20 Books for Sixth Grade Reading

I always get excited about summer, but for all the "wrong" reasons. Many people believe that summer is a time for rest and relaxation without a care about school, but my summers are always filled with excitement and planning for the new school year. I love the "blank slate" of a new school year!
A few days ago, I was watching some of my favorite YouTube vloggers as they discussed their plans for the upcoming school year. One of them referenced a box of books she had been collecting for her kids to read, and that flipped a switch in my brain. I pulled together some of my favorite literature resources and started putting together a reading list for our sixth grade year next year!
I ended up with a list of twenty books, which I know is a little on the long side. I'm a voracious reader working with a voracious reader, so I'm pretty sure we will get through them all. However, I divided it into three sections: "Planned Book Studies," "Additional Reading," and "Read Aloud and Independent Reading," because I know that we won't be able to study them all in great depth.
Here's our list...
Planned Book Studies
We will be using the book studies from Learning Language Arts through Literature (The Tan Book - Sixth Grade Skills) for these studies. We will probably design lapbooks to go along with our studies, too, since we enjoy the hands-on aspect. :)
1. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
2. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
3. Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard
4. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
Additional Reading
I pulled these book suggestions from Reading Roadmaps (published by the Center for Lit). As of right now, I do not plan to complete full book studies on these books. We may decide to dive deeper into them if time allows! I like that Reading Roadmaps offers some basic discussion info (i.e. theme, plot, and conflict) for each of these stories.
5. Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
6. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 8. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
9. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
10. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
11. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
12. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
Read Aloud and Independent Reading
I added these books to the list because they were either (a) sequels or additional parts of a series or (b) enjoyable books I remember from upper elementary years. I will probably encourage independent reading of these books, though there are a few I would like to use as read alouds (marked with an asterisk).
13. Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates 14. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry* 15. The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett 16. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis 17. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis* 18. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George 19. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg* 20. The Borrowers by Mary Norton*
I'm really excited about this list, and I hope that these books are a hit! I think we will have fun exploring them. Hopefully, we will even get around to seeing a few of the movies based on these books! ;) Regardless, our main focus this year will be on learning about literary devices and key literary terms, and I think this list of books will help us accomplish that goal.
What's on your reading list this year?