SECONDARY
SUMMER READING LISTS
Selected Sixth Grade Summer Reading
Recommendations
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Title
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Author
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The Westing Game
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Ellen Raskin
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Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
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Ann Brashares
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Walk Two Moons
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Sharon Creech
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The Breadwinner
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Deborah Ellis
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Kira Kira
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Cynthia Kadohata
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The Giver
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Lois Lowru
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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Rohl Dahl
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Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub
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Jamie Gilson
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Five Children and It
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E. Nesbit
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The Princess Diaries
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Meg Cabot
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The Pigman
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Paul Zindel
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Seventh Grade Summer Reading List
When Zachary Beaver Came
to Town by
Kimberly Willis Holt
Toby Wilson is having the toughest summer of his
life. It's the summer his mother leaves for good; the summer his best friend's
brother returns from Vietnam
in a coffin; and the summer that Zachary Beaver, the "fattest boy in the
world," arrives. There are heartaches, friendships gained, and old
friendships renewed. And it's Zachary Beaver who turns the town of Antler upside down and
leaves everyone, especially Toby, changed forever.
Holes by Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his
family's bad fortune (which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative),
Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hideous correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real
friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
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.
Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
Sixteen-year-old
"Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball
talents to get him out of
the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees
things differently.
A Break With Charity by Ann Rinaldi
While waiting for a church
meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and
accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Inspired by his teacher,
11-year-old Lonnie begins to write about his life in a series of poems in which
he discusses his feelings about his friends, his foster mom, his little sister
Lili, and the death of his parents.
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
The 13-year-old daughter
of an English country knight keeps a journal
in which she records the
events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual
role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
Thirteen-year-old Sophie
and her cousin Cody record their transatlantic
crossing aboard the
Wanderer, a forty-five foot sailboat, which, along with their uncles and
another cousin, is en route to visit their grandfather in England.
Witness by Karen Hesse
A series of poems express
the views of various people in a small Vermont
town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early
1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
Academic Writing
9th
grade:
One Flew over
the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Chocolate
War.
The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night
Holes
The Earth Sea
Trilogy
The Count of
Monte
Cristo
When Legends
Die
Fahrenheit
451
Murder on the
Orient
Express
The Time
Machine
War of the
Worlds
Beauty
Go Ask Alice
Haunted Sister
The Awakening
Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Madame Bovary
The Dark
Materials Trilogy
Summer Reading List for 11th
grade AP Language students:
·
The Great Gatsby
·
The Grapes of Wrath
AP Psychology
AP World History/ World History
Mythistory by
William H. McNeill. This book is more of a monograph than a story or literary
classic. It is a contemporary world historian’s proposition that all of history
is part myth, and that mythistory derives from a deep-seated need in man to
explain, understand, and bequeath his past to the future.
The Alchemy of Happiness by Abu
Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (1058 – 1111). al-Ghazzali was on of the most
important religious figures in Islamic history. He is particularly noted for
his brilliant synthesis of mysticism and traditional Sunni Islam. The book was
written toward the end of the al-Ghazzali’s life and provides a succinct
introduction to both the theory and practice of Sufism (Islamic mysticism). It
also offers many insights into traditional Muslim society and religion.
Plagues and Peoples by
William McNeill. In this book, contemporary world historian William McNeill
takes up the general question of the effects of plagues on world history and
the more specific analysis of the plague that traveled across Asia
in the Middle Ages and the effects of disease diffusion during the great
encounter with the Americans.
The Great Pandemic by
Alfred Crosby. Historian, Crosby examines the ferocity of the world plague 1918
– 1919. This plague killed more people than any pandemic in history and more
than all of the casualties of World War I.
Cross-Cultural Trade in
World History by Philip Curtin. This study examines trade between peoples
of differing cultures throughout the course of world history. Curtin’s
discussion encompasses a broad and diverse group of trading relationships like
the Mediterranean trade with China,
the Asian trade in the East, the European entry in the trade with maritime Asia and son on.
The Structure of Big
History: From the Big Bang Until Today by Fred Spier. This book is the
best known of a new genre of world history that attempts to join the social and
natural sciences into one historical narrative. The book gives a
straightforward account of the latest scientific views on the history of the
universe, the solar system, earth, life and human kind. It investigates the
origins of humankind, the rise of agriculture and the emergence of early
states.
The Pillow Book of Sei
Shonagon translated and edited by Ivan Morris. This book is one of
the great classics of Japanese literature and the most detailed source of
factual material on life in 11th century Japan during the Heian period. It
is also a work of great literary beauty, full of lively insights, humor and
subtle impressions of a curt lady who, a thousand years ago, kept a diary.
