Wilmington Public Schools: Summer Reading 2009, Grades 6-12
Grade 6
Crash, Jerry Spinelli
From the first time Crash saw tiny, nerdy Penn when they were five years old, Crash knew that Penn was going to be his target. Now that they’re in seventh grade, not much has changed—except that Crash’s little sister is becoming an environmentalist, their parents don’t have time to see him win football games, and Crash’s grandfather’s health is failing. But when Penn drops by with an unexpected act of kindness, Crash starts to think about what it means to sacrifice something important for somebody else.
The written assignment for this book was enclosed with the final fifth-grade report card. Copies may be available at the Wilmington Memorial Library, or as a .pdf file at the Wilmington Middle School's website here.
Grade 7
The Revealers, Doug Wilhelm
When Russell accidentally provokes the school bully, he doesn’t know what to do, so he joins forces with two other outcasts: small, dinosaur-obsessed Elliot and new student Catalina. Starting with a letter Catalina has written to the student body, the trio writes their new publication, The Revealer, and posts it on the school’s intranet. As other students’ stories of bullying come out, the school’s culture begins to slowly change for the better. But when an unverified story gets the school accused of libel, the administration pulls the plug. With The Revealer gone, is Parkwood Middle School doomed to become Darkwood again? (The note-taking sheet for 7th grade is available as a .pdf file at the Wilmington Middle School's website here.)
Grade 8
The Wave, Todd Strasser
When Laurie’s history class is studying the Holocaust, a classmate asks why so many people went along with the Nazis. Instead of answering, their teacher introduces a new system of classroom government: The Wave, promising strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action. Something about the movement doesn’t seem right to Laurie, but she’s nearly alone in being opposed to it. Within days, the classroom experiment has taken over the whole school—and dissenters will not be tolerated. (The note-taking sheet for 8th grade is available as a .pdf file at the Wilmington Middle School's website here.)
Grade 9
Ice Time: A Tale of Fathers, Sons, and Hometown Heroes, Jay Atkinson
Jay Atkinson played on the first Methuen Rangers varsity hockey team, and 25 years later, he returns to his high school team as a volunteer assistant. The team members include the temperamental star, the fiery but troubled winger, the lovesick goalie, and the rookie whose father is battling cancer, and together they make a desperate charge into the state tournament. Atkinson takes us onto the ice and into the heart of a town and a team as he explores the profound connection between fathers and sons, and what it means to go home again.
A Painted House, John Grisham
It's harvest time on the Chandler farm in rural Arkansas, and the family has hired a crew of migrant Mexicans and "hill people" to pick 80 acres of cotton. Soon tensions begin to simmer between the Mexicans and the hill people, one of whom has a penchant for bare-knuckles brawling. This leads to a brutal murder, which 7-year-old Luke has the bad luck to witness.
Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers
Walter Dean Myers grew up in a poor family in Harlem, and in addition to being quick-tempered and strong, he was a reader who hid library books in a brown paper bag to avoid being teased. He knew he wanted to be a writer, but as he grew older, the pervasive racism caused him to doubt himself and his abilities. He still had his comforts, though—the streets and his books. In a memoir that is gripping, funny, and ultimately unforgettable, Walter Dean Myers travels back to his roots in Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s.
Sabriel, Garth Nix
On learning of her father’s disappearance, 18-year-old Sabriel must step into a role she’s been preparing for her whole life: that of the Abhorsen, a powerful image responsible for keeping the dead in Death. With the help of Mogget, her father’s bound free-magic cat, and Touchstone, the young charter mage, Sabriel struggles to
rescue her father and defeat the evil that has trapped him in Death.
*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
The adults in Francie’s life are deeply flawed—an alcoholic father, a bitterly-realistic mother, and an aunt who seeks love in all the wrong places—and cause Francie to grow up into the sum of their parts: romantic and practical, a determined, truth-seeking dreamer. Francie struggles against her circumstances in poverty-stricken Brooklyn, but ultimately thrives in this classic of American literature.
Grade 10
Feed, M.T. Anderson
The feed tracks your shopping habits and recommends similar products, it advertises things you’re walking past, it’s television shows and news and email and maps, and it’s all right there in your head. But what happens when your feed gets hacked? Titus and Violet are about to find out, because a malfunctioning feed is one thing—but a malfunctioning feed that was installed atypically besides is a much bigger problem.
Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
When Griet is hired as a servant in Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's prosperous Delft household, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant—and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Autistic teen Christopher has been falsely accused of a crime: murdering his neighbor’s poodle. Christopher, lacking the social filters necessary to empathize with people, relies on logic to help him crack the case—and while he’s at it, he might gain some understanding of his parents’ failed marriage and his place in the world. Christopher says he doesn’t understand jokes, but Curious Incident is remarkably funny and touching.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
Frankie Landau-Banks is starting her sophomore year at the elite Alabaster Academy and has caught Matthew Livingston’s attention. But while most girls would die to be Matthew's arm candy, Frankie would rather be something more than just his girlfriend. When she finds out that Matthew and his friends are part of the elusive Order of the Basset Hounds, the same male-only secret society her father reminisces about, and that the Bassets are having some trouble getting organized for a Halloween prank, she sees her opening to finally make an impact from the marginalized shadows. Frankie needs an excellent plan—and a devious strategy to pull it off.
*The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
The Book Thief follows Liesel Meminger from her trip to her new foster parents’ home and through her adolescence, with her story told by the one person who has seen it all: Death, who has affected Liesel’s life so many times that he can’t help watching her. This is an amazing story that captures the humanity, the horrors, and the everyday lives of German families during World War II.
Grade 11
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Fireman Guy Montag understands his job: he’s responsible for burning books that people hide, because books—and knowledge, and intellectual thought—really just make people unhappy. But then Montag meets Clarisse, a young neighbor who is interested in the world around her and wants to share it with him. When Clarisse disappears suddenly, Montag starts hoarding books of his own, even making plans to print new copies of old classics. Can he get away with it? Is there anyone who can help him?
*In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Capote combined painstaking research with a narrative feel to produce one of the most spellbinding stories ever put on the page. Two two-time losers living in a lonely house in western Kansas are out to make the heist of their life, but when things don't go as planned, the robbery turns ugly. From there, the book is a real-life look into murder, prison, and the criminal mind.
An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
Dillard's luminous prose painlessly captures the pain of growing up in this wonderful evocation of childhood. Her memoir is partly a hymn to Pittsburgh, where orange streetcars ran on Penn Avenue in 1953 when she was eight, and where the Pirates were always in the cellar. Dillard's mother, an unstoppable force, had energies too vast for the bridge games and household chores that stymied her. Her father made low-budget horror movies, loved Dixieland jazz, told endless jokes and sight-gags and took lonesome river trips down to New Orleans to get away. From this slightly odd couple, Dillard acquired her love of nature and taut sensitivity. The events of childhood often loom larger than life; the magic of Dillard's writing is that she sets down typical childhood happenings with their original immediacy and force.
What is the What?, Dave Eggers
What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children--the so-called Lost Boys--was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Growing up in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, in the early 1970s, Hassan was Amir's closest friend, even though the loyal 11-year-old was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever. The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics.
Grade 12
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
9-year-old Oskar is on a quest for answers after his father dies in the World Trade Center. After finding a key labeled “Black” in his father’s belongings, Oskar tries to track down the owner (by visiting every person named Black in the New York City phone directory), in the hopes of understanding something more about his father. Oskar’s story is interlaced with that of a mute old man’s life since leaving Dresden after the World War II bombings, and their stories weave together beautifully.
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
Jacob is a week from his veterinary school finals when he learns that his parents have been killed in a car accident. With no money or energy to finish his schooling, Jacob literally walks away from school and joins up with a second-rate traveling circus. Nearly everything about the circus is squalid and brutish, but Jacob manages to find some brightness to buoy his spirits. Jacob, now in his 90s, recalls his circus days and the time he spent with Rosie, the seemingly-obstinate elephant, and Marlena, the beautiful acrobat—and with the cruel, violent boss August, who happens to be Marlena’s husband.
Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane
The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades -- with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
For years, the popular crowd has been bullying Peter Houghton, until one day he fights back—by bringing four guns to school, opening fire, and killing nine classmates and a teacher. What made him do it? And how can the judge assigned to his case maintain her objectivity when her own daughter is one of the surviving
witnesses to the crime?
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
Motivated by whims and paranoia, Rose Mary and Rex—a frustrated artist and a brilliant alcoholic, respectively—uprooted their kids time and again as part of their eccentric, nomadic lifestyle. But while Rex and Rose Mary left their four children to their own devices, firmly believing children learned best from their mistakes, they themselves never learned—instead repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls’ memoir describes in detail what it was to be a child in this family.
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