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Summer Reading List Grades 6 - 8 2006 |
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| 2006 Summer Reading List | ||
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Summer Reading List Grades 6 - 8 2006 |
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| 2006 Summer Reading List | ||
HORACE MANN MIDDLE SCHOOL
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM NEXT YEAR'S LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER
Dear Parent or Guardian:
This summer, Horace Mann Middle School language arts teachers will be assigning all future 6th — 8th grade students required reading over the summer months.
Why? Everyone at our school believes that reading is an enjoyable and educational experience that can easily be treasured over the summer months. Adolescents deserve specific opportunities to schedule reading into their days. Our staff at Horace Mann believes, along with the American Library Association, that . . .
• Time spent reading is related to reading success.
• Time spent reading is associated with attitudes toward additional reading.
• Time spent reading is tied to knowledge of the world.
• Reading is a worthwhile life experience.
Parents, teachers, and librarians also need to help teens find time to read in their busy lives.
According to talk show host Oprah Winfrey, “One of my greatest sources of pleasure is reading. I knew at a very young age that reading for me was the ultimate source of freedom. With knowledge, you have the potential to reach great heights in every phase of life — from childhood through adulthood.”
We encourage parents to sit down over the summer and read a book with your children.
GENERAL INFORMATION
- All students must read two books from the following list. Also, you must complete one activity for each book from this list: journal writing, book discussion at Lakewood Public Library (only for specific book titles), magazine project, or test on book when you return to school. You may do the same activity for both books.
ACTIVITIES
- JOURNAL WRITING: In a spiral notebook, write your name, the name of the book, and the pages that you read at the top of the page. Then, on the rest of the page, write about the book’s characters, themes, and connections that you make with your life. You should not summarize the book. You must write a full page in your notebook for every thirty pages of the book.
- BOOK DISCUSSION (at Lakewood Public Library): Books must be read before the program to participate. To register, please stop in the library or call 216-226-8275, Ext. 140. A very simple process: Register and participate in the book discussion to receive credit.
Main Library
7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in the Children’s and Youth Services Department
Tuesday, August 1- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer Thursday, August 3 - Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan Tuesday, August 8 - Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman Thursday, August 10 - Hoot by Carl Hiaasen Tuesday, August 15 - Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by W. Van Draanen Thursday August 17 - Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
Madison Branch
7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in the Children’s and Youth Services Department
Tuesday, August 8 - The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo Tuesday. August 15 - When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis MAGAZINE: Design a magazine about your book. The final product must be neat, typed, and look professional. The magazine must include:
- A front and back cover that depicts some aspect of your book
- A comic strip or crossword puzzle (using interesting vocabulary from the book)
- A travel article about visiting locations in the book
- A feature article (examples: biography of famous character, obituary of character, sports article about a basketball game, etc.)
The test will be in school with your new language arts teacher.You should take notes and bring them with you to school.
GRADING
Students will be graded on the activities based upon following the above instructions for each activity. Your grade will count for up to ten percent of your first grading period grade in language arts.
HOW TO OBTAIN THE REQUIRED BOOKS
- The Lakewood Public Library and other libraries have copies of the required books.
- Two bookstores, Barnes & Noble (440-250-9233) in Crocker Park, Westlake and Borders (440-892-7667) in the Westlake Promenade Shopping Center, Westlake, have been notified of the required reading assignments and will have copies on hand.
- Books with an asterisk (*) are new additions to this year's list.
- Parents may wish to get together and purchase the books with other families to share the cost.
Mrs. Csongei, Mrs. Kehn, Ms. Eiben, Mr. Wood, Mrs. Hopkins, Mrs. Keaton, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Sikon, or Mrs. Hierro.
Thank you for your help and cooperation! We hope that you have a great summer
and that your children enjoy reading the books that you select.
Books are arranged alphabetically. Students and parents should choose the summer reading books together, keeping in mind the reading and maturity level of the student — along with his/her interests.
Going on a vacation? Take a book on tape/CD along with you. The symbolindicates that the title is available on CD or cassette at the Lakewood Public Library.
Moose Flannagan moves with his family to Alcatraz so his dad can work as a prison guard and his sister, Natalie, can attend a special school. But Natalie has autism, and when she’s denied admittance to the school, the stark setting of Alcatraz begins to unravel the tenuous coping mechanisms Moose’s family has used for dealing with her disorder. (Newbery Honor Book)
At the end of the Civil War, fourteenyear-old Emily Pigbush is orphaned and makes plans to live with her good friend, Annie Surrat, until Annie’s mother is arrested for her suspected role in the assassination of President Lincoln. Emily must go to live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research. (**ALA Best Book for Young Adults)
Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. With two trusty sidekicks in tow, he hatches a cunning plot to divest the fairy-folk of their pot of gold.
