Imagine South Vero Middle School
Summer Reading List
Welcome to Imagine South Vero Middle School. We look forward to the upcoming
year with you. To encourage you to “crack a book” (or digitally download), we offer the
list below from which you will read two required books from your grade level list and
complete a project for each. Projects are due to your ELA teacher the first day of
school. Transfer students will receive 30 days. Happy Reading!
Summer Reading List for Upcoming Sixth Graders:
Fiction:
•Bauer, Joan. ALMOST HOME. Sixth-grader Sugar and her mother lose their beloved
house and experience the harsh world of homelessness.
•Choat, Beth. SOCCERLAND. Flora is such a good soccer player that she has been
invited to the International Sports Academy to compete for a chance on the U. S. Girls’
Soccer team. It’s her first time away from home, and she works hard to make new
friends as well as trying to become the best soccer player that she can be.
• Clements, Andrew. ABOUT AVERAGE. As the end of sixth grade nears, Jordan
Johnson, unhappy that she is only average in appearance, intelligence, and athletic
ability, reveals her special skills when disaster strikes her central Illinois elementary
school.
• Cronin, Doreen. THE TROUBLE WITH CHICKENS. J.J. Tully is a former searchand-rescue dog who is trying to enjoy his retirement after years of performing daring
missions saving lives. When two chicks named Dirt and Sugar and their chicken mom
show up demanding his help to find their missing siblings, J.J. agrees to help them and
begins to track down clues.
• Federle, Tim. BETTER NATE THAN EVER. Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole
life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. But how is Nate supposed to make his
dreams come true? With Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New
York.
• Hiaasen, Carl. CHOMP. When filming an episode of the reality television show
"Expedition Survival" in the Florida Everglades, the difficult star disappears. Wahoo and
classmate, Tuna Gordon, set out to solve the mystery.
• Mills, Claudia. HOW OLIVER OLSON CHANGED THE WORLD. Oliver has a
problem…his parents are way too protective and to top it off, they won’t even let him do
school projects by himself. When his teacher proclaims that anyone can change the
world with a good idea, Oliver is skeptical but hopeful that it is true.
• O’Conner, Barbara. THE FANTASTIC SECRET OF OWEN JESTER. Owen Jester
wishes his family hadn’t moved to his grandfather’s house after his dad lost his job.
Then one night, Owen hears a curious noise when the train passes by his grandfather’s
house. Something mysterious and wonderful has fallen off the train and he must find
out what it is!
•Palacio, R. J. WONDER. Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme
facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled
to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan. There he endures the
taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
•Woodson, Jacqueline. EACH KINDNESS. When a newcomer is shunned by the
popular girls, their teacher shows them how small acts of kindness can change the
world. It is too late to undo the harm they have caused, but these students will take this
anti-bullying message to heart.
Non-Fiction:
•Lawlor, Laurie. RACHEL CARSON AND HER BOOK THAT CHANGED THE
WORLD. Rachel Carson was an ordinary child who grew up to be a pioneer
environmentalist. This biography shows that anyone can make a difference. A detailed
epilogue explains more about the lasting impact of her book, Silent Spring.
•Sheinkin, Steve. LINCOLN’S GRAVE ROBBERS. A group of counterfeiters scheme
to steal Abraham Lincoln’s body from his tomb and ransom his remains for money to
free a master counterfeiter from jail. Secret Service agents learn of the plot, recruit an
undercover agent to infiltrate the gang, and try to catch the criminals before they can
rob Lincoln’s grave.
•Vernick, Audrey. BROTHERS AT BAT: THE TRUE STORY OF AN AMAZING ALLBROTHER BASEBALL TEAM. The Accerra family had 16 children, including 12
baseball-playing brothers. In the 1930s, the boys formed their own semiprofessional
team and became the longest playing all-brother baseball team in history.
•Patent, Dorothy Henshaw. DOGS ON DUTY. The invaluable contributions of Military
Working Dogs are well documented in this book. Patent discusses their special
attributes such as the night vision and sense of smell that help these dogs keep their
human partners safe. The roles they have played in World Wars I and II, in Vietnam,
and in Iraq and Afghanistan are highlighted. Brief histories of individual dogs such as
Stubby from World War I and Eli in Afghanistan are told.
