Summer Reading

1
Summer Reading

• Rising Seventh
• Grade

2
Summer Reading

• Choose one or more books from the list to read
  this summer.
• Answer the questions provided in complete,
  correctly written sentences.
• Use blue or black ink for your assignment.
• You may type your responses, but use a readable
  font in size 12.
• Bring your assignment to your language arts
  teacher on the first day of school.

3

• Georgia Book Award Nominees (2012-2013)

? Bauer, J. (2009). Close to Famous. New York,
NY Viking. ? Greenwald, T. (2011). Charlie Joe
Jacksons Guide to Not Reading. New York, NY
Roaring Brook Press. ? Landon, K. (2010). The
Limit. New York, NY Aladdin. ? Lasky, K.
(2010). Ashes. New York, NY Viking. ? Lupica,
M. (2010). Hero. New York, NY Philomel Books. ?
Rhodes, J.P. (2010). Ninth Ward. New York, NY
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. ?
Silberberg, A. (2010). Milo Sticky Notes and
Brain Freeze. New York, NY Aladdin. ? Falls, K.
(2010). Dark Life. New York, NY Scholastic
Press. ? Connor, L. (2010). Crunch. Katherine
Tegen Books. ? Carmichael, C. (2009). Wild
Things. Honesdale, PA Front Street Press. ?
Ylvisaker, A. (2011). The Luck of the Buttons.
Somerville, MA Candlewick Press. ? Mone, G.
(2010). Fish. New York, NY Scholastic Press.
4

• ? Shang, W. W. (2011). The Great Wall of Lucy
  Wu. New York, NY Scholastic. ? Holm, J. (2010).
  Turtle in Paradise. New York, NY Random House
  Childrens Books. ? Davis, E. (2009). The Secret
  Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. New York,
  NY Bloomsbury. ? Greenwald, L. (2009). My Life
  in Pink and Green. New York, NY Amulet Books.
  ? Shulman, P. (2010). The Grimm Legacy. New
  York, NY G.P. Putnams Sons. ? Magoon, K.
  (2009). The Rock and the River. New York, NY
  Aladdin Books. ? Myers, W.D., Workman, R.
  (2011). Kick. New York, NY HarperTeen. ? Reedy,
  T. (2011). Words in the Dust. New York, NY
  Arthur A. Levine Books.

5
Close to Famous

• Foster McFee dreams of having her own cooking
  show like her idol, celebrity chef Sonny Kroll.
  Macon Dillard's goal is to be a documentary
  filmmaker. Foster's mother Rayka longs to be a
  headliner instead of a back-up singer. And Miss
  Charleena plans a triumphant return to Hollywood.
  Everyone has a dream, but nobody is even close to
  famous in the little town of Culpepper.

6
Charlie Joe Jacksons Guide to Not Reading

• CHARLIE JOE JACKSON may be the most reluctant
  reader every born. He does whatever it takes to
  get out of reading, and so far, its worked out
  really well. But one day in middle school he gets
  into trouble, and finds his impressive record is
  on the line. Will he push his luck and do
  whatever it takes to get out of reading, or will
  he finally bite the bullet and gasp read a
  book?

7
The Limit

• In a world not too far removed from our own, kids
  are being taken away to special workhouses if
  their families exceed the monthly debt limit
  imposed by the government. Thirteen-year-old Matt
  briefly wonders if he might be next, but quickly
  dismisses the thought. After all, his parents are
  financially responsible, unlike the parents of
  those other kids. As long as his parents remain
  within their limit, the government will be
  satisfied and leave them alone. But all it takes
  is one fatal visit to the store to push Matts
  family over their limitand to change his reality
  forever.

8
Ashes

• Thirteen-year-old Gabriella Schramm's favorite
  pastime is reading. With Adolf Hitler slowly but
  unstoppably rising to power, Gaby turns to her
  books for comfort while the world around her
  changes dramatically The streets become filled
  with soldiers, Gaby's sister's boyfriend raises
  his arm in a heil Hitler salute, and the
  Schramms' family friend Albert Einstein flees the
  country. When Gaby's beloved books come under
  attack, she fears she may have to leave behind
  the fiction - and the life - she has always
  cherished.

