th
6
Grade Summer
Reading Choices
Gifted Hands - *Required
• Dr. Benjamin Carson received worldwide
attention and recognition in 1987 when he
successfully separated conjoined twins. This
accomplishment is just one of many in Ben
Carson’s life that has allowed him to be one
of the top neurosurgeons in the country.
Gifted Hands is a story that demonstrates
how trust in God and perseverance can help
one overcome any obstacle and lead to great
success.
• This story is great for anyone who wants to be
inspired and wants to know one man’s secrets
for success.
Crash
• Crash Coogan, a seventh-grade football star,
has been an aggressive person from the time
he was very young; sometimes, he is too
aggressive. He enjoys his rough, macho
behavior until he meets an unusual neighbor
who forces him to think about his life and his
way of treating others.
• This book is for a reader who enjoys sportrelated stories. It is a lively, fun read.
Fever 1793
• Matilda “Mattie” Cook lives above
her family’s coffee shop with her
mother and grandfather in 1793
Philadelphia. One day, an employer
doesn’t show up to work, and the
reason is soon discovered. A mass
epidemic strikes, and Mattie and her
family must find a way to survive in a
city turned frantic with disease.
• Good for readers who like books
with/about: history,
diseases/epidemics
Have A Hot Time, Hades!
• Think you know the real story behind the
Greek myths? Think again. Most people only
know what Zeus wants them to. But the truth
is, Zeus is a total myth-o-maniac. Hades,
King of the Underworld, is here to set the
record straight on how he ended up as Ruler
of the Underworld and Zeus became King of
the Gods.
• If you enjoy Greek mythology and humor,
this is a book for you! McMullan presents a
playful take on fractured Greek myths in this
novel!
Heat
• Twelve-year old Michael’s family has
escaped from Cuba, but they harbor a
huge secret that could change their lives if
discovered. Michael hopes to lead his team
to the Little League World Series, but
someone wonders how a twelve-year-old
boy could possibly throw with as much
power as Michael Arroyo throws. With no
way to prove his age, Michael’s secret
world is blown wide open, and he
discovers that family can come from the
most unexpected sources.
Recommended if you like baseball and
rooting for the underdog.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
• When twelve-year-old Hugo, an
orphan living and repairing clocks
within the walls of a Paris train
station in 1931, meets a mysterious
toy seller and his goddaughter, his
undercover life and his biggest secret
are jeopardized. This graphic novel
is thick, but the captivating story
makes it a quick read!
• Good for readers who like books
with/about: history, mystery,
engineering
Night of the Purple Moon
• Abby, 13, is looking forward to
watching the moon turn purple,
unaware that bacteria from a passing
comet will soon kill off older teens and
adults. She must help her brother and
baby sister survive in this new world,
but all the while she has a ticking time
bomb inside of her--adolescence.
• Recommended for girls who like
science fiction.
Running Out of Time
• Jessie lives with her family in the frontier village of
Clifton, Indiana, in 1840 -- or so she believes. When
diphtheria strikes the village and the children of Clifton
start dying, Jessie's mother reveals a shocking secret -it's actually 1996, and they are living in a reconstructed
village that serves as a tourist site. In the world outside,
medicine exists that can cure the dreaded disease, and
Jessie's mother is sending her on a dangerous mission
to bring back help.
But beyond the walls of Clifton, Jessie discovers a
world even more alien and threatening than she could
have imagined, and soon she finds her own life in
jeopardy. Can she get help before the children of
Clifton, and Jessie herself, run out of time?
• If you like to read books set in dystopia, check this one
out! Instead of a dystopian future, this is a somewhat
dystopian past.
A Single Shard
• Tree-ear is an orphan boy in a 12th-century
Korean potters’ village. For a long time he is
content living with Crane-man under a bridge
barely surviving on scraps of food. All that
changes when he sees master potter Min
making his beautiful pottery. Little does
Tree-ear know that this is the start of a
difficult and dangerous journey that will
change his life forever.
• If you enjoy stories filled with true meaning,
sayings, and traditional cultural arts, you will
certainly be entertained with the story of A
Single Shard.
