SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books Use your MAP test reading score to determine your LEXILE reading level, then match up your reading level to the reading level on the books listed below.
Above / Isla Morley. First Gallery Books, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: NOT LISTED Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an abandoned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. She focuses frantically on finding a way out until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in.
All American Boys / Jason Reynolds. A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: HL770L When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend.
All the Bright Places / Jennifer Niven. Alfred A. Knopf, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 830L Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, both teetering on the edge, it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another.
The Beginning of Everything / Robyn Schneider. Catherine Tegan Books, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 930L The way Ezra Faulkner sees it, everyone gets one great tragedy, after which life should roll on predictably. Star athlete and prom king, his life is irreparably transformed by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy Thorpe.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea / April Genevieve Tucholke. Dial, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL670L Violet is in love with River, a mysterious seventeen-year-old stranger renting the guest house behind the rotting seaside mansion where Violet lives. When eerie, grim events begin to happen, Violet recall her grandmother's frequent warnings about the devil and wonders if River is evil.
Boy Nobody (I Am the Weapon) / Allen Zadoff. Little Brown, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL450L Boy Nobody is a coldly dispassionate teenage assassin working for a mysterious organization called the Program. When it assigns him his next mission—to assassinate the mayor of New York—it seems at first like business as usual. But then he meets Sam, the mayor’s beautiful daughter.
The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible…on Schindler’s List / Leon Leyson, with Marilyn J. Harran and Elisabeth B. Leyson. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 1000L Leon Leyson describes growing up in Poland, being forced from home to ghetto to concentration camps by the Nazis, and being saved by Oskar Schindler. A powerful work of literary nonfiction.
Brown Girl Dreaming / Jacqueline Woodson. Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 990L The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.
Complicit / Stephanie Kuehn. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: HL660L Two years ago, fifteen-year-old Jamie Henry breathed a sigh of relief when a judge sentenced his older sister to juvenile detention for burning down their neighbor’s fancy horse barn. The whole town did. But today Cate got out. And now she’s coming back.
Counting by 7s / Holly Goldberg Sloan. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 770L Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident.
The Crossover / Kwame Alexander. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 750L Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.
Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii / Vicky Alvear Schecter. Arthur A. Levine Books, and imprint of Scholastic, Inc., 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 720L Tagus is a medical slave who wants be a gladiator, Lucia is the daughter of Tag's owner and betrothed to an older man, and the two teenagers are in love with each other--but it is the year 79 and soon Vesuvius will alter their lives forever.
Desert Dark / Sonja Stone. Holiday House, 2017. (2017-18) Lexile: HL540L Sixteen-year-old Nadia Riley is delighted to earn a spot at an elite, government-funded boarding school. Nothing sounds better than leaving behind her fraught relationship with her ex-boyfriend and moving to faraway Arizona for a spot at Desert Mountain Academy. But the Academy is more than Nadia bargained for: it’s a covert CIA program training high-achieving students for the Black-Ops. Nadia struggles to keep up in her new classes while gaining the trust of her assigned teammates. Things get worse when news leaks that there is a double agent on campus, and someone is framing Nadia. Nadia discovers dark secrets about her fellow teammates and learns one of them is the deserter.
1 SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books The Distance From Me to You / Marina Gessner. G.P. Putnman’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2015. (2017-18) Lexile: 840L McKenna Berney is a lucky girl. She has a loving family and has been accepted to college for the fall. But McKenna has a different goal in mind: much to the chagrin of her parents, she defers her college acceptance to hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia with her best friend. And when her friend backs out, McKenna is determined to go through with the dangerous trip on her own. While on the Trail, she meets Sam. Having skipped out on an abusive dad and quit school, Sam has found a brief respite on the Trail, where everyone’s a drifter, at least temporarily. Despite lives headed in opposite directions, McKenna and Sam fall in love on an emotionally charged journey of dizzying highs and devastating lows. When their punch-drunk love leads them off the trail, McKenna has to persevere in a way she never thought possible to beat the odds or risk both their lives.
Doll Bones / Holly Black. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 840L Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl.
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans / Don Brown. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: GN920L On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina's monstrous winds and surging water overwhelmed the protective levees around low-lying New Orleans, Louisiana. The riveting tale of this historic storm and the drowning of an American city is one of selflessness, heroism, and courage- -and also of incompetence, racism, and criminality.
Echo / Pam Munoz Ryan; Dinara Mirtalipova, ill. Scholastic Press, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 680L Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.
