Lakewood City Schools Middle School Reading Assignment - Summer 2008
Important Information from Next Year’s Middle School Language Arts Teachers
Monday, June 2, 2008
Dear Parent or Guardian:
All future sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students are required to read at least two books this summer. After reading each book, students will have a choice from two assignment options. Students should complete the two assignments (one for each book) before school starts in the fall. Students are required to bring their assignments with them to school and turn them in to their language arts teacher no later than Friday, September 5, 2008. Teachers will NOT accept late assignments after this date.
Grading Procedures:
Students need to read two books and complete two assignments. Any combination of the assignments listed below will be accepted. For example, a student could complete option A for one book and option B for the other book OR complete option B for two different books. Students will be graded on the assignments based upon following the instructions listed in this packet. This grade will count for up to ten percent of your student’s first marking period grade in language arts. Students should select books to read that they have not already read for previous assignments.
Assignment Option A:
• Read a book (or books) from the attached list, the Scholastic Reading Inventory Recommended Reading Report list, a book that falls within the student’s Lexile Level, or a combination of these three sources. • While reading, students will complete three journal responses for each book. These assignments can be hand-written or typed. Choose three of the journal response starters listed below for each book and respond to each journal response starter in a well-developed paragraph (5-10 sentences per paragraph). Students should respond in writing three times during the reading of each book and proofread their writing for content, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. • Journal Response Starters (choose three different starters for each book): I was surprised when…/angry about…/satisfied with…/moved by… I liked the way the author … I don’t understand why the author … If I were the author, I would have … I’d compare this author to … This book reminds me of … I’d say the theme of this book is … I wish that … I didn’t agree with … I understood … I didn’t understand … Why did …?
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• Note: If students misplace their Scholastic Reading Inventory Recommended Reading Report lists over the summer, additional copies can be obtained in the main offices of either Garfield or Harding Middle Schools before June 19 or after August 12.
Assignment Option B:
• Read a book (or books) from the list below and participate in a book discussion (book discussions will be held at Lakewood Public Library – Main and/or Madison Branches). Books must be read before the program to participate. To register, please stop in the library or call 216-226-8275, Ext. 140. Students must register and participate in the book discussion to receive credit.
Madison Library from 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in the Children’s and Youth Services Dept.
Tuesday, August 5 Sabriel by Garth Nix Tuesday, August 12 Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson Tuesday, August 19 Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss
Main Library from 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in the Children’s and Youth Services Dept.
Tuesday, August 5 The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney Thursday, August 7 Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan Tuesday, August 12 American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang Thursday, August 14 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan Tuesday, August 19 A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck Thursday, August 21 Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Obtaining the Required Books:
• The Lakewood Public Library and other local libraries should have copies of the required books on hand. • Three bookstores: Barnes & Noble (440-250-9233) in Crocker Park, Westlake; Borders (440-892- 7667) in the Promenade Shopping Center, Westlake; and Walden Books (440-734-8892) in Great Northern Mall have been notified of the required reading assignments and should have copies on hand.
Everyone in our district 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 busy days. Parents, teachers, and librarians need to help teens find time to read in their busy lives. We encourage you to sit down over the summer and read books with your teen. We hope that you have a great summer and that your student enjoys his/her reading activities. Thank you for your help and cooperation!
Sincerely,
Middle School Language Arts Teachers
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Assignment Option A Books:
Note: This is a list of suggested books that are arranged alphabetically. Students and parents should choose the summer reading books together, keeping in mind the reading and maturity levels of the student – along with his/her interests.
Going on a vacation? Take a book on tape/CD along with you. The symbol indicates that the title is available on CD or cassette at the Lakewood Public Library.
Please select one or two book(s) from the following list to complete assignment option A.
An Acquaintance With Darkness (Ann Rinaldi) - At the end of the Civil War, fourteen- year-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)
American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang) - All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese- American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl. (Graphic novel)
Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer) - 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 fairyfolk of their pot of gold.
Artemis Fowl: The Artic Incident (Eoin Colfer) - Book two in the series.
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (Eoin Colfer) - Book three in the series.