Tangerine
• Paul Fisher sees the world from behind
thick glasses, but he’s not so blind that he
can’t see there are some very unusual
things about his family’s new home in
Tangerine County, Florida and his
football–star brother. With the help of his
new soccer teammates, Paul begins to
discover what lies beneath the surface of
his strange new hometown and he also
gains the courage to face up to some
secrets his family has been keeping from
him for far too long.
• Recommended for anyone who likes
soccer and karma.
A View From Saturday
• After a tense series of competitions, the
Epiphany Middle School has made it all the way
to the final round of the New York State
Academic Bowl. Their team: a group of misfit
sixth-graders from Epiphany Middle School.
Their opponents: eighth-grade all-stars whom we
can practically see as big, mean, and smart. Each
of the four Epiphany team members gets to tell
part of the story—and each story explains why
that particular team member can answer that
question.
• This book is for a reader who enjoys a thoughtprovoking tale. This story offers a refreshing take
on competition and friendship.
The Watson Go to Birmingham – 1963
• Enter the hilarious world of ten-year-old Kenny
and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint,
Michigan. There's Momma, Dad, little sister
Joetta, and brother Byron, who's thirteen and an
"official juvenile delinquent." When Momma
and Dad decide it's time for a visit to Grandma,
Dad comes home with the amazing Ultra-Glide,
and the Watsons set out on a trip like no other.
They're heading South to Birmingham,
Alabama, toward one of the darkest moments in
America's history.
• This is a book full of adventure, comedy, and
tragedy. This book is based on the life of a black
family in the middle of the Civil Rights
Movement. The book is narrated by one of the
young family members, Kenny.
Wonder
• School can be difficult for anyone, but ten-year-old
Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial
abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes
from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at
a private middle school full of taunting and fearful
classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another
student.
• Good for readers who like books with/about:
humor, friendship, stories about an underdog
Words by Heart
• Hoping to make her Papa proud of
her and to make her white
classmates notice her "Magic
Mind," not her black skin, Lena
vows to win her school’s Biblequoting contest. But winning does
not bring Lena what she expected.
• If you like the beauty of bible
verses along with social justice,
this book will touch you.
th
7
Grade Summer
Reading Choices
A Long Walk to Water - *Required
• Begins as two stories, told in alternating
sections, about two eleven-year-olds in
Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985.
The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond
that is two hours’ walk from her home: she
must make two trips to the pond every
day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the
"lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover
the African continent on foot as they
search for their families and for a safe
place to stay. Enduring every hardship
from loneliness to attack by armed rebels
to contact with killer lions and crocodiles,
Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to
intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and
moving way.
• Based on a true story.
The Age of Miracles
• Something has happened to the rotation
of the earth. The days and nights are
growing longer and longer, gravity is
affected, the birds, the tides, human
behavior are thrown into disarray. In a
world of danger and loss, Julia faces
surprising developments in herself and
her personal world—divisions widening
between her parents, strange behavior by
her friends, the vulnerability of first love,
a sense of isolation, and a rebellious new
strength.
• Science fiction
Bell Prater’s Boy
• Everyone in Coal Station, Virginia, has
a theory about what happened to
Gypsy’s Aunt Belle Prater, and when
her cousin Woodrow, Aunt Belle's
son, moves next door, Gypsy is
puzzled by Woodrow's calm
acceptance of his mother's
disappearance, especially since she
herself has never gotten over her
father's death.
• If you like humor, endearing
characters, and unexpected endings,
this book is for you.
Guts
• Guess what: Gary Paulsen was being kind to
Brian. In Guts, Gary tells the real stories behind
the Brian books, the stories of the adventures
that inspired him to write Brian Robeson's story:
working as an emergency volunteer; the death
that inspired the pilot's death in Hatchet; plane
crashes he has seen and near-misses of his own.
He describes how he made his own bows and
arrows, and takes readers on his first hunting
trips, showing the wonder and solace of nature
along with his hilarious mishaps and mistakes
• If you enjoy nonfiction adventure stories, this is
the book for you!
