Summer Reading List for Incoming

Seventh Graders

Fiction

 

Abrahams, Peter.  DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE.  Ingrid is in the wrong place at the wrong time or at least her shoes are.  Getting them back means getting involved in a murder investigation, rivaling those solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes.  

 

Anderson, Laurie Halse.  FEVER, 1793.  Against the backdrop of 1793 Yellow Fever outbreak in Philadelphia, fourteen year-old Matilda struggles to keep herself and those she loves alive.

 

Auch, Mary Jane.  ASHES OF ROSES.  Rose Nolan arrives at Ellis Island from Ireland in 1911.  Jobs are scarce but she finds one at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory shortly before the fire, which kills 146 of the workers.

 

Duncan, Lois.  DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU.  Seventeen year-old April finds her comfortable life changed forever when death threats to her father, a witness in a federal case, force her family to go into hiding under assumed names and flee the pursuit of a hired killer. 

 

French, Jackie.  HITLER’S DAUGHTER.  What if Hitler had a daughter and no one knew about her?  Mark hears the story & wonders what it would be like to love and trust someone who turns out to be evil.

 

Hogan, James P.  OUTWARD BOUND.  Fifteen year-old Line Marani, sentenced to a juvenile labor camp in twenty-second century Los Angeles for his part in a heist gone sour.  He is given a chance to redeem himself when he is offered a place on a mission beyond the stars. 

 

Sleator, William.  THE BOXES.  Annie’s uncle asks her to keep a close watch over two exotic boxes while he goes on a mysterious trip.  He said that she must not open them while he is gone.  What will it hurt to take a peek?

 

Spinelli, Jerry.  MILKWEED.  As the Nazis invade Warsaw, orphan Misha must survive his life in the Ghetto.  The reader sees the Holocaust through the eyes of this young boy.

 

Thomas, Jane Resh.  COURAGE AT INDIAN DEEP.  Forced to move to Northern Minnesota from a comfortable life in Minneapolis, a family finds the need to make some big adjustments.

 

Westerfeld, Scott,  UGLIES.  Tally resists the mandatory operation that every 16-year-old must endure to change all teens into “new pretties”.  Adventure is the result in this futuristic novel. 

 

Nonfiction

 

Freedman, Russell.  THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CRAZY HORSE.  The reader follows Crazy Horse as he grows up, meets Sitting Bull, and leads his people in the battle of Big Horn.

 

Hamilton, Bethany.  SOUL SURFER. They say Bethany Hamilton has saltwater in her veins. How else could one explain the tremendous passion that drives her to surf? How else could one explain that nothing - not even the loss of her arm in a horrific shark attack - could come between her and the waves?

 

Hoose, Phillip.  WE WERE THERE TOO:  YOUNG PEOPLE IN U.S. HISTORY.  This book contains stories of real children and teens who contributed to important events in American history from Columbus’ arrival right up to the 1090’s. 

 

McKissack, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, Jr.  BLACK DIAMOND: THE STORY OF THE NEGRO BASEBALL LEAGUES.  Stories and colorful quotes fill the pages of this fascination history of the Negro baseball leagues before desegregation in 1947.  The book highlights the talented players and focuses on their second-rate living and playing conditions.