Children's Books for Parents and Teachers - book reviews and suggestions for parents and teachers.
7th Grade (Age 12)

All books suitable for children in 7th grade.

Touching Spirit Bear

Cole has been getting into trouble most of his life. But when he viciously beats and injures a classmate, he chooses “Circle Justice,” an alternative sentencing program based on Native American tradition, to determine his punishment. Sent to a remote Alaskan island where he must spend a year alone, Cole eats worms and rodents and is seriously injured by a bear. He survives, but in the process he learns about controlling anger and the fact that he can change both physically and spiritually.


Tuck Everlasting

When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles upon the Tuck family’s disturbing secret, she is forced to come to terms with her conflicting emotions. She feels drawn to the loving, gentle and rather eccentric Tucks, but what they tell her is too incredible to be believed. Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family tries to make Winnie understand that the terrible magic of the forest spring can never be revealed. The consequences to the world could prove to be disastrous! But then an unexpected complication …


Tuck Everlasting

Critically acclaimed when it was first published, Tuck Everlasting has become a much-loved, well-studied modern-day classic. This anniversary edition features an in-depth interview conducted by Betsy Hearne in which Natalie Babbitt takes a look at Tuck Everlasting twenty-five years later.


Umbrella Summer

Annie Richards knows there are a million things to look out for—bicycle accidents, food poisoning, chicken pox, smallpox, typhoid fever, runaway zoo animals, and poison oak. That’s why being careful is so important, even if it does mean giving up some of her favorite things, like bike races with her best friend, Rebecca, and hot dogs on the Fourth of July. Everyone keeps telling Annie not to worry so much, that she’s just fine. But they thought her brother, Jared, was just fine too, and Jared died.


Upstairs Room

A Life in Hiding… When the German army occupied Holland, Annie de Leeuw was eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger-she knew that to stay alive she would have to hide. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. For two years they hid Annie and her sister, Sini, in the cramped upstairs room of their farmhouse. Most people thought the war wouldn’t last long. But for Annie and Sini — separated from their family and confined to one tiny room — the war seemed to go on forever.


Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories

Through intimate photographs, poetry, and interviews, children of migrant farmworkers tell their stories. A nine-year-old boy talks about the long hours in the fields. A ten-year-old describes living in crowded migrant housing. Nine different voices tell about gangs, discrimination, language barriers, and strong family ties.


Water Hole

In the tradition of his best-selling alphabet book, Animalia, author and illustrator GraemeBase takes young readers on an exhilarating journey of discovery with an ingenious fusion of counting book, puzzle book, storybook, and art book. From the plains of Africa and the jungles of the Amazon to the woodlands of North America and the deserts of outback Australia, the animals come together to drink from the water hole. But their water supply is diminishing. What’s going on? Each sumptuous landscape illustration conceals hidden animal pictures for readers to find as …


What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy

Meet What-the-Dickens, a rogue tooth fairy and one of Gregory Maguire’s most captivating characters ever! When ten-year-old Dinah and her two siblings are trapped by a terrible storm, cousin Gage keeps their spirits up with an unlikely story — that skibbereen, aka tooth fairies, live in warring colonies right in your neighborhood. Dinah is skeptical at first, but when the real world seems unbearable, stories told by candlelight have a way of becoming real. Dinah starts to — and wants to — believe. Don’t we all?


When You Reach Me
Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Four mysterious letters change Miranda’s world forever. By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it’s safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.

But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:


Who Ordered This Baby Brother? Definitely Not Me! (#13)

One afternoon, Hank overhears his mom and Frankie’s mom talking about having a baby. Having a baby!? It must be Frankie’s mom that they’re talking about! Frankie will go crazy when he hears about this! Hank worries about how to break the news to his best friend—until he finds out that it’s his own mother who is pregnant! How could she do this to him? One annoying sibling is enough. Hank definitely did not order this baby!