Summer Reading 2009

5th Grade
Summer is a great time to relax and enjoy a good book. There is free time to read while reclining on a comfy couch, relaxing under the shade of a tree, basking in the sun at the beach or traveling. Since research strongly supports reading outside of school, it is important for your child to continue reading over the summer. Students are encouraged to read as much as possible. Please refer to our suggested reading list or visit your local library or bookstore for book recommendations.

Students entering fifth grade are required to read one book from the list below. We will begin the year with an assignment based on the book they read.

Required Reading List

BFG by Roald Dahl

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
by Bette Bao Lord

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

6th Grade
Dear Sixth Grade Families:
I hope that you are enjoying the beginning of your summer. With that in mind, I want to remind you that students entering 6th grade are required to read at least one summer reading book. Please complete the book before the start of school and bring it with you the first day of school. Below I have highlighted a wide variety of books that cover many genres. I would encourage you to research each title and find the book that interests you the most.

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

The Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank

Esperanza Rising - Pam Munoz Ryan

The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

The Land - Mildred D. Taylor

Touching Spirit Bear - Ben Mikaelsen

Year of Impossible Goodbyes - Sook Nyul Choi Newbery Award, ALA Best

In addition, students will be required to complete a project that goes along with their book. They should be ready to discuss and work with a group of students that have read the same book when they return to school in the fall. In English Language Arts class, we will be discussing each book and students will need their projects in order to reflect on their reading. The choice of projects that students will be required to complete is attached. These will be graded assignments. I hope you enjoy reading as part of your summer! I look forward to seeing you in the fall!

Best regards,
Anya M. Persichillo
6th Grade ELA Teacher
6th Grade Summer Reading Project

As highlighted in the attached letter, students will be required to complete one of the following projects to go along with the 6th grade required summer reading program.

Projects

Students must complete all pieces that are listed for each project.

1. Write a character sketch
- Choose a character from the book and write a paragraph about who they are, their personality traits, and conflicts that they deal with. Highlight information from the book that demonstrates what the character is like.
- Draw a picture of the character
- Include the paragraph underneath the picture, including the character’s traits. It should look like a trading card.

2. Write an alternate ending or new scene with illustrations
- Students may write a new ending or create a new scene to the book.
- Create at least two illustrations to go along with your ending or scene

3. Create a Cereal Box
Based on the book, create a cereal box to demonstrate your grasp of the plot and character development.

To Do:
1) Cover the surfaces of all sides of your cereal box.
2) Choose your cereal name (based on the book)
3) Create artwork that you will put on your box (reflecting on some scenes from the book)
4) Write about the following on the back:
· The plot (main things that happened in the box)
· List the characters and who they are
· Write about the setting (where did it take place, what time, what season?)

Give yourself the best chance of enjoying this assignment to the fullest, by starting early in the summer, and working on the project in numerous sessions.

7th Grade

Dear students,
In order to be ready to begin 7th grade ELA, students will need to complete summer reading requirements. The following is list of books from which all incoming seventh graders will choose two. Students must also complete the accompanying work and bring it to class in the first week of school. The descriptions are largely taken from Amazon.com and are intended to help students choose a book that will be enjoyable. There are also notes about the genre and reading level of the books.

Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
In this historical novel about the pursuit of dreams, Moon Shadow is a young Chinese immigrant who comes to San Francisco at the turn of the century to join his father Windrider. At first father and son live and work with relatives in the Chinese section of town, but when a man is killed and their lives are endangered, the two move out and make friends with a woman and her granddaughter. The four survive the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. With Moon Shadow's help, Windrider begins to pursue some of his long-held dreams.
Fiction, Young Adult Reading Level

My Brother, My Sister, and I by Yoko Kawashima Watkins
In this moving sequel to So Far from the Bamboo Grove (Lothrop, 1986), Yoko Watkins continues her family saga. In extreme poverty, the Kawashimas-13-year-old Yoko, her 17-year-old sister, and her 21-year-old brother-struggle to survive as refugees in post-World War II Japan.
Fiction, Young Adult Reading Level

