Grafton Middle School
22 Providence Road
Grafton, Massachusetts 01519
Tel: 508-839-5420 - Fax: 508-839-8528
Roseanne B. Kurposka
​Principal
Timothy J. Fauth
Assistant Principal
Dear Student,
Over the summer, you will read one book about survival. To help you find a book that
you like, we have provided you with a list of options. This list is meant to be helpful, not
limiting; please feel free to find your own book about survival. The Grafton Public Library, and
its librarians, are an excellent resource to help guide you through this process.
After you read your book, please answer the questions on the attached paper.
On September 7, 2017, you need to bring in your book and the completed worksheet.
These questions will help transition you into your new ELA class. You will use these questions
as a foundation for a book talk, in which you will share your book, thoughts, and findings with
your class and teacher.
If you have any questions, please contact the Grafton Middle School at 508.839.5420.
Happy Reading!
Nancy Athanas, 7th Grade ELA
Ray Donohoe, 7th Grade ELA
Paige Cooper, 7th and 8th Grade ELA
Paula Conlon, 8th Grade ELA
Darren Seely, 8th Grade ELA
Leah Towler, Reading Specialist
Grafton Middle School
Summer Reading
Incoming 7th and 8th Graders
Due Thursday, September 07, 2017 to ELA teacher
Please bring your book with you to class
Name:________________________________________________________________________
Title:_________________________________________________________________________
Author:______________________________________________________________________
Book Talk Preparation
Directions: ​Answer the following questions in complete sentences. These questions will guide
you through an in-class book talk.
1. Why did you choose this book? Explain.
2. What was the best part? Explain using specific details from your story.
3. How did you feel when the book was over? Why?
Essential Questions
Directions: ​Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1. In your book, what are the qualities that are essential to survival?
2. In your book, how is survival emotional and physical?
Suggested Book Titles
These book titles have been suggested by the librarians at the Grafton Public Library.
The Survival Kit​ by Donna Freitas
​When Rose's mom dies, she leaves behind a brown paper bag labeled Rose's Survival Kit. Inside the bag,
Rose finds an iPod, with a to-be-determined playlist; a picture of peonies, for growing; a crystal heart, for
loving; a paper star, for making a wish; and a paper kite, for letting go.As Rose ponders the meaning of
each item, she finds herself returning again and again to an unexpected source of comfort. Will is her
family's gardener, the school hockey star, and the only person who really understands what she's going
through. Can loss lead to love?
The Survival Guide to Bullying: Written by a Teen​ by Aija Mayrock
The Survival Guide to Bullying covers everything from cyber bullying to how to deal with fear and how
to create the life you dream of having. From inspiring "roems" (rap poems), survival tips, personal stories,
and quick quizzes, this book will light the way to a brighter future. This updated edition also features new,
never-before-seen content including a chapter about how to talk to parents, an epilogue, and an exclusive
Q&A with the author.
Never Fall Down​ by Patricia McCormick
This National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story
of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor
camps of the Khmer Rouge.Based on the true story of Cambodian advocate Arn Chorn-Pond, and
authentically told from his point of view as a young boy, this is an achingly raw and powerful historical
novel about a child of war who becomes a man of peace. It includes an author's note and
acknowledgments from Arn Chorn-Pond himself. When soldiers arrive in his hometown, Arn is just a
normal little boy. But after the soldiers march the entire population into the countryside, his life is
changed forever.
Fever, 1793​ by Laurie Halse Anderson
It's late summer 1793, and the streets of Philadelphia are abuzz with mosquitoes and rumors of fever.
Down near the docks, many have taken ill, and the fatalities are mounting. Now they include Polly, the
serving girl at the Cook Coffeehouse. But fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook doesn't get a moment to mourn
the passing of her childhood playmate. New customers have overrun her family's coffee shop, located far
from the mosquito-infested river, and Mattie's concerns of fever are all but overshadowed by dreams of
growing her family's small business into a thriving enterprise. But when the fever begins to strike closer
to home, Mattie's struggle to build a new life must give way to a new fight-the fight to stay alive.
Copper Sun​ by Sharon Draper
Copper Sun ​is the epic story of a young girl torn from her African village, sold into slavery, and stripped
of everything she has ever known—except hope.
A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story​ by Linda Sue Park
The​ New York Times ​bestseller​ A Long Walk to Water​ begins as two stories, told in alternating sections,
about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water
from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy,
Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they
search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by
armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to
intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.
Unwind​ by Neal Shusterman
In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The
Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches
the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to
retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's
life doesn’t “technically” end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now
a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound.
