Suggested Summer Reading 2009
6th Grade
Underneath by Kathi Appelt
A calico cat about to have kittens befriends a hound dog, Ranger,
who urges her to hide underneath the porch of his dilapidated
house to raise her kittens. Ranger warns the cat about the man
named Gar-Face who lives in the house will likely use the kittens
as alligator bait. Soon one kitten becomes very curious and
ventures out, setting off a chain of remarkable events.
Calder Game by Blue Balliett
When seventh-grader Calder Pillay disappears from a remote
English village--along with an Alexander Calder sculpture to
which he has felt strangely drawn--his friends Petra and Tommy
fly from Chicago to help his father find him.
Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech
Jack is studying poetry again in school, and he continues to
write poems reflecting his understanding of famous works and
how they relate to his life.
Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff
When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper
clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth
memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at
school and the castle they are building for a school project, his
questions are eventually answered.
Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O’Connor
In North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains, a troubled boy and
his mother, a happy family seeking adventure, a man and his
lonely daughter, and the widow who must sell the run-down
motel that has been her home for decades, meet and are
transformed by their shared experiences.
Lucky Breaks by Susan Patron
Lucky, having met a potential best friend who was visiting her
uncle who lives in Hard Pan, California, devises a plan to get the
young girl back to the town.
Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted,
learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of
nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that
they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two
opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time.
Vampirates (series) by Justin Somper
Connor, who was rescued by pirates after his ship was wrecked,
believes his twin sister, Grace, was abducted by the Vampirates
and is determined to find her.
39 Clues (series)
Amy and Dan, members of the powerful Cahill family, try to
uncover the thirty-nine clues which will reveal the secrets of
their lineage and find out what really happened to their
parents.
7th Grade
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave
named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2009
Newbery Award)
The orphan Bod,
inhabitants of a
raised lovingly
the community of
short for Nobody, is taken in by the
graveyard as a child of eighteen months and
and carefully to the age of eighteen years by
ghosts and otherworldly creatures.
Artemis Fowl; the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
Artemis's fairy friends help him travel back in time to find a cure
for his mother's rare disease which can only be cured by the
brain fluid of now-extinct African lemurs, and is shocked to
discover that it was actually his younger self who was
responsible for bringing about the animal's extinction.
Antsy Does Time by Neal Shusterman
Fourteen-year-old Anthony "Antsy" Bonano learns about life,
death, and a lot more when he tries to help a friend with a
terminal illness feel hopeful about the future.
Postcard by
Tony Abbott
Thirteen-year-old
deceased
adventure
detective story
Jason finds an old postcard at his recentlygrandmother's house that leads him on an
blending figures from an old, unfinished
with his family's past.
House of the Djinn by Susan Fisher Staples
An unexpected death brings Shabanu's daughter, Mumtaz, and
nephew, Jameel, both aged fifteen, to the forefront of an
attempt to modernize Pakistan, but the teens must both sacrifice
their own dreams if they are to meet family and tribal
expectations.
Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
The long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy Jackson's
sixteenth birthday unfolds as he leads an army of young
demigods to stop Kronos in his advance on New York City,
while the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging
monster, Typhon.
Brett McCarthy:
Work in Progress by Maria Padian
Eighth grader Brett
life after a practical
friendships, and
important in her life.
McCarthy finds herself redefining her
joke gets her suspended, ruins her
forces her to discover what is really
Big Game of Everything by Chris Lynch
Jock looks forward to spending two months of the summer
working at his grandfather's gold complex, but when the rest of
his eccentric family go with him they all learn a lesson about
the bond of family.
League Baseball
We Are the Ship; Story of Negro
by Kadir Nelson
Explores the
teams, discussing
losses; and
history of Negro League baseball
owners, players, hardships, wins, and
including illustrations.
Puddlejumpers by Mark Jean and Christopher C. Carlson
Thirteen-year-old Ernie Banks, abandoned at an orphanage ten
years earlier, is drawn into a grand adventure that might finally lead
him home when he is given a chance to spend three weeks on Russ
Frazier's farm before being sent to a juvenile detention center, and
becomes involved in solving the mystery surrounding the
kidnapping of Frazier's baby years earlier--a quest that leads him
into a world of dark secrets, magic, and the underground kingdom
of the Puddlejumpers.
8th Grade
Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener,
imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past
life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth
about Hitler and the war to the German people.
Airman by Eoin Colfer
In the 1890s on an island off the Irish coast, Conor Broekhart is
falsely imprisoned and passes the solitary months by scratching
designs of flying machines into the walls, including one for a
glider with which he dreams of escape.
Nation by Terry Prachett
A tsunami destroys everything leaving Mau, an island boy,
Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, and a small group of
refugees responsible for rebuilding their village and their lives.
Trouble by Gary Schmidt
Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin's
dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his
best friend and dog, but fate adds another companion--the
Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and
reveals troubles that predate the accident.
Black Box by Julie Schumacher
When her sixteen-year-old sister is hospitalized for depression
and her parents want to keep it a secret, fourteen-year-old
Elena tries to cope with her own anxiety and feelings of guilt
that she is determined to conceal from outsiders.
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member
of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly
changes him.
Boost by Kathy Mackel
Thirteen-year-old Savvy is the girls basketball team's star
player, but, despite her height and skills, Savvy struggles with
her self-confidence and searches for some way to boost her
performance, but when steroids are found in her bag, Savvy
denies they are hers and the rumors start to fly.
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a
contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition
hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted
against one another in a televised fight to the death.
Flygirl by Sheri L. Smith
During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl
"passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service
Pilots.
H.I.V.E.:Higher Institute of Villianous Education by
Mark Walden
Thirteen-year-old orphan Otto Malpense, identified as a boy
with a special talent for villainy, is kidnapped and taken to the
remote Higher Institute of Villainous Education, or H.I.V.E.,
where he is enrolled in a six-year training program and
immediately begins formulating a plan to escape.
Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E.
Lockhart
Frankie Landau-Banks attempts to take over a secret, all-male
society at her exclusive prep school, and her antics with the
group soon draw some unlikely attention and have unexpected
consequences that could change her life forever.
The Fold by An Na
Joyce Park, a high school junior who is always compared to
her beautiful and talented older sister, Helen, wants to attract
the attention of John Ford Kang, and wrestles with whether to
get plastic surgery as a gift from her aunt.