SYNERGY SCHOOL SUMMER READING LIST FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL



SUMMER READING

SYNERGY MIDDLE SCHOOL June 2015

Dear Students and Families,

Happy summer! Perfect time to relax, with your nose in a book!

Over the summer, it’s important to keep the up the habit of reading—for personal pleasure, to build a strong vocabulary, and for exposure to new ideas and worlds. With these goals in mind, students are expected to complete a summer reading log and record their responses to a number of books over the summer. Students should choose books based on their interests and reading level, aiming to include at least one book that is a personal “challenge.” This challenge could be based on the complexity of the writing in the book, or maybe because the book is a departure from their preferred genre.

Incoming sixth graders are required to read two books over the summer. Incoming seventh and eighth graders are required to read three books over the summer, with at least one non-fiction choice. Students should keep a list of their summer reading (attached). Students will turn this list in during the first week of school. Yes, these assignments are part of their fall grade, and we will continue this personal reading project once we are back together at school. And yes, of course you can read and record more than the minimum!

But what should I read? Is this book a good book? How about this one?

I don’t have a definitive answer to those questions! Instead, here are some recommendation lists to get you started to find out the answer for yourself. Experiment with audio books, new authors, and new genres! Some books are available as ebooks or audiobooks through Synergy Library, and of course the public libraries offer these too. Read the first page to check and make sure it’s a good level for you—not too easy but not something that would be painfully hard going either. Don’t forget about graphic novels, short stories, essay collections, and other text types like magazines!

In Language Arts next year, the sixth graders will be reading The Giver by Lois Lowry and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Seventh graders will be reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. Eighth graders will read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. However, these whole class novel choices are subject to change depending on the class’ interests. Please feel free to either read these over the summer to get a head start, or to avoid them so you are pleasantly surprised when we read them together!

Don’t be limited by this list! Explore recommendations from the library, friends, parents, teachers, the internet... The possibilities are endless, and there’s a whole word of amazing writing for you to explore!

Online Lists: There are a number of fantastic book recommendation lists online. GoodReads has a lot of lists composed by users around different themes, including “middle school reads.” Most publishers (like Scholastic and PrenticeHall) also have recommendation lists targeted at middle school or young adult readers. Here are a few places to get started looking online:

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o Time collated the most recommended young adult books in a pretty image focused format that you can click through- because they are the 100 best, they vary in level and from modern reads to classics

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o Fantastic list by the American Library association that is perfect for those who have read everything, since all the books are from 2015. Some of them are more appropriate for more mature teen readers.

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o A comprehensive list that includes both fiction and non-fiction, classics and new reads. I love how GoodReads has so many reviews and breaks everything down into all their sub-genres.

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o There are a number of books on here I haven’t read, but they look interesting. Some non-fiction and culturally diverse choices.

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o Focused on fiction books and “teen reads.” But it’s an engaging website with video content and lots of pretty book covers.

Synergy Library Suggestions

Authors—

Fiction and Non-fiction--

Crutcher, Chris

Fleishman, Sid

Hopkinson, Deborah

Myers, Walter Dean

Non-fiction--

Giblin, James Cross

Meltzer, Milton

Pollan, Michael (look for Young Adult edition)

Graphic Novels—

McCloud, Scott

Fiction—

Avi

Austen, Jane

Alcott, Louisa May

Cisneros, Sandra

Creech, Sharon

Doctorow, Cory

Green, John

Hiaasen, Carl

Ibbotson, Eva

Jones, Diana Wynne

Konigsburg, E.L.

Levine, Gail

Lowery, Lois

Patterson, Katherine

Paulson, Gary

Taylor, Mildred

Van Draanen, Wendelin

Science Fiction--

Adams, Douglass

Card, Orson Scott

Family and Teen Issues--

Anderson, Laurie Halse

Sports—

Brooks, Bruce

Lupica, Mike

Historical Fiction—

Cushman, Karen

Mystery—

Farmer, Nancy

Classic—

Hinton, S.E.

Montgomery, L.M.

O’Dell, Scott

Fantasy—

Collins, Suzanne

Colfer, Eoin

Funke, Cornelia

Gaiman, Neil

L’Engle, Madeleine

LeGuin, Ursula

Lin, Grace

MacHale, D.J.

Nix, Garth

Paolini, Christopher

Pullman, Phillip

Riordan, Rick

Stiefvater, Maggie

Tolkien, J.R.

Titles--

A Friendship for Today by Patricia McKissack

Non-fiction

Nickeled and Dimed: On (not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehenreich

Farewell to Manzanar by Houston Wakatsuki, Jeanne (Japanese-American internment)

Jiang, Ji-Li: Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution [in China]

Satrapi, Marjane Persepolis: The story of a childhood and Persepolis 2: the story of a return [graphic memoirs]

Sowa, Marzina Marzi: a Memoir (graphic format) (childhood of Polish girl)

Compestine, Ying Revolution is Not a Dinner Party

Happy Reading! Cheers, Nisrene

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