With breathtaking suspense, this book follows three teens who all become runaway Unwinds: Connor, a
rebel whose parents have ordered his unwinding; Risa, a ward of the state who is to be unwound due to
cost-cutting; and Lev, his parents’ tenth child whose unwinding has been planned since birth as a religious
tithing. As their paths intersect and lives hang in the balance, Shusterman examines complex moral issues
that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.
Peak​ by Roland Smith
After fourteen-year-old 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. As owner of Peak Expeditions, he wants his son 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.
Counting by 7s​ by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who
finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her
adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.
Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone
in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is ​not​ a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but
extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly
diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.
Nation​ by Terry Pratchett
When a giant wave destroys his village, Mau is the only one left. Daphne—a traveler from the other side
of the globe—is the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Separated by language and customs, the two are united
by catastrophe. Slowly, they are joined by other refugees. And as they struggle to protect the small band,
Mau and Daphne defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that
literally turns the world upside down.
The Wreckers​ by Iain Lawrence
There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who
prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their
shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead sailors' tools and
trinkets became decorations for their homes. Most never questioned their murderous way of life.
Then, upon that pirates' shore crashed the ship ​The Isle of Skye.​ And the youngest of its crew members,
14-year-old John Spencer, survived the wreck. But would he escape the wreckers? This is his harrowing
tale.
Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis​ by Pete Nelson
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS ​Indianapolis​ was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The
ship sank in 14 minutes. More than 1,000 men were thrown into shark-infested waters. Those who
survived the fiery sinking—some injured, many without life jackets—struggled to stay afloat in
shark-infested waters as they waited for rescue. But the United States Navy did not even know they were
missing.
The Navy needed a scapegoat for this disaster. So it court-martialed the captain for “hazarding” his ship.
The survivors of the ​Indianapolis​ knew that their captain was not to blame. For 50 years they worked to
clear his name, even after his untimely death. But the navy would not budge—until an 11-year-old boy
named Hunter Scott entered the picture. His history fair project on the ​Indianapolis​ soon became a
crusade to restore the captain’s good name and the honor of the men who served under him.
Ashes of Roses​ by Mary Jane Auch
When Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island as a seventeen-year-old Irish immigrant, she is looking for a
land of opportunities; what she finds is far from all she'd dreamed. Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to
give up. Left alone to fend for herself and her younger sister, Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of
tenements and factory work.
But even as she struggles, Rose finds small bright points in her new life―at the movies with her working
friends and in the honest goals of her mentor, Gussie. Still, after her exhausting days as a working girl,
Rose must face the confusion of balancing her need for simple fun with her more wary feelings about
joining Gussie in her fight for better working conditions.When the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory Fire of 1911 rushes into Rose's life, her confusions are brought to an all-too-painful head. To
whom and to what can she turn when everything around her is in ashes?
The Finest Hours: The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue​ by Mike Tougias (MA Author)
In the winter of 1952, New England was battered by the most brutal nor’easter in years. As the weather
wreaked havoc on land, the freezing Atlantic became a wind-whipped zone of peril, setting the stage for
one of the most heroic rescue stories ever lived.
In the early hours of Monday, February 18, while the storm raged, two oil tankers, the ​Pendleton ​and the
Fort Mercer, ​found themselves in the same horrifying predicament. Built with "dirty steel," and not
prepared to withstand such ferocious seas, both tankers split in two, leaving the dozens of men on board
utterly at the Atlantic’s mercy. ​The Finest Hours ​is the gripping, true story of the valiant attempt to rescue
the souls huddling inside the broken halves of the two ships
Lost in the River of Grass​ by Ginny Rorby
"I don't realize I'm crying until he glances at me. For a moment, I see the look of anguish in his eyes, then
he blinks it away and slips off into the water. I immediately think of the gator. It's still down there
somewhere. . . ." A science-class field trip to the Everglades is supposed to be fun, but Sarah's new at
Glades Academy, and her fellow freshmen are not exactly making her feel welcome. When an
opportunity for an unauthorized side trip on an airboat presents itself, it seems like a perfect escape an
afternoon without feeling like a sore thumb. But one simple oversight turns a joyride into a race for
survival across the river of grass. Sarah will have to count on her instincts and a guy she barely knows if
they have any hope of making it back alive.
Rot & Ruin​ by Jonathan Maberry
In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a
job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a
zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job
whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.
Prisoner B-3087​ by Alan Gratz
As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he
has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken
prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087.
