2009
Summer Reading list for students entering 7th grade
Read
three books and fill out graphic organizers. Choose one nonfiction and
one fiction book. The third book can be your choice from the list below.
FICTION
Endymion
Spring by Matthew Skelton
Having reluctantly accompanied his academic mother and pesky younger sister to
Oxford, twelve-year-old Blake Winters is at loose ends until he stumbles across
an ancient and magical book, secretly brought to England in 1453 by Gutenberg's
mute apprentice to save it from evil forces, and which now draws Blake into a
dangerous and life-threatening quest.
The
Kite Rider: A Novel by Geraldine McCaughrean
In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a
horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures
when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great
Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.
The
Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives
through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake
Superior in 1847.
Journey
to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
Sent with her governess to live with the dreadful Carter family in exotic
Brazil in 1910, Maia endures many hardships before fulfilling her dream of
exploring the Amazon River.
Dealing
with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of
dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable
wizards who want to steal the dragons' kingdom.
NON-FICTION
Shipwrecked!:
The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy by Rhoda Blumberg
In 1841, rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him
and his four companions castaways on a remote island, fourteen-year-old Manjiro
learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot
in the United States.
Dateline:
Troy
by Paul Fleischman
A retelling of the story of the Trojan War illustrated with collages featuring
newspaper clippings of modern events from World War I through the War on
Terrorism.
Chinese
Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
The author tells the story of her painful childhood in China where she lived
until the age of fourteen with her father, stepmother, and siblings, all of
whom considered her bad luck because her mother died shortly after giving birth
to her.
Chew
On This: Everything You Don't Want To Know About Fast Food by Eric
Schlosser
A look at fast food, what's in it, how it's made, and what it does to our
bodies.