Still Life With Rice by
Helie Lee. In this radiant memoir of her grandmother’s life, Helie Lee, a first
generation American of Korean descent, illuminates the intricate and powerful
experiences of her Korean grandmother who lived through Japanese occupation of Korea, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the
modernization of her country and emigration to America. Writing in her
grandmother’s voice, Helie Lee interprets issues that are both strangely Korean,
and yet fundamentally our own; the complex nature of family relations, the
impact of social and political upheaval on an individual, the rapidly changing
lives of women in this century, the horrors of war, the loss of loved ones, the
courage of survival, and the meaning of humanity.
DaddyJi by Ved
Mehta. This book is Ved Mehta’s biography of his father, a public health
official in colonial India.
It chronicles both the imperial experience of millions of peoples around the
world and the transition from tradition to modernity. A series of vivid
vignettes highlights the encroachments of western values and customs on this
Indian family and the subtle changes that take place when the lure of western
ways infects the traditional family. It is an emotionally engaging portrait of
an individual who successfully made the enormous journey across cultures and
time, from old to modern and from purely Indian to worldly.
A Daughter of Han by Ida
Pruitt. What began as author’s Ida Pruitt’s curiosity of the old customs of
Chinese families in childbirth, marriage and death ended in this meticulous,
touching and rich oral history of Ning Lao, a Chinese “everywoman” who lived
from 1867 to 1938. It is the story of living and surviving in a weak and
devastated China
during the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th
century. In this story, Ning Lao emerges as both an oppressed citizen and stoic
observer, gossip, and chronicler of history and life.
Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A
Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart by Elvia Alvarado. This book
presents the life story of Elvia Alvarado, a Honduran activist for social
change, especially in agrarian reform in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Stereotypes
about poor, ignorant, pathetic peasants are severely challenged in this book. Though
Elvia has only a formal education of second grade, her wisdom, intelligence,
courage and human dignity stand out through the chapters of her life. The book
teaches much about social, economic and cultural conditions in a poor, Latin
American society, the dynamics of change, and the relationship between rich and
poor, western and non-western.
Family by
PaChin (Ba Jin). The author is one of China’s most popular writers of
fiction this century. His story is a poignant personal account of the injustice
and oppression found in the traditional Chinese family, the need to overthrow
the yoke of oppression and the accompanying Confucian ideology which allowed it
to endure since ancient times. Written in 1931, the book reflects the period
around the world of international anarchism (i.e. Russian populism) and
reflects a time of great upheaval in China. The Qing dynasty had been
overthrown, World War I had ended, the Russian Revolution consummated, the call
for science and democracy had been firefly introduced by Sun Yet-sen, and
Chiang K’ai-shek and the warlords were fighting for control of China.
In the Kao family, “Third Younger Brother” emerges as the novel’s hero of the
rebellion.
The Hummingbird and the
Hawk: the Conquest and Sovereignty in the Valley of Mexico:
1503 –1541 by R.C. Padden. This book is narrative history of the Aztecs
from the inception of the Empire to the post-Spanish conquest. It espouses a
particular point of view that is part of the contemporary controversy
surrounding the 500-year celebration of the Columbian Encounter. It contrasts,
for instance, with K. Sale’s views in Conquest of Paradise though some find it
a balanced consideration of Aztec and Spanish motives that are currently under
attack in “politically correct” academia. It is an engaging story of the
conquest from both sides.
Midaq Alley by
Naguib Mahfouz. Midaq
Alley is Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s engaging account of the
residents of a Cairo
ally in the early 1940’s. Intended as a “slice of life” portal of the lower
reaches of Cairo
society, it follows a group of vividly drawn characters whose relationships
highlight the full range of human emotions. The characters in the book make the
story somewhat ahistorical form the point of view that little can be learned
about Egyptian attitudes toward colonialism, nationalism, the impact of World
War II, the effects of urbanization, the influence of Islam, or other themes
relevant to time or place. Yet, this in itself might tell a useful story in
that much of the world lives in a day-to-day existence largely oblivious to the
larger social, economic, and political forces that swirl around it.
Nectar in a Sieve by
Kamala Markandaya. This book brings beauty and meaning to peasant life and
poverty. This is a story set in rural India as modern industry comes to a
town and community. Through the eyes of Rukmani, an Indian woman, the lives of
many Indians and peasants the world over, especially as they face transition to
modernity, are traced. The rich imagery of this book brings understandings, not
judgments about Indian life. It is a story of courage, hope, love and land.
