6th grade Young Hoosier Book Award reading list
Books referenced by Young Hoosier Book Award at the 6th grade level. Source: cdn.ymaws.com.
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About the 6th grade Young Hoosier Book Award reading list
Young Hoosier Book Award is the Young Hoosier Book Award framework. ReadingList tracks 70 titles referenced by Young Hoosier Book Award at the 6th gradelevel, each tied to a primary-source citation on the book’s detail page. Across the list, Lexile measures span 410L–1020L. The framework is published at cdn.ymaws.com.
At the 6th grade level — the 6-8grade band — students are middle-grade readers, with the curriculum focused on analyzing theme, character, and craft in full-length novels and first classics. Per Common Core’s Appendix A complexity bands, text difficulty at this stage typically falls around roughly 700L to 1010L. Measured against that 925–1185L range, of the 11 titles here with a Lexile score 1 is grade-level, 10 are more accessible, and 0 are stretch texts. A single Young Hoosier Book Award classroom can still span a wide range of reading levels.
Unlike a state reading list, a Young Hoosier Book Award list is portable: the same framework is taught across districts and, in the case of AP and IB, across countries. That makes these titles a reliable backbone for 6th grade planning whether you are a teacher mapping a unit, a homeschooler following a recognized sequence, or a parent checking what Young Hoosier Book Award expects.
How to use this list: treat the Young Hoosier Book Award titles as the core and layer in state-cited or thematically-related books to round out a 6th gradeyear. Each book’s page shows its Lexile measure, grade range, themes, and any challenge history, so you can match a text to a specific reader rather than to the grade label alone.
Young Hoosier Book Award at other grades
5th grade · 7th grade · 4th grade · 8th grade · All 6th gradereading lists →
70 books
A Deadly Game of MagicJoan Lowery Nixon
A Dog's LifeAnn M. Martin
AbductionPeg Kehret
Among the HiddenMargaret Peterson Haddix
Are You There God? It's Me, MargaretJudy Blume
Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous JobWillo Davis Roberts
CardboardDoug TenNapel
Christina's GhostBetty Ren Wright
Cliff-HangerAlane Ferguson
Cryptid HuntersRoland Smith
Dead Man in Indian CreekMary Downing Hahn
Don't Hurt LaurieWillo Davis Roberts
Don't Look Behind YouLois Duncan
Ella EnchantedGail Carson Levine
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's LibraryChris Grabenstein
Escaping the Giant WavePeg Kehret
FrindleAndrew Clements · 830L
FudgeCharlotte Towner Graeber
Ghost SoldierElaine Marie Alphin
Ghost in the HouseBetty Ren Wright
Gregor the OverlanderSuzanne Collins
Harris and MeGary Paulsen
HatchetGary Paulsen · 1020L
Help! I'm a Prisoner in the LibraryEth Clifford
Show all 70 titles
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- Horror at the Haunted House · Peg Kehret
- How to Eat Fried Worms · Thomas Rockwell
- Jelly Belly · Robert Kimmel Smith
- Maxi’s Secrets: (Or, What You Can Learn from a Dog) · Lynn Plourde
- Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 · Richard Paul Evans
- Mick Harte Was Here · Barbara Park
- New Kid · Jerry Craft
- Nightjohn · Gary Paulsen
- Nightmare Mountain · Peg Kehret
- Operation: Dump the Chump · Barbara Park
- Out of My Mind · Sharon M. Draper
- Refugee · Alan Gratz
- Restart · Gordon Korman
- Roller Girl · Victoria Jamieson
- Saving Shiloh · Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Shiloh · Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Sisters · Raina Telgemeier
- Small Steps · Peg Kehret
- Smile · Raina Telgemeier
- So B. It · Sarah Weeks
- Stargirl · Jerry Spinelli
- Stranger with My Face · Lois Duncan
- Strider · Beverly Cleary
- Superfudge · Judy Blume
- Ten Kids, No Pets · Ann M. Martin
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever · Barbara Robinson
- The City of Ember · Jeanne DuPrau
- The Compound · S. A. Bodeen
- The Dark and Deadly Pool · Joan Lowery Nixon
- The Doom Stone · Paul Zindel
- The Face on the Milk Carton · Caroline B. Cooney
- The Ghost on Saturday Night · Sid Fleischman
- The Ghost's Grave · Peg Kehret
- The Goof that Won the Pennant · Jonah Kalb
- The Hunger Games · Suzanne Collins
- The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) · Rick Riordan
- The Third Eye · Lois Duncan
- The Trumpet of the Swan · E.B. White
- The War with Grandpa · Robert Kimmel Smith
- Twisted Summer · Willo Davis Roberts
- Unbreakable · Kami Garcia
- Wait Till Helen Comes · Mary Downing Hahn
- Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger · Louis Sachar
- When the Boys Ran the House · Joan Davenport Carris
- Whispers from the Dead · Joan Lowery Nixon
- Wonder · R.J. Palacio