In seventh grade you are expected to read a minimum of six books over the summer.

1. Everyone is expected to read:

Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

And two other books/plays from the following list:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

Dicey's Song, Cynthia Voigt

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salmon Rushdie

The Pearl John Steinbeck

Be prepared to comment on these books in a class discussion when you return to school in the fall. You will need a copy of Animal Farm and Catcher in the Ryefor use in class.

Select the two remaining books from the reading list below.

2. Write a book report on one of the books you chose from the "required" list . Use the attached book report form which you are familiar with having used it in sixth grade.

3. Keep a record of your summer reading on the attached Summer Reading Log.

4. Bring your book report and your Summer Reading Log to your first English class in the fall.

Enjoy your summer reading!

Watership Down

The saga of a maverick band of rabbits who seek against all odds a new home and a better society.

Alcott, Louisa May

Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England.

The Iron Ring

Driven by his sense of "dharma," or honor, young King Tamor sets off on a perilous journey with a significance greater than he can imagine, during which he meets talking animals, villainous and noble kings, demons, and the love of his life.

The Dreams of Mairhe Mehan

Living in an Irish slum in Washington, D.C. during the 1860’s, Mairhe struggles to come to grip with the terrible impact on her family of the Civil War.

The Barn

After Ben is summoned home from boarding school to care for his father who has suffered a stroke, he becomes convinced that if the family fulfills the father's dream of building a barn, he'll recover.

Captain Gray

Following the Revolution, an eleven-year-old boy becomes the captive of a ruthless man who has set up his own "nation" supported by piracy, on a remote part of the New Jersey coast.

Forgotten Fire

Up until 1915, Vahan Kandarian has lived a cosseted life as the son of a wealthy and respected Armenian man. Overnight his world is destroyed when the Turkish leaders begin the systematic massacre of nearly three-quarters of the Armenian population of Turkey.

One More River

When Leslie and her family move to a border kibbutz, she doesn't think she'll ever adjust -- or that she even wants to. But a full-scale war forces a new understanding of her family her people -- and herself.

Hero's Trail: a Hiking Guide for a Heroic Life

Explores how to lead a heroic life, facing challenges with courage, strength of character, and wisdom, much as a hiker uses those qualities on a challenging trail.

Bauer, Joan

Stuck in a family overflowing with lawyers, Ivy Breedlove longs to break free of unfair expectations and find the truth about her mysterious hermit aunt who broke the family mold.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Two boys encounter the sinister wonders of Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show.

Cracker Jackson

After attempting to save his ex-baby-sitter from wife abuse, Cracker Jackson gains an adult insight into the sadness of failed heroics.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice falls into a rabbit hole and ends up in another world with peculiar laws of its own.

Ten strangers are lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host. Once his guests have arrived, the host accuses each person of murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to share their darkest secrets, until they begin to die.

The Ox-Bow Incident

A searing study of mob justice in the Old West.

An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio

A collection of stories captures the lives of different teenagers growing up in the barrio, including Rita, who goes to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico; Luis, who spends his days working at his father's junkyard; and Sandra, who tries to rediscover her natural Latino beauty.

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons

A retelling of a traditional Arabic tale in which a young woman disguises herself as a man and opens up a shop in a distant city in order to help her impoverished family.

The Goats

Left on an island overnight, two misfits escape an dare forced to lie, steal, and dodge police as they seek safety.

Cormier, Robert

I Am the Cheese

Adam Farmer desperately tries to remember the events surrounding the mysterious disappearance of his parents.

Henry escapes his family's problems by watching the woodcarving of Mr. Levine, an elderly Holocaust survivor, but when Henry is manipulated into betraying his friend, he comes to know true evil.

A Christmas Carol

The story of Scrooge and the three spirits who visit him on a memorable Christmas Eve.

A Bone from a Dry Sea

Told by two different narrators--young women from the far past and the near future-- we see a story as it is lived by Stone Age people and interpreted by archaeologists coming long after them.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The most famous adventure of the peerless detective Sherlock Holmes concerns a family living under the ancient curse of a spectral hound.

The Count of Monte Christo

Edmund Dantes, a young sailor from Marseilles, soon to become captain of his own ship and married to his beloved, finds himself betrayed by spiteful enemies and condemned to life long imprisonment.

This historical romance relates the adventures of four swashbuckling heroes whose motto is, "All for one and one for all!"

Looking for X

Kyber lives with her mother and autistic twin brothers in a poor Toronto neighborhood. When her mother decides to move her brothers to a group home her world starts to crumble.

Farmer, Nancy

A Girl Named Disaster

Nhamo, fleeing an impending marriage to a cruel man with three wives, sets out for Zimbabwe searching for her father.

The Cuckoo's Child

Mia refuses to believe her parents are not coming back after they are reported lost at sea.