Book two in the series
Book three in the series.
Summer stretches lazily before 13-year-old Brodie Lynch as he contemplates a canoe trip with his buddies and a possible date with Pauline. Then, with one early morning, during a swimming event in the Blackwater River, Brodie’s life spirals out of control.
Shortly after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, World War II came to an end, and the terrible reality of the atomic age began. A teenager must lead a desperate effort to save his island home.
One night out of the blue, Ratchet Clark’s ill-natured mother tells her that Ratchet will be leaving their Pensacola apartment momentarily to take the train up north. There she will spend the summer with her aged relatives Penpen and Tilly, inseparable twins who couldn’t look more different from each other. (National Book Award Winner)
In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern, Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship.
Debbie, who wishes that something would happen so she'll be a different person, and Hector, who feels he is unfinished, narrate most of the novel. Both are 14 years old. The descriptive, measured writing includes poems, prose, haiku, and question-and-answer formats. (Newbery Medal Book)
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift in morals has ripped the Butler household apart: Sarah and their mother oppose the inhumanithy of slavery, while Frances and their father, Pierce, believe in the Southern lifestyle and treatment of blacks.
Fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe, and the rest of London, is fascinated by a string of murders: People are being killed with arrows shot from above, and each victim has a “Death and Arrow” card with him. Danger and intrigue abound, especially when Tom’s friend, a young pickpocket, is also found murdered.
A teenage Chinese boy named Otter lives with his Mother while his Uncle Foxfire and Father go to "The Land of the Golden Mountain,” also known as America, to help build a transcontinental railroad.
A twelve-year-old white boy, adapted and raised by Mohicans in the Hudson River Valley during the 1730’s, is sent with his younger brother to an English settlement for schooling.
The author describes the archaeological discovery of thousands of life-sized terra cotta warrior statues in northern China in 1974, and discusses the emperor who had them created and placed near his tomb. (Nonfiction j931 O'Connor)
A 15-year-old boy in contemporary Alaska discovers that his mom is a fugitive, hiding out from the FBI because of her part in an anti-Vietnam War protest at Berkeley that accidentally killed a college student. Luke is even more upset to learn that she plans to turn herself in.
In this exciting collection of poems from the Middle East, honored writer Naomi Shihab Nye welcomes us to this lush, vivid world and beckons us to explore. Powerful pieces from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and elsewhere open windows into the hearts and souls of people we usually meet only on the nightly news. (Nonfiction j808.8100835 Flag)
They threw rocks and rotten eggs at the school windows. Villagers refused to sell Miss Crandall groceries or let her students attend the town church. Mysteriously, her schoolhouse was set on fire -- by whom and how remains a mystery. The town authorities dragged her to jail and put her on trial for breaking the law. Her crime? Trying to teach African American girls geography, history, reading, philosophy, and chemistry. (Nonfiction -- Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award)
This book is an introduction to the life and art of world-renowned painter Frida Kahlo. A woman of strength, talent, humor, and endurance, Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico City, the child of a Mexican mother and a German father. (jPicture)
One girl. One school year. All poems. From friends to first dates, school dances to family fights, this inspiring collection captures the emotional highs and lows of teen life with refreshing honesty and humor. (Nonfiction j811.54Wayland)
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Through the haze of his obsession with baseball, Richard Riley Montcreif only dimly hears what his best friend in eighth grade, Napoleon Charlie Ellis, is trying to tell him about what it’s like to be African-American.
Edwin and John Wilkes Booth each had a compelling stage presence and a fondness for alcohol, just like their famous father, Junius. Edwin spent his life perfecting his craft and building a reputation as the finest classical actor of his time. John was impulsive, popular with the ladies, and best known today as the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. (Boston Globe-Horn Honors Book)
With the help of her wise old grandmother, twelve-year-old Rosie manages to work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend, Bailey, the boy next door.
Living alone in her wagon on the outskirts of a small town white waiting for her father’s return, Rizka, a Gypsy and a trickster, exposes the ridiculous foibles of some of the townspeople.
