CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
Grades 7-8
Young Adult Literature
Angel Island: Gateway To Gold Mountain
Russell Freedman
Aviary Wonders, Inc
Kate Samworth
Boundless
Kenneth Oppel
Brown Girl Dreaming
Jacqueline Woodson
Echo
Pam Munoz Ryan
Egg + Spoon
Gregory Maguire
Greenglass House
Kate Milford
Half a Man
Michael Morpurgo
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education
and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
Knightley & Son
Malala Yousafzai
Lost Boy
Tim Green
Lowriders In Space
Cathy Camper
Next Wave: The Quest to Harness the Power of the
Oceans
Elizabeth Rusch
Octopus Scientists: Exploring the Mind of a
Mollusk
Sy Montgomery
Rain Reign
Ann Martin
The Glass Sentence
S.E.Grove
The Great Greene Heist
Varian Johnson
The Paper Cowboy
Kristin Levine
The Red Pencil
Andrea Davis Pinkney
The Secret Hum of a Daisy
Tracy Holczer
West of the Moon
Margi Preus
Rohan Gavin
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
Angel Island: Gateway To Gold Mountain
Angel Island Immigration Station Video Tour
Angel Island, off the coast of California, was the port of entry for Asian immigrants
to the United States between 1892 and 1940. Following the passage of legislation requiring
the screening of immigrants, "the other Ellis Island" processed around one million people
from Japan, China, and Korea. Drawing from memoirs, diaries, letters, and the "wall poems"
discovered at the facility long after it closed, the nonfiction master Russell Freedman
describes the people who came, and why; the screening process; detention and
deportation; changes in immigration policy; and the eventual renaissance of Angel Island as
a historic site open to visitors.
Aviary Wonders, Inc.
Since 2031, Aviary Wonders Inc. has offered bird lovers a unique opportunity:
Assemble your own bird from stunningly beautiful and carefully hand-crafted parts. The
birds can even be taught to fly and to sing! This slyly satirical crafter's delight is offered as
the perfect antidote to extinction of birds in the wild. Brilliantly illustrated with oil
paintings and filled with laugh-aloud asides as well as sobering facts about extinct species,
this mock catalog is a clever send-up of contemporary sales spin and a thought-provoking
look into an all-too-possible future.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
The Boundless
Book Trailer
All aboard for an action-packed escapade from the internationally bestselling author
of Airborne and the Silverwing trilogy. The Boundless, the greatest train ever built, is on its
maiden voyage across the country, and first-class passenger Will Everett is about to
embark on the adventure of his life! When Will ends up in possession of the key to a train
car containing priceless treasures, he becomes the target of sinister figures from his past.
In order to survive, Will must join a traveling circus, enlisting the aid of Mr. Dorian, the
ringmaster and leader of the troupe, and Maren, a girl his age who is an expert escape
artist. With villains fast on their heels, can Will and Maren reach Will’s father and save The
Boundless before someone winds up dead?
Brown Girl Dreaming
Book Trailer
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each
place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the
1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the
Civil Rights movement.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
Echo
Meet Pam Munoz Ryan
“Long before enchantment was eclipsed by doubt," a young boy named Otto lost in
the woods is rescued by three sisters imprisoned there by a witch's curse. In return, he
promises to help break the curse by carrying their spirits out of the forest in a mouth harp
and passing the instrument along when the time is right. The narrative shifts to the 20th
century, when the same mouth harp (aka harmonica) becomes the tangible thread that
connects the stories of three children: Friedrich, a disfigured outcast; Mike, an
impoverished orphan; and Ivy, an itinerant farmer's child. Their personal struggles are set
against some of the darkest eras in human history: Friedrich, the rise of Nazi Germany;
Mike, the Great Depression; Ivy, World War II. The children are linked by musical talent
and the hand of fate that brings Otto's harmonica into their lives.
