ZM Summer Reading for NCCS Middle School Students 2018: Mystery, Detective and Suspense

When lights start flickering and temperatures suddenly drop, twelve-year-old Tessa Woodward, sensing her new house may be haunted, recruits some new friends to help her unravel the mystery of who or what is trying to communicate with her and why. Grade 4-6

Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert. Grade 4-6 (Lexile: 610)

When Danny accidentally buys an elephant, he accepts a job from a zookeeper to ride the elephant from Edinburgh to Manchester that turns into a journey that captures the attention of everyone in the country. Grade 5-7 (Lexile: 630)

All aboard for a fast-paced, Jazz Age-era murder mystery set aboard a Chicago-bound train! It's 1923, and thirteen-year-old Bobby Lee Claremont is leaving the Sisters of Charitable Mercy orphanage in New Orleans, certain a better life awaits in Chicago's glamorous-sounding mob scene. But his plans unravel when he boards his train and meets the recently widowed Nanette O'Halloran, her two traveling companions, and a cop who suspects the trio of murdering Nanette's husband. Bobby Lee is sure Nanette's innocent. But what about her companions? As Bobby Lee digs for answers, he discovers the mob, Prohibition, segregation, and a famed jazz band are all pieces of an increasingly dangerous puzzle. Grade 4-7 (Lexile: 790L

When Lizzie and Gael share an irresistible challenge, to find the peacock ring that once belonged to artist Frida Kahlo, Paloma decides it is the perfect way to honor her father. Grade 4-6 (Lexile: 710)

What happens when you try to exile ghosts? For starters, you might create a situation of otherworldly, explosive wrath. But that's where librarians come in: in Alexander's fantasy world, created for middle-grade readers, librarians can appease ghosts. Rosa Díaz's family specializes in extreme hauntings, which is why she's directionless when she and her mother relocate to Ingot, the only ghost-free town in the world, after her father dies in a spectral accident. While her mother rests and mourns, Rosa starts exploring why Ingot seems to repel the dead. But then she meets local boy Jasper Chevalier, and a monster interrupts the local Renaissance festival, throwing the unhaunted town into chaos. Rosa and Jasper-both children of color-dig into local history and find themselves plunged into danger. (Grade 4- (Lexile: 640)

Eleven-year-olds Luis and Maura investigate the cause of a long-term, city-wide power outage in Hampton, New Jersey. Includes facts about electric power and instructions for assembling an emergency kit. Grade 5-7

Visiting her grandmother in Australia, Livy, ten, is reminded of the promise she made five years before to Bob, a strange, green creature who cannot recall who or what he is.

An epic alternate history series about three kids who try to solve the greatest mystery of the modern world: a puzzle and treasure hunt laid into the very streets and buildings of New York City.
It was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent city: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had ever seen before. Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher--a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modern world is little more than a tourist attraction.
Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment--until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction means the end of a dream long held by the people of New York. And if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to save their home, they have to prove that the Old York Cipher is real. Which means they have to solve it.
Grade 5-8

A family mystery leads Dani Beans to investigate the secrets of Ole Miss and the dark history of race relations in Oxford, Mississippi.

With the help of some unexpected, and rather ghostly, allies, Lockwood & Co. must battle their greatest enemy yet, as they move ever closer to the moment when the earth-shattering secret of 'the problem' will finally be revealed, Grade 5-8 (Lexile: 710)

In this story set in the 18th-century, Caleb is the mixed race son of a poor puppeteer. When his father is wrongfully accused of theft and sentenced to transportation, Caleb is forced to seek out his estranged aunt in Devon. When a body washes up on a nearby beach, a shattered Caleb finds himself involved in a plot that places him and his newfound family in mortal danger. Grade 6-9

Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, in the old house that belonged to her grandmother, who died after being dismissed as city manager for having the city tennis courts dug up looking for buried treasure--but when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert. Grade 4-6 (Lexile: 610)

cursed child destined to die on her eleventh birthday is rescued and whisked away to a secret realm called Nevermoor and given the chance to compete for a place in a prestigious organization called the Wundrous Society. Grade 5+ (Lexile: 790)

An 11-year-old from a family that possesses unique magical abilities joins a traveling circus with an evil ringmaster who steals talents, forcing her to choose between forfeiting her powers and sacrificing her family. By the author of Baker's Magic. Grade 4-6 (Lexile: 630)

Twelve-year-old artist Sargent Singer must team up with some very unusual partners to thwart a theft of the masterpieces in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Grade 3-6

Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof; in fact, he doesn't remember anything about himself, and when he gets back to middle school he begins to learn who he was through the reactions of the other kids. Trouble is, he really isn't sure he likes the Chase that's being revealed, but can he take the opportunity amnesia has provided and restart his life? Grade 3-6 (Lexile: 730)

An epic alternate history series about three kids who try to solve the greatest mystery of the modern world: a puzzle and treasure hunt laid into the very streets and buildings of New York City.
It was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent city: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had ever seen before. Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher--a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modern world is little more than a tourist attraction.
Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment--until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction means the end of a dream long held by the people of New York. And if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to save their home, they have to prove that the Old York Cipher is real. Which means they have to solve it.
Grade 5-8

Like Birdie Adams didn't have enough problems this summer. But Birdie's Birdie. And if a long-buried box has Open If You Dare written on its lid, then she and her best friends, Ally and Rose, are going to open it. And now, along with everything else that's going on--Ally's pitching slump, Rose's banishment to Britain, and Birdie's annoying younger sister being, you know, annoying--the best friends are caught up in having to solve a mystery from forty years ago, following clues planted by a dead girl. Grade 4-6 (Lexile: 550)

fter becoming undead, a boy tries to survive middle school.

Adrian Lazarus has met with a curious fate. He's returned from the dead (after a bad bike accident, no helmet), yet not a lot has changed. He's always been an outcast. But it's not just being a zombie that makes Adrian feel different. He notices the world has changed, too: bees are vanishing, forest fires are burning, super-flus are spreading. The holographic advertisements in the night sky assure people that all is well. Adrian and his friends - a beekeeping boy, a mysterious new girl, and a seventh-grade sleuth - aren't so sure.

When they discover a birdlike drone has been spying on Adrian, the clues lead to two powerful corporate moguls. What do they really want? Grade 5-8 (Lexile: 660)

With the help of some unexpected, and rather ghostly, allies, Lockwood & Co. must battle their greatest enemy yet, as they move ever closer to the moment when the earth-shattering secret of 'the problem' will finally be revealed, Grade 5-8 (Lexile: 710)

When her best friend, the sailor Henry Koskela, is falsely accused of murder, a gorilla named Sally Jones visits the run-down docks of Lisbon, embarks on a dizzying journey across the seven seas, and calls on the Maharaja of Bhapur's magnificent court--all in an attempt to clear Henry's name. Grade 6-9

An epic alternate history series about three kids who try to solve the greatest mystery of the modern world: a puzzle and treasure hunt laid into the very streets and buildings of New York City.
It was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent city: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had ever seen before. Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher--a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modern world is little more than a tourist attraction.
Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment--until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction means the end of a dream long held by the people of New York. And if Tess, Theo, and Jaime want to save their home, they have to prove that the Old York Cipher is real. Which means they have to solve it.
Grade 5-8