Habibi - Naomi Shihab Nye
The day after Liyana got her first real kiss, her life changed forever. Not because of the kiss, but because it was the day her father announced that the family was moving from St. Louis all the way to Palestine. Though her father grew up there, Liyana knows very little about her family's Arab heritage. Her grandmother and the rest of her relatives who live in the West Bank are strangers, and speak a language she can't understand.
Sixteen-year-old Jimmy, on probation for assault, talks about life with three old men in a Harlem barbershop and hears about the tools he can use to get what he wants.
Greenberg invited poets to choose a piece of modern art and to write a poetic response to it. The result is a gorgeous, thoughtful, stimulating collection of art and poetry that turns the standard poetry/art book on its head. (Nonfiction 811.6080357 Heart)
What was it like to be teenager in Germany under Hitler? Bartoletti draws on oral histories, diaries, letters, and her own extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, Hitler Youth, resisters, and bystanders to tell the history from the viewpoints of people who were there.
The author of the Joey Pigza books relates his autobiography. How as a young adult he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
In modern India, Koly at 13 is forced into an arranged marriage with a dying boy. As a teenage widow, she finds herself abandoned by her mother-in-law in the city where she must make a life for herself or die.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Ever since her mother left, Hope has, with her comfort- food-cooking aunt Addie, been serving up the best in diner food from Pensacola to New York City.
For six years, Matt has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn’t like them. He grows up in the family’s mansion, alternately caged and despised as an animal and pampered and educated as El Patron’s favorite. (Newbery Honor Book, National Book Award Winner)
Meet Ed Kennedy -- underage cabdriver, pathetic card player, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he's hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. (Australian Chidlren's Book Council Book of the Year Award)
"My name is Shannon Lanier. I am a twenty-year-old descendant of Thomas Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings." In this unusual photo-essay, Lanier explores his family history and heritage, interviewing relatives he has known all his life and others he has only recently discovered, including some of Jefferson’s descendants through his marriage to Martha Wayles Jefferson. (Nonfiction j973.460922 Lanier)
Award-winning biographer Elizabeth Partridge dives into Lenon's life from the night he was born in 1940 during a World War II air raid on Liverpool, cleverly taking us through his turbulent childhood and his rebellious rock and roll teens to his celebrated life writing, recording, and performing music with the Beatles. She sheds light on the years after the Beatles, with Yoko Ono, as he struggled to make sense of his own artistic life. (BCCB Blue Ribbon Nonficgtion Book Award)
Katie’s first word is “kit-a-kit-a,” the Japanese word for ‘glittering,’ and she uses it to describe everything she likes. Both Katie and her older sister have trouble adjusting when their parents move the family from Iowa to a small town in rural Georgia, where they are among only 31 Japanese-Americans. They seldom see their parents, who have grueling jobs in chicken-processing plants. (Newbery Medal Book)
Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the decaying coal mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds both the old man and the town haunted by ghosts of the past.
Elizabeth Mollahan lost her mom when she was little. Her father and a grandmother are her only family. Every summer the three of them flee sweaty New York City for a beach house in New York’s Rockaways.
Joey and Mary Alice are sent to spend a week every summer with their “tough as a boot” grandma. Follow their funny and memorable adventures.
Chock-full of family curses, werewolf lore, and stomach-turning gore, Lord Loss is exactly the kind of horror that Cirque Du Freak fans will love. This first installment in a new series is still guaranteed to gross out anyone ages 12 to 20.
Lord of the Deep isn't just about deep-sea fishing, it’s about deep thinking and even deeper feelings. Veteran young adult author Graham Salisbury has written a masterful tale that astutely illustrates that almost indecipherable point in adolescence when a boy becomes a man.
Living in the projects but determined to be the first person in her family to go on to college, 14-year-old LaVaughn takes a jab babysitting for Jolly, the teenage mother of two-year-old Jeremy and baby Jilly, whose life is the epitome of disorganization.
“Monster’ is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who gave the “all clear” to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Lobel, a well-known illustrator of children's books, tells of her personal experiences during and after World War II in this unforgettable Holocaust survivor story. (Nonfiction jBio)
A frightened American soldier faces combat in the lush forests of Vietnam
When a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain in 1848, Phineas Gage survived another eleven years; yet, he “was no longer Gage,” and his case is still a fascination and revelation to brain scientists today. (Nonfiction j362.197481044 Fleischman)
When the peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy.
This book describes a tale worthy of Ahab: on November 20, 1820, an angry sperm whale took vengeance on the men who would slay it for oil. Adapted from Phil brick's best selling title for adults, "In the Heart of the Sea," the narrative draws from primary sources, including the account of cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, who joined the crew at age 14.
