Summer Reading:
Students Entering 6th Grade
Summer Reading Assignment for 2011-2012 School Year
You need to choose at least three books from the reading list for the grade you are getting ready to enter. You
may, of course, read more, but you will need to complete the following assignment on three of the books. The
assignments will be turned in to your 6th grade English teacher during the first or second week of school (to be
determined by individual teachers). Students may also choose a book that is not on the reading list as long as it is
approved by their parent / guardian, is found by searching the website arbookfind.com, has not been read previously by
you, and is at least two hundred pages long for students entering grade 6. The projects will be taken as a project grade
for ELAR.
Project Details:
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After reading the book, students may choose one of the project ideas listed below in which to present what they
have learned from the book.
The project will be graded on knowledge of the book and its story elements, written personal review, creativity
and originality, and neatness.
Each project must include these story elements….
o Title & Author
o Main Character information (who were they? A brief description of
character including items such as looks and character traits/personality)
o Setting (Where did the story take place, location and time period)
o Plot/Resolution (What was the main problem/plan/story line/scheme of the story and how it was
resolved?)
o Personal Review (Include likes and dislikes with reasons for both, what you learned from the book,
how you connected to the character(s), would you recommend this book)
Project Ideas:
You may choose one of these projects to present your summer reading novel.
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Cereal Box Diorama-Recreate the book in 3-D using a cereal box. The front of the box becomes the cover, the
back becomes the description with the required story elements. The inside of the box becomes the diorama
after you have chosen what type of opening you want to create. The cereal box front can be cut like a bookalong three edges to reveal the inside scene or reveal the inside scene or can be cut down the center and along
the top and bottom to open like doors. The back of the box or the front flap will hold all of the required
information about characters, student review, etc.
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Diary-Write a two week diary as if you were the main character of the book. In your daily entries include at least
one illustration as well as your feelings about what is happening to you (as the main character). You will also
include in your writing, the required information listed above. You may use the cover of your diary for an
illustration, or you may decorate it as if it were a real diary.
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Newspaper-Pretend you are a reporter for a newspaper. Create a newspaper at least one page in length. You
will include in your “news” an article written as if you were a critic reviewing the book-include your opinion, likes
and dislikes. In the rest of the paper, include your required story elements. The design should look like a
newspaper.
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Comic Book-Create a comic book based on your book. Each page should be set up in a comic book format with
illustrations and captions. Your comic book should retell the main ideas of the story including all required
information.
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Five Artifacts- Find five things from the book that are important to the story. Create an artifact for each of those
things. The artifacts should help you retell the main idea(s) of the story. For example, in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, you could create a gold foil-wrapped candy bar, or a puppet of an Oompa Loompa. You must
also include at least a one page report with the
required story elements.
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Shrunken Book- Create a new book. For each chapter you will write 3-4 sentences to describe the main idea.
Include an illustration for each chapter. Be sure to blend all required story elements into your “shrunken”
version of the book.
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Children’s Book-Turn your chapter book into an illustrated children’s book appropriate for a 1st-3rd grader.
Create a cover, and illustrated pages with sentences to retell the main idea of the story. You may use the inside
cover or back cover to include any other required story elements.
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Board Game- Create a board game all about your book. Design a game and all of the pieces needed so that your
board game can be played. Include all story elements within the game.
Illustrate your game board with characters or scenes from your story. If you are unable to include all required
elements within your game, you may use the back of the game board or a separate piece of paper.
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Magazine- Create a full color magazine dedicated to your book. Include all required story elements in your
articles, advertisements, etc.
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Multi-Media Presentation-Create a multi-media presentation about the book. This can be PowerPoint
presentation, a digital story, a series of film clips, or any other multi-media form. You will need to make sure
that you include all required elements in this presentation, and make sure there are pictures or animations for
creativity.
Accelerated Reader Connection
When you return to school, you will be allowed to take AR quizzes over the books you have read during the
summer months. Reading lots of books and earning high scores on your AR quizzes will earn you rewards! Use your
reading level and arbookfind.com to find books in your range.