•Thimmesh, Catherine and Melissa Sweet. GIRLS THINK OF
EVERYTHING: STORIES OF INGENIOUS INVENTIONS BY WOMEN. This
biography tells how women throughout the ages have responded to situations
confronting them in daily life by inventing such items as correction fluid, space helmets,
and disposable diapers.
•Simon, Seymour. SEYMOUR SIMON’S EXTREME OCEANS. Seymour Simon
investigates the most extreme environments, animals, plants, and weather in the
ocean. Imagine exploring the most extreme parts of our amazing oceans— the tallest
waves, the darkest depths, and the largest and most dangerous sea creatures on
Earth. Interesting facts and stunning photographs make for an exciting underwater
expedition!
•Scott, Elaine. BURIED ALIVE. This book describes the 2010 mining accident in San
José, Chile, in which thirty-three men became trapped underground for over sixty days
and details the rescue efforts and the worldwide media coverage of the event.
•Pinkney, Andrea Davis. HAND IN HAND: TEN BLACK MEN WHO CHANGED
AMERICA. This biography profiles the lives of 10 brave men from different eras of
American History. Readers discover that each man left an indelible legacy and that
courage and determination can turn ordinary citizens into heroes.
•Freedman, Russell. ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND FREDERICK
DOUGLASS. Freedman tells the story of a friendship between two men who shared
many characteristics. Lincoln and Douglass were both self-educated, born into poverty,
and through relentless effort and hard work, reached great success.
•Freedman, Russell. FREEDOM WALKERS. The author breathes life into the key
personalities and events that contributed to the yearlong civil rights struggle. The
struggle became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Summer Reading List for Upcoming Seventh Graders:
Fiction:
 Auxier, Jonathan. THE NIGHT GARDENER. The Night Gardener follows two
abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling
English manor house. But the house and its family are not quite what they seem.
Soon the children are confronted by a mysterious spectre and an ancient curse
that threatens their very lives.
 Bodeen, S. A. THE COMPOUND. Fifteen-year-old Eli has spent the last six
years with his family in a massive underground shelter his father built. Nuclear
war has destroyed the world he knows, including his grandmother and twin
brother, who couldn’t reach the compound in time. With nine years to go before
the air outside will be safe to breathe, Eli is starting to have doubts about his
father's motives, explanations, and sanity.
 Frederick, Heather Vogel. ABSOLUTELY TRULY. After serving in Afghanistan
and returning home with an injury, Truly’s father has a hard time finding a job. He
moves his reluctant family to New Hampshire to take over a struggling bookshop.
Although she feels alone and left out, Truly finds a mysterious letter in a first
edition copy of Charlotte’s Web and makes new friends as she tries to solve the
clues to discover the letter’s writer.
 Haddix, Margaret Peterson. FOUND. Thirteen years after a plane mysteriously
lands in an airport with 36 baby passengers and no adults on board, the children
from the flight begin to receive strange, unexplained letters. Jonah and Chip
must work quickly to uncover the secrets of their past. This is the first in The
Missing Book series.
 Law, Ingrid. SAVVY. When Beaumont family members turn 13, they receive
their “savvy,” a magical gift unique to each one of them. Mibs’ thirteenth birthday
arrives when her father is out of town and becomes ill. Mibs, her savvy, and a
cast of characters hit the road to save him.
 Mikaelsen, Ben. JUNGLE OF BONES. Dylan Barstow has finally crossed the
line. After getting caught on a late-night joyride in a stolen car, Dylan is shipped
off to live with his ex-Marine uncle for the summer. But Uncle Todd has bigger
plans for Dylan than push-ups and early-morning jogs: looking for a lost WWII
plane. When he finds himself lost and alone in the jungle, Dylan will have to let
go of his assumptions and anger, or be dragged down with them.
 Nielsen, Jennifer A. MARK OF THE THIEF. Nic Calva and his sister are slaves
in the mines outside of Rome. When Nic is forced to enter one of the mines to
retrieve the treasures of Julius Caesar, he finds much more than anyone could
have expected—a magical amulet. When Nic takes the amulet for himself,
hoping to gain freedom, he becomes embroiled in a battle that could destroy
Rome.