He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him.
He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the
horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again seconds later.
Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will -- and, most of all, his sense of
who he really is inside?
Bamboo People​ by Mitali Perkins
Narrated by two teenage boys on opposing sides of the conflict between the Burmese government and the
Karenni, one of Burma's many ethnic minorities, this coming-of-age novel takes place against the political
and military backdrop of modern-day Burma. Chiko isn't a fighter by nature. He's a book-loving Burmese
boy whose father, a doctor, is in prison for resisting the government. Tu Reh, on the other hand, wants to
fight for freedom after watching Burmese soldiers destroy his Karenni family's home and bamboo fields.
Timidity becomes courage and anger becomes compassion when the boys' stories intersect.
Adrift​ by Paul Griffin
Matt and John are best friends working out in Montauk for the summer. When Driana, JoJo and Stef
invite the boys to their Hamptons mansion, Matt and John find themselves in a sticky situation where
temptation rivals sensibility. The newfound friends head out into the Atlantic after midnight in a stolen
boat. None of them come back whole, and not all of them come back.
Worlds collide when the group ventures out to sea aboard a small boat that Stef sneaks out from her dad's
dock. As the waves rise and the fragile vessel weakens, things go horribly wrong. Adrift at sea for days,
who will have what it takes to survive?
Dan Versus Nature​ by Don Calame
Shy and scrawny Dan Weekes spends his time creating graphic novels inspired by his dream girl and
looking out for his mom as she dates every man in the state of California. Then his mom drops a bomb:
she and her latest beau, Hank, are engaged, and she’s sending her "two favorite men" on a survivalist
camping trip to "bond." Determined to trick Hank into showing his true — flawed — colors on the trip,
Dan and his nerdy germaphobe best friend, Charlie, prepare a series of increasingly gross and
embarrassing pranks. But the boys hadn’t counted on a girl joining their trip or on getting separated from
their wilderness guide—not to mention the humiliating injuries Dan suffers in the course of terrorizing his
stepdad-to-be. With a man-hungry bear on their trail, no supplies, and a lot of unpleasant itching going on,
can Dan see his plan through now that his very survival depends on Hank?
Where You'll Find Me​ by Natasha Friend
The first month of school, thirteen-year-old Anna Collette finds herself...
DUMPED by her best friend Dani, who suddenly wants to spend eighth grade "hanging out with different
people."
DESERTED by her mom, who's in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt.
TRAPPED in a house with her dad, a new baby sister, and a stepmother young enough to wear her Delta
Delta Delta sweatshirt with pride.STUCK at a lunch table with Shawna the Eyebrow Plucker and
Sarabeth the Irish Stepper because she has no one else to sit with.But what if all isn't lost? What if Anna's
mom didn't exactly mean to leave her? What if Anna's stepmother is cooler than she thought? What if the
misfit lunch table isn't such a bad fit after all? With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy
girl-band talent show act, Anna just may find herself on the road to okay.
Lily and Dunkin ​by Donna Gephart
Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like
a boy. Especially when you’re in the eighth grade.
Dunkin Dorfman, birth name Norbert Dorfman, is dealing with bipolar disorder and has just moved from
the New Jersey town he’s called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact
that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse.
One summer morning, Lily Jo McGrother meets Dunkin Dorfman, and their lives forever change.
Ghost​ by Jason Reynolds
Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively,
he could be the best sprinter in the city. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all starting
with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother
through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has
been the one causing problems—and running away from them—until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic
Medalist who blew his own shot at success by using drugs, and who is determined to keep other kids from
blowing ​their​ shots at life.
Dumplin'​ by Julie Murphy
Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own
skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American
beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked...until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the
local fast-food joint. There, she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find
herself attracted to Bo. But she ​is​ surprised when he seems to like her back. Instead of finding new
heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take
back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City
beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be
up there as much as any girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe
herself most of all.
Goodbye Stranger​ by Rebecca Stead
Long ago, best friends Bridge, Emily, and Tab made a pact: no fighting. But it’s the start of seventh
grade, and everything is changing. Emily’s new curves are attracting attention, and Tab is suddenly a
member of the Human Rights Club. And then there’s Bridge. She’s started wearing cat ears and is the
only one who’s still tempted to draw funny cartoons on her homework.
It’s also the beginning of seventh grade for Sherm Russo. He wonders: what does it mean to fall for a
girl—as a friend?
I Am Malala​ by Malala Yousafzai
I Am Malala ​is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls'
education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and
attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.​ ​I
Am Malala ​will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.