Summer Reading List 6th Going into 7th Grade
Grover Cleveland Middle School
Read one of the books on this list based on your interest and reading level. Complete the summer reading assignment for the first day of school.
Cover
Reading/
Interest
Lvl
Title
Author
Genre
Summary
CLOSE TO
FAMOUS
Bauer,Joan
Realistic
Fiction
It's midnight and Foster McFee and her mother are being chased out of
Memphis by an Elvis impersonator. Where are they heading? Somewhere.
Foster was hoping for a location you can find on a map. She has a lot of
hopes, this girl. And one of them is to make the world a better place, one
cupcake at a time... (author website)
Grade: 6-7
Hopeless. Freak. Elephant. Pitiful. These are the words of Skinny, the
vicious voice that lives inside fifteen-year-old Ever Davies's head. Skinny
tells Ever all the dark thoughts her classmates have about her. Ever knows
she weighs over three hundred pounds, knows she'll probably never be
loved, and Skinny makes sure she never forgets it.
Grade: 7-10
SKINNY
Cooner, Donna
Realistic
Fiction
ReadingLvl:
5.0
Reading
Lvl:6.5
But there is another voice: Ever's singing voice, which is beautiful but has
been silenced by Skinny. Partly in the hopes of trying out for the school
musical - and partly to try and save her own life - Ever decides to undergo
a risky surgery that may help her lose weight and start over.
NO
PASSENGERS
BEYOND THIS
POINT
Choldenko,
Gennifer
Mystery,
Suspense,
Fantasy
Three siblings - India, Finn, and Mouse - have less than forty-eight hours
to pack up all their belongings and fly, without Mom, to their Uncle Red's
in Colorado, after they lose their house to foreclosure. But when they land,
a mysterious driver meets them at the airport, and he's never heard of
Uncle Red. Like Dorothy in Oz, they find themselves in a place they've
never heard of, with no idea of how to get home, and time is running out.
In a total departure, GenniferCholdenko tells a story of adventure and
survival, set in a fantastical place with rules all its own. Sharp dialogue,
high stakes, and taut action make this a book that will stick with you long
after you read the incredible ending.
GoodReads.com
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.
Grade: 6-8
Reading Lvl:
5.5
Cover
Title
Author
Genre
Summary
WE BEAT THE
STREET
Davis, Sampson
Non-fiction
Growing up on the rough streets of Newark, New Jersey, Rameck, George,
and Sampson could easily have followed their childhood friends into drug
dealing, gangs, and prison. But when a presentation at their school made
the three boys aware of the opportunities available to them in the medical
and dental professions, they made a pact among themselves that they
would become doctors.
Reading/
Interest
Lvl
Grade: 6-8
Reading Lvl:
7.0
It took a lot of determination—and a lot of support from one another—but
despite all the hardships along the way, the three succeeded. Retold with
the help of an award-winning author, this younger adaptation of the adult
hit novel The Pact is a hard-hitting, powerful, and inspirational book that
will speak to young readers everywhere.
LEGEND
Lu, Mary
Science
Fiction
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations,
fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant
soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
Grade: 7-9
ReadingLvl:
7.5
Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel is sure to move
readers as much as it thrills.
A MANGO
SHAPED SPACE
Mass, Wendy
Realistic
Fiction
Thirteen-year-old Mia Winchell appears to be a typical eighth grader. But
Mia is keeping a secret from everyone who knows her: sounds, numbers
and words appear in color for her. Mia has synesthesia, the mingling of
perceptions whereby a person can see sounds, smell colors, or taste
shapes. "A Mango-Shaped Space is a poignant, coming-of-age novel spiced
with wit and humor that chronicles Mia's developing appreciation of her
gift and the part it plays in her life.
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.
Grade: 6-8
Reading Lvl:
7.0
Cover
Title
Author
Genre
Summary
HOOPS
Myers, Walter
Dean
Realistic
Fiction
All eyes are on seventeen-year-old Lonnie Jackson while he practices with
his team for a city-wide basketball Tournament of Champions. His coach,
Cal, knows Lonnie has what it takes to be a pro-basketball player, but
warns him about giving in to the pressure. Cal knows because he, too, once
had the chance, but sold out.
Reading/
Interest
Lvl
Grade:: 6-8
Reading
Lvl:6.0
As the Tournament nears, Lonnie learns that some heavy bettors want Cal
to keep him on the bench so that the team will lose the championship. As
the last seconds of the game tick away Lonnie and Cal must make a
decision. Are they willing to blow the chance of a lifetime?