Faking Normal / Courtney Stevens. Harper Teen, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: HL610L Alexi Littrell hasn’t told anyone what happened to her over the summer by her backyard pool. Instead, she hides in her closet, counts the slats in the air vent, and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.
The Forgetting / Sharon Cameron. Scholastic Press, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: 740L Canaan is a quiet city, but every 12 years the town breaks out in chaos. All the people undergo the Forgetting and are left without memories of themselves, their families, or their lives. Somehow 17-year-old Nadia has never forgotten and is determined to put a stop to The Forgetting forever.
Foul Trouble / John Feinstein. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 770L College recruiters are clamoring to sign up Terrell Jamerson, the #1 high school basketball player in the country. But not all of these recruiters are straight shooters, and Terrell will have to think fast if he wants to stay in the game.
The Geography of You and Me / Jennifer Smith. Poppy, Little Brown and Company, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 1030L Sparks fly when sixteen-year-old Lucy and seventeen-year-old Owen meet on an elevator rendered useless by a New York City blackout. Soon after, the two teens leave the city, but as they travel farther away from each other geographically, they stay connected emotionally.
Ghost / Jason Reynolds. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: 730L Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential.
Goodbye Stranger / Rebecca Stead. Wendy Lamb Books, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 560L Bridge, survivor of a childhood accident, wonders why she’s still alive. As she makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her best friends, curvaceous Em, crusader Tab, and new friend, Sherm, she finds the answers she has been seeking. Each character navigates the challenges of love and change in this captivating novel.
The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel / Deborah Hopkinson. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 660L Eel, an orphan, and his best friend Florrie must help Dr. John Snow prove how cholera is spread when anepidemic sweeps across their London neighborhood in 1854.
The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever / Jeff Strand. Sourcebooks Fire, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: HL680L After producing 3 horror films that went mostly ignored on YouTube, Justin and his buddies decide it's time to make something epic. Hemmed in by a deadline and a cast of uncooperative extras, Justin must face the sad, sad truth: he may be producing The Worst Zombie Movie Ever. The Honest Truth / Dan Gemeinhart. Scholastic Press, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 550L A boy named Mark, tired of being sick with cancer, conceives a plan to climb Mount Rainier, and runs away from home with his dog, Beau-- but with over two hundred miles between him and his goal, and only anger at his situation to drive him on, nothing will be easy, and only his best friend, Jessie, suspects where he is heading. 2 SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books How to Love / Katie Cotugno. Balzer & Bray, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL790L Sawyer LaGrande's unexplained disappearance rocked Serena Montero's world; it had been love at first sight, and then he ran away and left her pregnant. Now he's back in town and ready to pick up where they left off. Serena, however, has a steady boyfriend and is now the mother of a two-year-old. Will she make the same mistake twice?
I Kill the Mockingbird / Paul Acampora. Roaring Brook Press, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 640L When best friends Lucy, Elena, and Michael receive their summer reading list, they are excited to see 'To Kill A Mockingbird' included. However, not everyone in their class shares the same enthusiasm. To get the entire town talking about the Harper Lee classic, they hatch a plot that quickly becomes more that they bargained for.
If You Find Me / Emily Murdoch. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL750L Carey’s little sister, Jenessa, has not spoken since the white starry night and now depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency until that one fateful day she disappears for good. Two strangers arrive and suddenly the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world where they must face the truth of why their mother abducted them and kept them hidden for ten years.
I’ll Meet You There / Heather Demetrios. Henry Holt and Company, 2015. (2015-16) Lexile: HL760L If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. When nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell has his leg blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise–a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99.
Impossible Knife of Memory / Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking Juvenile, 2014. (2014-15) Lexile: HL720L For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend high school.
The Iron Trial / Holly Black and Cassandra Clare; with illustrations by Scott Fischer. Scholastic Press, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 830L Warned away from magic all of his life, Callum endeavors to fail the trials that would admit him to the Magisterium - only to be drawn into its ranks against his will and forced to confront dark elements from his past. Book 1 of an exciting new fantasy series.
Jackaby / William Ritter. Algonquin, 2014. (2016-17) Lexile: 920L Newly arrived in 1892 New England, Abigail Rook becomes assistant to R. F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with the ability to see supernatural beings, and she helps him delve into a case of serial murder which, Jackaby is convinced, is due to a nonhuman creature.
A List of Cages / Robin Roe. Disney-Hyperion, 2017. (2017-18) Lexile: NOT LISTED (Rated Grade 9-12, ages 14-17) When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he's got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn't easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can't complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian--the foster brother he hasn't seen in five years. Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems like the boy he once knew. He's still kind hearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what's really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives.
