The following 10 titles are for older grades, specifically middle school. Those upper elementary students who compete in the Helen Ruffin Competition should read all twenty books while younger grades 4-6 will be tested on the titles listed therein. Here are the nominees for grades 6-8.
- The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya
- We will not be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement that Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March by Linda Clackmon Lowery
- Click to Start Here by Denis Marckell
- Ghost by Jason Reynolds
- Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin
- Hoodoo by Ronald Smith
- The Ethan I was Before by Ali Standish
- Karma Khullar’s Mustache by Kristi Weintge
