Summer Reading for NCCS Upper School Students 2025

he night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something more: a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams . . . maybe even peaches. She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prickle. At the same time, the gruff head gardener himself is teaching lowly Scilla to make things grow, and she’s cultivating hope with every seed she plants. But as the seasons unfurl, her loyalties become divided, and her secret grows harder to keep. How far will she go to have a home at last? Beautifully crafted with classic middle-grade themes of fate and ambition, identity and personal responsibility, this stunning debut features brisk pacing, crackling dialogue, and deep insight into what makes a garden thrive—and a heart and mind flourish. Grades 5-8

In 1847, everything in Ireland was falling apart—but sixteen-year-old Nell was falling in love. Carnegie Medal winner Sarah Crossan’s first historical novel-in-verse is a suspenseful and heartbreaking story of love, family, and the forces that can destroy us or bind us forever. Grades 8-11 (In Verse)

Spanning over five hundred years, a novel telling the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life. Grades 5-8 (Lexile: 830)

The gripping story of a boy's escape by boat from Communist Vietnam in 1980. Eleven-year-old Thọ Phạm lives with his family in South Vietnam. He spends his afternoons playing soccer and cricket fighting, but life is slowly changing under the Communists. His parents are worried, and Thọ knows the Communist army will soon knock on their door to make his brother, and them him, join them. Still, it shocks him when his father says he's arranged for Thọ to leave, immediately. Thọ tries to be brave as he sets out on a harrowing journey toward the unknown. A survival story drawn from real-life experiences enrich this riveting refugee story. Grades 5-7 (Lexile: 930)

A contemporary middle grade novel full of spunk and activist heart. Manuela Mani Semilla wants two things: To get her period, and to thwart her mom's plan of taking her to Guatemala, a place that has always been more of a mystery than an answer. Mani can't imagine leaving behind Las Nerdas, her band of misfit friends, for the summer. But after she finds letters written between her mother and her disappeared-journalist aunt, Mani's idea of what it means to be a woman takes flight. Reading the letters reveals both the beauty of Guatemala and its history of violence against women, and slowly transforms Mani from quiet bystander into budding activist. Grades 6-8

Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, twelve-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember--a love letter in verse to sisterhood and the places we leave behind. Grade 4-7 (In Verse)

Twelve-year-old Charley Cuffey is many things: a granddaughter, a best friend, and probably the best pitcher in all of Lee's Mill. Set on becoming the first female pitcher to play professional ball, Charley doesn't need reminders from her best friend Cool Willie Green to know that she has lofty dreams for a Black girl in the American South. Even so, Nana Kofi's thrilling stories about courageous ancestors and epic journeys make it impossible not to dream big. She knows he has so many more to tell, but according to her parents, she isn't old enough to know about certain things like what happened to Booker Preston that one night in Great Bridge and why she can never play on the brand-new real deal baseball field on the other side of town. Grades 5-8

A multi-generational family history told in the voices of the author's ancestors, spanning enslavement alongside Frederick Douglass at Maryland's Wye House plantation, service in the U.S. Colored Troops, andthe founding of all-Black Reconstruction-era communities. Grades 5-8

Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, twelve-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember--a love letter in verse to sisterhood and the places we leave behind. Grade 4-7 (In Verse)

The gripping story of a boy's escape by boat from Communist Vietnam in 1980. Eleven-year-old Thọ Phạm lives with his family in South Vietnam. He spends his afternoons playing soccer and cricket fighting, but life is slowly changing under the Communists. His parents are worried, and Thọ knows the Communist army will soon knock on their door to make his brother, and them him, join them. Still, it shocks him when his father says he's arranged for Thọ to leave, immediately. Thọ tries to be brave as he sets out on a harrowing journey toward the unknown. A survival story drawn from real-life experiences enrich this riveting refugee story. Grades 5-7 (Lexile: 930)

It's 1942, and the United States is at war. While most of the kids in Henry Hamilton's class dream of being soldiers and shipping off overseas, Henry wants to contribute in a different way: he dreams of being a reporter. When his city organizes an air raid program as part of its civilian defense efforts, he just might find the scoop he's been hoping for. But as he tracks down his leads, he discovers a story far more perilous and important than he could have imagined. As the danger mounts, Henry must navigate dark forests, hidden tunnels, and even enemy spies and saboteurs in order to expose the shocking truth... Grades 4-7

