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.

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.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
A sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and her mother to leave their fine home and flee to California during the Great Depression.  They face many challenges as they settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers.

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.

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,
Please read three books this summer: Tangerine and two more (one non-fiction, one fiction) from the list below.  Following the list is your writing assignment.

Required Book:
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.

Recommended Books:
Fiction (read 1)
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.
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.""
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.
Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Albiom, 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?"
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.

Non-Fiction (read 1)
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 istheir 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. 
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.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

June 16, 2009

Dear Eighth Grader,

I hope you’re having a good summer and are reading lots of books you enjoy! After you finish a book, keep track of the title and author so you can share your choices with your classmates in September.

Over the next two months, all of your classmates will read Tangerine by Edward Bloor. Once you do, I’d like you to write me a letter.  Please begin by telling me a bit about yourself in the first paragraph. The other paragraph(s) should be your personal response to the novel. Include in your letter your thoughts on the story and enough detail so I know you read it thoughtfully. Remember, this is not a summary of the plot. I want to know what you think about this book and why. This means you’ll give specific examples from the book to back up your thoughts.
 
Your letter should be no more than two typed pages; if handwriting it, please use blue or black pen. You can either email it to me at irene.reynolds@woosterschool.com or snail-mail it to me at this address by August 28th:   Mrs. Irene Coussa Reynolds
                                            Wooster School
                                             91 Miry Brook Road
                                             Danbury, CT  06810

Here are some suggestions for what you can include in your letter: 

• Which character do you find most appealing?  This may not be the main character of the story.  Tell me why this character appeals to you. Do you relate to this character? Why?  Would you want this character to be your friend?  Give specific examples from the book to support your choice.

• Which issue(s) or themes in the story do you find most compelling? Explain why, using examples from the story and your life.

• Compose an open-ended question* on what you wondered about while reading the book or after you finished reading it. For example, what do you think the author is trying to say here? Or why does a character do or say something?  Then answer your question.  Remember to use specific examples from the book to support your response.

         *An open-ended question is a thinking question.  It can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no” response.

• Describe how you felt (saddened, hopeful, relieved, angry, etc.) while reading this

         book.  What events or characters made you feel this way?  Remember to use
         specific examples from the book to support your answer.   

I look forward to meeting you in September! If you have any questions before then, please email me. Have a super summer!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Reynolds J