When I Was Older

A new friendship with a boy who is both attractive and intelligent helps fifteen-year-old Sophie sort out her feelings about her younger brother Erhard, who died three years earlier, her self-centered older sister, and her distant father.

Gaines, Ernest J.

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

The tape-recorded history of a remarkable black woman over 100 years old.

Garfield, Leon

Twelve of Shakespeare’s plays are presented here in a fresh narrative form with much of the original language skillfully woven into the author’s own prose.

Pictures of Hollis Woods

Hollis Woods has been in so many foster homes she can hardly remember them all. When she is sent to live with Josie, an elderly artist, she wants to stay, but she is troubled by Josie's increasing forgetfulness.

Gilbreth, F.

Cheaper by the Dozen

The hilarious adventures of twelve wonderful, red-headed rascals living in a household that is well organized by their efficiency expert father.

Promises to the Dead

Aiding and abetting an escaped slave is against the law, and it goes against everything Jesse Sherman has been taught. But he has promised a dying run-away slave that he will get her son, Perry, to safety in Baltimore.

The Planet of Junior Brown

Already a leader in New York's underground world of homeless children, Buddy Clark takes on the responsibility of protecting the overweight, emotionally disturbed friend with whom he has been playing hooky from eighth grade all semester.

The Endless Steppe

The story of a young girl and her family during their exile in Siberia in 1941.

The Grave

Tom, an unhappy foster child in Liverpool, falls into a massive open grave and is transported to Ireland in 1847, where he finds himself in the midst of a deadly potato famine.

Hersey, John

Hiroshima

The stories of six survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Fallen Man

Tribal Police Acting Lt. Chee and his now retired mentor, Leaphorn, team up to investigate how a skeleton ended up on Shiprock, the huge monolith sacred to Navajos.

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

The summer of ’71 brings a lot of change for some residents of the small town of Antler, Texas. Toby’s mother leaves, his best friend Cal’s brother is killed in Vietnam, and Zachary Beaver, the self-proclaimed fattest-boy-in-the-world, has arrived in town.

Les Miserables

Trying to forget his past and live an honest life, escaped convict Jean Valjean risks his freedom to take care of a motherless young girl during a period of political unrest in Paris.

Gone From Home: Short Takes

These twelve short stories are offbeat meditations on "the essence of life." filled with quirky characters and unexpected twists and turns of fate.

The Time of the Ghost

A ghost, uncertain of her identity, watches the four Melford sisters hatch a plan to get their parents' attention and slowly becomes aware of the danger from a supernatural power unleashed by the girls and their friends from the boy's boarding school run by the Melfords.

The Amazon Papers

Athletic, straight-A student Iris finds herself in trouble for the first time in her life when her mother's vacation gives way to a wrecked car, two unlikely boyfriend prospects, and a zany scheme to fix everything.

Night Kites

Erik's comfortable, well-ordered life style begins to fall apart when he is forced to keep two secrets: the identity of his new girlfriend and the nature of his brother's debilitating disease.

Three generations suffer the consequences of an ill-fated romance between a young girl from the wrong side of the tracks and the son of the richest family of an upstate New York town.

Owl in Love

Owl Tyco is an apparently normal girl who can change into an owl at will. Having a crush on her science teacher, Mr. Lindstrom, she watches over his house at night. As she does she notices a strange owl and a wild, vicious boy lurking in the woods outside his home.

The Woman in the Walls

Anna, a shy and lonely girl, retreats into the fabric of her huge old house, constructing a series of passageways that allow herto share the life of the house unseen by her mother and sisters.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice

Long retired, Sherlock Holmes quietly pursues his study of honeybee behavior. Miss Mary Russell becomes his pupil and quickly hones her talent for deduction, disguises, and danger.

Pampered young Harvey Cheyne learns respect and responsibility after spending a season fishing the Grand Banks.

You Don't Know Me

Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful but shallow classmate and other problems at school.

Konigsburg, E.L.

Silent to the Bone

Thirteen-year-old Conner goes on an inner voyage of self-discovery when he starts unraveling the events that led to a frantic 911 call and his best friend’s unexplained muteness.

The Farthest Shore

A young prince joins forces with a master wizard on a journey to discover a cause and remedy for the loss of magic in Earthsea.

The adventures of Ambassador Gently Ai whose mission to make peace between warring factions is challenged by the strange beings of the planet Winter and his own prejudices.

The Arm of the Starfish

A marine biology student reporting to his summer job on an island off Portugal finds himself at the center of a power struggle between his boss and another group of Americans.

One Fat Summer

Bobby Marks hates hot weather. It's the time when most people are happy to take off their heavy jackets and long pants. But for Bobby, who can't even button the waist of his jeans or reach over his belly to touch his toes, spending the summer at Rumson Lake is pure torture.

