Your summer reading assignment this year has two parts:
Part I – Please pick a biography, autobiography, or memoir
and read it. You may choose a book off of the suggested book
list or you may pick your own title. Now sit back, relax and
enjoy reading. When you are done, imagine that the subject
of your book comes to Carmel Academy with you for a day.
Please write a short story, approximately 2 pages (typed and
double-spaced), describing what happens when the subject of
your book comes to school. Be creative and have fun with it!
Humor is always appreciated!!!
Some questions to think about and guide you when writing
your short story:
1. What happens on the bus ride to school?
2. Does your subject make friends with anyone in the
Middle School? Do they have conflicts with anyone?
What happens?
3. Who does your subject eat lunch with? What do they
think of the school lunch?
4. How does your subject interact with the teachers and
the administration?
5. What does your subject think about what you are
learning?
6. What does your subject think about the modern
technologies? What about being in Greenwich CT?
Part II – Please pick one fiction novel to read. You may
choose a book off of the suggested book list, or you may pick
your own title t. Please make sure that your book is at the
appropriate reading and content level for you. When you are
done, imagine that you are a screenwriter/movie director and
you are making your novel into a movie. Please cast all of
the major roles in the film. Please decide where your movie
will be filmed (it could be one place, or many places), and
then choose one important event in the novel and write a
screenplay of this event.
Suggested Book List
Biographies/Autobiographies/Memoir
Samantha Abeel - My Thirteenth Winter
Mitch Albom – Tuesdays with Morrie
Thomas B. Allen – George Washington, Spymaster
Inge Auerbacher – I am a Star: Child of the Holocaust
Louise Borden – The Journey that Saved Curious George
Rick Bragg – I am a Soldier Too
Ruby Bridges – Through My Eyes
Ben Carson – Gifted Hands: The Story of Ben Carson
Kevin Clash – My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being
Elmo Has Taught me About Life, Love, and Laughing Out
Loud
Vicki Cobb – Harry Houdini
Lynne Cox – Swimming to Antarctica
Roald Dahl – Boy: Tales of Childhood
Barry Denenberg – Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie
Robinson
Zlata Filipovic - Zlata’s Diary
John Fleischman – Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True
Story About Brain Science
Sid Fleischman – Sir Charlie: Chaplin, the Funniest Man in
the World
Candace Fleming – Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance
of Amelia Earhart
Jean Fritz – Stonewall
Frank B. Gilbreth – Cheaper by the Dozen
Doris Kearns Goodwin - Wait Till Next Year
John Grogan – Marley and Me
David Halberstam – Firehouse
Mia Hamm – Go for the Goal: A Champion’s Guide to
Winning in Soccer and Life
Robert T. Hohler – I Touch the Future
Ji-Li Jang – Red Scarf Girl – A Memoir of the Cultural
Revolution
Maxine Hong Kingston – Woman Warrior
Karen Levin – Hana’s Suitcase: A True Story
Michael Lewis – The Blind Side
Lois Lowry – Looking Back: A Book of Memories
Carla Killough McClafferty – Something out of Nothing:
Marie Curie and Radium
Isaac Millman – Hidden Child
Pat Mora – House of Houses
Greg Mortenson – Three Cups of Tea
Walter Dean Myers – Bad Boy
Walter Dean Myers – The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins – Rosa Parks: My Story
Elizabeth Partridge – John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth
Elizabeth Partridge – Restless Spirit: The Life and Works of
Dorothea Lange
Caroline Paul – Fighting Fire: A Personal Story
Gary Paulsen – Guts
Mark Salzman – Iron and Silk
Jeremy Schaap - Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens
and Hitler’s Olympics
Steve Sheinkin – The Notorious Benedict Arnold
Shelley Sommer – Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg: Baseball
Pioneer
Jerry Spinelli – Knots in My Yo-Yo String
John Steinbeck – Travels with Charlie
Yoshiko Uchida – Desrt Exile
Rick Wolff – Ted Williams
Paul Zindel - The Pigman and Me
Fiction Titles
C - Classic
