Summer Reading List 2010

                             Edmunds Middle School       

                      June, July, August 2010 

 

The following is a guide to help you plan your summer reading. We’ve organized the list by type of literature and included a list of popular authors in each category. After each list of popular authors, we’ve included an annotated list of the most up to date books that are popular among students or that have literary merit based on awards. Finally, we’ve attached the current Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award Master List. Don’t limit yourself to just the titles and authors listed; there are many excellent books out there. It’s just important to us that you READ! Enjoy! 

 

SUMMER READING MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

6 BOOKS FOR 7th/8th GRADERS

(including at least one from the current DCF list)

3 BOOKS FOR 6th GRADERS

 HISTORICAL FICTION

Popular Authors:

Joseph Bruchac Christopher Paul Curtis Karen Cushman
Virginia Hamilton Karen Hesse Natalie Kinsey-Warnock  
Patricia MacLachlan Scott O’Dell   Linda Sue Park 
Elizabeth George Speare Mildred Taylor Virginia Euwer Wolff

 

 The arrival. Tan, Shaun.In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, there he must build a new life for himself and his family.
 Becoming Billie Holiday. Weatherford, Carole Boston  Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday looks back on her early years in this fictional memoir written in verse. The boy who dared.  Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.
Brooklyn Bridge : a novel.    Hesse, Karen.  Fourteen-year-old Joseph Michtom’s life takes a dramatic turn when, in 1903 Brooklyn, his parents turn their apartment into a factory for making teddy bears; and Joseph wonders whether he will ever see the glitter of Coney Island.
The dragon’s child : a story of Angel Island  Yep, Laurence, 1948-.         Ten-year-old Gim Lew Yep immigrates from China to America with his father, whom Gim barely knows, and fears he will be a disappointment to his family when he arrives at Angel Island.
Emperors of the ice : a true story of disaster and survival in the Antarctic, 1910-13. Farr, Richard (Richard Alan Reynard), 1960-.  Re-creates the voice of Apsley “Cherry” Cherry-Garrard to provide an account of his adventures as the youngest member of Robert Scott’s expedition to Antarctica in the early twentieth century, during which he and Edward Wilson try to learn the evolutionary history of emperor penguins. Includes historical notes.
  The musician’s daughter.  Dunlap, Susanne Emily. In eighteenth-century Vienna, Austria, fifteen-year-old Theresa seeks a way to help her mother and brother financially while investigating the murder of her father, a renowned violinist in Haydn’s orchestra at the court of Prince Esterhazy, after his body is found near a gypsy camp.
 The porcupine year. Erdrich, Louise.  Twelve-year-old Omakayas, an Ojibwe girl, draws strength from the land and spirits as she and her family endure numerous hardships in their search for a new home in northern Minnesota in 1852

 

NONFICTION/BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Popular Authors:     