Egg & Spoon
Book Trailer
Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been
dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other
taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their
tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying
untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint
Petersburg — a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’
lives collide, an adventure is set in motion.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
Greenglass House
Book Trailer
It’s wintertime at Greenglass House. The creaky smuggler’s inn is always quiet
during this season, and twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers’ adopted son, plans to spend
his holidays relaxing. But on the first icy night of vacation, out of nowhere, the guest bell
rings. Then rings again. And again. Soon Milo’s home is bursting with odd, secretive guests,
each one bearing a strange story that is somehow connected to the rambling old house. As
objects go missing and tempers flare, Milo and Meddy, the cook’s daughter, must decipher
clues and untangle the web of deepening mysteries to discover the truth about Greenglass
House.
Half A Man
From a young age, Michael was both fascinated by and afraid of his grandfather.
Grandpa’s ship was torpedoed during the Second World War, leaving him with terrible
burns. Every time he came to stay, Michael was warned by his mother that he must not
stare, he must not make too much noise, he must not ask Grandpa any questions about his
past. As he grows older, Michael stays with his grandfather during the summer holidays
and learns the story behind Grandpa’s injuries, finally getting to know the real man behind
the solemn figure from his childhood.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the
World (Young Readers Edition) Meet Malala
Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region.
They said music was a crime. They said women weren't allowed to go to the market. They
said girls couldn't go to school. Raised in a once-peaceful area of Pakistan transformed by
terrorism, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. So she fought for her right
to be educated. And on October 9, 2012, she nearly lost her life for the cause: She was shot
point-blank while riding the bus on her way home from school. No one expected her to
survive. Now Malala is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever
Nobel Peace Prize winner
Knightley & Son
The once highly in-demand detective Alan Knightley has just woken up after an
unexplained incident kept him asleep for four years. While he was out cold, his son, Darkus,
took it upon himself to read of all his dad's old cases, and he's learned a lot about the art of
detection. It's a good thing too--because suddenly the duo find themselves caught up in a
crazy conspiracy.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
Lost Boy
It's always been just Ryder and his mom. But on the way home from Ryder's
baseball practice, everything comes to a halt. An accident sends his mom to the hospital,
and now she is fighting for her life. So Ryder goes on a search to find his father, determined
to help pay for the expensive operation to save his mother's life. But with only a signed
baseball and a letter as his clues, and the help of his next-door neighbor and a New York
City firefighter, will everything fall into place in time, or will Ryder become a lost boy
forever?
Lowriders In Space
Book Trailer
Lupe Impala, El Chavo Flapjack, and Elirio Malaria love working with cars. You name
it, they can fix it. But the team's favorite cars of all are lowriders—cars that hip and hop, dip
and drop, go low and slow, bajito y suavecito. The stars align when a contest for the best car
around offers a prize of a trunkful of cash—just what the team needs to open their own
shop!
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
The Next Wave: The Quest To Harness The Power Of The Oceans
Journey to the wave-battered coast of the Pacific Northwest to meet some of the
engineers and scientists working to harness the punishing force of our oceans, one of the
nature’s powerful and renewable energy sources. With an array of amazing devices that
cling to the bottom of the sea floor and surf on the crests of waves, these explorers are
using a combination of science, imagination, and innovation to try to capture wave energy
in the hopes of someday powering our lives in a cleaner, more sustainable way.
The Octopus Scientists: Exploring The Mind Of The Mollusk
Octopi have A Brain in Every Tentacle
With three hearts and blue blood, its gelatinous body unconstrained by jointed
limbs or gravity, the octopus seems to be an alien, an inhabitant of another world. It’s
baggy, boneless body sprouts eight arms covered with thousands of suckers—suckers that
can taste as well as feel. The octopus also has the powers of a superhero: it can shape-shift,
change color, squirt ink, pour itself through the tiniest of openings, or jet away through the
sea faster than a swimmer can follow. But most intriguing of all, octopuses—classed as
mollusks, like clams—are remarkably intelligent with quirky personalities.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
Rain Reign
Book Trailer
Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She's thrilled that her own name is a
homonym, and she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein),
which, according to Rose's rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands
Rose's obsessions, her rules, and the other things that make her different - not her teachers,
not other kids, and not her single father. When a storm hits their rural town, rivers
overflow, the roads are flooded, and Rain goes missing. Rose's father shouldn't have let
Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places
to search. Hearts will break and spirits will soar for this powerful story, brilliantly told
from Rose's point of view.