I Am Malala
When the Taliban took control of the Swat
Valley in Pakistan, and tried to disband schools
for girls, Malala refused to be silenced and
fought for her right to an education. But she
almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in
the head at point-blank range while riding the
bus home from school, and few expected her
to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has
taken her on an extraordinary journey from a
remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls
of the United Nations. At sixteen, she has
become a global symbol of peaceful protest
and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Non fiction that is almost unbelievable, you
will believe in the power of one person's voice
to inspire change in the world.
Izzy Willy-Nilly
• Fifteen-year-old Izzy has it all -- a loving
family, terrific friends, a place on the
cheerleading squad. But her world
crumbles when a date with a senior ends
in a car crash and she loses her right
leg. Suddenly nothing is the same. Her
friends don't seem to know how to act
around her. Her family doesn’t seem to
understand how much she's
hurting. Then Rosamunde extends an
offer of friendship. Rosamunde isn't the
kind of girl Izzy would have been friends
with in her old life. But Rosamunde may
be the only person who can help Izzy
face her new one.
• A must-read for all teens girls.
Journey to Jo’Burg/Chain of Fire
• Mma lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa,
far from her children, Naledi and younger brother,
Tiro. When their baby sister suddenly becomes very
sick, Naledi and Tiro know that they must journey to
find Mma and bring her back. It isn't until they reach
the city that they come to understand the dangers of
their country and the painful struggle for freedom
and dignity that is taking place all around them
• The South African government is forcing Naledi and
the other villagers to move to a new location: a
"homeland" of iron huts and barren soil. No one is
willing to resist. No one except Naledi's friend Taolo,
whose family has often spoken out against
Apartheid. Taolo gives Naledi the strength to fight as
she organizes an anti-removal march through the
village. But the right of free expression is not a
liberty granted to the young protesters, and the
police instigate a reign of terror on the villagers.
• The real struggle of Apartheid is brought to life in
this historical fiction.
Music of Dolphins
• This story by Karen Hesse is sure to
keep you intrigued and at the edge of
your seat. Researchers find and rescue
an adolescent girl from sea. After they
find her, they learn she has been raised
by dolphins and they try to re-adapt
her to life with humans.
• This story is for you if you enjoy
stories that are sorrowful and
mysterious, but also inspiring and
enchanting.
Night of the Twisters
• Join Dan and his friend on what was
just supposed to be an enjoyable bike
ride. During their bike ride, the
weather takes a turn for the worse.
Luckily, everyone survives the storm
and tornadoes, but the town has been
demolished. The boys are faced with
now having to deal with the aftermath of the storm.
• This book will take you on an
adventure. It is realistic as it is based
on a 1980 tornado.
No More Dead Dogs
• Nobody understands Wallace Wallace. This reluctant
school football hero has been suspended from the team
for writing an unfavorable book report of Old Shep, My
Pal. But Wallace won't tell a lie — he hated every minute
of the book! Why does the dog in every classic novel
have to croak at the end?
• After refusing to do a rewrite, his English teacher, who
happens to be directing the school play Old Shep, My
Pal, forces him go to the rehearsals as punishment.
Although Wallace doesn't change his mind, he does end
up changing the play into a rock-and-roll rendition,
complete with Rollerblades and a moped!
• There is never a dull moment with NO MORE DEAD
DOGS in your hands. This book is recommended for
anyone ages that likes a good laugh and a great book.
Out of My Mind
• Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic
memory. Her head is like a video camera that is
always recording. Always. And there's no delete
button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school but no one knows it. Most people - her teachers and
doctors included - don't think she's capable of
learning, and up until recently her school days
consisted of listening to the same preschool-level
alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only
she could speak up, if only she could tell people
what she thinks and knows . . . but she can't,
because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't
write.
• This is a moving story written for all readers! Readers will
come to know a brilliant mind and a brave spirit who will
change forever how they look at anyone with a disability.
The Red-Scarf Girl
• It's 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has
everything a girl could want: brains, friends,
and a bright future in Communist China.
But it's also the year that China's leader,
Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural
Revolution—and Ji-li's world begins to fall
apart. Over the next few years, people who
were once her friends and neighbors turn
on her and her family, forcing them to live
in constant terror of arrest. When Ji-li's
father is finally imprisoned, she faces the
most difficult dilemma of her life.
• A personal and painful memoir that will
make you appreciate democracy.
