Middle School Summer
Reading Program
2008

Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8

 

Entering Sixth Grade

Please read two books this summer.  You should read the required book and at least one book from the “Suggested Titles” list.  Please do not choose a book that you have already read. 


Required Reading:

The Cay by Theodore Taylor
In 1942, 11-year-old Phillip Enright lives with his parents on the Dutch island of Curaçao, but when the war moves too close for comfort, his mother decides to travel with him back to the safety of Virginia. When their boat is torpedoed, however, Phillip is blinded and finds himself adrift on a life raft with an old black man and a cat.

Suggested Titles:

Before We Were Free by Julia Alverez
Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship.

Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
It’s 1936 Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and 10-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy, but Bud’s got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase full of special things; 2. He’s the author of “Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself”; 3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: posters of Herman E. Calloway and his band of renown, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
"After her mother leaves home suddenlythirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take acar trip retracing her mother's route. Along theway, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe,whose mother also left."

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
To her small Eskimo village, she is known as Miyax; to her friend in San Francisco, she is Julie. When the village is no longer safe for her, Miyax runs away. But she soon finds herself lost in the Alaskan wilderness, without food, without even a compass to guide her.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth's gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet lovable Humbug, the Mathemagician, and the not-so-wicked "Which," Faintly Macabre, who gives Milo the "impossible" mission of returning two princesses to the Kingdom of Wisdom.

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Tells the story of how Aslan created Narnia and gave the gift of speech to its animals.

Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury
"Salisbury weaves Hawaiian legend into the modern-day narrative to create a haunting, unusual novel that will practically booktalk itself."

Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
As Palmer comes of age, he must either accept the violence of being a wringer at his town's annual Pigeon Day or find the courage to oppose it.

The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Meet Mr. Pignati, a lonely old man with a beer belly and an awful secret. He's the Pigman, and he's got a great big twinkling smile. When John and Lorraine, two high school sophomores, meet Mr. Pignati, they learn his whole sad, zany story. They tell it right here in this book -- the truth, and nothing but the truth -- no matter how many people it shocks or hurts.

WRITING REQUIREMENTS

 

Write one page (typed, double-spaced, and at least 250 words) on one of the following topics:

 

  1. Pick a character from The Cay that interests you and write about how this character changes over the course of the novel.  Make sure to provide evidence to support your points.

  2. Write a critique of The Cay.  Make sure to give specific examples from the text that support your points about the book’s strengths and weaknesses.

  3. Pick an important issue or theme in The Cay and explain how and why it is important in the book.

 

Please work on your writing piece yourself so that I get an
accurate sense of your writing abilities.

 

 

Entering Seventh Grade

READING REQUIREMENTS

Please read three books this summer.  You should read the required book and two books from the “Suggested Titles” list.  Please do not select books that you have already read.



Required Reading:

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Suggested titles:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Join hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc.

Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Paul has just moved to Tangerine County, Florida.  He chronicles his adjustment to this bizarre new place, describing his triumph at soccer, making new friends, and tending a tangerine grove.  He also unravels the truth about his disturbed, menacing older brother.

Locked in Time by Lois Duncan
Nore arrives at her stepmother’s Louisiana plantation to find an atmosphere of evil and mystery.  She is forced to embark on a life-threatening quest to discover the strange truth about her new family.

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Katie worships her older sister, Lynn, who takes care of Katie and prepares her for the prejudice she will encounter as one of the few Japanese-American students in their school.  When Lynn falls seriously ill, everything changes.

Pendragon: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale
Fourteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon has it all; he is smart, popular, and a star basketball player in quiet Stony Brook, Connecticut.  But a visit from Uncle Press soon topples all of that as Bobby learns that he is a Traveler, someone who can ride “flumes” through time and space, recounting his adventures in journals that are magically transported back to his friends.

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
Mia has always seen colors in sounds, numbers, and letters, a fact that she has kept secret.  Mia leads a double life as she eagerly learns about her condition called synesthesia while struggling with her daily life at school.

