Summer Reading for Middle School: Jonathan Stroud

Bartimaeus series.
Bartimaeus, a wise-cracking djinni, finds himself in the tenth century and at the court of King Solomon with an unpleasant master and a sinister servant, and gets into trouble with King Solomon's magic ring.

Halli Sveinsson, a mischievous young man who does not fit in with his peers and siblings, plays a trick on Ragnor that goes too far, forcing him to embark on a hero's quest in which he will face highway robbers, monsters, an intriguing girl, and truths about his family and the legends he grew up with.

Bartimaeus trilogy, Book 3.
Bartimaeus, Nathanial, and Kitty face treacherous magicians and an enemy from "The Other Place" that threatens London and the world.

Bartimaeus trilogy, Book 2.
The second adventure in the Bartimaeus trilogy finds Nathaniel working his way up the ranks of the government, when crisis hits. A seemingly invulnerable clay golem is making random attacks on London. Nathaniel and Bartimaeus must travel to Prague to discover the source of the golem's power.

Bartimaeus trilogy, Book 1.
Nathaniel is a magician's apprentice, taking his first lessons in the arts of magic. But when a devious hot-shot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates Nathaniel in front of his elders, Nathaniel decides to kick up his education a few notches and show Lovelace who's boss. With revenge on his mind, he summons the powerful djinni, Bartimaeus. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

A chance encounter on the snowy slopes of a castle moat throws together three lonely teenagers, Emily, Simon, and the highly imaginative but enigmatic Marcus, who is the catalyst for all that follows.

Thirteen-year-old Michael McIntyre must choose between his family and his new powers when an imprisoned dragon awakes and releases an evil long held in slumber.