Summer Reading

Middle School Summer Reading :

6^th Graders- We encourage you to read, read, read over the summer. There is not a required book for sixth-graders.

Rising 7^th Graders’ Summer Reading Requirements

Pinewood Christian Academy wants to encourage all students to be excellent readers, so in the spirit of that objective, we require summer reading be done in the middle school, although we know you are probably reading to your heart’s content anyway, right? Guess what! You get to read only two items for the summer this year! You will read the entire book of Genesis in the NIV version, and you will read one book from the list provided below.

We have found that our students are much better prepared for 7^th grade Bible class if they have read Genesis before they come to class. Since you will be reading in the NIV, you should easily understand what it says and enjoy the stories of many very famous Bible characters and events. You need to pay close attention to what you read since you will have a test over Genesis on the day after Labor Day. The grade will count in both English and Bible classes. For this reason, I recommend that you begin reading toward the end of July or beginning of August. There are fifty chapters in Genesis, and you should not skim them or skip any of them. You will be asked if you have read the entire book, and you need to be able to honestly state that you have. It is very hard to do well on a test when you have only skimmed the chapters or if you have not read them at all. I encourage you to read your Bible everyday of the summer, but make sure you have read Genesis by the end of August.

You may read any book off the attached list AS LONG AS YOU HAVE NEVER READ IT BEFORE, and you must fill in the book report form you received in the mail, using correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. If you need a new form, I will give you one when you come to school during the first week. Please write your answers out on a separate piece of paper before filling the form in so that it is neatly done. As you can see, space is limited on the form, so you may need to finish an answer on the back. Just write the question number on the back and complete the answer neatly.

Here’s the book list. Your notification envelope contains the book report form.

Note: Books chosen may not come from the Great American Classics series, which are too juvenile for most middle schoolers. Also, you should not re-read a book you have already read. The books you choose should be new to you.

Louisa May Alcott: Little Women, Little Men,

Eight Cousins

Bagnold, Enid : National Velvet

Bronte, Charlotte : Jane Eyre

Buck, Pearl : The Good Earth

Bunyan, John: The Pilgrim’s Progress

Burnett , Frances Hodgson: The Little Princess, The Secret Garden

Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland

Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe

Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield (*challenging)

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles

Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo

Elliot, Elisabeth: Through Gates of Splendor

Frank, Ann: The Diary of a Young Girl

Grahame, Kenneth: The Wind in the Willows

Hemingway, Ernest: The Old Man and the Sea

Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Kelly, Eric P.: The Trumpeter of Krakow

Kipling, Rudyard: Captains Courageous, Kim

London , Jack: The Call of the Wild, White Fang

Marshall, Katherine: Christy, A Man called Peter

Montgomery, L. M.: Anne of Green Gables & sequels

Mueller, George: The Autobiography of George Mueller

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan, The Yearling

Sewell, Anna: Black Beauty

Sheldon, Charles: In His Steps

Shelly, Mary: Frankenstein

Spyri, Johann: Heidi

Steinbeck, John: The Pearl

Stevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure Island , Kidnapped, The Black Arrow,

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Tolkein, J. R. R.: The Hobbit or any book by this author

Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Prince and the Pauper

Wallace, Lew: Ben Hur

Wiggin, Kate D.: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Acclaimed Modern Juvenile Literature:

Anderson, Laurie Halse: Fever, 1793

Brink, Carol R.: Caddie Woodlawn

Cooney, Caroline: The Ransom of Mercy Carter

Cushman, Karen: Matilda Bone

Juster, Norton: The Phantom Tollbooth

Keith, Harold: Rifles for Watie

L’engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle in Time & sequels

Lenski, Lois: Indian Captive

Lowry, Lois: Number the Stars

O’Dell, Scott: Island of the Blue Dolphins

Paulsen, Gary: Hatchet, Brian’s Winter, Brian’s Hunt, (or any Brian sequels)Dogsong, The River,The Voyage of the Frog, Tracker, The Winter Room, Mr. Tuckett

Rawls, Wilson: Where the Red Fern Grows

Speare, Elizabeth George: The Sign of the Beaver

Taylor, Mildred: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

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Rising 8^th Graders’ Summer Reading Requirements

Students going into 8^th grade at Pinewood are required to complete two main summer reading assignments. They include the following items:

1. They must completely read the book of Mark in the New Testament. There will be a test over the material read. The test will be given on the Tuesday after Labor Day. The score will count for both English and Bible classes.

