SUMMER READING CHARLESTON DAY SCHOOL RISING SEVENTH GRADE

Transcription

1 SUMMER READING CHARLESTON DAY SCHOOL RISING SEVENTH GRADE The reading should be done throughout the summer and not the last week of August. The main purpose of summer reading is to keep the verbal skills sharp. An added benefit is that summer provides the time to find joy in reading. REQUIRED READING Knowles A Separate Peace CHOICE Read two books from the attached reading list. Do not choose books that have already been read by you. Students should write a total of two book reports, one for each book that they select on their own (not for the required reading selection). The appropriate length is 2 pages. Please also include the following information in the upper right-hand corner of each report. 1. Your name 2. Title, author, and number of pages 3. Date completed 4. Parent s signature The reports should be expressed in paragraph form, typed, and fastened in a folder. The reports are due the first day of school. Your grade will be penalized by a deduction of 10 points every day that the entire assignment is late. In addition, students will also be tested on A Separate Peace during the first week of school. Again, a report is not required for this selection.

2 WRITING A BOOK REPORT HOW CAN I BEGIN MY REPORT? If you begin your report with a detailed summary, you may lose readers. Here are some tips for grabbing readers attention with your first sentence: State what the book is about, and give readers a reason for becoming involved in it. In Happily May I Walk, Arlene Hirschfelder investigates the lives of Native Americans and takes readers on a journey through a world that few Americans see. Make a personal statement about your reaction to the book. Compare and contrast the book with other books. Introduce the reader to a main character. I ve never wept while reading a book but Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida moved me to tears. Of all the poetry books by African American women that I ve read, Blacks by Gwendolyn Brooks made the deepest impression on me. If you keep a journal, you ll identify with Julia, whose Book of Strangenesses helps her to figure out the world around her in A Room Made of Windows by Eleanor Cameron. HOW CAN I DEVELOP MY REPORT? After introducing the book and capturing your readers interest, you ll want to answer the questions they might naturally ask: Who are the main characters? What subject is it about? What happens to the main characters? What is the setting?

3 What is the book s theme, or central message? When organizing your report, follow these steps: Opening paragraph 1. Attract your readers attention. 2. Introduce your book. a. Identify the title and the author. b. Indicate your paper's thesis by indicating the book's focusing idea or theme Body 1. Briefly discuss the book. (1-2 paragraphs of 5-8 sentences each) a. Deliver a brief summary of only the significant events of the story to help your audience picture what it's about b. In the summary, identify the story's setting, its protagonist, the central conflict, and the book's theme 2. Evaluate the book (1-2 of paragraphs of 5-8 sentences each) a. Restate what you believe to be a theme of the book (restate your thesis) b. Indicate one main reason you believe this to be a theme and support it with specific examples from the book (1 paragraph) c. Indicate another main reason you believe this to be a theme and support with specific examples from the book (1 paragraph) Conclusion 1. Conclude your report in a separate paragraph by recommending or rejecting the book and by giving a summary of your reasons for it. -or- 2. Conclude by summarizing your paper's main points. Checkpoints for revising 1. Is the introduction attention-grabbing? 2. Are the title and author identified early in the book? 3. Is my presentation of the plot or main idea brief? 4. Do I support my opinions with examples? 5. Do I conclude with a recommendation and a summary of my reasons for making it? 7 TH GRADE SUMMER READING LIST RECOMMENDATIONS AND RULES 1. All selections for summer reading must be made from the list below. Students will not receive homework credit for reading selections that do not

4 appear on the list, unless they have received permission from their teacher. 2. Students cannot read books they have already read or that have been read to them. 3. No more than one book by the same author may be read. Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker s Trilogy The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything Mitch Album Tuesdays with Morrie (Nonfiction) Laurie Halse Anderson Fever 1793 Natalie Babbitt Joan Bauer Tuck Everlasting Rules of the Road Stand Tall Kimberly Brubaker Bradley For Freedom Jennings Michael Burch They Cage the Animals at Night Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes Orson Scott Card Ender s Game James Lincoln Collier My Brother Sam Is Dead Susan Cooper The Grey King Michael Crichton Congo Arthur Conan Doyle The Lost World William Pene Du Bois The Twenty-one Balloons Lois Duncan The Gift of Magic Stranger with My Face The Third Eye Jean Craighead George My Side of the Mountain William Goldman The Princess Bride Roger Lancelyn Green Robin Hood Virginia Hamilton The House of Dies Drear Robert Heinlein Citizen of the Galaxy Karen Hesse Phoenix Rising S. E. Hinton The Outsiders Irene Hunt Up a Road Slowly Robert Jordan The Eye of the World or any book in the Wheel of Time series Rudyard Kipling Captains Courageous

5 E. L. Konigsburg From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Madeleine L Engle The Arm of the Starfish Moon by Night A Ring of Endless Night A Swiftly Tilting Planet The Young Unicorns A Wind at the Door Gail Carson Levine Ella Enchanted C. S. Lewis any book in the Chronicles of Narnia series Jack London White Fang Lois Lowry Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye Robin McKinley The Outlaws of Sherwood Stephanie Meyers Twilight (Saga #1), New Moon (Saga #2), Eclipse (Saga #3) Farley Mowat Never Cry Wolf (Nonfiction) Naomi Shihab Nye Habibi Robert O Brien Z for Zachariah Mary O Hara My Friend Flicka Kenneth Oppel Airborn Katherine Paterson Jacob Have I Loved James Patterson Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment Maximum Ride: School s Out Forever Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports Edith Pattou East Gary Paulsen Woodsong (Nonfiction) Tamora Pierce Wild Magic Elizabeth Marie Pope The Perilous Gard Howard Pyle Men of Iron Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings The Yearling Wilson Rawls Summer of the Monkeys Robert Ruark The Old Man and the Boy J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone or any book in the series Sir Walter Scott Ivanhoe Anna Sewell Black Beauty Mary Shelley Frankenstein William Sleator House of Stairs

6 Johanna Spyri Robert Louis Stevenson Mary Stewart Into the Dream Interstellar Pig Singularity Heidi Kidnapped The Crystal Cave The Hollow Hills The Last Enchantment J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings The Silmarillion James Ramsey Ullman Jules Verne Cynthia Voigt Alan Williams Banner in the Sky Around the World in Eighty Days Journey to the Center of the Earth Dicey s Song Homecoming Solitary Blue Walk On