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott
In this science fiction novel, Ender is a six-year-old genius destined to save the world. He’s also a Third, that is the third child in a world in which it’s against the law to have more than two. The government made an exception with Ender, because he’s going to become the General who will win Earth’s war with an alien race called the Buggers. The challenges he faces in military school are more than even Ender expected, and yet he faces them with both dignity and cunning.
Science Fiction, Challenging Young Adult

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory--the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. When Rosaleen, her housekeeper, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time to spring them both free. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August.
Fiction, less challenging adult level

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, this is the story of 14 year old Billie Jo. Told in diary form as a series of free-verse poems, the book is a realistic portrait of the Depression-era with entries dated from the winter of 1934 through the winter of 1935. Billie Jo's mother dies after an accident with burning kerosene and Billie Jo blames herself and her father for her mother's death. Billie Jo is a talented pianist, but is reluctant to play after burns scar her hands. She leaves home, but soon learns how much "dust" is a part of her.
Fiction in Poetry form, young adult reading level.

The Green Mile by Stephen King
Set in the 1930s at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death-row facility, The Green Mile is the riveting and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin nine-year-old girls. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent compelled to help every prisoner spend his last days peacefully and every man walk the green mile to execution with his humanity intact. Edgecomb has sent seventy-eight inmates to their date with "old sparky," but he's never encountered one like Coffey -- a man who wants to die, yet has the power to heal. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecomb discovers the terrible truth about Coffey's gift, a truth that challenges his most cherished beliefs -- and ours.
Fiction, Adult reading level

White Fang by Jack London
In the frozen north during the Gold Rush days, marauding canine killers hunt in packs and search for their next victim. Sadistic dog trainers are looking for easy money. And the unconquerable spirit of a vicious wolf roams free until he receives a human being's love and understanding. All these come together in White Fang, Jack London's classic sequel to The Call of the Wild. The fast-paced action of White Fang never lets up; danger is always waiting beyond the next pile of snow or beneath the claws of a snarling predator.
Fiction, challenging young adult reading level

Raptor by Paul Zindell
This latest of Zindel's (Reef of Death) thrill-a-chapter adventure stories serves up mutant dinosaurs as the monsters du jour. The story, centered around a teenage boy's hunt for a baby raptor, is densely seasoned with sequences of giant reptiles snagging and devouring their prey. The cast of stock characters includes Professor Norak, the paleontologist who discovers a dinosaur egg but drops it when he is mauled by the mother raptor; Zack, his son, who retrieves the egg and sees it hatch; Uta, Zack's Native American sidekick; and Dr. Boneid, the evil scientist who doesn't mind destroying the environment in order to capture a dinosaur and win greater fame. When the hatchling is reclaimed by its mother, Zack goes after it, on an impulsive (and ill-planned) journey into a Utah cave (the raptors' den). The caper nearly costs him his life, but some strokes of good fortune and Uta's quick thinking save him in the end.
Fiction, Young adult reading level

Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.
Fiction, Adult reading level

Andromeda Strain by Michael Crighton
The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to "collect organisms and dust for study." One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona. Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks. The terror has begun . . .
Science Fiction, Adult Reading Level

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fischer Staples
When her father and brother are taken by the Taliban and her mother and baby brother are killed in a bombing raid during the Afghan war in October 2001, Najmah begins an arduous journey across the border to Peshawar, Pakistan. There, she meets up with an American woman, Nusrat, who has been conducting a school for refugee children while she waits for her husband, Faiz, who has returned to his native country to open medical clinics. For most of the story, the narration alternates between Najmah and Nusrat, allowing readers to see the war's effect on both of their lives. Only when they meet can they come to terms with their losses and move on. However, readers may feel unsatisfied with the ending. Having cared for the characters and been involved in their lives, they will want to know what happens to them. The use of an American allows the author to provide a clearer description of this unfamiliar world, but because Nusrat is a grown woman, her concerns may be of less interest to readers than those of Najmah, an enterprising and enormously courageous girl.
Fiction, Young Adult Reading Level