Losers Take All: A Novel / David Klass. Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 890L Jack Logan is the youngest brother in a family of talented football players, and he might actually enjoy sports if he were not constantly pressured into taking one up. When the new principal decides that all seniors must play on a team, Jack and a ragtag group decide to get even by starting a rebel JV soccer team whose mission is to avoid victory at any cost.
Lost in the Sun / Lisa Graff. Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 700L In 5th grade, Trent mistakenly shot a hockey puck into a boy's chest. Jared, who had a heart defect, died. Now Trent is filled with rage, convinced everyone hates him. It isn't until Trent gets caught up in the whirlwind that is Fallon Little--the girl with the mysterious scar across her face--that things begin to change.
Masterminds / Gordon Korman. Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 730L Eli Frieden lives in the most perfect town in the world: Serenity, New Mexico. Honesty and integrity are valued above all else. One day, he bikes to the edge of the city limits and something so crazy and unexpected happens, it changes everything. Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate and it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity.
Meet Me Here / Bryan Bliss. Greenwillow Books, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: NOT LISTED (Rated Grade 9 and up) In a single night—graduation night—Thomas has to decide: do what everyone has always expected of him, or forge an entirely new path? Thomas is supposed to leave for the Army in the morning. His father was Army. His brother, Jake, is Army—is a hero, even, with the medals to prove it. Everyone expects Thomas to follow in that fine tradition. But Jake came back from overseas a completely different person, and 3 SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books that has shaken Thomas’s certainty about his own future. And so when his long-estranged friend Mallory suggests one last night of adventure, Thomas takes her up on the distraction. Over the course of this single night, Thomas will lose, find, resolve, doubt, drive, explore, and leap off a bridge. He’ll also face the truth of his brother’s post-traumatic stress disorder and of his own courage.
The Memory of Light / Francisco X. Stork. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: HL680L When Vicky Cruz wakes up in the Lakeview Hospital Mental Disorders ward, she knows one thing: After her suicide attempt, she shouldn't be alive. But then she meets Mona, the live wire; Gabriel, the saint; E.M., always angry; and Dr. Desai, a quiet force. With stories and honesty, kindness and hard work, they push her to reconsider her life before Lakeview, and offer her an acceptance she's never had. But Vicky's newfound peace is as fragile as the roses that grow around the hospital. And when a crisis forces the group to split up, sending Vicky back to the life that drove her to suicide, she must try to find her own courage and strength. She may not have them. She doesn't know.
Mosquitoland / David Arnold. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: HL750L When she learns that her mother is sick in Ohio, Mim confronts her demons on a thousand-mile odyssey from Mississippi that redefines her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane.
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War / Steve Sheinkin. Roaring Brook Press, 2015. (2017-18) Lexile: NOT LISTED (Rated Grade 7 and up) A tense, narrative nonfiction account that reads like a spy thriller, this is the story of how whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg transformed from obscure government analyst into "the most dangerous man in America" - -risking everything to expose years of government lies during the Nixon / Cold War era.
The Name of the Star / Maureen Johnson. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011. (2014-15) Lexile: HL710L Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi / Neal Bascomb. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013. (2015-16) Lexile: 1000L In 1945, at the end of World War II, Adolf Eichmann, the head of operations for the Nazis’ Final Solution, walked into the mountains of Germany and vanished from view. Sixteen years later, an elite team of spies captured him at a bus stop in Argentina and smuggled him to Israel, resulting in one of the century’s most important trials – one that cemented the Holocaust in the public imagination.
Need / Joelle Charbonneau. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: HL730L In this exploration of the dark side of social media, and government control and manipulation, the teenagers in a small town are drawn deeper and deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need--regardless of the consequences.
The Nest / Kenneth Oppel; Jon Klassen, ill. – Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: 640L For Steve, summer is just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp's nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to "fix" the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered. But "yes" is a powerful word. And dangerous. Once it is uttered, can it be taken back?
The Night Gardener / Jonathan Auxier. Amulet Books, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 690L Irish orphans Molly, fourteen, and Kip, ten, travel to England to work as servants in a crumbling manor house where nothing is quite what it seems to be. The siblings are confronted by a mysterious stranger and the secrets of the cursed house in this spooky tale.
None of the Above / I.W. Gregorio. Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. (2016-117) Lexile: HL770L Homecoming queen Kristin Lattimer has a hard enough time dealing with her body, but her visit to the doctor reveals a difficult truth, Kristin is intersex, which means that though she looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts" and after her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, her identity is thrown into question.
