Middle School Project Lit Titles

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds--and...

After a white mob murders her father, twelve-year-old Ophelia Harrison is awakened by his ghost, who tells her to wake her mother and retreat to the woods. They comply, and escape before their home is burned to the ground by the same men. The pair move to Pittsburgh to live with relatives and take jobs at Daffodil Manor, the home of a wealthy white woman. There, Ophelia continues to see ghosts and learns she has a gift with helping them move on.

Addy's parents were killed in a tragic fire years ago, and she still carries the trauma of this loss with her wherever she goes. When her grandmother sends her to a summer wilderness program in California, Addy finds herself learning to live in the forest with five other Black city kids. But those survival skills are soon put to the test when a forest fire erupts in the woods where they are camping.

In Dakota Territory in the 1880s, half-Chinese Hanna and her white father face racism and resistance to change as they try to make a home for themselves. Includes author's note.

Keiko, Audrey, and Jenna have always been best friends, and Keiko desperately wants it to stay that way, but now they are starting seventh grade, and everything seems to be changing; Audrey is obsessed with the idea of them all securing boyfriends, but when she and Jenna focus on the same boy their friendship starts to break apart--and then Keiko finds herself attracted to Audrey's brother, Conner (who has generally been cast as the enemy), and suddenly...

Nine-year-old Betita and her parents fled Mexico after her uncle was killed by the cartels, and settled in Los Angeles seeking political asylum and safety in what her father calls Aztlan, the land of the cranes; but now they have been swept up by by the government's Immigration Customs Enforcement, her father deported back to Mexico, and Betita and her mother confined in a family detention camp--Betita finds heart in her imagination and the picture...

Presents ten stories featuring ten protagonists who live and walk ten different town blocks who are all walking home from school and learning important things about life, talking about boogers, committing petty theft, skateboarding, inventing new handshakes, and learning to be brave.

When boys in her class start touching seventh-grader Mila and making her feel uncomfortable, she does not want to tell her friends or mother until she reaches her breaking point.

In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.

"Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential"--Provided by the publisher.