Assignment:

Students are required to write a letter for each of the three books they read over the summer. The letters to your teacher should contain:

1. A brief description of the book, including information about the:

• Setting — where it takes place, time in history (minimum of 1 paragraph),
• Main characters — use appearance and personality traits (minimum of 1 paragraph).
  
• Conflicts the main character faces — tell how he/she solves these conflicts.  Remember, conflicts are struggles confronting the character; they may be character versus character, character versus nature, and character versus him/herself (minimum of 3 paragraphs).

2. Questions — What were some questions you had while you were reading?  Did you still have questions when you finished the book?

3. Connections — Make at least 2 connections. For example text to self, text to text, or text to world.

4. Would you recommend this book to others? Why or why not?

5. Vocabulary — Create a list of words (10 minimum) that you did not know.

Required Reading:

Diary of a Young Girl  by Anne Frank
A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps.
On the web!: http://www.annefrank.com/

Choose at least two others from the titles below:

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done,"  especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.  

The Afterlife by Gary Soto
A senior at East Fresno High School lives on as a ghost after his brutal murder in the restroom of a club where he had gone to dance.
On the web!: http://www.garysoto.com/

Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers
Jesse pours his heart and soul into his sketch-book to make sense of life in his troubled Harlem neighborhood and the loss of a close friend.
On the web!: http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/

Baseball in April by Gary Soto
A collection of eleven short stories focusing on the everyday adventures of Hispanic young people growing up in Fresno, California.
On the web!: http://www.garysoto.com/

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.
On the web!: http://www.scholastic.com/titles/chasingvermeer/

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland.
On the web!: http://janeyolen.com/

Eragon by Christopher Paolini
In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.
On the web!: http://www.alagaesia.com/

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
On the web!: http://www.loislowry.com/

Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Inspired by his teacher, eleven-year-old Lonnie begins to write about his life in a series of poems in which he discusses his feelings about his friends, his foster mom, his little sister, Lili, and the death of his parents.
On the web!: http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
A street child, known to himself only as Stopthief, finds community when he is taken in by a band of orphans in Warsaw ghetto which helps him weather the horrors of the Nazi regime.
On the web!: http://www.jerryspinelli.com/

Mummies of the Pharaohs by Melvin & Gilda Berger
Discusses the archaeology of the Valley of the Kings, where many of ancient Egypt's pharaohs were  buried.
On the web!: http://www.clevelandart.org/kids/egypt/

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story about Brain Science by John Fleischman
The true story of Phineas Gage, whose brain had been pierced by an iron rod in 1848, and who survived and became a case study in how the brain functions.

Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
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.
On the web!: http://www.alexrider.com/

Travel Team by Mike Lupica
After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national prominence--twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.

The Wednesday Wars by David Schmidt
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
A young boy living in the Ozarks achieves his heart's desire when he becomes the owner of two redbone hounds and teaches them to be champion hunters.

Email readingsummer@chelseaschools.com 
if you have questions about the books or the assignments.

These books can be checked out from:

The Chelsea Public Library
Hours: Mon & Tue 9am-9pm
Wed & Thur 9am-8pm
Fri 9am-5pm & Sat 9am-12noon
 
The Williams School Library
Monday-Thursday
12noon-3pm
July 7th - Aug 7th

...Or purchased at Barnes & Noble, Saugus.