Summer Reading

Summer reading helps students stay engaged academically during the summer months. There are many different opportunities for students to expand upon their learning, reading being one of them, if they would like. Outlined below are suggested reading lists for each of the grade levels.

Best wishes for a wonderful summer,

Jarrod Caprow, Assistant Dean of Academics & PEAKS® Department Chair

For Students Entering Grade 6

Please consider the following books or select your own:

Advanced Readers

• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
• Boys without Names by Kashmira Sheth
• Minrs series by Kevin Sylvester
• The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang

At-Grade Level Readers

• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
• The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
• Save Me A Seat by Sarah Weeks

English Language Learners

• A Boy at War by Harry Mazer
• Star in the Forest by Laura Resau
• Bone series by Jeff Smith
• Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine

For Students Entering Grade 7

Please consider the following books or select your own:

• The Crossover series by Kwame Alexander
• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
• My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
• The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
• Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
• The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963: 25th Anniversary Edition by Christopher Paul Curtis
• The Maze Runner series of books by James Dashner
• City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
• Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza
• Redwall series of books by Brian Jacques
• The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
• Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood (Graphic Novel) by Tony Lee
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Call of the Wild by Jack London
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
• Percy Jackson series of books by Rick Riordan
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
• Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry
• Quilted Landscape: Conversations with Young Immigrants by Yale Strom
• The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

For Students Entering Grade 8

1. All students entering grade 8 are to read Over Under Sideways Down (PDF), Ebrahim's story by Karrie Fransman (available electronically from the British Red Cross).
2. Please consider the following books or select your own:

• The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi Charley
• Skedaddle by Patricia Beatty
• Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• Monkey Island by Paula Fox
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• The Diamond Brothers series by Anthony Horowitz
• Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
• Redwall series by Brian Jacques
• Dalemark series by Diana Wynne Jones
• Secret by Kathryn Lasky
• March series by John Lewis, et. al.
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
• Beyond the Sand and Sea by Ty McCormick
• The Other Side of Dark by Joan Lowery Nixon
• The Tree is Older Than You Are: A Bilingual Gathering of Poems and Stories from Mexico by Naomi Shihab Nye
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
• The Song of the Lioness by Tamora Pierce
• Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• A Ride into Morning by Ann Rinaldi
• Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
• How I Became A Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story by Tim Tingle
• Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
• I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Books that have been awarded the John Newbery Medal are also good selections.

For Students Entering Grade 9

Please consider the following books or select your own:

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• Mosquitoland by David Arnold
• Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
• The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett
• Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• Gidget by Frederick Kohner
• Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
• Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick
• Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
• Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto
• I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak