Wilmington Public Schools: Summer Reading, 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.
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?
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.
Grade 9
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.
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.
Fast-Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, introduces the reader to the folks who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and “what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns.”
*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.
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.
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 Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride
Ruth McBride Jordan, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America as a baby. As an adult, she left her family and faith behind when she moved from Virginia to New York City. The Color of Water is a son’s account of his mother’s true heart, solid values, and indomitable will, undaunted by two marriages, twelve children, and years of battling isolation, poverty, and racism.
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
Before You Know Kindness, Chris Bohjalian
For ten summers, the Seton family—all three generations—met at their country home in New England to spend a week together playing tennis, badminton, and golf, and savoring gin and tonics on the wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season. In the eleventh summer, everything changed. A hunting rifle with a single cartridge left in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong time, and led to a nightmarish accident that put to the test the values that unite the family—and the convictions that just may pull it apart.
*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.
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.
Carrie, Stephen King
Carrie’s conservative, religious-zealot mother barely speaks to her, except to demand Carrie’s devotion to God and to punish her for wanting normal teenage things—like friends, or to go to dances. Carrie is also tormented at school for her ignorance and her unpopularity—but all that is about to change. Because Carrie is developing telekinetic powers, and the popular crowd has one last chance to not be cruel before Carrie uses her newfound abilities to fight back.
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
Empire Falls is an ensemble book, centering on greasy-spoon proprietor Miles Roby, Miles’s ex-wife Janine, his cantankerous father Max, his creative but lonely daughter Tick, and a host of Empire Grill regulars. Love and marriage, lust and loss, small-town economics and class resentment—this is, in a sense, an epic of small and large frustrations, a compelling novel of the cherished hopes and dreams of ordinary people.
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.
Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
Viral marketing, globetrotting, logo phobias, and corporate espionage—plus internet culture, pop culture, advertising, and paranoia. But most of that is beside the point: who is making the footage that everyone’s talking about and for what purpose? And who is it sending hired thugs after Cayse Pollard to make sure she’s not the first to find out?
Bee Season, Myla Goldberg
When young Eliza proves, almost by accident, that she's not the irrelevant mediocrity her entire family believes her to be, the entire family's delicate balance is disrupted. Each fires off on a separate trajectory, delving deeper into secret obsessions—from Cabbala to Hare Krishna to compulsive nighttime thefts—in clumsy pursuit of the profound spiritual transformations lingering always on life's periphery.
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.
The Dead Fathers Club, Matt Haig
Philip Noble is at his father funeral when his dad’s ghost visits him for the first time, to warn him that Uncle Alan tampered with the car and now plans to move in on Philip’s mom and the family business. He begs Philip to avenge his death so he can move on—and if Philip hasn’t killed Uncle Alan by his dad’s birthday, Dad will be stuck in The Terrors forever. But killing someone isn’t easy, and between his father’s ghost, Uncle Alan’s constant presence in Philip’s house, and Philip’s first girlfriend (Leah, and her penchant for shoplifting), Philip is in way over his head.
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?
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
A surprisingly not-gory look at what happens—or can happen, should you sign the necessary paperwork ahead of time—after death, including the religious and cultural histories of burial and the practical applications of cadavers. Anatomy classrooms, safety research, forensic testing, organ donation, even cannibalism—there are myriad ways to use a cadaver, and Mary Roach covers all of them. Entertaining, informative, engaging, and a strange combination of irreverent and respectful.
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