9
Hero

• Fourteen-year-old Zach Harriman can feel the
  changes. The sharpening of his senses. The
  incredible strength. The speed, as though he can
  text message himself across miles. The confidence
  and the strange need to patrol Central Park at
  night. His dad had been a hero, a savior to
  America and a confidante of the president. Then
  he died, and the changes began in Zach. What Zach
  never knew was that his father was no ordinary
  man-he was a superhero, battling the world's
  evil. This is a battle that has been waged for
  generations and that knows no boundaries.And now
  it's Zach's turn to take on the fight. It's
  Zach's turn to become a hero.

10
Ninth Ward

• Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit
  community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't
  have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots
  of friends like the other kids on her street. But
  what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely
  loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world
  and able to predict the future. So when Mama
  Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful
  hurricane--Katrina--fast approaching, it's up to
  Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama
  Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the
  storm.

11
Milo Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze

• Loveable thirteen-year-old geek Milo Cruikshank
  finds reasons for frustrations at every turn,
  like the way his neighbor carves her pumpkin way
  too early to last until Halloween, or the fact
  that Summer Goodman wont look twice at him while
  Hillary Alpert keeps leaving notes in his locker.
  The truth is, ever since Milos mother died,
  nothing has gone right. Now, instead of the
  kitchen being full of music, his whole house has
  been filled with Fog. Nothings the same. Not his
  Dad. Not his sister. And definitely not him.

12
Dark Life

• 15-year-old Ty has spent his whole life in a
  deep-sea colony on the ocean floor. His family
  and the other pioneers provide fish and other
  food for the Commonwealth citizens who live
  aboveground in stacked cities following
  earthquakes and tsunamis that destroyed much of
  the Earth. The pioneers chafe under the harsh
  rule of the Commonwealth, a situation made worse
  when those who live subsea are charged with
  capturing a gang of pirates that has been
  terrorizing Commonwealth ships and pioneer
  homesteads. Ty is swept up in the hunt for the
  bandits.

13
Crunch

• Dewey Marriss is stuck in a crunch. He never
  guessed that the gas pumps would run dry the same
  week he promised to manage the family's
  bicycle-repair business. Suddenly everyone needs
  a bike. And nobody wants to wait.
• Meanwhile, the crunch has stranded Dewey's
  parents far up north. It's up to Dewey and his
  older sister, Lil, to look after their younger
  siblings and run the bike shop all on their own.
• To top things off, Dewey discovers that bike
  parts are missing from the shop. He's sure he
  knows who's responsibleor does he? Will exposing
  the thief only make more trouble for Dewey and
  his siblings?

14
Wild Things

• Zoe is a bright girl who has seen it all. Forced
  to care for herself due to her mother's struggles
  with mental illness, she is a tough nut to crack
  when she lands on her Uncle Henry's doorstep. At
  first, Henry seems ill-equipped to care for such
  a wounded soul. However, Henry has seen his own
  share of pain and knows precisely how to handle a
  wild thing like his niece.

15
The Luck of the Buttons

• Tomboy Tugs looks at her hapless family and sees
  her own reflection looking back until she
  befriends popular Aggie Millhouse, wins a new
  camera in the Independence Day raffle, and
  stumbles into a mystery only she can solve.
  Suddenly this is a summer of change - and by its
  end, being a Button may just turn out to be what
  one clumsy, funny, spirited, and very observant
  young heroine decides to make of it.

16
Fish

• Fish--nicknamed for his incredible swimming
  abilities--is a twelve-year-old boy from a poor
  farming family. After taking a job as a courier
  for his uncle, Fish is waylaid by pirates, who
  steal the package he's carrying. He soon learns
  that it's the key to locating the Chain of
  Chuacar, a legendary treasure.

17
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

• Lucy Wu, aspiring basketball star and interior
  designer, is on the verge of having the best year
  of her life. She's ready to rule the school as a
  sixth grader and take over the bedroom she has
  always shared with her sister. In an instant,
  though, her plans are shattered when she finds
  out that Yi Po, her beloved grandmother's sister,
  is coming to visit for several months -- and is
  staying in Lucy's room.