F- Fiction
M – Mystery
S – Sports Fiction
SF/F – Science Fiction and Fantasy
H – Historical Fiction
HT - Holocaust
Douglas Adams – The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (C,
SF/F)
Richard Adams – Watership Down (C, SF/F)
Louisa May Alcott – Little Women (C, H)
Laurie Halse Anderson – Fever, 1793 (H)
Laurie Halse Anderson – Chains (H)
M.T. Anderson – The Game of Sunken Places (SF/F)
Mary Jane Auch – Ashes of Roses (H)
Jonathan Auxier – Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes
(SF/F)
Avi – Man Who Was Poe (M)
Juliana Baggott – The Prince of Fenway Park (S)
Blue Balliett – Wright 3 (M)
Blue Balliett – The Calder Game (M)
Tracey Barrett – King of Ithaka (H, C)
Joan Bauer – Hope was Here (F)
Frank Cottrell Boyce – Cosmic (SF/F)
Ray Bradbury – Farenheit 451 (C, SF/F)
Ray Bradbury – The Martian Chronicles ( C, SF/F)
Libba Bray – A Great and Terrible Beauty ( H, SF/F)
Elise Broach – Shakespeare’s Secret (F)
Betsey Byars – Summer of the Swans (F)
Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (F)
Elisa Carbone – Stealing Freedom (H)
Michael Chabon – Summerland (SF/F)
Agatha Christie – The A.B.C. Murders (M, C)
Agatha Christie – And Then There Were None (M, C)
Agatha Christie – The Murder of Robert Ackroyd (M,C)
Ally Condie – Matched (SF/F, F)
Stephen Crane – The Red Badge of Courage (C, H)
Christopher Paul Curtis – Bud, Not Buddy (M)
Christopher Paul Curtis – The Watsons Go to Birmingham
(C, H)
Karen Cushman – Alchemy and Meggy Swann (H)
Karen Cushman – The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (H)
Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe (C, H)
Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist (C)
Alexandre Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo (C)
Josh Feinstein – Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery (M, S)
Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (SF/F)
Esther Hoskins Forbes – Johnny Tremain (C, H)
Patricia Reilly Giff – Nory Ryan’s Song (H)
Morris Gleitzman – Once (H, HT)
Alan Gratz – The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings
(H, S)
Alan Gratz – Samurai Shortstop (H, S)
Tim Green – Football Genius (S)
John Grisham – Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer (M)
Shannon Hale – Princess Academy (SF/F)
J.V. Hart – Captain Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious
Youth (H)
Carl Hiaasen – Hoot (F)
Will Hobbs – Jackie’s Wild Seattle (F)
Alice Hoffman – Incantation (H)
Anne Isaacs ) Torn Thread (H. HT)
Brian Jacques – Redwall Series (SF/F)
Liza Kethum – Newsgirl (H)
Daniel Keyes – Flowers for Algernon (C, F)
Rudyard Kipling – Captain’s Courageous (C)
Ellen Klages – The Green Glass Sea (H)
E.L. Konigsburg – The View from Saturday (F)
Gordon Kormon – Swindle (M, S)
Gordon Kormon – Schooled (F)
Janet Taylor Lisle – Black Duck (H)
Mike Lupica – The Batboy (F, S)
Pam Munoz – Esperanza Rising (F)
Scott O’Dell – Island of the Blue Dolphins (C, SF/F)
Christopher Paolini – Eragon (SF/F)
Linda Sue Park – When My Name Was Keoko (H)
Gary Paulsen – Hatchet (F)
Richard Peck – On the Wings of Heroes (H)
Rodman Philbrick – Freak the Mighty (F)
Philip Pullman – The Golden Compass (SF/F)
Adam Rex – The True Meaning of Smekday (SF/F)
Rick Riordan – Lost Hero (SF/F)
John H. Ritter – Under the Baseball Moon (F, S)
John H. Ritter – The Boy Who Saved Baseball (F, S)
Pam Munoz Ryan – Esperanza Rising (F)
Robert Sharenow – The Berlin Boxing Club (S, H, HT)
Polly Shulman – The Grimm Legacy (SF/F)
Jerry Spinelli – Stargirl (F)
Jerry Spinelli – Milkweed (H, HT)
Robert Louise Stevenson – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (C)
Robert Louis Stevenson – Treasure Island (C, H)
Bram Stoker – Dracula (C, F)
Mildred Taylor – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (C, H)
Mark Twain – Tom Sawyer (H, C)
Sarah Weeks – So B. It (F)
Theodore Taylor – The Cay (C,F)
H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds (C, SF/F)
Andrea White – Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 (F)
Rita Williams-Garcia – One Crazy Summer (H)
Jacqueline Woodson – Hush (F)
Jane Yolen – The Devils Arithmetic (H, HT)
Markus Zusak – The Book Thief (H, HT)