Middle School Summer Reading
For Students entering 5th Grade
The goal of summer reading is to hone reading skills and to foster a love of reading. To
that end our suggestions are many and varied, but students are required to read at least
two from each section. Students must fill out a summer reading worksheet for each
book that is required; each worksheet will count 20 points. All six will be averaged
for the first test score of the year. Teachers, especially in English class, will have
students discussing, writing and even illustrating what they have read.
Science
Hoot ...Carl Hiaasen
Social Studies
Book of Greek Myths...
D'Aulaires
20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea...Jules Verne In the Year of the Boar and
Jackie Robinson...Bette Bao
The Evolution of Calpurnia Lord
Tate... Jacqueline Kelly
Twenty and Ten
One Day in the Tropical
Claire…Hutchet Bishop
Rain Forest...Jean
Craighead George
Sadako and the Thousand
Paper Cranes...Eleanor Coerr
The Call of the Wild or
White Fang...Jack London Stowaway ...Karen Hesse
The Sign of the Beaver…
Elizabeth George Speare
Students may choose to
select any non-fiction book
The Slave Dancer… Paula Fox
as long as it is grade
appropriate in lieu of the
A Door in the Wall…
fiction listed above.
Marguerite De Angeli
Language Arts
The Little Prince … Antoine de Saint
Exupery
Harry Potter series...J.K Rowling
The Lightning Thief (or any of the Percy
Jackson series) by Rick Riordan
Anne of Green Gables (or any later
novels)...Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Huck
Finn… Mark Twain
Poppy (The Tales from Dimwood
Forest) series…Avi
Eragon Series… Christopher Paolini
In addition to this list, students may
want to read novels written by Gary
Paulsen, Jerry Spinelli, Rick Riordan,
Brian Jacques or E.L. Konigsburg,
Irene Hunt, S.E. Hinton, Natalie
Students may choose to select Babbitt, and Katherine Paterson.
any non-fiction book as long
as it is grade appropriate in
Students may choose to select any nonlieu of the fiction listed above. fiction book as long as it is grade
appropriate in lieu of the fiction listed
above.
For Students entering 6th Grade
The goal of summer reading is to hone reading skills and to foster a love of reading. To
that end our suggestions are many and varied, but students are required to read at least
two from each section. Students must fill out a summer reading worksheet for each
book that is required; each worksheet will count 20 points. All six will be averaged
for the first test score of the year. Teachers, especially in English class, will have
students discussing, writing and even illustrating what they have read.
Science
Social Studies
Language Arts
The Boy at the End of the
World… Greg van Eekhout
The Midwife’s Apprentice…
Karen Cushman
The Extraordinary Education of
Nicholas Benedict…Trenton Lee
Stewart
Escape Under the
Forever Sky… Eve
Yohalem
The Apprenticeship of Lucas
Whitaker…Cynthia DeFelice
Redwall Series...Brian Jacques
A Long Walk to Water… Linda The Lord of the Rings... J.R.R.
Tolkien
Fever Crumb… Philip Reeve Sue Park
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the A Journey to Topaz...Yoshiko
Galaxy… Douglas Adams
Uchida
The Green Book… Jill Paton
Walsh
The Devil’s Arithmetic …Jane
Yolen
Hatchet ...Gary Paulsen
Amos Fortune
Freeman…Elizabeth Yates
Every Living Thing ...James Herriot
The Girl Who Could Fly… Victoria
Forester
Holes… Louis Sacher
Stella by Starlight… Sharon Draper
The Witch of Blackbird
A Connecticut Yankee in King
Pond…Elizabeth George Speare
Arthur’s Court… Mark Twain
Students may choose to
select any non-fiction book
as long as it is grade
appropriate in lieu of the
fiction listed above.
Autobiography of Miss Jane
Pittman…Ernest J. Gaines
Death Cloud (Sherlock Holmes: The
Legend Begins)… Andrew Lane
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes…
Arthur Conan Doyle (any edition)
Students may choose to select
Students can read any book by
any non-fiction book as long
Madeline L’Engle, Sharon Draper,
as it is grade appropriate in
Sharon Creech, Arthur Conan Doyle,
lieu of the fiction listed above.