The Art of Keeping Cool

Robert is excited by hometown military maneuvers and threatening submarines near his grandparents’ New England village where he’s living while his dad’s away fighting the Nazis. But the battle inside the family is scarier than the military exercises.

Call of the Wild

An outdoor story of the sled dog, Buck, who, mistreated by his master, breaks free to roam the Alaskan wilderness.

Five stories of rugged individualism and the demonic will to power.

Slot Machine

Elvin Bishop quickly learns his summer camp is really a sports camp and has to choose a sport to play, but after bouncing unhappily from sport to sport, he realizes that strength is not always found in the obvious places and decides not to play the game.

Good Night, Mr.Tom

A battered child learns to embrace life when adopted by an old Englishman during World War II.

Missing Sisters

Alice Colossus, a determined, independent young orphan, is puzzled when she is constantly being mistaken for someone else at camp and sets out for Albany to try to solve the mystery.

Mahy, Margaret

During the first twenty-four hours after finishing high school seventeen-yuear-old Ellis unexpectedly becomes part of an inner-city world far different from his comfortable life, which helps deal with his best firend's recent suicide.

The Other Side of Silence

A family of talented children is changed when a wayward sister returns home bringing tragedy and a secret. Hero, who has long been silent, finds the need for speech changing her life when the weight of secrets becomes too much to bear.

Letters from the Inside

Tracey and Mandy swap confidences, and seem to share the ordinary ups and downs of school and family life in their relationship as pen pals. They find that there are many things about themselves that are difficult to reveal and even more troubling for their correspondent to hear.

Beauty

Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.

Missing Girls

During eighth grade Carrie moves in with her grandmother, becomes friends with an indrawn classmate, and come to terms with her mother's death.

Mori, Kyoko

Shizuko's Daughter

While excelling as a student and athlete, a twelve-year-old Japanese girl, Yuki Okuda, struggles to come to terms with her mother's suicide, her father's coldness, and her stepmother's outright hostility.

The Glory Field

A family's two hundred forty-one year history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750's through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.

A Step from Heaven

A Korean family immigrates to California in search of a better life only to find that the American dream is harder to achieve than they thought.

Napoli, Donna Jo

Beast

When Orasmyn, a young Persian prince makes a wrong decision he sests an ancient curse in motion and forever changes his fate.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds

Alice on the Outside

Alice and her friends have a lot to think about during the second half of eighth grade including romance, prejudice, and the upcoming semi-formal.

While living on his family's farm in Wyoming where he hopes some day to be a cowboy, Ryan faces conflicts with his older brother who becomes involved in a militia movement.

Nelson, Teresa

The Beggar's Ride

Claire runs to Atlantic City in order to escape her alcoholic mother and her nasty boyfriend, and she soon encounters a street gang of homeless children who steal and scrounge for food to stay alive.

Earthshine

Slim is looking for a miracle that will save her father who is dying from AIDS.

Sing Down the Moon

Fifteen-year-old Bright Morning tells the story of the forced migration of the Navajos from their original homeland.

Jacob Have I Loved

Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

Soldier’s Heart

In June 1861, when the Civil War began, Charley Goddard enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was 15. He didn’t know what a "shooting war" meant or what he was fighting for, but he didn’t want to miss out on a great adventure.

The Golden Compass

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

The Subtle Knife

Lyra and Will Parry enter the strange other world of Cittagazze where their search for Will’s father brings them closer to the "Subtle Knife", a tool that can cut windows between worlds.

Paper Quake

Certain that she is being drawn by more than coincidence into the lives of people living nearly 100 years ago, Violet, who feels like the odd sister in a set of triplets, searches for clues to help her avert an imminent tragedy.

Rubenstein, Gillian

Under the Cat’s Eye

The headmaster at the Nexhoath School seems to have a compelling power over the students that, one by one, robs them of their individuality.

The Dark Side of Nowshere

Fourteen-year-old Jason faces an identity crisis after discovering he is the son of aliens who stayed on earth after a botched invasion mission.

Sleator, William

The Duplicate

When David finds a mysterious machine that can copy living things, he thinks his problems are over. By duplicating himself he can be in school and go to the beach at the same time. The possibilities are endless and terrifying.

Sisteen-year-old Barney, infected by an alien parasite and his friend Kate are taken to the planet J'koot by extraterrestrials intent on playing the dangerous game known as Interstellar Pig.

Soto, Gary

Local News

Angel didn't know he would get into trouble by taking a shower-but he did. Because having an older brother with a camera and a mean streak can only add up to one thing-blackmail.

Stargirl

In this tale of the perils of popularity, the courage of non-conformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.

Springer, Nancy

I Am Mordred

When Mordred learns the identity of his father he struggles with feelings of hatred but also fights the fate which determines that he kills the good and gracious king.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher

Dangerous Skies

Hypocrisy and prejudice twist events in such a way as to implicate two children, one from a prominent white family and the other an African-American, in a murder.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

A bizarre potion transforms the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll into his alter-ego the psychopathic Mr. Hyde

The Eagle of the Ninth

A young centurion ventures among the hostile tribes beyond the Roman Wall to recover the eagle standard of the Ninth, a legion that mysteriously disappeared under his father's command.

