June 25, 1999

Dear Parents and Students,

Over the vacation, all students entering grades 6, 7, and 8 are required to read a minimum of ten books. Parents should be aware that the New York State English Language Arts Standards suggest that all middle school students read a minimum of forty books per year. Summer reading list is below.

Here you will find directions for keeping a record of summer reading on note cards. Students must give these cards to their teachers on the first day of school in September. They will be the basis for the first graded English assignment.

Over the summer you may also wish to purchase school supplies. The requirements are:

Grade 6

Zippered 3-ring binder (for English and Social Studies only)
6 subject dividers with tabs
Loose-leaf
Zippered pencil case with holes to fit 3-ring binder
Marble Notebook
2 pens
2 pencils
Reinforcements
Highlighter

Grade 7 & 8

3-ring binder (for English only)
3 subject dividers with tabs
Loose-leaf
Zippered pencil case with holes to fit 3-ring binder
2 pens
2 pencils

We hope you have an enjoyable reading experience and a wonderful summer.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Kathleen Sancton
Mrs. Maureen Tucker

Note: An asterisk (*) before the title of a book indicates a higher reading level

New and Notable Books for 1999

Non-Fiction

Quindlan, Anna. How Reading Changed My Life. A wonderful memoir from someone famous who believes that she has built not a life, but a whole self, based on her journey through books. Designed to be read at one sitting, slim and memorable.

Blumberg, Rhoda. What’s the Deal? Jefferson, Napoleon and the Louisiana Purchase. The wheelings and dealings, diplomatic twists of fate and facts are pieced together like a good mystery story.

Glasser, Ronald. The Light in the Skull: An Odyssey of Medical Discovery. Meet the giants of medical research as they discover the mysteries of Ebola, Mad Cow disease, and more. An enlightening journey through centuries of scientific study.

Paulsen, Gary. My Life in Dog Years. Nine memorable essays, each about a favorite dog that deeply affected the author. Written with heartfelt enthusiasm.

Cummings, Pat. Talking with Adventurers. National Geographic photographers follow 12 explorers and scientists on location. Engaging interviews reveal how they got started in their fields, their scariest moments, and current expeditions.

Lauber, Patricia. Painters of the Caves. Using rock renderings and ancient artifacts, Lauber paints a panorama of the prehistoric peoples of Europe, blending fact with spectacular photographs and past mysteries.

Hansen, Joyce. Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York’s African Burial Ground. Skeletons uncovered during the excavations for an office building provide the focus for this careful account of African Americans’ lives in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Fiction

DeClements, Barthe. Liar, Liar. A new girl is stirring up trouble in Gretchen’s sixth grade class. She is, simply, a liar. But her lies begin to be discovered, with unpredictable consequences.

Lawrence, Ian. The Wreckers. Shipwrecked in 1799, John Spencer is washed ashore and finds himself in a community of pirates who cause wrecks for their own benefit. Lots of action, psychological chills, and taut storytelling.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In the tradition of Roald Dahl, this fantasy series has become wildly popular. Wizard-in-training Harry Potter learns about his parents’ heroic past and battles with the evil Voldemort who destroyed them. There will be sequels out this summer – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Sachar, Louis. Holes. Though innocent, Stanley Yelnats is sentenced to a grim juvenile detention center where he is forced to dig holes in the desert floor. In the process he unearths a legend and destroys a family curse. The 1999 Newbery winner by the author of Sideways Stories from Wayside School.

Korman, Gordon. The 6^th Grade Nickname Game. Wiley and Jeff, best friends, are notorious for the nicknames they have awarded the people at school, but when they dub their new teacher Mr. Hughes, a former football coach with an attitude, Mr. Huge, the game begins to go awry. Fast paced with lots of laughs . . . and what’s in a name, anyway?

Kehret, Peg. I’m Not Who You Think I Am. During Ginger Shaw’s thirteenth birthday celebration at a restaurant, a woman claiming to be her birth mother confronts her for the first time. But this woman also has a dangerous secret that Ginger doesn’t know about. A quick reading and appealing suspense story.

Jones, Diana Wynne. Dark Lord of Derkholm. A slapstick spoof of all kinds of fantasy novels, set in an alternate universe where earthlings have been wrecking havoc for years by forcing weary kings, wizards, sorcerers and the like to role play and provide exciting vacations for the earthly tourists.