Trenton Lee Stewart and Andy Lane.
Students may choose to select any nonfiction book as long as it is grade
appropriate in lieu of the fiction listed
above.
Students entering 7th Grade
The goal of summer reading is to hone reading skills and to foster a love of reading. To
that end our suggestions are many and varied, but students are required to read at least
two from each section. Students must fill out a summer reading worksheet for each
book that is required; each worksheet will count 20 points. All six will be averaged
for the first test score of the year. Teachers, especially in English class, will have
students discussing, writing and even illustrating what they have read.
Science
Social Studies
Language Art
Rocket Boys… Homer H.
Hickam Jr.
Johnny Tremain… Esther
Forbes
The Contender....Robert Lipsyte
All Creatures Great
and Small…James Herriot
The Time Machine… H.G.
Wells
The Diary of a Young Girl:Anne
War Horse...Michael Morpurgo Frank
Black Potatoes: The Story of
the Great Irish Famine 18451850…Susan Campbell
Bartoletti
Icefall ...Matthew J. Kirby
The Astonishing Life of Octavian
Nothing...M.T. Anderson
Endangered… Eliot Schrefer
Away to the Goldfields!...Pat
Almost Heaven: The Story of Derby
Women in Space… Betty
Ann Holtzmann Kevles
Sugar Changed the
World…Marc Aaronson
Carl Sagan: Superstar
Scientist… Daniel Cohen
Going West: Journey on a
Wagon Train to Settle a
Frontier Town...Carol A.
Journey to the
Johnson
Center of the Earth… Jules
Verne
Kon-Tiki… Thor Heyerdahl
Into the Wild ...Jon Krakauer Students may choose to select
any non-fiction book as long
Students may choose to
as it is grade appropriate in
select any non-fiction book lieu of the fiction listed above.
as long as it is grade
appropriate in lieu of the
fiction listed above.
When You Reach Me...Rebecca Stead
The Hunger Game series…Suzanne
Collins
A Separate Peace…John Knowles
Students may choose to select any
non-fiction book as long as it is grade
appropriate in lieu of the fiction listed
above.
Students entering 8th Grade
The goal of summer reading is to hone reading skills and to foster a love of reading. To
that end our suggestions are many and varied, but students are required to read at least
two from each section. Students must fill out a summer reading worksheet for each
book that is required; each worksheet will count 20 points. All six will be averaged
for the first test score of the year. Teachers, especially in English class, will have
students discussing, writing and even illustrating what they have read.
Science
Mountains Beyond
Mountains… Tracy
Kidder
Social Studies
Abraham Lincoln… Carl
Sandburg
Language Arts
The Chosen...Chaim Potok
Watership Down… Richard Adams
December
Uncle Tungsten ...Oliver Sacks Stillness… Mary Downing
Hahn
Congo…Michael Crichton
(any of his science fiction
The Wreck of the Whaleship
books)
Essex… Owen Chase
The Art of Racing in the Rain...Garth
Stein
The Education of Little Tree...Forrest
Carter.
Feed… M.T. Anderson
Manhunt... James Swanson
The Help… Kathryn Stockett
Fever…Mary Beth Keane
Up From Slavery… Booker T.
Washington
Ethan Frome…Edith Wharton
Hiroshima…John Hersey
Silas Marner…George Eliot
Six Days in October: The Stock
The War of the Worlds… H.G. Market Crash of 1929… Karen
Wells
Blumenthal
Students can read any book by Edith
Wharton, Charlotte or Emily Bronte,
A Short History of Nearly
Students may choose to select Alexander Dumas, John Steinbeck,
Everything ...Bill Bryson
any non-fiction book as long
(except Of Mice and Men), and Willa
as it is grade appropriate in
Cather.
The Little Ice Age…
lieu of the fiction listed above.
Brian Fagan
Students may choose to select any
Students may choose to select
non-fiction book as long as it is
any non-fiction book as long
grade appropriate in lieu of the
as it is grade appropriate in
fiction listed above.
lieu of the fiction listed above.