 Nielsen, Jennifer A. A NIGHT DIVIDED. When the Berlin Wall went up, Gerta,
her mother, and her brother Fritz are trapped on the eastern side where they
were living, while her father, and her other brother Dominic are in the West--four
years later, now twelve, Gerta sees her father on a viewing platform on the
western side and realizes he wants her to risk her life trying to tunnel to freedom.
 Pinkney, Andrea Davis. THE RED PENCIL. In this novel told in verse, Amira’s
Sudanese village is attacked by the Janjaweed militia. Her family loses
everything and is forced to walk to a refugee camp. Amira’s dreams of attending
school are crushed unless she can find a way out of the camp in a country full of
conflict.
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Sloan, Holly Goldberg. COUNTING BY 7s. Willow Chance has suffered more
loss than most people experience in a lifetime. Now at her new school, she is
accused of cheating on the state proficiency test. Her reward is behavioral
counseling with an ineffectual counselor, but the bond she forms there with an
unlikely cast of characters is heartfelt and transformative. Willow's story is one of
renewal, and her journey of rebuilding the ties that unite people as a family is
memorable long after the last page.
Non-Fiction
 Fradin, Judith and Fradin, Dennis. STOLEN INTO SLAVERY: THE TRUE
STORY OF SOLOMON NORTHRUP. The true story behind the acclaimed
movie 12 Years a Slave, this book is based on the life of Solomon Northup, a
free black man from New York who was captured in the United States and sold
into slavery in Louisiana.
 McClafferty, Carla Killough. FOURTH DOWN AND INCHES: CONCUSSIONS
AND FOOTBALL’S MAKE-OR-BREAK MOMENT. Football is coming under
scrutiny again as scientists learn more about concussions and brain injuries
sustained during football games and practices. Will these new understandings
about the dangers of brain injuries and football lead to the end of the sport or
safer practices for athletes? (
 Montgomery, Sy, and Temple Grandin. TEMPLE GRANDIN: HOW THE GIRL
WHO LOVED COWS EMBRACED AUTISM AND CHANGED THE
WORLD. This biography explores the life and mind of Temple Grandin, a brilliant
autistic woman who revolutionized the livestock industry.
 St. John, Warren. OUTCASTS UNITED: THE STORY OF A REFUGEE
SOCCER TEAM THAT CHANGED A TOWN. Soccer coach Luma Mufleh
formed the Fugees, a soccer team consisting of refugee boys from various
countries and backgrounds. This inspiring book explores the array of challenges
the team faced on and off the field and how determination prevailed.
 Mazer, Anne and Potter, Ellen. SPILLING INK: A YOUNG WRITER’S
HANDBOOK. Spilling Ink is a chatty, informed, get-real look at writing by two
children's book authors, who lay out what it means to be a writer and tell kids
how to get the job done.
 Meissner, David and Richardson, Kim. CALL OF THE KLONDIKE. In 1897, two
20-something Yale grads, Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond, were among the
first to hear about the gold found in the Klondike. They quickly booked tickets on
a ship, gathered food and equipment, and headed north, hoping to strike it rich.
 Paulsen, Gary. MY LIFE IN DOG YEARS. My Life in Dog Years is informative
reading, it is adventure in the wilderness, it is dogs, bears, skunks, pigs, gardens,
and barns, and it often tugs at the heart, but mostly it is fun. This book is an
autobiography because it is about Paulsen’s relationship with dogs, but the dogs
are the stars of the book.
 Romero, Jordan with Linda LeBlanc. NO SUMMIT OUT OF SIGHT. Jordan
Romero climbed Mount Everest at age thirteen—and he didn’t stop there. In this
inspiring young adult memoir that includes color photos, he tells how he achieved
such great heights – and many years of training and hard work later, turned into
a dream come true.
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Rauch, Georg. UNLIKELY WARRIOR: A JEWISH SOLDIER IN HITLER’S
ARMY. UNLIKELY WARRIOR is an amazing and poignant story of one man,
Georg Rauch, and his three-year experience serving as a soldier in Hitler's
Army.