Directions: You need to choose three of the following books to read over the summer, but, of course, you may
read more! You will complete an assignment over the book that you have selected. This assignment will be
turned in during the first or second week of the school year. *Remember* You are not required to go purchase
these books, that can certainly get expensive! Always check your local library first or local discount book stores.
List of Suggested Books
Books were chosen based on interest level and appropriateness of content for each specific grade.
** Remember that you may choose any AR book found on arbookfinder.com as long as it is at least 200 pages
long and you have not previously taken the AR test for the book .**
Fever, 1793 - Laurie Halse Anderson (AR 7.0 pts. BL: 4.4)
In 1793, Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance
and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
Gregor the Overlander – Suzanne Collins (AR 8.0 pts. BL: 4.8)
When eleven-yearold Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger
an epic battle involving humans, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by an ancient
prophecy.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – Christopher Paul Curtis (AR 8.0 pts. BL: 5.0)
Byron’s family leaves Flint, Michigan, to live with Grandma Sands in Birmingham where they experience the
realities of race relations in the South.
Newbery Honor
Inkheart – Cornelia Caroline Funke (AR 23 pts. BL: 5.4) *Series Novel!
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father Mo, a bookbinder, can “read” fictional characters to life when an evil
ruler named Capricorn, freed from the novel Inkheart years earlier, tries to force Mo to release an immortal
monster from the story. Any novel in this series will count toward your three required books!
Flush – Carl Hiaasen (AR 9.0 pts. BL: 5.0) With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his
younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into
the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.
Kira-Kira – Cynthia Kadohata (AR 7.0 pts. BL: 4.7)
The story of the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the
late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair experienced when one sister becomes terminally ill.
Eldest – Chrisopher Paolini *Series Novel (AR 36 pts. BL: 7.0)
In this sequel to Eragon, our hero successfully evades an Urgals ambush and is adopted into the Ingeitum clan, then
sent to finish his training so he can further help the Varden in their struggle against the Empire. Any novel in this
series will count toward your three required books!
The Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts – Richard Peck (AR 6.0 pts. BL: 4.7)
In rural Indiana in 1904, fifteen-year-old Russell’s dreams of quitting school and joining a wheat threshing crew are
disrupted when mean old Myrt Arbuckle “hauls off and dies” and Russell’s older sister takes over the teaching at
his one-room schoolhouse.
Becoming Naomi Leon – Pam Munoz Ryan (AR 6.0 pts. BL: 5.4)
When Naomi’s absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother
and younger brother in search of her father.
The Unseen – Zilpha Keatly Snyder (AR 8.0 pts. BL: 6.1)
Feeling angry and out of place in her large family, twelve-year-old Xandra finds a magical key to a world of ghostly,
sometimes frightening, phantoms that help her see herself and her siblings more clearly.
Sounder – William H. Armstrong (AR 3.0 pts BL: 5.3)
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy
grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and through his relation with his devoted dog, Sounder.
Elsewhere – Will Shetterly (AR 9.0 BL: 4.2) *Student’s pick!
Ron, a teenage runaway, comes of age among the punk elves and humans of Bordertown, a run-down city on the
border between the real world and the magic world of Faerie.
Hatchet – Gary Paulsen (AR 7.0 pts. BL: 5.7)
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends 54 days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only
the aid of a hatchet given to him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
The Great Good Thing – Roderick Townley (AR 4.0 pts. BL: 4.4)
Twelve-year-old Princess Sylvie's storybook kingdom really is a storybook, where nothing ever changes, even the
characters' mad scramble to reach their places whenever the book is opened.
Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls (AR 11.0 pts. BL: 4.9) *Teacher’s Pick!
This is a simply written, moving story of the love between a young boy and his two dogs.
Way Down Deep – Ruth White (AR 6.0 pts. BL: 4.8)
In the West Virginia town of Way Down Deep in the 1950s, a foundling called Ruby June is happily living with Miss
Arbutus at the local boarding house when suddenly, after the arrival of a family of outsiders, the mystery of Ruby's
past begins to unravel.