Daniel’s Story by Carol Matas
After witnessing the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, Daniel is suddenly transported from his comfortable life in Frankfurt to a Polish ghetto and then to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, experiencing Nazi brutality and recording the atrocities with a hidden camera.


The Last Mission by Harry Mazer
As World War II rages in Europe, young Jack Raab dreams of being a hero.  He lies his way into the Air Corps, where his wartime experiences are more terrifying than he had ever imagined.

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Tree-ear is an orphan boy in a 12th-century Korean potter’s village. When he accidentally breaks a pot, he must work for the master to pay for the damage by setting off on a difficult and dangerous journey that will change his life forever.

Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor
Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and hard times but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need to survive.  This book is the sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
Koly’s parents have arranged a marriage for their only daughter and now, like many girls her age in India, she will leave home forever.  She yearns to flee, but tradition dictates that it’s too late to turn back.  On her wedding day, Koly’s fate is sealed.

Loch by Paul Zindel
Sonar screens stalk the astonishing, massive water creatures that have been sighted in a remote Vermont lake.  Fifteen-year-old Loch Perkins is aboard The Revelation, a high-tech search yacht, when the first creature explodes from the deep.

 


WRITING REQUIREMENTs

 

Please write one page (typed, double-spaced, and at least 250 words) on one of the following topics:

 

  1. Discuss how the main character in Fever 1793 changes over the course of the novel.  Make sure to provide evidence from the text to support your points.

  2. Write a critique of Fever 1793.  Make sure to give specific examples from the text that support your points about the book’s strengths and weaknesses.

  3. Write a letter from one character in Fever 1793 to another.  You should address important issues facing this particular character.  Try to make your letter believable by studying how the character speaks before you begin writing.

  4. Pick an important issue or theme in Fever 1793 and explain how and why it is important in the book.

 

 

Please work on your writing piece yourself so that I get an
accurate sense of your writing abilities.

 

 

 

Entering Eighth Grade

Dear Eighth Graders,

Read the required book (The Alchemist ) and two more (one non-fiction, one fiction) from the list below.  Following the list is the Writing Requirement.


Required Book:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Recommended Books:

Fiction (read 1)

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Sabriel, by Garth Nix
"Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by Rowling, J. K.
The seventh book in the Harry Potter series is due out on July 21st. Need I say more?

Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, by Lewis, C. S.
Four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, are evacuated from London during World War II, and settled with an elderly Professor in a large country-house. The children explore, and Lucy, the youngest of the children, climbs into a wardrobe and finds it leads to a snow-covered land. She meets a faun, Tumnus, who tells her that the land is called Narnia, and that it is ruled over by the ruthless White Witch, who ensures that it is always winter, but never Christmas. Lucy goes back through the wardrobe, which returns to normal, and is unable to convince the other children about her adventure.

Twilight , by Meyer, Stephanie
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Inkheart,   by Funke, Cornelia Caroline 
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.

Watership Down, by Richard Adams
An allegorical tale of survival about a band of wild rabbits who leave their ancestral home to build a more humane society chronicles their adventures as they search for a safe place to establish a new warren where they can live in peace.

House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

The Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
"A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king."

Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale
While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.

Mystery

And Then There Were None, by Christie, Agatha
First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion.

Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett
When strange and seemingly unrelated events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.

Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke
"Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with--and protection from--Venice's "Thief Lord.""

Historical Fiction

Crispin: the Cross of Lead, by Avi
"Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret."

Slave Dancer, by Paula Fox
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, by Holt, Kimberly Willis 
"During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world."

Miscellaneous & Realistic Fiction

Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Albom, Mitch
Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

Speak, by Andersen, Laurie Halse
Melinda is a friendless outcast at Merryweather High. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, and now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. It is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party. It will take another violent encounter to make Melinda fight back. This time she refuses to be silent.