Sweetness and Power: The
Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz. This is not
literature but rather a detailed and fascinating study of how the consumer
appetite for one product can alter world history, institutions and society.
Sugar becomes a case study for the development of capitalism, slavery, the
plantation complex, migration and ecology.
Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh. Having lived through the
riots resulting from the partition of India
and Pakistan
in 1947, Khushwant Singh has written a novel that gives the reader an
understanding of what Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs must have felt – such horror
that only a master could capture it. Starting with a powerful description of
Indian village life, the story progresses to one where safety in this small
village in 1947 becomes almost impossible as trains traveling in both
directions cross the Mano
Majra Bridge
between the two countries.
The Wretched of the Earth by
Frantz Fanon. Frantz Fanon’s classic “handbook for the black revolution,”
published in 1963, is valuable both as insight into the process of
decolonization and as analysis of what went wrong in newly independent African
countries. Fanon’s thinking was influenced both by Marxism and negritude. His
description of tactics by which revolutionaries can channel their aggression
and discover a communal destiny, had a strong influence on the Black Power
movement in the US
in the late 1960’s. When reading this book, it is interesting to contrast
Fanon’s response to colonialism in Africa with Gandhi’s satyagraha movement in India.
The Communist Manifesto by Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels and the Little Red Book or The Sayings of Mao
Tse-tung (aka. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung). These
are the revolutionary handbooks that influenced and guided Communist
revolutionaries the world over from Fidel Castro to Che Gueverra, Chou En-lai
and radical Americans of the 60’s. They are remarkable studies in what Marx and
Mao really did say that so influenced the world.
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by
Jonathan Spence. In 1577, the Jesuit priest, Matteo Ricci, set out from Italy to bring the Christian faith and Western
thought to the Ming dynasty in China.
In order to convert the Chinese, Matteo Ricci tried to impress them with his
ability to memorize the Bible, thus challenging the abilities of Confucian
scholars to remember vast amounts of Confucian doctrine. To do so, Ricci
created four images derived from events in the Bible and others from a book on
the art of memory that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of
the Ming dynasty’s elite. Jonathan Spence, the foremost historical raconteur of
imperial China, has written
a compelling narrative about Ricci’s remarkable life and a significant history
of the world of counter-Reformation Europe and
Ming China.
Memories of Silk and Straw
– A Self-Portrait of Small-Town Japan
by Dr. Junichi Saga. Every day after finishing work in the clinic of
the small town of Tsuchirura,
Dr. Saga went around the town visiting one elderly person after with a portable
tape recorder in his medical bag. The people he talked to came from all walks
of life: day laborers, tradesmen, farmers, fishermen, gangsters and geisha.
They spoke candidly about the realities of traditional Japanese life. In the
memories of these people are the sole surviving stories of the end of the
feudal period in 1868 and the alteration in less than half a century of Japan
from feudal to modern. The interaction of people and their environment makes
this portrait of Japan
unique. No one can read this book without being touched by how the Japanese
dealt with the problem of unwanted children and how, amidst poverty and
unhappiness, there was a strange kind of serenity, strength and community that
seems entirely lost in modern life.
One Day in the Life of
Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. No book conveys the horrors of
the Stalinist era in Russian history better than this little book written by
the giant of contemporary Russian protest literature. Ivan’s one day in a slave
labor camp in Siberia becomes one of hundreds and thousands of days in the
lives of millions of Russians who lived and died in the archipelago of labor
camps that were strung across Siberia. It is a
graphic picture of a slow and demoralizing holocaust. It is a moving tribute to
the Russian will to prevail over relentless dehumanization by fellow Russians.
The Life and Death of
Carolina Maria de Jesus by
Robert M. Levine and Jose Carlos
Sebe Bom Meihy. This book provides the world history student an opportunity to
engage in issues of gender, race and poverty in the developing world through
the experience of one of Brazil’s
most remarkable women.
Fantasia – An Algerian
Cavalcade by Assia Djebar. This is a translation of one volume of a
quartet by Algerian born author, Assia Djebar. The story is told from the
perspective of a lady of the Harem during the French occupation of Algeria
beginning in 1827. The story ends in the 20th century after Algerian
independence and the return of the remains to Algiers of the hero of the 19th
century resistance movement, Abd al-Qadir.
Cartucho and My Mother’s Hands by
Nellie Campobello, translated by Doris Meyer and Irene Mathews. These two
stories are autobiographical evocations of the violence and turmoil of the
Revolution in Me
Burr
By Gore Vidal (1973)