OUR LADY OF MERCY
SUMMER READING LIST – June 2013
INCOMING 7th GRADERS
All students MUST read these TWO novels:
Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech – To trace the path of her missing mother,
Sal embarks on a journey from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents.
On the road, Sal tells the strange and exciting story of her friend
Phoebe. In unraveling Phoebe’s mystery, Sal comes closer to finding
out the truth behind her own bittersweet journey.
**The Family Read** The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett –
A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire
moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked
garden.
Students must also read ONE of the following novels:
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeline L’Engle – A science fiction classic, this novel tells the story of the Murray
children whose father goes missing while working on a mysterious project - a tesseract. The
children must travel through time to take on the Dark Thing in a brave attempt to rescue their
father.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 – Christopher Paul Curtis- The ordinary interactions and
everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are
drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Or Give Me Death: A Novel of Patrick Henry’s Family – Ann Rinaldi - Sarah Henry, wife of the famous
statesman Patrick Henry, is losing her mind, and she's secretly being kept in the cellar because
she is a danger to herself and her children. Daughter Anne has a secret, too. She knows which
child will inherit Sarah's madness, and she'll pay any price to protect her siblings from this
information.
Students must also view the following FILM:
The Little Princess – (1995 version directed by Alfonso Cuaron) – Based on the novel of the same title
written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this film tells the story of a young girl who, after a lifetime
of affluence, is relegated to servitude at a boarding school when her father goes missing and is
presumed dead.