Not After Everything / Michelle Levy. Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: NOT LISTED (Rated Grade 9 and Up from School Library Journal) After his mom kills herself, Tyler shuts out the world--until falling in love with Jordyn helps him find his way toward a hopeful future.
Orbiting Jupiter / Gary Schmidt. Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. (2017-18) Lexile: 740L Jack, 12, tells the story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice.
Paper Things / Jennifer Richards Jacobson. Candlewick Press, 2015. (2017-18) Lexile: 830L 19-year-old Gage decides he can no longer live with a bossy guardian, and runs off with his little sister Ari. They struggle to find a place to live and to get Ari into the middle school for gifted students they promised their mother she'd get into. 4 SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books Paperboy / Vince Vawter. Delacorte Press, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 940L When an eleven-year-old boy takes over a friend's newspaper route in July, 1959, in Memphis, his debilitating stutter makes for a memorable month. A run-in with the neighborhood junkman stirs up real trouble--and puts the boy's life, as well as that of his family's devoted housekeeper, in danger.
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek / Maya Van Wagenen. Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), LLC, 2014. (2016-17) Lexile: 730L Maya has never been popular, but before starting eighth grade, she decides to begin a unique social experiment - spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell and record the results. Told with humor and grace, Maya's journey offers a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence.
The Reader / Traci Chee. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: 810L Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.
Rebel of the Sands / Alwyn Hamilton. Viking Books for Young Readers, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: NOT LISTED Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female. Amani Al’Hiza is all three. She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead. Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew.
Red Queen / Victoria Aveyard. HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: HL740L In a world divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities-- seventeen-year-old Mare, a Red, discovers she has an ability of her own. To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. But Mare risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard-- a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction.
Rhyme Schemer / K.A. Holt – Chronicle Books, 2014. (2016-17) Lexile: 520L This novel in verse follows one seventh grader's journey from bully-er to bully-ee, as he learns about friendship, family, and the influence that words can have on people's lives.
The Rig / Joe Ducie. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. (2016-17) Lexile: NOT LISTED (Rated for grades 5-7 on Amazon.com) Fifteen-year-old Will Drake has made a career of breaking out from high-security prisons. His talents have landed him at the Rig, a specialist juvenile holding facility in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. No one can escape from the Rig. No one except for Drake.
The Rithmatist / Brandon Sanderson. Tor Teen, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL680L Wild Chalklings threaten the American Isles and Rithmatists are humanity’s only defense. Joel longs to be a Rithmatist with the magical power to bring the two-dimensional Chalklings to life. But he is 16, and Rithmatists are chosen at age 8. Surely he has missed his chance, or has he?
Rump / Leisl Shurtliff. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 660L Tells the tale of Rumpelstiltskin's childhood and youth, explaining why his name is so important, how he isable to spin straw into gold, and why a first-born child is his reward for helping the miller's daughter-turned-queen.
Salt to the Sea / Ruta Sepetys. Philomel Books, 2016. (2016-17) Lexile: HL560L Told in alternating points of view, this masterful work of historical fiction is inspired by the real-life tragedy that was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff-- the greatest maritime disaster in history. As World War II draws to a close, refugees try to escape the war's final dangers, only to find themselves aboard a ship with a target on its hull.
The Scar Boys / Len Vlahos. Egmont, USA, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 910L In attempting to describe himself in his college application essay, Harbinger (Harry) Jones goes way beyond the 250-word limit and gives a full account of his life. The first defining moment: the day the neighborhood goons tied him to a tree during a lightning storm. The second defining moment: the day in 8th grade when Johnny rescued him from the bullies and suggested that they form a band. The Secret Hum of a Daisy / Tracy Holczer. G. P. Putnum’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 820L After 12-year-old Grace's mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. Then she discovers clues in a mysterious treasure hunt--one that will help her find her true home.
5 SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books The Skeleton Tree / Iain Lawrence. Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: 670L Less than forty-eight hours after twelve-year-old Chris sets off on a sailing trip down the Alaskan coast with his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they’ve got to forage, fish, and scavenge the shore for supplies. Chris likes the company of a curious, friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive.
Skink: No Surrender / Carl Hiaasen. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 770L With the help of an eccentric ex-governor, a teenage Richard searches for his missing cousin in the Florida wilds. There are a million places she could be, a million unpleasant fates that might have befallen her, but one thing is certain: in the Florida swamp, justice is best served wild.