Blackwater (Eve Bunting) - 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 one early morning, during a swimming event in the Blackwater River, Brodie's life spirals out of control.
Blind Faith (Ellen Wittlinger) - When Liz’s grandmother dies, her mother believes that the only way to fill the void is to start attending a spiritualist church that claims to speak to the dead.
The Bomb (Theodore Taylor) - 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.
Born to Rock (Gordon Korman) - Leo Caraway is on the fast track to six figures: President of the Young Republicans, 4.0 GPA and an early acceptance to Harvard. Then he learns that his biological father is none other than Marion X. McMurphy, aka King Maggot, the lead singer of Purge, the most popular, destructive punk rock band ever. When an unfair cheating accusation gets his scholarship pulled, Leo ends up as a roadie for the band trying to get tuition money for Harvard.
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The Canning Season (Polly Horvath) - 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)
The Chosen (Chaim Potok) - 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.
Cirque du Freak (Darren Shan) - The story is the compelling saga of a young boy's journey into a dark world of vampires. Filled with grotesque creatures, murderous vampires, and an unexpected ending, Cirque du Freak will chill, thrill and leave readers begging for more. (Series)
Cool Stuff and How it Works (Chris Woodford) - Cool illustrations and explanations feature such things as iPods, digital cameras, MP3 players, neon lights, appliances, medicines, how fireworks explode, and much more. (Nonfiction)
Criss Cross (Lynne Ray Perkins) - Debbie, who wishes that something would happen so she'll be a different person, and Hector, who feels he is unfinished, narrates 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)
Dairy Queen (Catherine Gilbert Murdock) - D.J. Schwenk is no ordinary milkmaid. Is the farm-girl turned football-player prepared for the reactions of others when she decides to try out the all-male high school football team?
Day of Tears (Julius Lester) - 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 inhumanity of slavery, while Frances and their father, Pierce, and believe in the Southern lifestyle and treatment of blacks.
Death and the Arrow (Chris Priestly) - 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.
Dive (Gordon Korman) - Kaz, Star, Adrianna, and Dante are on a marine expedition for the summer, diving to explore an underwater habitat that's just been altered by a seismic event. What they find, though, is much more than fish -- it's sunken treasure. (Series)
Dragon’s Gate (Lawrence Yep) - 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.
Dreaming. Volume 1 (Queenie Chan) – Twin sisters, Amber and Jeanie, attend a boarding school where students have been known to mysteriously vanish.
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Echohawk (Lynda Durrant) – A twelve-year-old white boy, adopted 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.
Emperor’s Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China (Jane O’Connor) - 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)
Fever 1793 (Laurie Halse Anderson) - Yellow fever is sweeping through Philadelphia, and for young Mattie, the epidemic begins with the sudden death of a friend. This book is a portrayal of a fascinating and terrifying time in American history.
Firestorm (David Klass) – Jack is just your regular high school student, or so he thinks, until he discovers that he has been sent from the future to save our planet.
The Flag of Childhood: Poems from the Middle East (Naomi Shahib Nye) - 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 poems from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and elsewhere open windows into the hearts and souls of people from the Middle East.
The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students (Suzanne Jermain) - 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)
Free Radical (Claire Rudolf Murphy) - 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.
Girl Coming in for a Landing: a Novel in Poems (April Halprin Wayland) - 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.
Gold Dust (Chris Lynch) – 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.
Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth (James Cross Giblin) - Actors 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 Book Honors Book)
Granny Torelli Makes Soup (Sharon Creech) - 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.
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Gypsy Riska (Lloyd Alexander) - Living alone in her wagon on the outskirts of a small town while waiting for her father's return, Rizka, a Gypsy and a trickster, exposes the ridiculous foibles of some of the townspeople.
Heart of a Champion (Carl Deuker) - Seth and Jimmy have the kind of friendship you can't put into words--the kind you think only happens in movies. They both live and breathe baseball, but while Seth struggles to be good enough to make the varsity team, Jimmy, a natural, looks like he's on his way to becoming a major league star some day. On and off the field, their passion for the game gets them through some of life's bittersweet struggles and unites them in a once in a lifetime friendship.
