6th grade Nebraska Golden Sower Award reading list
Books referenced by Nebraska Golden Sower Award at the 6th grade level. Source: nebraskalibraries.org.
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About the 6th grade Nebraska Golden Sower Award reading list
Nebraska Golden Sower Award is the Nebraska Golden Sower Award framework. ReadingList tracks 46 titles referenced by Nebraska Golden Sower Award at the 6th gradelevel, each tied to a primary-source citation on the book’s detail page. Across the list, Lexile measures span 360L–810L. The framework is published at nebraskalibraries.org.
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 7 titles here with a Lexile score 0 are grade-level, 7 are more accessible, and 0 are stretch texts. A single Nebraska Golden Sower Award classroom can still span a wide range of reading levels.
Unlike a state reading list, a Nebraska Golden Sower 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 Nebraska Golden Sower Award expects.
How to use this list: treat the Nebraska Golden Sower 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.
Nebraska Golden Sower Award at other grades
5th grade · 7th grade · 4th grade · 8th grade · All 6th gradereading lists →
46 books
AloneMegan E. Freeman
Cracker The Best Dog in VietnamCynthia Kadohata
Danger ZoneDavid Klass
Deep and Dark and DangerousMary Downing Hahn
Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. DunphreyMargaret Peterson Haddix
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's LibraryChris Grabenstein
Escaping the Giant WavePeg Kehret- Flight #116 Is Down!Caroline B. CooneyFlight #116 Is Down!Caroline B. Cooney
Freak the MightyW. R. Philbrick
Ghost BoysJewell Parker Rhodes · 360L
Heart of a ChampionCarl Deuker
High HeatCarl Deuker
House ArrestK. A. Holt
LegendMarie Lu
Mississippi Trial, 1955Chris Crowe
Night HoopsCarl Deuker
Nothing's Fair in Fifth GradeBarthe DeClements
PerfectNatasha Friend
Prisoner B-3087Alan Gratz
Red QueenVictoria Aveyard- RestartGordon KormanRestartGordon Korman · 730L
Run, Hide, Fight BackApril Henry
Stepping on the CracksMary Downing Hahn
Stolen ChildrenPeg Kehret
Show all 46 titles
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- Stung · Bethany Wiggins
- Superfudge · Judy Blume
- The Best School Year Ever · Barbara Robinson
- The Compound · S. A. Bodeen
- The False Prince · Jennifer A. Nielsen
- The Giver · Lois Lowry
- The Haunting · Joan Lowery Nixon
- The Hunger Games · Suzanne Collins
- The Inheritance Games · Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) · Rick Riordan
- The Old Willis Place · Mary Downing Hahn
- The Transall Saga · Gary Paulsen
- The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson · Carol Lynch Williams
- The War That Saved My Life · Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
- The World According to Humphrey · Betty G. Birney
- There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom · Louis Sachar
- Touching Spirit Bear · Ben Mikaelsen
- Twilight · Stephenie Meyer
- Two Degrees · Alan Gratz
- Wait Till Helen Comes · Mary Downing Hahn
- Whispers from the Dead · Joan Lowery Nixon
- Wonder · R.J. Palacio