Mackel, Kathy. Can of Worms. Seventh grader, Mike Pillsbury, may be a weird kid who doesn’t fit in and a disaster on the football team, but he’s an alien Hanzel, stuck here on earth, so what does it matter? Then he meets the cool Katelyn and decides to stick it out. Funny and fast-paced.

Blackwood, Gary. The Shakespeare Stealer. A young orphan is sent to the Globe Theater by an evil master to steal the script of the play Hamlet. Nonstop action and a great period setting.

Curry, Jane Louise. Dark Shade. A hole in time takes 14-year old Maggie back to the French and Indian wards, where she finds herself among the Lenape Indians. An unusual time-slip fantasy.

Alcock, Vivian. Stranger at the Window. 11-year old Lesley is drawn into a mystery when she sees a forlorn child peering at her from the attic of the house next door. A cliffhanger in the best tradition.

Adolescent Literature

 Author Title

Avi Nothing but the Truth

Blume Deenie

Then Again Maybe I Won’t

Bunting Our Sixth Grade Sugar Babies

Cole Celine

Conford Handbook of Rules and Regulations

Seven Days to a Brand New Me

Cormier *The Chocolate War

Danzinger Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?

Fine My War with Goggle Eyes

Book of the Banshee

George My Side of the Mountain

Hinton The Outsiders

That Was Then, This is Now

Knowles *A Separate Peace

L’Engle Meet the Austins

Lipsyte One Fat Summer

The Contender

Patterson Jacob Have I Loved

Peck Unfinished Portrait of Jessica

Richard *Pistol

Smith *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Talbert Pillow of Clouds

Voight Izzy-Willy-Nilly

Building Blocks

Zindel A Begonia for Miss Applebaum

Author Title

Bagnold National Velvet

Burnford Incredible Journey

Gipson *Old Yeller

Grahame *The Wind in the Willows

Farley The Black Stallion (series)

Henry Misty of Chincoteague

Herriot *All Creatures Great and Small

*All Things Bright and Beautiful

*All Things Wise and Wonderful

London *White Fang

Morey Gentle Ben

Naylor Shiloh

North Rascal

Orwell Animal Farm

Paulsen Dogsong

Rawlings *The Yearling

Sewell Black Beauty

Steinbeck The Red Pony

Westall Blitzcat

Author Title

Bedoukian Some of Us Survived

Byars The Moon and I

Cleary A Girl of Yamhill

Dahl Going Solo

Duncan Chapters

Who Killed My Daughter?

Freedman The Wright Brothers

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Fritz Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery

The Great Little Madison

Gunther *Death Be Not Proud

Hamilton Many Thousand Gone

Joffo A Bag of Marbles

Keller *The Story of My Life

Kherdian The Road from Home

Freedman Lincoln: a Photobiography

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Mathabane Kaffir Boy

McKissack Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?

Meltzer Columbus and the World Around Him

George Washington and the Birth of a Nation

Meyers Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary

Moore Somebody’s Angel Child

Peet Bill Peet: An Autobiography

Ryan Throwing Heat

Siegal Grace in the Wilderness

Upon the Head of the Goat

Uchida The Invisible Thread

Watkins So Far From the Bamboo Grove

Zheng A Young Painter: the Life and Times of Wang Yani

Historical Fiction

Author Title

French & Indian War

Peck Fawn

Rinaldi Wolf by the Ear

Slavery

Fox The Slave Dancer

Rinaldi Wolf by the Ear

Revolutionary War

Fast April Morning

O’Dell Sarah Bishop

Civil War

Crane *The Red Badge of Courage

Lyons Letters from a Slave Girl

Reeder Shades of Gray

Mitchell Gone With the Wind

Pioneer Days

Brink Caddie Woodlawn

Conrad Prairie Songs

Cather My Antonia

Fleischman The Borning Room

Meyer Where the Broken Heart Still Beats

Portis True Grit

Rolvaag *Giants in the Earth

Schaefer Shane

Industrial Revolution

Paterson Lyddie

Aiken Midnight is a Place

Sinclair The Jungle

World War 1

Remarque *All Quiet on the Western Front

World War II

Benchley Bright Candles

Greene The Summer of My German Soldier

Hersey Hiroshima (non-fiction)