Shipwrecked! The true adventures
of a Japanese Boy
• The fascinating life story of Manjiro, a boy
from Nakahama who was rescued from
death by an American whaling crew and in
1843 became the first Japanese person to
enter the United States
• This is a nonfiction adventure story! This
book also includes maps, photographs,
and artwork.
Storm Runners
• This book by Roland Smith sure is a nailbiter! Chase Masters’ is a 14 year old who
lives by the motto, “Always be prepared”
and rightfully so. After some awful, lifechanging events, Chase and his dad decide
to hit the road and chase storms. After
settling in Florida, Chase and his father
experience a hurricane and Chase ends up
in a fight for survival.
• This book is for you if you enjoy stories
that will keep you on the edge of your seat
and are filled with action and adventure.
Will you survive?
Scratch 2.0 Programming for Teens,
2nd edition
• You'll learn the basics in a fast, friendly way and be
sharing your creations online before you know it.
Focused on the fundamentals and using the free Scratch
programming language, you will learn how to develop
interactive stories, games, animations, and other
programs on the web, in your computer's browser, using
graphic, customizable code blocks. It emphasizes the
design and development of programming logic. You'll
learn important programming concepts without getting
bogged down in complicated details. And the basic
principles you learn here will build a foundation from
which you can move on to other, more complex,
programming languages (like Microsoft Visual Basic,
Java, and C++), if you decide to go deeper into software
development.
• Recommended by Mrs. Engbert
Z for Zachariah
• Ann Burden is sixteen years old and
completely alone. The world as she once
knew it is gone, ravaged by a nuclear war
that has taken everyone from her. For the
past year, she has lived in a remote valley
with no evidence of any other survivors.
But the smoke from a distant campfire
shatters Ann's solitude. Someone else is still
alive and making his way toward the valley.
Who is this man? What does he want? Can
he be trusted? Both excited and terrified,
Ann soon realizes there may be worse things
than being the last person on Earth.
• Science fiction
th
8
Grade Summer
Reading Choices
The River Between Us - *Required
• It’s 1861. Civil war is imminent and Tilly
Pruitt's brother, Noah, is eager to go and
fight on the side of the North. With her
father long gone, Tilly, her sister, and their
mother struggle to make ends meet and
hold the family together. Then one night a
mysterious girl arrives on a steamboat
bound for St. Louis. Delphine is unlike
anyone the small river town has ever seen.
Mrs. Pruitt agrees to take Delphine and her
dark, silent traveling companion in as
boarders. No one in town knows what to
make of the two strangers, and so the
rumors fly. Is Delphine's companion a slave?
Could they be spies for the South? Are the
Pruitts traitors?
Bomb
• In December of 1938, a chemist in a German
laboratory made a shocking discovery: When
placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium
atom split in two. That simple discovery
launched a scientific race that spanned 3
continents. In Great Britain and the United
States, Soviet spies worked their way into the
scientific community; in Norway, a commando
force slipped behind enemy lines to attack
German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep
in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists
was hidden away at a remote site at Los
Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the
risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created
the world's most formidable weapon. This is
the story of the atomic bomb
• If you like history that reads like a fictional spy
story, this is for you.
I Am the Cheese
• Imagine discovering that your whole life has
been fiction, your identity altered, and a new
family history created. Suddenly nothing is as
it once seemed; you can trust no one, maybe
not even yourself. It is exactly this revelation
that turns 14-year-old Adam Farmer's life
upside-down. As he tries to ascertain who he
really is, Adam encounters a past, present,
and future too horrible to contemplate.
Suspense builds as the fragments of the story
are assembled--a missing father, government
corruption, espionage--until the shocking
conclusion shatters the fragile mosaic.
• Looking for something different? Take this
“bike trip” with Adam.
Fanatic: Ten Things All Sports Fans
Should Do Before They Die
• If you had to pick the top ten iconic sporting
events, what would they be? Jim Gorant asked
himself this question, and the answer resulted
in a yearlong journey into the heart of sports.