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (Susan Campbell Bartoletti) - What was it like to be a 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. (Nonfiction)
Hole in My Life (Jack Gantos) – 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. (Nonfiction- Biography)
Homeless Bird (Gloria Whelan) – 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.
Hope Was Here (Joan Bauer) - 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. (Newbery Honor Book)
House of Scorpion (Nancy Farmer) - 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)
I Am the Messenger (Markus Zusak) - 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 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (Jon Krakauer) – A survivor of the mountain's worst disaster examines the business of Mount Everest and the steep price of ambition. (Nonfiction)
Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family (Shannon Lanier) - "My name is Shannon Lanier. I am a twenty-year-old descendant of Thomas Jefferson and his 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)
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Jimi & Me (Jaime Adoff) – Keith finds comfort in the music of Jimi Hendrix after his father is killed and leaves Keith with unanswered questions.
Joey Pigza (Jack Gantos) - Joey Pigza and his dog are spending the summer with his father and his grandmother. His grandmother used to live with them, thus he knows about her. But his father is a new entity. His mom says that his dad is just like him, only bigger. Joey still isn't prepared for an adult who is wired. His dad does not stop talking. And worse, watch out when he starts thinking! Carter is as hyperactive, or more, as Joey was before he learned how to control his own ADD.
John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth (Elisabeth Partridge) - Award-winning biographer Elizabeth Partridge dives into Lennon’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 Nonfiction Book Award)
The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier (Walter Dean Myers) – This is a journal about a sergeant in the army at Normandy, France during World War II. He is eighteen in the book and because this is a journal, there are journal entries instead of chapters. He talks about the Battle at Normandy and what he thinks about killing the Germans. It is hard for him to kill others, but he thinks it is right in this situation.
Kira-Kira (Cynthia Kadohata) - Katie's first word is "kira-kira," 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)
Kit’s Wilderness (David Almond) - 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.
Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch (Joseph Delaney) – Tom Ward, seventh son of a seventh son, can hear ghosts and sense evil creatures. Apprenticed to Spook as a monster hunter, tom travels the country learning to control supernatural beings.
Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery (John Feinstein) - For eighth graders Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson, March Madness has never been so mad. Both kids are winners of a fourteen-and-under writing contest sponsored by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. The grand prizes have won them trips to the Final Four. Not only will they get to watch the most thrilling college basketball games of the year, but they'll also be considered working journalists for the event. Little do they know, however, that they will end up at the center of the most shocking and important story of all.
Letters from Rifka (Karen Hesse) - This book is an in-depth look at a 12 year old girl's struggle to get to America from Russia. Her family had to flee Russia so her brothers would not be killed because they fled their regiment in the Russian armed services. This story talks about the issues addressed when immigrants are trying to get to America in the early 1900's and the struggles Rifka must survive if she ever hopes to reach America.
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The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan) – The hero, 12-year-old Percy Jackson, is far from your ordinary, everyday high school student. In fact, he is about to be kicked out of his third high school.
Lily’s Crossing (Patricia Reilly Griff) – 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.
Listen! (Stephanie S. Tolan) – Does the stray dog hold the key to healing Charlie’s broken body and spirit?
Lord Loss (Darren Shaw) - 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 aged 12 to 20.
Lord of the Deep (Graham Salisbury) – This book 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.
Make Lemonade (Virginia Euwer Wolff) - 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 job babysitting for Jolly, the teenage mother of two-year-old Jeremy and baby Jilly, whose life is the epitome of disorganization.
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (James Patterson) - Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways - except that they're 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. They grew up in a lab, living like rats in cages, but now they're free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they're prime prey for Erasers - wicked wolflike creatures with a taste for flying humans.
Milkweed (Jerry Spinelli) - He's a boy who has lived on the streets of Warsaw as long as he can remember. He remembers no name, other than Stopthief, no parents, no home. But he's small and quick, so he manages to find enough to eat, and places to sleep -- until the Nazis come. This book is about the Holocaust.