Kelly The Trumpeter of Krakow

Magorian Good Night Mr. Tom

Orlev Man From the Other Side

Patterson Distant Summer

Tunis His Enemy, His Brother

Westall Blitzcat

Vietnam War

Dunn Man in the Box

Wartski A Boat to Nowhere

 Humor

 Author Title

Bechard My Mom Married the Principal

Conford, Ellen Crush

Cooney, Caroline Out of Time

Prisoner of Time

Gauthier, Gail A Year With Butch and Spike

Naylor, Phyllis Being Danny’s Dog

Danny’s Desert Rats

Peters, Julie Revenge of the Snob Squad

Multi-Ethnic

Author Title

African-American Experience (Fiction)

Armstrong Sounder

Childress A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich

Rainbow Jordan

Gaines *The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

Guy The Friends

Hamilton The Planet of Junior Brown

M.C. Higgins the Great

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Johnson Toning the Sweep

Lipsyte The Contender

Lyons Letters From a Slave Girl

Mathis Teacup Full of Roses

McKissack The Dark-Thirty:Southern Tales of the Supernatural

Myers Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff

Won’t Know Till I Get There

Hoops

Motown and Didi

Somewhere in the Darkness

Parks The Learning Tree

Paulsen Nightjohn

Taylor Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Walker *The Color Purple

African-American Experience (Biography)

Angelou *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

McKissack Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?

Moore Somebody’s Angel Child

Parks *A Choice of Weapons

Wright *Black Boy

Others

Craven I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Native American)

Dyer A Way of His Own (Native American)

Houston Farewell to Manzanar (Japanese-American)

Mori Shizuko’s Daughter (Japanese)

Reiff Boat People (Vietnamese)

Shalant Shalom, Geneva Peace (Jewish)

Staples Shabanu

Yep Child of the Owl (Chinese-American)

Dragon Wings (Chinese American)

Mystery and Suspense

Author Title

Avi Wolf Rider

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Bronte *Jane Eyre

Christie *Murder on the Orient Express

Clark Where are the Children

A Stranger is Watching

Cormier *I am the Cheese

We All Fall Down

Doyle Sherlock Holmes

Du Maurier *Rebecca

L’Engle Arm of the Starfish

The Young Unicorns

Menius No Escape

Newman The Baker Street Irregulars

Peck Through a Brief Darkness

Speare The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Schraff Don’t Blame the Children

Wilson Murder on the Canadian Express

 Science Fiction and Fantasy

 Author Title

Adams *Watership Down

Alexander Book of Three (and sequels)

Westmark (and sequels)

Asimov Fantastic Voyage

Cooper The Dark is Rising (and sequels)

Dawn of Fear

Over Sea and Under Stone

Dickinson Eva

Duncan Gift of Magic

DuBois Twenty-One Balloons

Engdahl *Enchantress From the Stars

Hoover Children of Morrow

This Time of Darkness

Jones Witch Week

Juster The Phantom Tollbooth

LeGuin *A Wizard of Earthsea

Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (and sequels)

Lowry The Giver

McCaffrey Dragonsong (and sequels)

Schraff The Vandal

Sleator The House of Stairs

The Duplicate

Tolkein The Hobbit

Verne *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Wells *Time Machine

*War of the Worlds

Separation and Loss

 Author Title

Babbitt Tuck Everlasting

Bacon Shadow and Light

Blume It’s Not the End of the World

Tiger Eyes

Brancato Winning

Bunting A Sudden Silence

Byars The Animal,the Vegetable and John D. Jones

Crutcher Running Loose

Greene Beat the Turtle Drum

Guest *Ordinary People

Hunt Up a Road Slowly

Klein Sunshine

L’Engle Camilla

Lowry A Summer to Die

Lund  Eric

Pfeifer The Year Without Michael

Smith A Taste of Blackberries

Strasser Friends Till the End

Taylor The Cay

Voight Homecoming

 Sports

Author Title

Blinn Bryan’s Song

Brancato Winning

Brooks *The Moves Make the Man

Christopher Tight End

Dygard *Soccer Duel

Fleischer Ice Castles

Myers Hoops

Slote   Matt Garagan’s Boy (and others)

Tunis Rookie of the Year (and others)

Valens The Other Side of the Mountain

Voight The Runner