Robert D. Ballard Joseph Bruchac
Russell Freedman  Julius Lester
Jim Murphy   Walter Dean Myers 
 Jane O’Connor   Andrea Warren  
                  Yoko Kawashima Watkins 
  11 Planets : A New View of the Solar System Aguilar, David A.  Profiles the eight planets from Mercury to Neptune and the dwarf planets Pluto, Eris, and Ceres; discusses meteorites, comets, the Kuiper and asteroid belts, the Oort cloud, and other solar systems; and presents planet charts, a glossary, and a “Solar System in a Grocery Bag” project.
Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road. Galloway, Priscilla. Provides accounts of journeys undertaken by three men along the Silk Road, including seventh-century Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan, and thirteenth-century merchant Marco Polo.
 Ella Fitzgerald: A Twentieth-Century Life.  Stone, Tanya Lee. A biography of legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, that chronicles her troubled childhood in Harlem and the events that catapulted her to fame.
 Emily Post’s Table Manners for Kids. Post, Peggy.  Everyday table manners — Table settings — Those trickier situations — Meals are social events, too! — Special meals — Beyond table manners: when you’re the host. A comprehensive, twenty-first-century guide to table manners for children, with discussion of the importance of adopting proper etiquette habits, and coverage of thank-you notes, Internet safety, cell phone usage, and other topics.
 Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing up Scieszka. Scieszka, Jon.Growing up as one of six brothers was a good start, but that was just the beginning. Throw in Catholic school, lots of comic books, lazy summers at the lake with time to kill, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, jokes told at family dinner, and the result is Knucklehead. Part memoir, part scrapbook, this hilarious trip down memory lane provides a unique glimpse into the formation of a creative mind and a free spirit.
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow weary.Partridge, Elizabeth. Recounts the three months of protest that took place before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s landmark march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery to promote equal rights and help African-Americans earn the right to vote.
Olympians. O’Connor, George An illustrated retelling of the Greek myth that details the story of Zeus, describing his boyhood through his reign as the ruler of the Olympian Pantheon.
 The omnivore’s dilemma : the secrets behind what you eat. Chevat, Richie. Examines the origins of the different food chains that have sustained humans throughout history, discussing how certain foods and cuisines have become a popular part of people’s daily diets.
 Ripley’s believe it or not! Special edition 2009. Packard, Mary.The 8th annual collection of the grossest, strangest, and most unbelievable facts, acts, and oddities ever recorded–it’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not!
 Three cups of tea.   Thomson, Sarah L.Adapts for young readers Greg Mortenson’s book in which he recounts the experiences he had while trying to help impoverished villages in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya build schools for their children.
 Under siege! : three children at the Civil War battle for Vicksburg. Warren, Andrea.  Meet Lucy McRae and two other young people, Willie Lord and Frederick Grant, all survivors of the Civil War’s Battle for Vicksburg. In 1863, Union troops intend to silence the cannons guarding the Mississippi River at Vicksburg – even if they have to take the city by siege. To hasten surrender, they are shelling Vicksburg night and day. Terrified townspeople, including Lucy and Willie, take shelter in caves – enduring heat, snakes, and near suffocation. On the Union side, twelve-year-old Frederick Grant has come to visit his father, General Ulysses S. Grant, only to find himself in the midst of battle, experiencing firsthand the horrors of war.
 The Vermont monster guide. Citro, Joseph A. Afraid of the dark? You will be after you read this illustrated guide to the fantastic swimming, crawling, flying, and slithering denizens of Vermont’s dark side.
The wall : growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Sís, Peter, 1949-.Artist Sís Peter describes what it was like growing up in a Communist country and discusses how Western culture influenced his life.
 The word snoop. Dubosarsky, Ursula, 1961-. Tours the English language from the beginning of the alphabet in 4000 BC to text messaging and emoticons in the twenty-first century.

 

 CONTEMPORARY/REALISTIC FICTION

Popular Authors:

 AVI Judy Blume Ann Brashares Bruce Brooks
Betsy Byars Matt Christopher Caroline Cooney Robert Cormier
Sharon Creech Chris Crutcher Paul Fleischman Sid Fleishman
Jack Gantos Patricia Reilly Giff Lisi Harrison Karen Hesse
Will Hobbs Gordon Korman Lois Lowry Harry Mazer
Norma Fox Mazer Ben Mikaelsen Walter Dean Myers Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Katherine Paterson Gary Paulsen Rodman Philbrick Louis Sachar
Neil Shusterman Jerry Spinelli Jacqueline Woodson  

                                          

 The big field.   Lupica, Mike.When fourteen-year-old baseball player Hutch feels threatened by the arrival of a new teammate named Darryl, he tries to work through his insecurities about both Darryl and his remote and silent father, who was once a great ballplayer too.Elvis & Olive.  Watson, Stephanie Elaine, 1979-. In spite of their differences, Natalie Wallis and Annie Beckett become friends and decide to spend their summer spying on their neighbors.
 Every soul a star : a novel.  Mass, Wendy, 1967-.Ally, Bree, and Jack meet at Moon Shadow, an isolated campground, to watch a total eclipse of the sun; but soon they begin to learn a great deal about themselves, each other, and the universe.
 The mysterious Benedict Society and the prisoner’s dilemma Stewart, Trenton Lee. Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance investigate when an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown.
 Runaway twin.  Kehret, Peg. Thirteen-year-old Sunny, accompanied by a stray dog, takes advantage of a monetary windfall to travel from her Nebraska foster home to Enumclaw, Washington in order to find the twin sister from whom she was separated at age three.
 Shift.   Bradbury, Jennifer.When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating and only one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened.
Smiles to go.   Spinelli, Jerry. Will Tuppence’s life has always been ruled by science and common sense but in ninth grade, shaken up by the discovery that protons decay, he begins to see the entire world differently and gains new perspective on his relationships with his little sister and two closest friends.
 Waiting for normal. Connor, Leslie. Twelve-year-old Addie tries to cope with her mother’s erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of Schenectady, New York.

 

POETRY

Popular Authors:

Nikki Giovanni          Paul B. Janeczko        Shel Silverstein

 Blue lipstick : concrete poems.  Grandits, John.Concrete poems about a girl named Jessie who mocks the school which she attends Hate that cat.   Creech, Sharon. Jack is studying poetry again in school, and he continues to write poems reflecting his understanding of famous works and how they relate to his life.