Miss Klemm recommends that Mark be read during the month of August so

that the details are still fresh in the mind for the test. She also

recommends that students read their Bibles everyday of the summer break

so that they might grow in their knowledge of the Scripture and its Author.

It would be wonderful if all Pinewood graduates had read all four Gospels

and Acts before they graduate.

2. They must read one novel of choice from an approved list and answer specific

questions about it by using paragraph form. The list and question format

are attached. If students have another work of worthy fiction or non-

fiction, that they have wanted to read, and have never read before, they

should contact Miss Klemm at pamklemm@yahoo.com to ask permission.

Students should be sure to list that they have a summer reading question in

the subject line of the e-mail, or I may delete their questions as spam because I will not recognize the person sending the e-mail.

All work should be typed or neatly hand-written using blue or black ink, complete sentences, and formal essay-style paragraphing, which my students practiced last year. I will review this again with all students within the first few days of school. All assignments are due in English class on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Failure to complete each part of the assignment will impact the first quarter’s English grade (and the Bible grade for the reading of Mark only).

Students may appeal to read a different, high-quality book by contacting Miss Klemm at her e-mail address: pamklemm@yahoo.com. She will let you know as soon as possible of her decision. Students should not choose books with large print and lots of pictures, which are of a much lower reading level than expected of middle schoolers.

2007/2008 Summer Reading for Entering 8th- graders

* Bible - Read the book of Mark

* English - Read one book from the following list:

Little Women or Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen(*challenging reading)
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle Avi
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

Alice ’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass

And Then There Were None (or any Agatha Christie mystery)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe

The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper(*challenging reading)
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot
Redwall (or any book from this series) Brian Jacques

Captain’s Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee (*some mature material)

Indian Captive by Lois Lenski
Any C.S. Lewis novel not previously read
The Call of the Wild or White Fang by Jack London
The Giver Lois Lowry

Any Gary Paulsen novel not previously read

The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck

Hangman’s Curse by Frank Peretti
Christy Catherine Marshall
Anne of Green Gables J.M. Montgomery

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls
Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott
Black Beauty Anna Sewell
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Heidi Johanna Spyri
The Pearl John Steinbeck
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred Taylor
The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien (or any Tolkein novel not previously read)

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss

BIOGRAPHICAL CHOICES

Through the Gates of Splendor Elizabeth Elliott

The Hiding Place Corrie ten Boom
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story Ben Carson, MD
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.

You may also read any of the biographies in the Janet & Geoff Benge series called Heroes of History or any of the Barbour Publishing biographies in the series called Heroes of the Faith. These may be found in Christian bookstores or ordered on line. Many of them are also in our school’s library and may be checked out during the summer by following proper check-out procedures.

After reading your book, you need to write an essay which includes the following:

(This essay will be turned in during English class on the Tuesday after Labor Day.)
1st paragraph: Identify the title, author, and genre (*type of book). Give your general impression of the book and tell two reasons why you feel that way.
2nd paragraph: This paragraph should focus on specific examples from the book that support what you said in reason #1 in the first paragraph.
3rd paragraph: This paragraph should focus on specific examples from the book that support what you said in reason #2 in the first paragraph.
4th paragraph: Summarize your ideas here. Critique the book to next year’s group of eighth graders and tell why they would (or would not) like it.
Give your essay a title. If you use the book title as your essay title, type it in italics. Put your name and the date in the upper-right-hand corner of your paper. Type (double-space) or write your essay in cursive using a blue or black pen. Neatness is important!

(*Genre examples = mystery fiction, autobiography, biography, adventure fiction)

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