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.
Science Fiction, Young Adult Reading Level

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
From the author of HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/Title=How%20the%20Garcia%20Girls%20Lost%20Their%20Accents/${0}" How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents comes this tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. A skillful blend of fact and fiction, In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government. Alvarez breathes life into these historical figures--known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies," in the underground--as she imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their terror as their dissentience is uncovered.
Fiction, Adult reading level

The Rifle by Gary Paulsen
Used through the Revolutionary War, this beautifully crafted weapon is handed down through generations, until the fateful Christmas Eve of 1943.
Fiction, young adult reading level

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the "poor-ass" Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately together. When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation.
Fiction, challenging young adult reading level

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Based on a true story, the author has written an account of Sadako, a Japanese girl who has contracted leukemia as a result of the Hiroshima bombing. She uses her long hours in the hospital to make paper cranes, hoping to reach 1000, but dies before her goal. Her classmates complete her project.
Nonfiction, young adult reading level

Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams
Early in the 1920s, the New York Giants sent a scout to watch a young Cuban play for Foster's American Giants, a baseball club in the Negro Leagues. During one at-bat this talented slugger lined a ball so hard that the rightfielder was able to play it off the top of the fence and throw Christobel Torrienti out at first base. The scout liked what he saw, but was disappointed in the player's appearance. "He was a light brown," recalled one of Torrienti's teammates, "and would have gone up to the major leagues, but he had real rough hair." Such was life behind the color line, the unofficial boundary that prevented hundreds of star-quality athletes from playing big-league baseball. In Only the Ball Was White, Robert Peterson tells the forgotten story of these excluded ballplayers, and gives them the recognition they were so long denied. In addition to vivid accounts, Peterson includes yearly Negro League standings and an all-time register of players and officials, making the book a treasure trove of baseball information and lore.
Nonfiction, adult reading level

The Rise of Barack Obama, Pete Souza
Pete Souza, an award-winning photojournalist, documents the rise of the charismatic Barack Obama from his first day in the U.S. Senate right up to the Pennsylvania primary in April 2008.More than 80 percent of these candid and stunning photographs, capturing private and political moments, have not been seen before. Souza provides extended commentary about each photo to place it in context and describe the scene and participants. Photo by photo, the viewer is allowed to examine the senator and candidate's path to the very cusp of history.
Nonfiction, Adult reading level

Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savannah
This simple memoir is the extraordinary story of a poor nomadic boy in Kenya who literally travels across the world but never abandons home. Lekuton grew up in Kenya's poorest tribe, herding cows and playing in trees and hyena holes before he entered a missionary boarding school and went to college in the U.S. Now he teaches in Virginia, but he has never lost his Maasai roots, and he returns home to help his people several months a year. Looking back without romanticism or self-pity, he remembers how it was: the joy and excitement, the constant hunger and moving, and the traditions, including the circumcision ceremony that made him a man. The Cinderella theme begins in Kenya where he's the shabby kid accepted at a fancy Nairobi high school. Later he travels to his college interview in a cattle truck with the cows. What gives this short, readable book its power is Lekuton's authoritative, intimate view of now and then.
Nonfiction, challenging young adult reading level

Summer Reading
Provide the following information for each book you read. You may use this sheet or type your responses. Add another sheet if needed.

Title: Author:

Describe the setting of the story.

List the main characters and some character traits for each.

Briefly (in 5-10 sentences) explain the plot.

List at least three questions that you have about the book or that you think could start interesting discussion.

Creative Project Options

Choose one of the two books you read from this list and create one of the following projects:

Create a new cover for the book. Include the title, author, and an appropriate illustration.

Write an alternate ending for the book.

Draw a comic strip that depicts a scene from the book.

Write a sequel or prequel to the book.

Write a short collection of poems that focus on the characters or the setting.

Create a web page or power point slideshow that advertises for the book.

