SUMMER READING: PRE-AP 7TH GRADE
May 13th, 2013
Dear Parents,
It is with great pleasure that I notify you that your child has been recommended to
participate in the Pre-AP English program at Quest. This class will offer students the
opportunity to read, write, and engage in literary analysis of texts at an accelerated rate.
One of the requirements of this class is to complete the attached summer reading. The
first required novel is The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (see
book description below…this book is NOT about witches). You must also pick a
historical fiction from the attached list for the second novel as required reading. Each
novel will be followed by discussion and writing assignments when students return in the
fall. Details are enclosed in the attachment. Your child must complete this summer
reading program in order to be in the Pre-AP class. If your child opts not to
participate, he or she will be placed in the regular English class in the fall.
I hope the students enjoy this adventure of reading! They will put on their thinking caps,
get in the driver’s seat, and begin their journey.
Marci Hansard Stapp
Language Arts Instructor
Quest Middle School
1301 Waters Ridge
Lewisville, TX 75057
972-316-6700
The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval
from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in
1867. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the
island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for
belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile
place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a kindred spirit. But Kit’s
friendship with Hannah Tupper, believed by the colonists to be a witch, proves more
taboo than she could have imagined and ultimately forces Kit to choose between her
heart and her duty. Elizabeth George Speare’s Newbery Award–winning novel
portrays a heroine whom readers will admire for her unwavering sense of truth as
well as her infinite capacity to love.
TO:
FROM:
CONCERNING:
ENGLISH 7 PRE-AP STUDENTS
MRS. STAPP
SUMMER READING
You are now officially a part of the Pre-AP class! Congratulations!
Your summer reading books are a historical fiction and The Witch of Blackbird Pond by
Elizabeth George Speare. You need to purchase these as soon as possible from one of the local
bookstores (or check it out from your local library, but you will need them the first few weeks of
school). The books must be the adult unabridged versions. As you read them, please do the
following:
For the historical fiction, you will have several options of activities to be completed on the
assigned novel.

Power Point with a plot summary
- Must include the sequence of 10 events or actions in a novel (plot)

Free Form Plot Map (see directions attached)
- The Plot Map works well with novels that have several changes in the setting

Dialectical Journal (see directions attached)
- Must include a summary of each chapter
For The Witch of Blackbird Pond, each student is expected to complete a “Student Reading
Response” which is attached.

These assignments are due on the first day of school. No late work will be accepted
after the first week of school.

The test over The Witch of Blackbird Pond will be the first weeks of school. You will
be required to take a test over the novels before we have any class discussion.