Mr. Chickees’s Funny Money (Christopher Paul Curtis) - Mr. Othello Chickee is Steven's blind, elderly neighbor. Every Saturday morning Steven accompanies Mr. Chickee to the grocery store to assist him with his shopping. Usually Mr. Chickee pays Steven with Vernor's Gingerale and a bag of potato chips, but one day he gives Steven an envelope that contains a most unusual piece of currency --- a quadrillion-dollar bill with a picture of singer James Brown on it.
New Boy (Julian Houston) – Rob is the first black student to attend an exclusive boarding school in the late 1950’s. But he wonders where he really belongs when the Civil Rights movement begins to heat up in his Virginia hometown.
No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War (Anita Lobel) - 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)
On the Run (Gordon Korman) - Follow the adventures of Aidan and Meg Falconer as they try to stay one step ahead of the authorities and a mysterious pursuer. (Series)
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The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (E.L. Konigsburg) - This book is the follow-up to Silent to the Bone by two-time Newbery Medal-winning author E.L. Konigsburg. A summer crush and a well-planned revenge are the book's major highlights.
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science (John Fleischman) – 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)
Pictures of Hollis Woods (Patricia Reilly Griff) - Artistic 12-year-old Hollis Woods has a habit of running away from foster homes. Now she is staying with Josie, an elderly artist, who wants her and needs her, and Hollis thinks she'll stay for a while. But Hollis worries about Josie's forgetfulness, while also remembering the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.
Poison Ivy (Amy Goldman Koss) – Three of the most popular girls in school stand trial for bullying a classmate. Can a trial by peers really be fair and just?
Redwall (Brian Jacques) - 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.
The Rumplestiltskin Problem (Vivian Vande Velde) – 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.
Sabriel (Garth Nix) - Ever since she was a tiny child, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief (Wendelin Van Draanen) - 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.
Scapels, Stitches, & Scars: A History of Surgery (John Townsend) – This volume is one of a series of titles which look at various aspects of the history of medicine. (Nonfiction)
The Schwa Was Here (Neal Schusterman) – The Schwa has the ability to be invisible to people. At first this power is pretty exciting and used to make money, but then things turn for the worst.
Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea (Karen Wojtyla/Peter Benchley) - Adapted from the book Shark trouble by the author of Jaws, experience high underwater adventure. Meet a great white, scratch a killer whale’s tongue and soar on a ride with a giant manta ray. (Nonfiction)
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Shug (Jenny Han) – Shug wants her first kiss to taste like a cherry Popsicle. Shug wants her friend Mark to notice her more than one of the boys. So far nothing is going as planned.
A Single Shard (Linda Sue Park) - 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. (Newbery Award)
Skateboarding is Not a Crime: 50 Years of Street Culture (James Davis) – An illustrated tour of a unique subculture. Skateboarding first emerged in the United States in the 1950s and has been gaining in popularity ever since. The number of skateboarders worldwide is now estimated at eighteen million. One in ten U.S. teenagers currently owns or rides a skateboard. (Nonfiction)
Skin (Adrienne Maria Vrettos) – Fourteen-year-old Donnie watches helplessly as his beloved sister starves herself to death.
Slam! (Walter Dean Myers) - 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.
Son of the Mob (Gordon Korman) - 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.
Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson) - A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school. (Mature themes)
A Step From Heaven (An Na) - 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.
Stormbreaker (Anthony Horowitz) - When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year- old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he's off on his first mission to Cornwall, where Middle-Eastern multi-billionaire Herod Sayle is producing his state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers. Sayle has offered to give one free to every school in the country - but there's more to the gift than meets the eye.
Stormwitch (Susan Vaught) – Ruba trained with her Haitian grandmother in both voodoo and Amazonian warrior tactics. She moves to Mississippi in 1969 and needs these skills to fight racism and a force of nature called the witch Zashar.
A Summer of Kings (Han Nolan) – Esther sees a chance for some excitement when her family takes in a black teen fugitive who has been accused of killing a white man. However, King-Roy doesn’t believe that a black boy and a white girl can be friends in 1963 New York City.
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Summerland (Michael Chabon) – Ethan Feld plays baseball, rather terribly, in Summerland, on the tip of Clam Island, where it never rains. Ethan's father is kidnapped by the evil Coyote, a shape-shifting trickster, who wants to bring about the end of the universe. Ethan and his friends (both human and fairy-like) set off on a quest through different worlds to save his father and the universe -- by playing baseball.
