Shenendehowa Central School
Middle School English
Diane L. DeSilva, Academic Administrator
ex. 53571
To: Incoming Grade 6 Students and Parents
From: Diane DeSilva
Re: Suggested Summer Reading Lists 2009
April 21, 2009
Attached are the summer reading lists for Grade 6 English. These lists are newly revised with suggestions from teachers and our librarians. Reading is certainly one of the most beneficial activities that a student can engage in over the summer and your children’s teachers strongly encourage it.
The New York State Education Department has long encouraged students to read during the summer as it enhances literacy skills developed throughout the school year. Reading for enjoyment is a practice that helps children increase their vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. It is extremely important for students receiving Academic Intervention Services (AIS) to read over the summer. Before returning to school in September, students in Grade 6 English should read two (2) book selections from the summer list. However, our goal is to keep students reading over the summer and if there are other selections they prefer to read, we support that, as well. If your student struggles, even listening to books on tape as you travel is better than no reading at all.
Upon returning to school in September, students will be asked by their English teacher to complete a written assignment based upon the books read over the summer. The assignments vary from teacher to teacher, so the best preparation is careful reading. Student will receive a graphic organizer from their teacher to use to keep track of summer reading. While we are promoting reading as a skill, the enjoyment of reading, particularly summer reading, is important. You may also order books from your child’s class book club, or visit a book fair at your child’s school for more choices. We are also including two websites that can help direct you to great choices for summer reading:
www.ala.org/alsc/newbery.html
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/
While the utmost care has been used in preparing a list of books that is best suited for Grade 6 students, parents are encouraged to review the titles that their students have chosen. Appropriate choices are best made as a family.
With numerous school districts in the area having summer reading lists, availability of books inevitably becomes an issue. In addition to our area public libraries, Borders Bookstores in Clifton Park, and Barns and Noble in Saratoga have agreed to stock and display some titles.
970 Route 146, Clifton Park, N.Y. 12065
(518) 881-0430 or x 53570
E-mail desidian@shenet.org
Grade 6 2009 Non-Fiction Summer Reading List
Allen, Thomas George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied
the British and Won the Revolutionary War
A biography of Revolutionary War general and first President of the United States, George Washington focusing on his use of spies to gather intelligence that helped the colonies win the war.
Blumberg, Rhoda Shipwrecked!: The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy
In 1841, rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him and his four companions castaways on a remote island, fourteen-year-old Manjiro learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the United States.
Brewster, Hugh Anastasia’s Album
In a scrapbook derived from journals, letters, photographs, and watercolor paintings, the life of the last Russian princess is recreated, providing glimpes into her home life, the revolution, and her family's subsequent captivity.
Fleischman, John Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
Tells the story of Phineas Gage, a railroad construction foreman who survived eleven years years after an accident in which a thirteen-pound iron rod shot through his brain.
Fleischman, Sid Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini
A biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death in 1926.
Glover, Savion Savion!: My Life in Tap
Examines the life and career of the young tap dancer who speaks with his feet and who choreographed the Tony Award-winning Broadway show "Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk."
Macaulay, David Building Big
Focuses on the connections between the planning and design problems and the solutions that are finally reached when building bridges, tunnels, skyscrapers, domes, and dams.
Mortenson, Greg Three Cups of Tea
On a 1993 expedition to climb K2 in honor of his sister Christa, who had died of epilepsy at 23, Mortenson stumbled upon a remote mountain village in Pakistan. Out of gratitude for the villagers' assistance when he was lost and near death, he vowed to build a school for the children who were scratching lessons in the dirt.
Myers, Walter Dean U.S.S. Constellation: Pride of the American Navy
Examines the histories of the two American Navy ships called “USS Constellation" the first launched in 1797 and the second in 1854, discussing the role of the vessel in suppressing the illegal slave trade and in the Civil War, looking at what life was like for a sailor on the ship, and discussing its restoration in the 1990s.
Poole, Josephine Joan of Arc
A biography of the fifteenth-century peasant girl who led a French army to victory against the English, witnessed the crowning of King Charles VII, and was later burned at the stake for witchcraft.
Watkins, Richard Ross Gladiator
Describes the history of gladiators, including types of armor, use of animals, amphitheaters, and how the practice fit into Roman society for almost 700 years.
Grade 6 2009 Fiction Summer Reading List
Allison, Jennifer Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator Series
During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower.
Babbit, Natalie Tuck Everlasting
Welcome to the town of Treegap. The Tucks and Fosters are brought together by a magic water spring. Winnie Foster learns the importance of the life cycle and that it has a natural beauty and balance. She learns that this should not be disturbed by human greed.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson The Secret Garden
Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.
Clements, Andrew No Talking
The noisy fifth grade boys of Laketon Elementary School challenge the equally loud fifth grade girls to a "no talking" contest.
Curtis, Chirtopher Paul Elijah of Buxton
Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South in 1859, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.
#DiCamillo, Kate The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
#DiTerlizzi, Tony The Spiderwick Chronicles – The Field Guide (series)
When the Grace children go to stay at their Great Aunt Lucinda's worn Victorian house, they discover a field guide to fairies and other creatures and begin to have some unusual experiences.