Remember, the best way to improve your STAAR scores is to read, read, read, and read
some more. I hope that you won’t limit your summer reading to these two books.
Best Regards,
Marci Stapp
English Language Arts Instructor
List of Historical Fiction Books
Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes (WWI) - At the age of fifteen, Dieter's blind devotion gets
him promoted from Hitler Youth into the German army. Dieter's determined to prove
his allegiance and bravery all costs. Spence, just sixteen, drops out of his Utah high
school to begin training as a paratrooper. He's seen how boys who weren't much in
high school can come home heroes, and Spence wants to prove to his friends and
family that he really can be something. Their worst fear was that the war would end
too soon -- that they wouldn't get the chance to prove themselves. But when they
finally see the action they were hoping for, it's like nothing they could have ever
imagined.
Night to Remember by Walter Lord (Titanic) - First published in 1955, A Night to
Remember remains a completely riveting account of the Titanic's fatal collision and
the behavior of the passengers and crew, both noble and ignominious. Some
sacrificed their lives, while others fought like animals for their own survival. Wives
beseeched husbands to join them in lifeboats; gentlemen went taut-lipped to their
deaths in full evening dress; and hundreds of steerage passengers, trapped below
decks, sought help in vain.
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages (Manhattan Project) - It's 1943, and elevenyear-old Dewey Kerrigan is en route to New Mexico to live with her mathematician
father. Soon she arrives at a town that, officially, doesn't exist. It is called Los
Alamos, and it is abuzz with activity, as scientists and mathematicians from all over
America and Europe work on the biggest secret of all--"the gadget." None of them-not J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project; not the
mathematicians and scientists; and least of all, Dewey--know how much "the
gadget" is about to change their lives.
Al Capone Does My Shirt by Gennifer Choldenko (Alcatraz) - Today I moved to a
twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by
water. I'm not the only kid who lives here. There's my sister, Natalie, except she
doesn't count. And there are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because
their dads work as guards or cook's or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my
dad does. Plus, there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup
men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man
or two, though I doubt it. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't
want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz
by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me; I came here because my mother
said I had to.
Fire from the Rock by Sharon Draper (Little Rock Nine) - Sylvia is shocked and
confused when she is asked to be one of the first black students to attend Central
High School, which is scheduled to be integrated in the fall of 1957, whether people
like it or not. Before Sylvia makes her final decision, smoldering racial tension in the
town ignites into flame. When the smoke clears, she sees clearly that nothing is
going to stop the change from coming. It is up to her generation to make it happen,
in as many different ways as there are colors in the world.
For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - (WWII)
Suzanne David's everyday life is suddenly shattered in 1940 when a bomb drops on
the main square of her hometown, the city of Cherbourg, France, killing a pregnant
neighbor right in front of her. Until then the war had seemed far away, not
something that would touch her or her teenage friends. Now Suzanne's family is
kicked out onto the street as German soldiers take over their house as a barracks.
Suzanne clings to the one thing she really loves--singing. Her voice is so amazing
that she is training to become an opera singer. As Suzanne travels around for
rehearsals, costume fittings, or lessons, she learns more about what the Nazis are
doing and about the people who are "disappearing." Her travels are noticed by
someone else, an organizer of the French Resistance. Soon Suzanne is a secret
courier, a spy fighting for France and risking her own life for freedom.
Eyes of the Empore by Graham Salisbury (WW II) - Eddy Okubo lies about his age
and joins the army in his hometown of Honolulu only weeks before the Japanese
bomb Pearl Harbor. Suddenly Americans see him as the enemy—even the U.S. Army
doubts the loyalty of Japanese American soldiers.
Then the army sends Eddy and a small band of Japanese American soldiers on a
secret mission to a small island off the coast of Mississippi. Here they are given a
special job, one that only they can do. Eddy’s going to help train attack dogs. He’s
going to be the bait.
Waiting for the Rain by Sheila Gordon (Apartheid) - The story is about a boy
named Tengo and a boy named Frekkie. Tengo grew up on a farm where he liked to
work and play, but he always wanted to get an education. On the other hand Frekkie
was a white boy who went to school and had an education, but he would rather be
on a farm. Every summer Frekkie would come to see Tengo on the farm until one
year Tengo wasn't there. He found out that he left to Johannesburg; Frekkie was
upset and sad. The schools in Johannesburg were all closed from protesting and
demonstrations, so Tengo was tempted to go back to the farm where the Oubas told
him to stay, "where it was safe." At the end of the novel, the two long lost friends
are reunited.
My Brother, My Sister, and I by Yoko Kawashima Watkins (post WW II Japan) Thirteen-year-old Yoko and her older brother and sister live in abject poverty in
Japan at the end of World War II. When the clog factory warehouse they call home is
destroyed by fire, their lives become even more desperate, particularly when Yoko's
sister, Ko, is injured and must be hospitalized and her brother, Hideyo, is accused of
murder.
Dialectical Journal
If you choose the dialectical journal you will be required to practice the skill of
annotation so that you will be able to remember and quickly find important passages
and quotations. List interesting words, images (words that create mental pictures),
and literary details you find important in the left hand column, and your thoughts
should be listed on the right. As you read, write your personal responses to the work.
Using a journal, please write five commentaries/book examples for every fifty
pages of reading. An example is listed below.
BOOK EXAMPLES/QUOTATIONS
**You must write the entire sentence.**
COMMENTARY
Diction (author’s word choice)
Commentary
The “tossing” trees crashed through the
window.
Because the trees are “tossing,” they seem
restless and disturbed. Meg also seems
restless and disturbed about something.
Maybe the trees’ movement is meant to tell
the reader something about Meg’s mood.
Commentary
Imagery (words that paint a picture in
your mind)
Meg is wrapped in an old patchwork quilt
This is a touch image. The reader can
imagine feeling warm and safe and cozy in
the quilt. It’s old, so it would be soft, and
it’s probably handmade. This image
contrasts with the scary, stormy night
outside.
Commentary
Detail (details important to the meaning
of the novel)
The house is shaking
Her home is unstable and seems to be
under attack by the weather. Also, shaking
is something you do when you’re afraid.
The shaking of the house echoes Meg’s
increasing fear.
Free-Form Plot Map
A free-form plot map is a visual representation, using only pictures (original
drawings or clip art/internet pictures), symbols, diagrams, shapes, and other
drawings, of the main relationships and events of a work. NO WORDS ARE
ALLOWED! A free-form map does fill up the entire page you are working on,
with all the detail conveyed through pictures. Do not worry! You will not be
graded on your artistic ability! You will want to make your free-form map as
visually pleasing as possible, so color, neatness, and evidence of time and effort
are important!
You must follow these rules for creating your free-form map:
1. You must organize your free-form map on a half sheet of poster board.
2. You may NOT use plain white paper or large poster board for this map!
3. You may NOT glue or paste any 3-dimensional objects to your poster board.
In other words, nothing should be sticking out from your map.
4. You may paste or glue pictures to help you illustrate some of the events and
relationships in the book.
Grading Criteria: You must depict all the main characters (clip art/internet/free drawing)
and their traits. You must depict all the major events in the novel. Neatness and quality
of work is always important.
STUDENT READING RESPONSE
Unabridged version of The Witch of Blackbird Pond
1. Did you read the entire book from cover to cover? If not, what page did you read
to? __________________________ (Be 100% honest)
2. List 3 important characters in the book and write a paragraph response to the
characters. Did you like or dislike them, how did they make you feel, did they
seem like real people, did they make wise decisions, etc.
A.
B.
C.
3. What lessons did you learn from this book? What message do you think the
author is sending in this book?
4. List 10 plot steps in the book. In other words, what happened first, second, and
so on.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
5. How did the book end? Did you like the ending? Why or why not? Write a
paragraph.
6. Discuss why you would or would not recommend this book to a friend.
(approximately 100 words)