BETWEEN THE
LINES
THE LOST
HERO
Picoult, Jodi
Riordan, Rick
Realistic
Fiction
Fantasy
Quirky loner Delilah discovers a fairy tale in her high-school library and
develops a raging crush on its handsome prince. She is startled but
delighted to discover that he can actually see her and speak to her. In
alternating chapters Oliver and Delilah relate their adventures in
liberating Oliver from the two-dimensional page into Delilah’s threedimensional world. Picoult’s teenage daughter pitched the idea to her
mother, and together the two have created a compulsively readable
charmer.
Grade: 7-10
Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on
a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she's his girlfriend
Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the
Wilderness School, a boarding school for bad kids. What he did to end up
here, Jason has no idea except that everything seems very wrong. Piper
has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid
nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't
recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during
a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace
called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on? Rick Riordan, the best-selling
author of the Percy Jackson series, pumps up the action and suspense in
The Lost Hero, the first book in The Heroes of Olympus series. Fans of
demi-gods, prophesies, and quests will be left breathless--and panting for
Book Two.
Grade:
5–7
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.
Reading
Lvl: 7.5
Reading
Lvl: 5.0
Cover
Reading/
Interest
Lvl
Title
Author
Genre
Summary
BETWEEN
SHADES OF
GRAY
Sepetys, Ruta
Historical
Fiction
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She
paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet
officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life
they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and
dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their
way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest
reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for
beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina finds
solace in her art, meticulously — and at great risk — documenting events
by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's
prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing
journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through
incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.
Grade: 7-10
PEAK
Smith, Roland
After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper,
he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live
with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But
Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings
attached. Big strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach
the Everest summit — and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a
climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime.
But it's also one that could cost him his life.
Grade:
5-7
Thirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal life (well, almost): He plays
drums in the All-Star Jazz Band, has a crush on the hottest girl in school
(who doesn’t know he’s alive), frequently finds himself sitting across from
his school counselor (who bribes him with candy), and is constantly
annoyed by his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey (who is cuter than cute). Oh,
Steven has parents, too (the kind that embarrass him). But when Jeffrey
gets sick, Steven’s world is turned upside down as he is forced to deal with
his brother’s illness, his parents’ attempts to keep the family in one piece,
the band, overdue homework, girls, and of course, Dangerous Pie (yes, you
have to listen to the book to find out what that is).
Grade: 5-8th
grade
DRUMS, GIRLS,
and
DANGEROUS
PIE
Sonnenblick,
Jordan
Realistic
Fiction
Realistic
Fiction
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.
Reading
Lvl: 7.0
Reading Lvl:
6.0
Reading
Lvl: 7.0
Cover
Title
Author
Genre
Summary
UGLIES
Westerfeld,
Scott
Science
Fiction
Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with
that? Tally Youngblood is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for
her driver's license — for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth
birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a
stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise
where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally
will be there.
Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female
ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But
Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the
society. She'd rather risk life on the outside and urges Tally to defect with
her. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the
pretty world — and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the
worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never
turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.
Reading/
Interest
Lvl
Grade:
Grades 7 –
10
Reading
Lvl: 7.5
ADVANCED OPTIONS Summer Reading List 6th Going into 7th Grade
Grover Cleveland Middle School
If you feel that you are up for a challenge, read one of the books on this list instead of the previous one. Base your choice on your interest and reading level. Complete
the summer reading assignment for the first day of school.
Cover
Title
Author
Genre
Summary
A SEPARATE
PEACE
Knowles, John
Realistic
Fiction
This is an enduring bestseller about a tragic incident that indelibly marks
the lives of two sixteen-year-old students attending boarding school
during the early years of World War II.
Reading/
Interest
Lvl
Grade:
9 – 12
Reading Lvl:
8.5
THE GOLDEN
COMPASS
Philip Pullman
Fantasy/
Adventure
In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites
readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia,
Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named LyraBelacqua,
whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is
shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle,
Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North,
including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust
and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he
suspects is part of an alternate universe.
He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and
explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused
her. In this multilayered narrative, however, "nothing is as it seems. Lyra
sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate,
Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All
around her children are disappearing — victims of so-called "Gobblers" —
and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans
from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And
somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.
Grade:
7-12
Reading Lvl:
8.0
© Jessica A. Sental
All images, levels, and summaries are from Scholastic.com, Follet’sTitleWave, or Amazon.com.