(Nonfiction j910.9164 Philbrick)
Despite some reservations, sixteen-year-old Jessie joins her companions from the previous year’s adventure on the Colorado River for a legal rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.
The “master of the unexpected” points out the holes in the story of the girl who couldn't spin straw into gold. Then, he retells the story in five different witty ways. (Nonfiction j398.2094301 Vande)
On Halloween night, middle school student Sammy stumbles onto a mystery involving a twenty-year-old family feud and some heirlooms stolen by a man in a skeleton costume.
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters’ village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
Sixteen-year-old “Slam” Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life. His coach sees things differently.
Seventeen-year-old Vince’s life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
A traumatic event near the end of summer has devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school. (Mature themes)
“She was homeschooling gone amok." “She was an alien." “Her parents were circus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explain Stargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona’s Mica Area High School who wears pioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughs when there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music.
When four-year-old Young Ju and her parents emigrate from Korea to California by plane, the child, who knows that God is in the sky, concludes that America is heaven. “A step from heaven,” her uncle corrects her after they arrive. However, life proves to be far from that for the family, which now includes a new baby.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon has created his own magical baseball landscape on which to paint a sweeping fantasy sports quest, but mixes the ingredients--folklore and new inventions--in a distinctively American way.
Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he burned down his old school and got kicked out of every school in his home state. Only one place will take him now, and that’s a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists. The only one who doesn’t fit the Applewhite mold is ED. -- a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the unruly lake. (Newbery Honor Book)
This book uses poems, essays, letters, photographs and more to present the actions and achievements of women in the United States, from its beginnings up through the twentieth century. (Nonfiction j305.40973 33)
After Rob’s mother dies, he and his father move to a new town to get a fresh start, he discovers a caged tiger in the woods. An emotionally rich story about a boy caught in the powerful grip of grief.
The sequel to Make Lemonade, True Believer is strong enough to stand alone. It is the story of LaVaughn’s 15th year, her struggle to stay focused on getting to college despite the heartbreak she sees around her and the distraction of her own shifting relationships.
Eleven-year-old Alice is unwilling to return to live with her alcoholic mother and her stern stepfather, so she refuses to eat to the point of slowly starving herself, in order to remain in the hospital.
This insightful account of the great African American vocalist considers her life and musical career in the context of the history of civil rights in this country. Drawing on Anderson’s own writings and other contemporary accounts, Russell Freedman shows readers a singer pursuing her art despite the social constraints that limited the careers of black performers in the 1920s and 1930s. (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award)
lntellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school’s less popular students.
Summer in the tiny Texas town of Antler is traditionally a time for enjoying Wylie Womack’s Bahama Mama snow cones and racking up the pins at Kelly’s Bowl-a-Rama, but this year its not going well for Toby Wilson.
After Brent makes a fatal mistake and causes the death of another teen, he finds himself sent on a strange rite of repentance -- a cross-country journey building whirligigs.
A battered tomcat named Whittington arrives one late-fall day at a New England barn, where he gradually befriends the equally ragtag group of animals already adopted by the barn's silent but soft-hearted owner, Bernie. When the year's first big snowstorm traps the bored animals in the barn, Whittington begins telling the story of his namesake, Dick Whittington, to an audience that grows to include Bernie's parentless grandchildren. (Newbery Honor Book)
Written in the language of urban African -American teens, which Flake captures flawlessly, these 10 stories have universal themes and situations. Some are funny and uplifting -- others, disturbing and sad. (Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books)
When Earl gets suspended from school for a week for fighting, he figures he’ll fill up the days somehow. But a lot can happen in a week. His family is falling apart and Earl is learning what it takes to be a man.
After receiving an apparent crank call from a man claiming to have committed murder, fifteen-year-old Andy finds his close relationship with his father crumbling as he struggles to make everyone believe him.
This book chronicles the zany adventures of Grandma Dowdel and her granddaughter Mary Alice. Raised in Chicago, Mary Alice is in for quite a shock when she finds herself sent to live with her grandmother in a country town in 1937.
Told in diary form, this is a gripping story about the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Seemingly the only person left alive after a nuclear war, a sixteen-year-old girl is relieved to see a man arrive in her valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must somehow escape.
One wispy October dawn, a boy on a bike suddenly appeared on the canal. Then, just as quickly, he was gone. Little did almost-14-year-old Zazoo know that this inquisitive, bird-watching bicyclist would hold the key to her past and open a window to the future as well.