December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads are Navy pilots stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the boys get a front-row view of the huge battleships and the sparkling water. Yes, World War II is raging in Europe and in Asia, but the US isn't involved in the war, and the boys are free to dream about becoming comic book creators. They've even invented a superhero of their own, in the style of Batman, Superman, Captain America, and other stars of the Golden Age of Comics. Maybe they'll even get their comic published someday. December 7th, 1941: Everything explodes. That morning, Frank and Stanley are aboard the battleship the USS Utah when Japanese planes zoom overhead and begin dropping bombs on the ships below. Chaos ensues as everyone scrambles to dive for safety. Frank and Stanley realize what's happening: Japan is attacking America! The war has come to them. As the boys fight to make their way home amidst the carnage, it's clear that everything has changed. Stanley's mother is Japanese American and he is suddenly facing a terrible prejudice that he's never known before--he's now seen as the "enemy," and Frank, who's white, cannot begin to understand what Stanley will now face. Can their friendship--and their dreams--survive this watershed moment in history? Grades 4-7

Fourteen-year-old Myung-gi flees North Korea with his family during the height of the devastating Korean War, beginning an epic struggle for survival that pushes them to the brink. Grades 4-8

Spanning over five hundred years, a novel telling the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life. Grades 5-8 (Lexile: 830)

Fourteen-year-old Myung-gi flees North Korea with his family during the height of the devastating Korean War, beginning an epic struggle for survival that pushes them to the brink. Grades 4-8

A multi-generational family history told in the voices of the author's ancestors, spanning enslavement alongside Frederick Douglass at Maryland's Wye House plantation, service in the U.S. Colored Troops, andthe founding of all-Black Reconstruction-era communities. Grades 5-8

In 1930s San Antonio, after her father's death, thirteen-year-old Petra must quit school to work at a pecan shelling factory where dangerous conditions and low wages push her to take a vital stand for change.Grades 5-8

Set in 1776, this is the story of thirteen-year-old Elsbeth, who struggles to find her missing father amidst the smallpox epidemic sweeping across Boston duriing the American revolution. Grades 5-9

The summer before seventh grade, as the constant threat of housefires looms over her Brooklyn neighborhood, basketball-loving Sage is trying to figure out her place in her circle of friends, when a new kid named Freddy moves in, Grades 4-8

Just before the United States enters the Vietnam War, eleven-year-old Bé and her three-footed kitten Mèo must rise above the injustices of war to find the comfort, safety, and love of a found family. Grades 5-8

Follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's disappearance. Grades 5-8

It's 1942, and the United States is at war. While most of the kids in Henry Hamilton's class dream of being soldiers and shipping off overseas, Henry wants to contribute in a different way: he dreams of being a reporter. When his city organizes an air raid program as part of its civilian defense efforts, he just might find the scoop he's been hoping for. But as he tracks down his leads, he discovers a story far more perilous and important than he could have imagined. As the danger mounts, Henry must navigate dark forests, hidden tunnels, and even enemy spies and saboteurs in order to expose the shocking truth... Grades 4-7

Fourteen-year-old Myung-gi flees North Korea with his family during the height of the devastating Korean War, beginning an epic struggle for survival that pushes them to the brink. Grades 4-8

Just before the United States enters the Vietnam War, eleven-year-old Bé and her three-footed kitten Mèo must rise above the injustices of war to find the comfort, safety, and love of a found family. Grades 5-8

Annotation:
Told in alternating voices and timelines, twelve-year-old Henry and his two friends unknowingly alter the outcome of World War II when they communicate over radio with three kids from 1944 and must now work together to change it back. Grades 5-7

The Trojan War is ancient history. The gods of Olympus are silent and have not appeared to mortals for generations. In the city-state of Sparta, young Gorgo's mother gives a warning with her dying breath: the Persians are coming. The princess Gorgo, weaned on her nurse's stories of gods and shapeshifters, never forgets her mother's last words. When at last the drums of war begin to sound, she is swept up in a dangerous game of politics, treachery, and vengeance. With the blood of Herakles and Zeus himself running through her veins and the awakening of a dormant supernatural power, Gorgo, now queen of Sparta, must help lead her city-state against a mighty empire. Grades 5-8

Told in alternating voices, in 1692 Salem, Puritan Patience and Quaker Thomas are engrossed in a community panic over witchcraft, and as the list of accusers and accused grows, they question their faiths and fight to protect their families. Grades 7-10