From the Kentucky Derby to the Super Bowl,
from a day game at Wrigley Field to a
fortnight at Wimbledon, from the NCAA Final
Four to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field,
Gorant takes us along for the ride, evoking the
best (and sometimes the worst) sports has to
offer. He enters the inner sanctum of NASCAR,
witnesses Jack Nicklaus teeing off for the last
time at the Masters, and takes part in one of
college football's biggest rivalries -- Ohio State
versus Michigan.
• Not just for sports fans! Entertaining
nonfiction.
Lyddie
• When Lyddie and her younger brother are
hired out as servants to help pay off their family
farm's debts, Lyddie is determined to find a way
to reunite her family once again. Hearing about
all the money a girl can make working in the
textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, she
makes her way there, only to find that her
dreams of returning home may never come
true. Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie
Worthen is determined to gain her
independence by becoming a factory worker in
Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s
• Good for readers who like books with/about:
history, dreams and hope
Scratch 2.0 Programming for Teens,
2nd edition
• You'll learn the basics in a fast, friendly way and
be sharing your creations online before you
know it. Focused on the fundamentals and using
the free Scratch programming language, you will
learn how to develop interactive stories, games,
animations, and other programs on the web, in
your computer's browser, using graphic,
customizable code blocks. It emphasizes the
design and development of programming logic.
You'll learn important programming concepts
without getting bogged down in complicated
details. And the basic principles you learn here
will build a foundation from which you can move
on to other, more complex, programming
languages (like Microsoft Visual Basic, Java, and
C++), if you decide to go deeper into software
development.
• Recommended by Mrs. Engbert.
The Runner
• It was the 1960s, the time of the
Vietnam War. "Bullet" Tillerman,
the school track star, had to
decide if he would go to fight or
stay on the family farm. Bullet's
father, who had already driven
Bullet's older brother and sister
out of the house, made
impossible demands on him.
Meanwhile, at school, a black
student joined the track team,
forcing Bullet to question his own
prejudices. But nothing would
keep him from running. Nothing.
Nothing But The Truth
• In this thought-provoking examination of
freedom, patriotism, and respect, ninthgrader Philip Malloy is kept from joining
the track team by his failing grades in
English class. Convinced that the teacher
just doesn't like him, Philip concocts a
plan to get transferred out of her class.
Breaking the school's policy of silence
during the national anthem, he hums
along, and ends up in a crisis at the
center of the nation's attention.
Journey to Topaz
• The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese planes
in 1941 is what drew America into World War
II. Shortly after this attack, something that
would be unheard of today began to happen.
West Coast Japanese Americans were being
rounded up and relocated to prison camps.
This book focuses on Yuki, a young Japanese
girl, and her experiences during this trying time.
Her story (based on the author’s own
experiences) tells of the consequences of
prejudice and the capacities of the human spirit
to thrive even in the face of such tough
obstacles.
• Good for readers who like books with/about:
The Wave
• The Wave is based on a true incident that
occurred in a high school history class in Palo
Alto, California, in 1969. The powerful forces
of group pressure that pervaded many historic
movements such as Nazism are recreated in the
classroom when history teacher Burt Ross
introduces a "new" system to his students. And
before long "The Wave," with its rules of
"strength through discipline, community, and
action, " sweeps from the classroom through the
entire school. And as most of the students join
the movement, Laurie Saunders and David
Collins recognize the frightening momentum of
"The Wave" and realize they must stop it before
it's too late.
Farewell to Manzanar
• Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942
when her family was uprooted from their home
and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp-with 10,000 other Japanese Americans.
Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one
spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to
survive the indignities of forced detention . . .
and of a native-born American child who
discovered what it was like to grow up behind
barbed wire in the United States.
• Good for readers who like books with/about:
history, dreams and hope
Lily’s Crossing
• By the summer of 1944, World War
II has changed almost everyone's life.
There's no one else Lily's age in her
small town of Rockaway until Albert
comes, a refugee from Hungary, a
boy with a secret sewn into his coat. A
friendship quickly forms, secrets are
shared, and lies are told, and Lily has
told a lie that may cost Albert his life.
• Good for readers who like books
with/about: WWII, friendship,
secrets
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but
True Story about Brain Science
• Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting
rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteenpound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously,
he survived to live another eleven years and become a
textbook case in brain science. Read his tale, and learn
how the brain works.
• Good for readers who like books with/about: science,
brains, history