The Shining Company

The three hundred companions battle the invading Saxons in seventh century Briton.

The Beduins' Gazelle

In 1302, two cousins of the nomadic Beni Khalid tribe who are betrothed become separated by political intrigue between warring tribes.

The Ramsey Scallop

In 1299, fourteen-year-old Eleanor reluctantly waits for Thomas, her betrothed, to return from the Crusades. Upon his return, the couple is sent on a religious pilgrimage, providing them with a last opportunity for adventure.

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortable in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard, Gandalf, chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The saga of the Hobbits of Middle-Earth and the great War of the Rings.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The story of an exuberant, high-spirited boyhood by the Mississippi River in pre-Civil War days.

The fates of two boys who look exactly alike-one poor, one of royal family-become intertwined.

An embittered genius takes refuge from humanity aboard his fantastic submarine, the Nautilus.

The adventures of a group of castaways who use their survivalist savvy to build a functional community on an uncharted island.

As a dedicated runner, a teenage boy has always managed to distance himself from other people until the experience of coaching one of his teammates on the track team gradually helps him see the value of giving and receiving.

After an air raid, a group of English children find a German machine gun and hide it from adults who are looking for it.

Make Lemonade

In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old La Vaughn baby-sits for a teenage mother.

The Mozart Season

Allegra spends her twelfth summer practicing a Mozart concerto for a violin competition and finding many significant connections in her world.

The Book of Changes

A collection of stories highlights such unlikely heroes as Clark who doesn't have what it takes to be a salesman, Tobias who has left his report till the last minute, and Dwight who imitates Donald Duck when he gets in trouble.

Lord of the Fries

A grouchy cook with two teenage detectives in his train to discover the cause of his surliness is just the first of the quirky characters spotlighted in this collection of stories.

Mountain Light

When Squeaky Lau first meets Cassia Young, it's at the wrong end of her sword, but the two soon bury their differences and join forces against the Manchurian government.

Armageddon Summer

Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents’ religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain where they try to decide what they, themselves, believe.

Dragon's Blood

Fifteen-year-old Jakkin follows the established but risky tradition of stealing a hatching dragon to raise and train in secret for the gaming pits.

The Doom Stone

When Jackson visits his aunt in England, he becomes caught up in a chase to capture an unknown creature who is stalking and killing people on the plains surrounding ancient Stonehenge.

BOOK REPORT FORM

A good book report should tell some important information and give thoughtful evaluation. It should not retell every detail of the story.

Write your report in four paragraphs. Be sure to indent the first word of each paragraph. Please use your best handwriting. Do not skip lines between paragraphs.

In paragraph one tell in the first sentence the name of the book, underline it, and give the name of the author. Next tell if the book is fiction or non-fiction. Then tell what the book is about in three to four sentences. You are briefly summarizing the plot. Also include the environment (the place and the time in history). For example, the setting of Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes is Colonial Boston, and the time is the period before the American Revolution. In this book the environment is very important to the story. Of course in a fantasy the setting may be imaginary and the time not historical time, (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), but the environment should be described as it may be an important part of the story. Finally, include the "clock" time of the story. How many days, months, years went by during the course of the story?

Paragraph two deals with important characters in the book. Take each character who is important to the plot of the story. Tell what he/she looks like, age, and personality. Mention why you find the character interesting and why you like or dislike him. Also look at each character you have described and think whether he has changed at all during the course of the action (learned anything, grown kinder, wiser, etc.); is he different in any important way at the end of the book? Also mention if the character has an influence on another. In Johnny Tremaine a boy named Rab, who is older than Johnny, has a steadying effect on Johnny and helps him to grow up and change his values. Sometimes a character may have an influence for evil. (Do you remember what happened in Pinocchio ?)

In paragraph three describe one incident or scene which you found interesting. This should include details and should give a full picture of the incident you have picked. (It can be an emotional encounter between two characters.) Be sure to tell how the incident made you feed: sad, excited, angry, frightened, joyful, etc. Why did you pick this particular incident to write about?

In the fourth and last paragraph give a short evaluation of the book. What did you learn from reading it? What did you especially like about the book? Was there anything which you felt could have been improved? Tell honestly if the book was too easy, just right, or too difficult for your reading level. Tell if this was an enjoyable story to read but could be easily forgotten. If you think of this book in the future, what will you remember about it? Imagine you have a bookshelf in your bedroom which includes only your "favorites". Why or why not would this book be included?

The final copy of this book report, which you hand into me, must be in INK.

Do not TENSE SWITCH! Your verbs must be all past or present.