Silent to the Bone, by Konigsburg, E. L.
Connor is sure his best friend, Branwell, couldn't have hurt Branwell's baby half sister, Nikki. But Nikki lies in a coma, and Branwell is in a juvenile behavioral center, suspected of a horrible crime and unable to utter the words to tell what really happened. Connor is the only one who might be able to break through Branwell's wall of silence. But how can he prove Branwell didn't commit the unspeakable act of which he's accused -- when Branwell can't speak for himself?

The Chosen, by Potok, Chiam
It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again....

Dicey’s Song, by Cynthia Voight
Now that the four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their grandmother, Dicey must decide what she wants for her siblings and herself.

Stargirl, by Spinelli, Jerry
Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out—under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes—for Leo and for the entire school. After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body. But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. Somewhere in the midst of Stargirl's arrival and rise and fall, normal Leo Borlock has tumbled into love with her. In a celebration of nonconformity, Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the fleeting, cruel nature of popularity—and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

The Red Pony, by Steinbeck, John
Raised on a ranch in northern California, Jody is well-schooled in the hard work and demands of a rancher's life. He is used to the way of horses, too; but nothing has prepared him for the special connection he will forge with Gabilan, a hot-tempered pony his father gives him. With Billy Buck, the hired hand, Jody tends and trains his horse, restlessly anticipating the moment he will sit high upon Gabilan's saddle. But when Gabilan falls ill, Jody discovers there are still lessons he must learn about the ways of nature and, particularly, the ways of man.

The Secret Life of Bees, by Kidd, Sue Monk
Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory - the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her "stand-in mother." When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of, toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina - a name she found on the back of a picture amid the few possessions left by her mother. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most.

 

Non-Fiction (read 1)

Smashed, by Zalickas, Koren
Perhaps the most cautionary aspect of Zailckas' eye-opening account of girlhood alcohol abuse is the fact that her story is surprisingly common. Like many girls, she took her first tentative sips at the age of 14. Two years later, she would remember few details of the night she landed -- bruised, filthy, and completely spent -- in the local emergency room, a couple of drinks away from death by alcohol poisoning.

Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High, by  Beals, Patillo Melba
Melba Patillo Beals was one of nine black teenagers chosen to integrate Little Rock, Arkansas's Central High School in 1957. For Melba and her friends it marked their transformation into reluctant warriors--on a battlefield that helped shape the civil rights movement. Warriors Don't Cry is their riveting story.

The Great Escape, by Brickhill, Paul
The story of 76 American and British POWs in Nazi camps built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons, and tailored elaborate German uniforms and clothes. In this fashion they executed the single largest escape from a Nazi prison camp during WWII. 

It Happened to Nancy: A True Story from the Diary of a Teenager,
Sparks, Beatrice (editor)
Presented as a diary edited by the woman who prepared Go Ask Alice for publication, this book is soberly dedicated ``to every kid who thinks AIDS can't happen to him or her'.” The story itself, however, begins on a nearly euphoric note: Nancy, 14, is caught up in her first romance. Breathless exuberance turns to horror, anger and despair after her gentle-seeming boyfriend plies her with spiked wine coolers and rapes her in her own mother's bed. A few months later, blood tests indicate that Nancy is HIV-positive. Nancy succumbs relatively quickly to full-blown AIDS, thus giving readers a rapid-paced and horrific account of the disease's progress. Though the wrenchingly optimistic diarist devotes little space in her journal to the specific details of the various opportunistic infections she suffers.

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series, by Asinof, Eliot
Any true baseball lover, who seeks the truth of the whole sordid affair of the Black Sox scandal, read this book. When it was published in 1965, Asinof blew the lid off the sanitized version which had been available to the public.

10,000 Days of Thunder, by Caputo, Philip
Featuring hundreds of photos, plus helpful maps and easy-to-digest fact boxes, Caputo's well-organized volume is an excellent introduction (to the Vietnam War) for both kids and adults. (Washington Post)


WRITING REQUIREMENTS

Writing Requirement for the Required book,The Alchemist.


(You are strongly encouraged to type the response, although it is not required)

Please write one page (at least 250 words) on one of the following topics: