Required List (Choose One) Featured Novel: Title: Swindle Author: Gordan Korman Reading Level:T/40 Summary: After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palamino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store and steal the card back, planning to use the money to finance his father's failing invention, the SmartPick fruit picker. Title: All Alone in the Universe Author: Lynne Rae Perkins Reading Level: S/40 Summary: When her best friend since the third grade starts acting as though Debbie doesn't exist, Debbie finds out the hard way that life can be a lonesome place. But in the end the heroine of this wryly funny coming-of-age story--a girl who lives in a house covered with stuff that is supposed to look like bricks but is just a fake brick pattern-- discovers that even the hourly tragedies of junior high school can have silver linings, just as a house covered with Insul-Brick can protect a real home. This first novel shines--fun, engrossing, bittersweet, and wonderfully unpredictable. Title: The Alphabet City Ballet Author: Erika Tamar Reading Level: N/30 Summary: Marisol has always loved to dance— to the salsa at family parties, to the boom boxes on Loisada Avenue. Then she wins a scholarship to ballet school and discovers an inspiring new world of beauty and discipline. But when violence erupts in Alphabet City, Marisol’ s dream starts to slip away. To keep dancing she must make heartbreaking choices— perhaps impossible ones. Entering 6th Grade Summer Reading 2016 Title: Gregor the Overlander Author: Suzanne Collins Reading Level: T/50 Summary: When Gregor falls through a grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland, where spiders, rats, cockroaches coexist uneasily with humans. This world is on the brink of war, and Gregor's arrival is no accident. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the Underland's uncertain future. Gregor wants no part of it until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance. Reluctantly, Gregor embarks on a dangerous adventure that will change both him and the Underland forever. Title: Ida B Author: Katherine Hannigan Reading Level: S/40 Summary: In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B. spends happy hours being home- schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to public school. Title: Hoot Author: Carl Hiaasen Reading Level: W/60 Summary: Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and — here's the odd part — wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails Title: The Music of Dolphins Author: Karen Heese Reading Level:V/50 Summary: After rescuing an adolescent girl from the sea, researchers learn she has been raised by dolphins and attempt to rehabilitate her to the human world. After rescuing an adolescent girl from the sea, researchers learn she has been raised by dolphins and attempt to rehabilitate her to the human world. Entering 6th Grade Summer Reading 2016 Suggested Titles for Entering 6th Grade Title: Al Capone Does My Shirts Author: Gennifer Choldenko Reading Level: T/50 Summary: 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. When Moose meets Piper, the cute daughter of the Warden, he knows right off she's trouble. But she's also strangely irresistible. All Moose wants to do is protect Natalie, live up to his parents' expectations, and stay out of trouble. But on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. Sequel: Al Capone Shines My Shoes Title: The Aurora County All-Stars Author: Deborah Wiles Reading Level: R/40 Summary: Twelve-year-old House Jackson, team captain and star pitcher of the Aurora County All-Stars, is finally ready to play again after being sidelined for a year with a broken elbow, but a standoff ensues when the team's big game is scheduled for the same day as Aurora County's two-hundredth anniversary pageant--an event directed by the very girl who caused Jackson's injury. Title: The Great Gilly Hopkins Author: Katherine Paterson F&P Level: S/40 Summary: An eleven-year-old foster child tries to cope with her longings and fears as she schemes against everyone who tries to be friendly. Title: My Side of the Mountain Author: Jean George Reading Level: U/50 Summary: A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship. Entering 6th Grade Summer Reading 2016 Title: Pictures of Hollis Woods Author: Patricia Reilly Giff Reading Level: V/50 Summary: Troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her. Title: Rules Author: Cynthia Lord Reading Level: R/40 Summary: Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules — from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public" — in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? Title: There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom Author: Louis Sachar Reading Level: Q/40 Summary: An unmanageable, but lovable, eleven-year-old misfit learns to believe in himself when he gets to know the new school counselor, who is a sort of misfit too. Title: Turtle in Paradise Author: Jennifer Holm Reading Level: S/40 Summary: Life isn't like the movies, and 11-year-old Turtle is no Shirley Temple. She's smart and tough and has seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it's 1935, and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. But when Turtle's mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn't like kids, Turtle is forced to head off to Key West, Florida, to stay with relatives she's never met. Florida is like nothing Turtle has ever seen: hot, strange, and full of wild, ragtag boy cousins...and even secret treasure. Before she knows what's happened, Turtle finds herself coming out of the shell she has spent her life building, and as she does, her world opens up in the most unexpected ways. Entering 6th Grade Summer Reading 2016 Title: Wringer Author: Jerry Spinelli Reading Level: U/50 Summary: For as long as Palmer LaRue can remember, he has dreaded the day he will turn ten and must take his place beside the other ten-year-old boys in town and become a wringer, a tradition passed down from father to son. From Newbery Medal winner Jerry Spinelli comes a gripping tale of how one boy learns how to overcome his fears. Title: A Wrinkle in Time Author: Madeleine L'Engle Reading Level: W/60 Summary: Meg Murry, her brother Charles, and their friend Calvin, embark on a journey through space and time, assisted by three otherworldly women, when they set out to find Meg's father, a physicist who disappeared while experimenting with time travel. Suggested Authors and Series AUTHORS SERIES Avi Little House on the Prairie Carl Hiaasen Chronicles of Narnia Gary Paulsen Lemony Snicket Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Spiderwick Chronicles Roald Dahl The Baseball Card Series Judy Blume 39 Clues Gordon Korman Matt Christopher Mike Lupica Picking a “Just-Right” Book – The Five Finger Test If you are struggling to pick out a book that is appropriate for your reading level, try this: 1. Choose the book that you would like to read. 2. Look at a random page in the middle. 3. Hold five fingers up. 4. Put one finger down for each word you cannot read correctly or do not understand. 5. If you end up with all five fingers down, the book is too hard. If you are still looking for a book at a different reading level, be sure to check out the following pages for Additional Suggested Book Titles by Reading Level. Entering 6th Grade Summer Reading 2016 ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED BOOK TITLES BY READING LEVEL Guided Reading Level N /DRA-2 Level: 30 Book Title/ISBN Author Fiction/Nonfiction 26 Fairmount Avenue dePaola, Tomie NF 9780698118645 Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon Danziger, Paula F 9780142406199 Attack of the 50-Ft.