Soldier Dog / Sam Angus. Feiwel and Friends, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: 870L Thirteen-year-old Stanley joins the army during World War I after running away from home and is assigned to the War Dog School, where he is partnered with a messenger dog named Bones and the two of them are sent to France.
Stalking Jack the Ripper / Kerri Maniscalco. jimmy patterson, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: HL860L Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.
Steelheart / Brandon Sanderson. Delacorte Press, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL680L At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners--the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.
Stella by Starlight / Sharon Draper. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2015. (2017-18) Lexile: 740L When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.
The Sun is Also a Star / Nicola Yoon. Delacorte Press, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: HL650L Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story. Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store— for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?
Sure Signs of Crazy / Karen Harrington. Little, Brown and Co., 2013. (2017-18) Lexile: 750L Twelve-year-old Sarah writes letters to her hero, To Kill a Mockingbird's Atticus Finch, for help understanding her mentally ill mother, her first real crush, and life in her small Texas town, all in the course of one momentous summer.
Terror at Bottle Creek / Watt Key. Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2016. (2017-18) Lexile: 650L 13-year-old Cort's father is a local expert on hunting and swamp lore in lower Alabama who has been teaching his son everything he knows. But when a deadly Gulf Coast hurricane makes landfall, Cort must unexpectedly put his all skills--and bravery--to the test in order to save himself and his friends.
Thousand Words / Jennifer Brown. Little Brown, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL780L Ashleigh feels madly in love with her boyfriend, Kaleb, even though he has barely paid attention to her all summer. To get his attention, Ashleigh sends a naked photo of herself and sends it to him. However, they break up and Kaleb sends the photo to a friend, who shares it with others.
Tragedy Paper / Elizabeth Laban. Knopf Books, 2013. (2014-15) Lexile: HL740L While preparing for the most dreaded assignment at the prestigious Irving School, the Tragedy Paper, Duncan gets wrapped up in the tragic tale of Tim Macbeth, a former student who had a clandestine relationship with the wrong girl, and his own ill-fated romance with Daisy.
Unfriended / Rachel Vail. Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 670L When thirteen-year-old Truly is invited to sit at the Popular Table, she finds herself caught in a web of lies and misunderstandings, made inescapable by the hyper-connected social media world.
The Walk On / John Feinstein. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: NOT LISTED (Rated Grades 5-8 from School Library Journal) After moving to a new town his freshman year, Alex Myers is happy to win a spot on the varsity football team as a quarterback but must deal with the idea of not playing for two years since the first-string quarterback is the son of the corrupt head coach. 6 SCHS Approved Summer Reading List for 2017-18 School Year KY Bluegrass Awards Books The Winner’s Curse / Marie Rutkoski. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 680L As a general’s daughter, seventeen-year-old Kestrel enjoys an extravagant and privileged life. Arin has nothing but the clothes on his back. Then Kestrel makes an impulsive decision that binds Arin to her. Though they try to fight it, they can’t help but fall in love. In order to be together, they must betray their people . . . but to be loyal to their country, they must betray each other.
Wildflower / Alecia Whitaker. Poppy/Little Brown and Company, 2014. (2015-16) Lexile: 830L Sixteen-year-old Bird Barrett is discovered by a country music record label while playing in her family's bluegrass band. As her star rises, she must learn to stay true to her roots while navigating a brave new world of glamour and gold records in Nashville, Tennessee.
LEXILE READING LEVELS: HL: High-Low A text designated as "HL" has a Lexile measure much lower than the average reading ability of the intended age range of its readers. Often fiction, HL books are useful when matching older (grade 7 and beyond) struggling or reluctant readers with text at both an appropriate difficulty level and an appropriate developmental level. Despite their short sentences and basic vocabulary, HL books are designed to appeal to readers at a more mature developmental level.
Typical Reader Measures, by Grade Typical Text Measures, by Grade Grade Reader Measures, Mid-Year Grade 2012 CCSS Text Measures
1 Up to 300L 1 190L to 530L
2 140L to 500L 2 420L to 650L
3 330L to 700L 3 520L to 820L
4 445L to 810L 4 740L to 940L
5 565L to 910L 5 830L to 1010L
6 665L to 1000L 6 925L to 1070L
7 735L to 1065L 7 970L to 1120L
8 805L to 1100L 8 1010L to 1185L
9 855L to 1165L 9 1050L to 1260L
10 905L to 1195L 10 1080L to 1335L
11 and 12 940L to 1210L 11 and 12 1185L to 1385L
7