Summer Readings 2008

June, 2008

Dear students and parents,

Once again, summer is quickly approaching. As we approach the end of the year, the English department discusses summer reading. Though we entertain the thought that many people would be happy to drift through summer without reading, it’s still an essential part of education and learning about ourselves and the world.  We believe it’s important to nurture that part of learning.  We know many schools have much more stringent approaches to summer reading, and we’re trying to ride the middle course: encourage reading for the almost enthusiastic, and require some for the reluctant readers.  The true book lovers will read without regard to our letters and lists.  Once again, we remind you that books on tape are a welcome way to share stories while traveling.

One topic that did come up at our meeting was creative writing. Although we don’t require it, we do encourage those creative writers out there to continue writing and to share that writing with teachers and/or friends whenever possible. There are many ways to share writing on-line, and some of you may be doing that, but please make a point of sharing your writing with us. Whatever you like to write, reading can expand your horizons and your awareness of the possibilities of writing.

We will continue to ask all upper school students to read a minimum of two books (no limit on the maximum).  Please see the specific section of this letter which addresses your class for 2008-9 to see the required book for your grade. Please plan on arriving in school with your written responses typed or clearly written in ink, and an index card which will be posted and then might entice others to read your book of choice.   If you own the book, please bring it. Seeing a book is often an enticement for others to read it.

• FOR SIXTH GRADE:

Required book: Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler

Other book: free choice

Written assignment: Lost on a Mountain in Maine is a true story of how a twelve-year-old boy survived alone in the wilderness of Maine for nine days; it shows how a strong human spirit can bring one through a horrendous ordeal. We have selected this book because it concerns itself with human spirit and inner confidence, resources which each individual student will need to call on from time to time. It also is about dealing with adverse conditions, another topic of great instructional value to all of us.

Read Lost on a Mountain in Maine, taking careful note of how Donn Fendler gets into trouble and how he gets himself out. Your challenge is to write a news article complete with headline explaining exactly how Donn got into trouble and how he got himself out. Remember, you are a reporter for a fictitious newspaper so spend some time reading actual news accounts in the paper, and make every attempt to structure yours as important and newsworthy. Your writing should be clear, simple, and to the point. Make good use of specific adjectives which help the reader to create vivid images of what this boy endured. You may, if you want to, develop the effect more by providing a captioned picture.

• FOR SEVENTH GRADE: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and a book from the attached list.

For writing: choose one conflict in the story and write about why that conflict is so difficult for each character involved. Conflicts can be man v. man (or woman), man v. self, man v. nature, man v. ideas. Be sure to include one quotation that shows the depth of the conflict, and discuss that quotation in your own words. One page typed.

• FOR EIGHTH GRADE: Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees and one choice book from the attached list of recommended titles.

 From The Secret Life of Bees, choose and in your own words explore in writing (one page typed and double-spaced), an important/interesting passage. You may comment on a number of aspects of the passage, including, but not limited to: theme, writing style, symbolism, character development. Also, we welcome you to make connections between the author's research on honey bees and the current plight of honey bees in our own environment.

• FOR NINTH GRADE: please choose a memoir from the list below.  Please write 1-2 pages about a passage or event in your memoir that epitomizes the narrator’s strength of character.  Your other book may be a choice from our list of suggestions or a book of your own choice. 

Winterdance by Gary Paulsen

Having our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah and A. Elizabeth  Delaney

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers

Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

American Childhood by Annie Dillard

Reading Lolita in Teheran by Azar Nafisi

Maiden Voyage by Tanya Aibe

In The Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall

Out of Africa by Isaak Dinesen

Missing Alice by Susan Cole

Baghdad Sketches by Freya Stark

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Greely

Boy and Solo by Roald Dahl

We’re enclosing a list of books we recommend.  Please feel free to check other sources for “free choice” books.  You can also check various sources of your own: bookstores, websites such as www.powells.com, or Amazon.com.  For information on award-winning young adult literature, visit the American Library Association’s website on literary awards.

We hope you all find time to read this summer.  Read aloud as a family.  Listen to books on tape as you travel.  There are many ways to encourage love of literature and to bring stories alive in our lives.  Please don’t feel bound by our suggestions, except the required book.

We hope that you all have a wonderful summer, and we look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Sincerely,

Colleen T. Filler         George Chapman         Shelley B. Jackson        

Caddie Jackson           Amie Keddy                Frank Massey

Middle School Reading List:

If you haven’t read these books yet, you may be missing something wonderful. Try one. If you like it, read other books by that author. You can usually find lists in the books themselves, or in the library or search any number of ways. Enjoy.

Alcott, Louisa May.  Little Women, Little Men

Allende, Isabel.  The City of the Beasts, The Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, The Forest of the Pygmies

Babbit, Natalie.  Tuck Everlasting

Blume, Judy.  Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret  or other titles

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451- or other titles

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden

Buck, Pearl S..  The Good Earth

Cormier, Robert.  I Am The Cheese, The Chocolate War

Dahl, Roald.  The Witches or other stories

De Saint- Exupery, Antoine.  The Little Prince

Fast, Howard.  April Morning and other titles

Gordon, Amy.  When JFK Was My Father or other titles

Hemingway, Ernest.  The Old Man and The Sea

Jacques, Brian.  Redwall and the series

Juster, Norton.  The Phantom Tollbooth

Kipling, Rudyard.  The Jungle Books

L’Engle, Madeline.  A Wrinkle in Time and other titles

Lewis, C.S.  The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe –and the series

London, Jack.  The Call of the Wild

Montgomery, LM.  Anne of Green Gables and sequels

North, Sterling.  Rascal

Orczy, Baroness.  The Scarlet Pimpernel

Paulsen, Gary.  Winterdance, Hatchet

Paterson, Katherine.  Jacob Have I Loved

Peck, Robert Newton.  A Day No Pigs Would Die

Pullman, Phillip. The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass

Rawls, Wilson.  Where the Red Fern Grows

Richter, Conrad.  The Light in the Forest

Rinaldi, Ann.  A Break with Charity

Rowling, J.K.  Harry Potter books

Sewell, Anna.  Black Beauty

Smith, Dodie.  I Capture the Castle

Speare, Elizabeth.  The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Swift, Jonathan.  Gulliver’s Travels

Steig, William.  Abel’s Island

Steinbeck, John.  The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl

Stevenson, Robert Louis.  Kidnapped

Tolkien, JRR.  The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and other books

White, E.B. The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little