Summer Reading for Middle School Students

Palmer Catholic Academy

2008

Rising Sixth Grade Students: Students entering the sixth grade are required to read the following novels over the summer and complete the writing response assignment on the back of this page.

· The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell

· The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg

Rising Seventh Grade Students: Students entering the seventh grade are required to read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and to be prepared for a test the first week of school. In addition to this novel, seventh grade students are required to read one additional novel from the list below.

· Call of the Wild by Jack London

· Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne W. Houston

· Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli

· Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

· Christy by Catherine Marshall

· Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

After reading The Lightning and a novel chosen from the above list, complete the writing response assignment on the back of this page.

Rising Eighth Grade Students: Students entering the eighth grade are required to read The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom and to be prepared for a test the first week of school. In addition to this novel, eighth grade students are required to read one additional novel from the list below.

· Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

· Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

· Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

· The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

· Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe

· Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

After reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven and a novel chosen from the above list, complete the writing response assignment on the back of this page.

Summer Reading

Writing Response Assignment

For each novel you have read, choose two questions from below and answer them thoroughly using 2-3 well-formed paragraphs for each question.

1. Offer your character advice about his or her problem.

2. Explain why you think a character is acting the way he/she is.

3. Copy an interesting, confusing, important or enjoyable passage and explain why you chose it.

4. Pick one character and explain why you would or would not like to have him/her as a friend.

5. Explain why you would or would not like to have lived in the time and or place of your novel.

6. Explain the values of a character you like or dislike. Are they similar to your values?

7. What real-life people or events are you reminded of by characters or events in the story?

8. Write about what would happen if you brought one of your characters to school or home for the day.

9. Pick a scene in which you disagreed how a character handled a situation/person and rewrite the way you think it should have happened.