Dowd, Siobhan London Eye
When Ted and Kat's cousin Salim disappears from the London Eye ferris wheel, the two siblings must work together--Ted with his brain that is "wired differently" and impatient Kat--to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Salim.
DuPrau, Jeanne City of Ember
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
#Durrant, Lynda Echohawk
A twelve-year-old white boy , adopted and raised by Mochicans in the Hudson River Valley during the 1730's, is sent with his younger brother to an English settlement for schooling.
Feinstein, John Last Shot
After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being blackmailed into throwing the final game.
Ferris, Jean Once Upon a Marigold
A young man with a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father.
Gantos, Jack
Funke, Cornelia Dragon Rider
After learning that humans are headed toward his hidden home, Firedrake, a silver dragon, is joined by a brownie and an orphan boy in a quest to find the legendary valley known as the Rim of Heaven, encountering friendly and unfriendly creatures along the way, and struggling to evade the relentless pursuit of an old enemy.
Golden, Christopher
Sniegoski, Thomas Outcast the Un-Magician
Timothy has spent his life on a remote hidden island. He is the only person in existence without magical powers. When he is able to return to his birthplace, he finds out he is marked for death. The government is watching his every move. He can’t imagine why, he wields no power. Or does he?
#Haddix, Margaret Peterson Among the Hidden
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm, until another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong.
Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn (series)
While attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a merchant's son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors in eighteenth-century Japan.
Horowitz, Anthony Stormbreaker (Alex Ryder series)
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.
Hunter, Erin Into the Wild (Warriors series)
Rusty, a bored house kitten, is apprenticed by the ThunderClan and must struggle to fit in when the group of feral cats is threatened by the enemy ShadowClan.
Ibbotson, Eva Dial-A-Ghost
A family of nice ghosts protects a British orphan from the diabolical plans of his evil guardians.
Kehret, Peg Abduction
Thirteen-year-old Bonnie has a feeling of foreboding on the very day that her six-year-old brother Matt and their dog Pookie are abducted, and she becomes involved in a major search effort as well as a frightening adventure.
Korman, Gordon No More Dead Dogs
Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest changes that improve not only the play but his life as well.
Korman, Gordan Kidnapped (series)
Aiden teams up with the FBI to track down his sister Meg who was kidnapped while they were walking home from school.
Korman, Gordan Swindle
After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palamino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino's heavily guarded store and steal the card back, planning to use the money to finance his father's failing invention, the Smart Pick fruit picker.
Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (series)
Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia.
Lowery, Lois Willoughbys
In this tongue-in-cheek take on classic themes in children's literature, the four Willoughby children set about to become "deserving orphans" after their neglectful parents embark on a treacherous around-the-world adventure, leaving them in the care of an odious nanny.
#Lubar, David Punished!
After Logan receives a face full of magic dust from a man in the reference section of the library, he finds the only way to stop his incessant punning is to find oxymorons, anagrams, and palindromes to fulfill the requirements of three quests.
Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables (series)
An orphan girl mistakenly sent to Prince Edward Island to live with a lonely old couple changes their lives.
O’Connor, Barbara How To Steal a Dog
Living in the family car in their small North Carolina town after their father leaves them virtually penniless, Georgina, desperate to improve their situation and unwilling to accept her overworked mother's calls for patience, persuades her younger brother to help her in an elaborate scheme to get money by stealing a dog and then claiming the reward that the owners are bound to offer.
Paterson, Katherine The Bridge To Terabithia
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.
Paulsen, Gary Lawn Boy
Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy when a neighbor convinces him to expand his summer lawn mowing business.
Raskin, Ellen The Westing Game
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.
Riordan, Rick Lightning Thief
Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control his temper, learns the truth from his mother that his father is the Greek god Poseidon, and is sent to Camp Half Blood where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter of Athena who join him in a journey to the Underworld to retrieve Zeus's lightning bolt and prevent a catastrophic war.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter
Harry lives in a tiny closet in his uncle, aunt and cousin’s house. He hasn’t celebrated his birthday in eleven years. All of that changes when he is invited to a wonderful, mysterious, magical place. Join Harry and his adventure to a place of broomsticks, invisibility cloaks and dragons.
#Selznick, Brian The Invention of Hugo Cabret
When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toy seller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
Smelcer, John E. The Trap
In alternating chapters, seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel, who is better known for brains than brawn, worries about his missing grandfather, and the grandfather, Albert Least-Weasel, struggles to survive, caught in his own steel trap in the Alaskan winter.
Spinelli, Jerry Loser
Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.
Springer, Nancy Enola Olmes Mystery (series)
Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.
VanDraanen, Wendelin Sammy Keyes (series)
Sammy continues to make life with her grandmother interesting as she tries to discover who is stealing from St. Mary's church, befriends a homeless girl, and plays in a softball tournament against a bitter rival.
# - Easier Reading
Grade 6 Summer Reading Rubric:
Name __________________________ Date__________________________
Book Title:__________________________ Author: __________________________
1. Tell about the Main Character (s). Include names and personalities:___________
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B. Conflicts the main character or another character faced: _______________________
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2. Tell about the setting: (Where and When this story took place) ________________
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3. Summarize the plot: (What happened in the story?) ____________________________
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4. What did you like the most about this book? ____________________________________
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5. What questions do you have? _____________________________________________________
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