 

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

Popular Authors:

Lloyd Alexander Piers Anthony Amelia Atwater-Rhodes T.A. Baron
Terry Brooks Orson Scott Card Susan Cooper Eoin Colfer
Bruce Coville Charles de Lint Cornelia Funke  Margaret P. Haddix
Eva Ibbotson Brian Jacques Robert Jordan Ursula LeGuin
Madeleine L’Engle C. S. Lewis Anne McCaffrey Patricia McKillip
Robin McKinley Garth Nix Kenneth Oppel  Tamora Pierce
Philip Pullman Terry Pratchett J. K. Rowling William Sleator
J.R.R. Tolkien  Scott Westerfeld   Patricia Wrede Jane Yolen

 

 The Celestial Globe.  Rutkoski, Marie. Thirteen-year-old Petra, her tin spider Astrophil, and their Roma friends Neel and Tomik are surprised by revelations about Dee, Kit, and Petra’s father as they face Prince Rodolfo of Bohemia, who will do anything to possess a powerful object, the Celestial Globe.Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Dog days.  Kinney, Jeff. Greg Heffley recounts his daily experiences during summer vacation as he tries to live out his ultimate fantasy of spending the days indoors playing video games with no responsibilities and no rules, despite his mother’s attempts to pack the summer with outdoor activities and family fun.
 Erak’s ransom. Flanagan, John On a mission to pay the ransom of a new ally, apprentice Will and his friends find themselves in a desert wasteland wash with enemies.
 Life as we knew it. Pfeffer, Susan Beth, Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family’s struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
 The Shamer’s war. Kaaberbol, Lene. Dina, a Shamer, and her friend Nico, the legitimate heir to the lordship of Dunark, lead a dangerous rebellion against Drakan, the ruthless Dragon Lord who is hunting down Shamers to burn at the stake.

 MYSTERY

Popular Authors:

John Bellairs Caroline Cooney Lois Duncan
Mary Downing Hahn        Virginia Hamilton Peg Kehret 
M. E. Kerr  Richard Peck   Joan Lowery Nixon 
Willo Davis Roberts  Rosemary Wells              Betty Ren Wright

 

The Calder game.Balliett, Blue,When seventh-grader Calder Pillay disappears from a remote English village–along with an Alexander Calder sculpture to which he has felt strangely drawn–his friends Petra and Tommy fly from Chicago to help his father find him.

  The case of the cryptic crinoline : an Enola Holmes mystery. Springer, Nancy. In late nineteenth-century London, fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, turns to Florence Nightingale for help when her investigation into the disappearance of a Crimean War widow grows cold.
 Eye of the crow.  Peacock, Shane. In 1867, Sherlock Holmes, an impoverished young outcast with a Jewish father and a highborn mother, visits the scene of a woman’s brutal murder, where he meets a wrongly accused young Arab and becomes a suspect himself.
 Found. Haddix, Margaret Peterson. When thirteen-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time.
 Ghost in the machine. Carman, Patrick.  Although forbidden to see each other, Ryan and Sarah continue their investigation of the mysterious happenings at the dredge by communicating through video clips, text messages, midnight meetings, and journaling. The reader may view videos on a website by using links and passwords found in the text.
. Into the dark : an Echo Falls mystery.  Abrahams, PeterThirteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes aficionado Ingrid Levin-Hill tries to clear her grandfather’s name when he is accused of murdering an environmental activist found dead on his farm.
 Little people and a lost world : an anthropological mystery. Atkinson, Linda Goldenberg.  Archaeologists examine a humanlike skeleton excavated from a cave on Flores Island in Indonesia that turned out to be an adult woman of extremely small stature,and studies evidence to the discovery of a race of small humans 12,000 years ago.
 Masterpiece. Broach, Elise. After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together to help recover a Durer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
. Raiders’ ransom. Diamand, Emily. In 22nd-century Great Britain, where climate change has caused vast flooding, piratical raiders kidnap the Prime Minister’s daughter and thirteen-year-old Lilly Melkun, an English fisher-girl, takes her seacat on a daring rescue attempt, with a mysterious talking jewel from a past computer age tucked in her belt as ransom.
 Roanoke : the mystery of the lost colony. Miller, Lee. Examines the question of what happened to the “lost” colonists of Roanoke, discussing clues left by the colonists and uncovering a story of sabotage.
 Written in bone : buried lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.Walker, Sally M.   Reports on the work of forensic scientists who are excavating grave sites in James Fort, in Jamestown, Virginia, to understand who lived in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 1600s and 1700s; and uncovers the lives of a teenage boy, a ship’s captain, a colonial officer, an African slave girl, and others.