Summer Reading 2016

Students Entering Grades Six through Eight

The Upper School Summer Reading Assignment is attached below. Each grade is given five optional novels, from which two must be chosen. In addition to the two required books, we are also asking each student to read an additional three books from either his/her grade list, the Additional Reading List below, or other books that may interest him or her and are of equal literary merit. Your local libraries are sure to have other books in genres you may also enjoy.

Required Reading for Upper School

Choose at least TWO books from the five options.

th Entering 6 ​ Grade: ​ Hatchet, Gary Paulsen ​ The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman ​ The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho ​ White Fang, Jack London ​ The Book Thief, Markus Zusak ​

th Entering 7 ​ Grade: ​ Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson ​ Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain ​ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis ​ A Separate Peace, John Knowles ​ The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas ​

th Entering 8 ​ Grade: ​ Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson ​ The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ​ 1984, George Orwell ​ Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen ​

Recommended List of Additional Reading for Grades Six through Eight

Across Five Aprils, Irene Hunt ​ Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer ​ Becoming Naomi Leon, Pam Munoz Ryan ​ Broken Bridge, Lynne Reid Banks ​

Chasing Vermeer, Blue Balliett ​ Crispin: The Cross of Lead, AVI ​ Far North, Will Hobbs ​ Flipped, Wendelin Van Draanen ​ Habibi, Naomi Shihab Nye ​ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling ​ I Am the Cheese, Robert Cormier ​ House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer ​ Let the Circle Be Unbroken, Mildred Taylor ​ The Moorchild, Eloise McGraw ​ New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery, Allan Wolf ​ Pictures of Hollis Woods, Patricia Reilly Giff ​ The Road from Coorain, Jill Ker Conway ​ The Thief Lord, Cornelia Caroline Funke ​ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith ​ Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech ​ Watership Down, Richard Adams ​ Silent to the Bone, E.L. Konigsburg ​ Lost Horizon, James Hilton ​ American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang ​ The Light in the Forest, Conrad Richter ​ Going Solo, Roald Dahl ​ Rifles for Watie, Harold Keith ​ Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte ​ Killer Angels, Michael Shaara ​ Homecoming, Dicey’s Song, Cynthia Voigt ​ ​ ​ Monster, Walter Dean Myers ​ The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo ​ A Bell for Adano, John Hersey ​ The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder ​ Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell ​ Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States, Patricia Mckissack ​ Eats Shoots & Leaves, Lynn Truss (the adult version) ​

Summer Reading Projects Grades 6­8 Task: Choose and complete two projects from the chart below and bring these projects to school on the first day. You must use a different book for each project. If you have any questions or an idea for a project that is not listed below, please email your idea to Mr. Romero at [email protected] for approval before beginning work. Have fun and be creative. ​ Point of View Script Writing

Create and write an version of the story from Rewrite the climax of your chosen story in the a different character’s point of view. Be form of a script for the stage or screen. Using creative in your planning, considering what dialogue and stage directions, work to recreate scenes you choose to write about and how this scene in this new format. Remember that your chosen character might have a different you may have to write dialogue for characters opinion or assessment of the action. You that does not exist in the book in the attempt must choose at least 3 scenes from your to tell the same story. This must be long chosen book to rewrite, and they all must be enough to retell the climactic scene in its done from the same character’s point of view. entirety. You must hand in the script, but may There should be a minimum of 2­3 plan to perform the scene or film and show paragraphs for each scene, containing few the movie as well. grammar and spelling errors.

Comic Strip Compare and Contrast Essay

Use your own artistic skills or an online Write a 4­6 paragraph essay comparing and resource, such as http://www.toondoo.com/ to contrasting story elements or two characters, ​ ​ create a comic strip illustrating the sequence conflicts from a fiction text or two topics, of main events in your book. There should be people, or ideas from non­fiction text. You a minimum of 12­15 panels (boxes) with may compare elements from the same book or appropriate dialogue and illustrations. two different books. Make sure you use specific supporting examples from the text. Your paragraph should follow grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules.

Alternate Ending Song

Create and write an alternate ending for your Write and/or record a song of any genre about book. Be creative in your planning, a story element from literature or an idea/topic considering how a different ending might from non­fiction text. You may use a familiar change the outcome for the characters. The tune to create your song. The song must be ending should still have the original based on a character or event, or major idea or characters and make sense. There should be a topic from nonfiction, and demonstrate an minimum of 4­6 paragraphs with few understanding of key ideas in the text. grammar and spelling errors. Example: Dark Lord Funk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbdvogFy ZZM

Bio Timeline Travel Brochure

Create a decorative timeline of 10­12 dates Create a travel brochure that describes a for a major event in history or for the life of a variety of settings that a character in the story significant person. Be creative and use logic experiences or a place you read about in a and artistic skills to create your timeline. Use non­fiction text. Use specific details in images and words. This should look neat, describing each setting, photo, or picture, and organized, and colorful. give examples from the text.

Movie Poster Reader’s Response Journal

Create a movie poster for your book. On the Complete a journal of 8 entries for the story front side of the poster, add a persuasive title, you read. Your journal may be typed or neatly picture (related to things in the book), and handwritten and must demonstrate your statements that will attract attention and understanding of the work as the story persuade readers to want to see the movie progresses. One journal entry must be written version of your book. On the back side of the after you finish the novel, reflecting on the poster, include starring roles (characters and piece as a whole. You may include pictures if what actors/actress would play them), you want to enhance interest. Your journal locations (setting), and a brief summary of should be original and creative. Examples of events. things to write about are: questions you have while reading (curious or confused) , Here’s an online source: interesting words or phrases, things you http://bighugelabs.com/poster.php thought were interesting/exciting/boring, connections (This reminds me...), your

favorite character and why, etc...

Figurative Language Slide Show Setting Diorama

Using a presentation format such as Google Create a diorama depicting one of the major slides, Microsoft PowerPoint or Prezi, create scenes of your chosen piece. Your diorama a presentation with 4­6 slides that gives must be a detailed representation of the evidence of 4­6 examples of figurative setting, characters, and action of a specific language (similes, metaphors, scene within the work. Your diorama must be personification, etc…) in your book. On each accompanied by a description of the scene slide, describe the example of figurative including a piece of dialogue that might be language and how it makes the text more uttered during the scene. interesting. Include pictures to make your slides more attractive.

Poem Design a game

Create a poem about a book. It can be about Create a board game based on a book you the plot, a character, setting, the theme of the read. For fiction­ your questions should be piece, etc. Your poem does not have to related to story elements. For non­fiction the rhyme. questions should be facts from your book. Your game should have a clear purpose and have a way for the player to win. You will need to have directions for the game, game pieces (related to the book/topic), and an interesting game board decorated to match the book.