18
Turtle in Paradise

• Life isn't like the movies, and eleven-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. So when Turtle's mama gets a job
  housekeeping for a lady who doesn't like kids,
  Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off
  to Key West, Florida, to stay with relatives
  she's never met.Florida's like nothing Turtle
  has ever seen. It's hot and strange, full of wild
  green peeping out between houses, ragtag boy
  cousins, and 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.

19
The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook

• Super-smart Julian Calendar thinks starting
  junior high at a new school will mean he can shed
  his nerdy imagebut then he meets Ben and Greta,
  two secret scientists like himself! The three
  form a secret club, complete with a high-tech
  lair. There, they can work to their hearts
  content on projects like the Stink-O-Meter, the
  Kablovsky Copter, and the Nightsneak Goggles.

20
My Life in Pink and Green

• Twelve-year-old Lucy Desberg is a natural problem
  solver. After the local homecoming queen shows up
  at her familys struggling drugstore with a
  beauty disaster that Lucy helps to fix, Lucy has
  a long line of makeover customers for every
  school dance and bat mitzvah. But all the makeup
  tips in the world wont help save the pharmacy.

21
The Grimm Legacy

• Elizabeth has a new job at an unusual library, a
  lending library of objects, not books. In a
  secret room in the basement lies the Grimm
  Collection. That's where the librarians lock away
  powerful items straight out of the Brothers Grimm
  fairy tales seven-league boots, a table that
  produces a feast at the blink of an eye, Snow
  White's stepmother's sinister mirror that talks
  in riddles.When the magical objects start to
  disappear, Elizabeth embarks on a dangerous quest
  to catch the thief before she can be accused of
  the crime, or captured by the thief.

22
The Rock and the River

• The story takes place in Chicago in the 1960's,
  and begins right before Martin Luther King Jr.'s
  assassination. Fourteen-year-old Sam's father is
  an important civil rights leader who advocates
  nonviolent protesting. But Sam's older brother
  has secretly joined the Black Panthers, and Sam
  is torn between the two of them.

23
Kick

• Kevin Johnson is thirteen years old. And heading
  for juvie. He's a good kid, a great friend, and a
  star striker for his Highland, New Jersey, soccer
  team. His team is competing for the State Cup,
  and he wants to prove he has more than just
  star-player potential. Kevin's never been in any
  serious trouble . . . until the night he ends up
  in jail. Enter Sergeant Brown, a cop assigned to
  be Kevin's mentor. If Kevin and Brown can learn
  to trust each other, they might be able to turn
  things around before it's too late.

24
Words in the Dust

• Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the
  Taliban have been driven from Afghanistan a good
  relationship with her hard stepmother and one
  day even to go to school, or to have her cleft
  palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided
  for her--"Inshallah," God willing.Then she
  meets Meena, who offers to teach her the Afghan
  poetry she taught her late mother. And the
  Americans come to her village, promising not just
  new opportunities and dangers, but surgery to fix
  her face. These changes could mean a whole new
  life for Zulaikha--but can she dare to hope
  they'll come true?

25
Reader-Response Questions

• Which character do you most identify with? Why?
• Which character do you dislike the most? Why?
• What do you predict will happen in the main
  characters life one year from now? Five years
  from now?
• What images/symbols stood out to you?
• How would you feel if you were in the main
  characters position?

26
Reader-Response Questions

• What emerging themes do you see?
• What other stories/movies/songs/TV shows remind
  you of this story?
• Where does the story take place (setting)? Is the
  setting critical to the story, or could this
  story take place anywhere else? Where?
• What is the problem the main character must solve
  or overcome (conflict)?
• How can you relate your personal experiences to
  the reading?

27
Summer Assignment Reminder

• Choose one or more books from the list to read
  this summer.
• Answer the 10 questions on the list in complete,
  correctly written sentences.
• Use blue or black ink for your assignment.
• You may type your responses, but use a readable
  font in size 12.
• Bring your assignment to your language arts
  teacher on the first day of school.