8th Grade

For each of the three books you read, you must fill out the front and back of an assignment sheet. All three assignments sheets will be collected on the first day of class.

All students entering 8th grade are required to read the following book:

The Contender, by Robert Lipsyte
It would be helpful if you purchase this book, but you can also bring a copy from the library. You will need to bring a copy of the book to class each day during the first two weeks of school!

You are also required to read one of the following six books:

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
Steve Harmon, 16, is accused of serving as a lookout for a robbery of a Harlem drugstore. The owner was shot and killed, and now Steve is in prison awaiting trial for murder. From there, he tells about his case and his incarceration. Many elements of this story are familiar, but Myers keeps it fresh and alive by telling it from an unusual perspective. Steve, an amateur filmmaker, recounts his experiences in the form of a movie screenplay. His striking scene-by-scene narrative of how his life has dramatically changed is riveting. Interspersed within the script are diary entries in which the teen vividly describes the nightmarish conditions of his confinement.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Francie Nolan lives in Brooklyn with her brother Neely, mom Katie and dad Johnny. It is in the early 1900s. The family is poor ~~ living almost on the edge of starvation. Francie has taken to reading like a duck takes to water ... once she discovered the joy of reading, she becomes a big bookworm. She is also a keen observer of life around her ~~ her thoughts are often witty and funny as she observes the strange behavior of her mother's sisters and their lives, the neighbors, her brother Neely, her mother and father's relationships with one another. Till Francie grows up to be this amazing woman set on the path of her destiny. Betty Smith takes you along for a wonderful story-filled walk in Brooklyn in the early 20th century. She introduces the smells of old Brooklyn, the noise, the joys and sorrows of being in a poverty-stricken family ~~ the hopes and dreams of the immigrants that left the old country because there was nothing there for them.

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl, by Joyce Carol Oates
While horsing around in the high school cafeteria, Matt Donaghy makes some remarks that land him in a world of trouble. Yanked out of fifth-period study hall by plainclothes policemen, he learns that he's suspected of plotting to bomb the school. In this day and age that's no joking matter. Only the resolutely individualistic, somewhat frightening Ursula Riggs, a girl he barely knows, is willing to speak up on Matt's behalf. With a combination of clear-sightedness and bravado she gets the principal to rethink Matt's suspension-and that's just the beginning of Oates's novel. The next three-quarters of the book become even more interesting, as the author explores the subsequent social pressures placed on the teenagers and adults in a fictitious, affluent suburb of New York City.

Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer
Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.

This Boy’s Life: A Memoir, by Tobias Wolff
Fiction writer Tobias Wolff electrified critics with his scarifying 1989 memoir, which many deemed as notable for its artful structure and finely wrought prose as for the events it describes. The story is pretty grim: teenaged Wolff moves with his divorced mother from Florida to Utah to Washington State to escape her violent boyfriend. When she remarries, Wolff finds himself in a bitter battle of wills with his abusive stepfather, a contest in which the two prove to be more evenly matched than might have been supposed. Deception, disguise, and illusion are the weapons the young man learns to employ as he grows up--not bad training for a writer-to-be. Somber though this tale of family strife is, it is also darkly funny and so artistically satisfying that most readers come away exhilarated rather than depressed.

The Road from Coorain, by Jill Ker Conway
Conway spent her first 11 years in the windswept grasslands of Australia, where her father owned 30,000 acres of arid land. Though his ability to understand the land was extensive, an eight-year drought finally defeated him, and he committed suicide. A few years later, Conway's oldest brother died in an automobile accident. The two deaths plunged her mother into depression. Out of this tale of hard work, drought, and sorrow, Conway emerges with character and personal strength. From the University of Sydney, she went on to study history at Harvard and eventually became the first woman president of Smith College. This inspiring book tells in full the details of her life and thoughts up to the time she left for America.

Finally, students entering 8th grade are also required to read one book of his or her own choice. Please select a book that interests you and is on your reading level – no children’s books or picture books.

Please put thought and time into your reading and your assignment sheets. I look forward to working with you in the fall!

-Ms. Adams