1. 6th Grade Summer Reading List
2015
Book Blurbs

2. Crash Jerry Spinelli
Realistic Fiction
Required for ALL students.

3. Crash Jerry Spinelli
Seventh grader John “Crash” Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior. Then his friendship with a Quaker boy and his grandfather’s stroke make Crash think more about the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.

4. Choose from the following titles for your second summer book selection.

5. On My Honor Marion Dane Bauer
Realistic Fiction

6. On My Honor Marion Dane Bauer
Tragedy strikes when Joel and his best friend Tony go swimming in the forbidden, treacherous Vermilion River. Joel is terrified at having to tell of his disobedience and overwhelmed by his feelings of guilt.

7. Running Out of Time Margaret Peterson Haddix
Realistic, Adventure Fiction

8. Running Out of Time Margaret Peterson Haddix
Thirteen year old Jessie Keyser, lives with her family in a town called Clifton; the year is The truth is that Jesse, her family, and a few other families live in a model village that is really observed by tourists and run by unethical scientists. When a deadly disease breaks out in the village, Jesse learns the truth about Clifton when she is asked to leave the village to seek medical help for the sick children in the community. Jesse is suddenly in the “real world” coping with cars and other inventions she has never seen.

9. Esperanza Rising Pam Munez Ryan
Historical,
Multicultural Fiction

10. Esperanza Rising Pam Munez Ryan
Esperanza's Papa, a wealthy land owner and grape farmer, is murdered by bandits the evening before her thirteenth birthday celebration. Esperanza’s expectations for an elaborate birthday celebration are shattered, and Papa’s mean, powerful stepbrothers burn down the family farm in an attempt to claim the family’s influence and land. Esperanza, her mother, and their servants flee to the United States to work in the farms in California. Esperanza, once considered a child princess, is unwillingly forced into a world of hard work where daily survival is very difficult.

11. The Capture Kathryn Lasky
Fantasy

12. The Capture Kathryn Lasky
When Soren, a barn owl, arrives at St. Aggie’s, a school for orphaned owls, he suspects trouble. With his elf owl friend named Gylfie, he begins a dangerous journey to save all owls from the danger at St. Aggie’s.

13. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Realistic Fiction

14. Out of My Mind Sharon Draper
Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

15. Stolen into Slavery: The True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man Judith Blume Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin
Biography

16. Stolen into Slavery: The True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man Judith Blume Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin
Solomon Northup awoke in the middle of the night with his body trembling. Slowly, he realized that he was handcuffed in a dark room and his feet were chained to the floor. He managed to slip his hand into his pocket to look for his free papers that proved he was one of 400,000 free blacks in a nation where 2.5 million other African Americans were slaves. They were gone.   .

17. Summer Books
Read the one required book for all 6th grade students. Then choose one book from the remaining titles for your summer reading assignment.
The books can be purchased at the summer book sale or local book stores!

18. Summer Book Reading Suggestions
If you read the book early in the summer, reread it in August to refresh your memory of the story and its details.
If you own the book, you can make notes, ‘talking to the text’, as you read. If you don’t own the book, record notes separately on Post Its or your Reader’s Notebook.
Note the setting components
Note characters’ names and personality traits
Note the conflict
Note the resolution
Note plot details and events in the story
Keep notes for review in August. Bring handwritten notes to class when you return to GVMS. Books and handwritten notes may used for the test.