of his adventures with Nacho goes too far, Cooper's parents freak out. Either he joins the Boy Rangers, a dorky club that's all about discipline and rules, or that dream cartooning camp at the end of his summer? Will get erased. At first it's not so bad--the troop is a disorganized mess. But then a new scoutmaster starts. Mr. Pierce is a gruff ex-Marine who's never worked with kids before, especially not a ragtag team of misfits like Troop 19. As he tries turning them into a lean, mean, badge-earning machine, Cooper longs for freedom. He doesn't want to break the rules, but the rules are going to break him! Grade 4-7 (Lexile: 630) Publication date 6/28/22

Logan, an undersized twelve-year-old orphan with a photographic memory and no filter, discovers that his foster parents are superheroes in grave danger and only Logan's highly logical mind can save them. Grade 4=6

He's not a stray house cat, he's an immortal being. And now he must choose whether to return to his planet or remain with his new human friend. The cat that Olive rescues from a flood has a secret: he's not really a cat at all, but an alien who crashed to Earth on a beam of light. The cat, whom Olive names Leonard, was prepared to visit the planet as a human--but something went wrong. Now Leonard may never know what it's like to hold an umbrella, go bowling, or host a dinner party. (And his human jokes still need some work: Knock, knock. Who's there? Just Leonard. It is me.) While Olive worries about whether she will have to move after her mom and her new boyfriend get back from their summer vacation, Leonard tries to figure out how to get from South Carolina to Yellowstone National Park, because if he's not there at the end of the month, he'll miss his ride home. But as Olive teaches Leonard about the beautiful and confusing world of humans, he starts to realize how much he cares about this particular one. A sweet and dryly funny story about what it means to be human--and what it means to be home. Grade 4-7

Logan, an undersized twelve-year-old orphan with a photographic memory and no filter, discovers that his foster parents are superheroes in grave danger and only Logan's highly logical mind can save them. Grade 4=6

Jake Foster, a shapeshifting alien of goo disguised as a human, and his spunky friend Agnes investigate the mysterious takeover of their neighbors by "imblobsters" and uncover the reason Jake is losing control of his ability to keep his human shape. Grade 4-6

Mickey finds a book that promises to erase whatever is written in it, and after filling the page with all the things and people he dislikes, he finds himself in the anti-world where everything familiar is gone. Grade 4-7

When 12-year-old Max is sent to live with his eccentric grandfather for the summer, he finds himself on an unlikely quest to uncover an enchanted book that contains the key to defeating an unearthly nemesis. Grade 3-7