The Glass Sentence
One Minute Book Review
She has only seen the world through maps. She had no idea they were so dangerous.
It’s Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for
generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World—a world changed by the
Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods.
Eight years ago, her parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in
Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned. Life with her brilliant, absentminded, adored uncle has taught Sophia to take care of herself.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
The Great Greene Heist
One Minute Book Review
Jackson Greene swears he's given up scheming. Then school bully Keith Sinclair
announces he's running for Student Council president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby
de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of it -- but he knows Keith has "connections" to
the principal, which could win him the presidency no matter the vote count. So Jackson
assembles a crack team: Hashemi Larijani, tech genius. Victor Cho, bankroll. Megan
Feldman, science goddess. Charlie de la Cruz, reporter. Together they devise a plan that will
take down Keith, win Gaby's respect, and make sure the election is done right.
The Paper Cowboy
Though he thinks of himself as a cowboy, Tommy is really a bully. He's always
playing cruel jokes on classmates or stealing from the store. But Tommy has a reason: life
at home is tough. His abusive mother isn't well; in fact, she may be mentally ill, and his
sister, Mary Lou, is in the hospital badly burned from doing a chore it was really Tommy's
turn to do. To make amends, Tommy takes over Mary Lou's paper route. But the paper
route also becomes the perfect way for Tommy to investigate his neighbors after stumbling
across a copy of The Daily Worker, a communist newspaper. Tommy is shocked to learn
that one of his neighbors could be a communist, and soon fear of a communist in this tightknit community takes hold of everyone when Tommy uses the paper to frame a
storeowner, Mr. McKenzie.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
The Red Pencil
Book Trailer
Finally, Amira is twelve. Old enough to wear a toob, old enough for new
responsibilities. And maybe old enough to go to school in Nyala-- Amira's one true dream.
But life in her peaceful Sudanese village is shattered when the Janjaweed arrive. The
terrifying attackers ravage the town and unleash unspeakable horrors. After she loses
nearly everything, Amira needs to dig deep within herself to find the strength to make the
long journey-- on foot-- to safety at a refugee camp. Her days are tough at the camp, until
the gift of a simple red pencil opens her mind-- and all kinds of possibilities.
The Secret Hum Of a Daisy
get bookisk-Book Review
Twelve-year-old Grace and her mother have always been their own family, traveling
from place to place like gypsies. But Grace wants to finally have a home all their own. Just
when she thinks she's found it her mother says it's time to move again. Grace summons the
courage to tell her mother how she really feels and will always regret that her last words to
her were angry ones. After her mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a
grandmother she's never met. She can't imagine her mother would want her to stay with
this stranger. Then Grace finds clues in a mysterious treasure hunt, just like the ones her
mother used to send her on. Maybe it is her mother, showing her the way to her true home.
CRSD Summer Reading List-2015
West Of The Moon
Book Trailer
In West of the Moon, award-winning author Margi Preus expertly weaves original fiction
with myth and folktale to tell the story of Astri, a young Norwegian girl desperate to join
her father in America. After being separated from her sister and sold to a cruel goat farmer,
Astri makes a daring escape. She quickly retrieves her little sister, and, armed with a troll
treasure, a book of spells and curses, and a possibly magic hairbrush, they set off for
America. With a mysterious companion in tow and the malevolent “goatman” in pursuit,
the girls head over the Norwegian mountains, through field and forest, and in and out of
folktales and dreams as they steadily make their way east of the sun and west of the moon.