Surviving the Applewhites (Stephanie Tolan) - 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 E.D. - a smart, sensible girl who immediately clashes with the unruly Jake. (Newbery Honor Book)
Taker (J.M. Steele) – When Carly bombs the SAT, she makes a shady pact with the mysterious “Taker”. Is admission to Princeton worth the price?
33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History (Tonya Bolden) - 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)
Tiger Rising (Kate DiCamillo) - After Rob's mother dies, he and his father move to a new town to get a fresh start. Rob soon discovers a caged tiger in the woods. An emotionally rich story about a boy caught in the powerful grip of grief.
Travel Team (Mike Lupica) - Twelve-year-old Danny Walker is an average kid who loves basketball. Despite his small stature he hopes to someday play on the same travel team as his dad, Richie Walker, who led the team to the national championship when he was Danny's age.
True Believer (Virginia Euwer Wolff) - 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.
Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) - Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn.
Under the Baseball Moon (John H. Ritter) – Andy is a skateboarder and aspiring musician. Glory is a promising softball pitcher with Olympic dreams. Together they have music, baseball, dreams, and passion.
Vanishing (Bruce Brooks) - 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.
The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Russell Freedman) - 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)
- 11 - Lakewood City Schools Middle School Reading Assignment - Summer 2008
Wabi: A Hero’s Tale (Joseph Bruchac) – Is Wabi willing to undergo the ultimate transformation to win the heart of the girl he loves?
Warrior Heir (Cinda Williams Chima) – Jack thinks he’s an ordinary sixteen-year-old soccer player until one day when he skips his medicine. He soon discovers that he is one of the last warriors of the magical underground society of the Weir.
Warriors (Erin Hunter) - Rusty starts out as an ordinary house kitten, but his travels deep into the forest involve him in the epic battles of the cat warrior clans who roam (and rule) the wild. With a new name — Firepaw — and a position as a ThunderClan apprentice, our feline hero faces his destiny, struggles with issues of friendship, honor, courage, and betrayal, and learns what it truly means to be a warrior. (Series)
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success (Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt) - The Three Doctors, as the subjects of this book call both themselves, grew up in a tough neighborhood in Newark, NJ. Davis remembers the hospital where he later became an emergency-medicine physician as the same one where his foot was treated after an incident when he was six. Hunt recalls first meeting Sampson and Jenkins in ninth grade. Jenkins tells of the friends' success at moving from high school to college. The book takes the young men through college and medical school and into their careers. (Nonfiction)
Weedflower (Cynthia Kadohata) – After Pearl Harbor is attacked, Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are forced to leave their flower farm. They are relocated to an internment camp on a Mohave Indian reservation in Arizona.
Weird Ohio: Your Travel Guide to Ohio’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Loren Coleman, Andy Henderson, and James Willis) – Looking for ideas of places to visit in Ohio this summer? This is the book for you with its informational pages and fascinating local trivia. (Nonfiction)
Whale Talk (Chris Crutcher) - Intellectually 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.
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (Kimberly Willis Holt) - 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 it's not going well for Toby Wilson.
Whittington (Alan Armstrong) - 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)
Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives (Sharon Flake) - 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)
- 12 - Lakewood City Schools Middle School Reading Assignment - Summer 2008
Who the Man (Chris Lynch) – 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.
Wolf Rider: a Tale of Terror (Avi) - 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.
Wringer (Jerry Spinelli) - Palmer LaRue is not looking forward to the day he turns 10. His town has an annual Pigeon Day. When a boy turns 10 in this town, they become "wringers" and strangle the pigeons wounded during the annual pigeon shoot. He must either accept this task or find the courage to say no. His buddies soon discover Palmer is hiding a pet pigeon in his room. He finds friendship with Dorothy, the girl across the street. Palmer finds it is hard not to go along with the crowd.
A Year Down Yonder (Richard Peck) – 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.
Z For Zachariah (Robert C O'Brien) - 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.
Zazoo (Richard Moser) - 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.
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