Tougias, Michael J. and Sherman, Casey. THE FINEST HOURS: THE TRUE
STORY OF A HEROIC SEA RESCUE. On the night of February 18, 1952, during
one of the worst winter storms that New England has ever seen, two oil tankers
just off the shore of Cape Cod were torn in half by the force of the storm. This
middle-grade adaptation of an adult nonfiction book tells the story of a harrowing
Coast Guard rescue when four men in a tiny lifeboat overcame insurmountable
odds and saved more than 30 stranded sailors.
Summer Reading List for Upcoming Eighth Graders
Fiction:
 Anderson, Laurie Halse. SPEAK. She speaks for many a disenfranchised
teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
 Christie, Agatha. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Ten strangers are invited to
an island by a mysterious host, and start to get killed one by one. Could one of
them be the killer?
 Myers, Walter Dean. MONSTER-YOUNG. Black 16-year-old Steve Harmon, an
amateur filmmaker, is on trial for the murder of a Harlem drugstore owner and
could face the death penalty.
 Creech, Sharon. WALK TWO MOONS. Walk Two Moons is the story of thirteenyear-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle from Bybanks, Kentucky, whose only wish is to
be reunited with her missing mother.
 Roth, Veronica. DIVERGENT SERIES. The Divergent trilogy is a series of young
adult science fiction adventure novels by Veronica Roth set in a post-apocalyptic
dystopian Chicago.
 Riordan, Rick. THE LOST HERO SERIES. The Lost Hero is a 2010 fantasyadventure novel written by Rick Riordan and is based on Greek and Roman
mythology.
 Lowry, Lois. GATHERING BLUE. After her mother and only protector dies,
young Kira must fend for herself among the villagers with whom she lives.
 Tolkien, J.R.R.. THE HOBBIT. The Hobbit is a novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, set in
Middle-earth. The book was first published on September 21, 1937 and is set in
the years 2941 to 2942 of the Third Age before the events of The Lord of the
Rings Trilogy.
 Swanson, James L. CHASING LINCOLN’S KILLER. The book “Chasing
Lincoln's Killer" is about the chase of President Lincoln's Assassin. The books
main character is not Abraham Lincoln, but his killer.
 Lee, Y.S. THE AGENCY SERIES. This is a colorful, action-packed Victorian
detective novel centered around the exploits of 'agent' Mary Quinn.
Non Fiction:
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Gee, James Paul. WHAT VIDEO GAMES HAVE TO TEACH US ABOUT
LEARNING AND LITERACY. When people learn to play video games, they
are learning a new literacy. Of course, this is not the way the word “literacy” is
normally used.
Bissinger, H.G.. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: A TOWN, A TEAM, AND A DREAMH.G. Bissinger's exquisitely written account brings into sharp focus the bitter
struggle between sports and education in Odessa, Texas, as well as in high
schools and colleges nationwide.
Bascomb, Neal. THE NAZI HUNTERS: HOW A TEAM OF SPIES AND
SURVIVORS CAPTURED THE WORLD’S MOST NOTORIUS NAZI. A Nazi
hunter is a private individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged
former Nazis, SS members and Nazi collaborators involved in the .
Weisel, Elie. NIGHT. Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and
deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the
Nazi death camps.
Blumenthal, Karen . STEVE JOBS: THE MAN WHO THOUGHT DIFFERENT.
Inventor. Visionary. Genius. Dropout. Adopted. Steve Jobs was the founder of
Apple and he was all of these things.
Martin, Iain, C. . GETTSYBURG: THE TRUE ACCOUNT OF TWO YOUNG
HEROS IN THE GREATEST BATTLE OF THE CIVIL WAR. An exciting and
educational look at the greatest battle of the American Civil War for
young readers! In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee and the Army.
Flannery, Tim. WE ARE THE WEATHER MAKERS: THE HISTORY OF
CLIMATE CHANGE. Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to
arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next
century.
Newquist, Harvey. THE GREAT BRAIN BOOK. Peeling away the cool seethrough vinyl jacket of The Great Brain Book begins your journey through the
skull and deep into the layers of the brain.
Hill, Laban Carrick. AMERICA DREAMING: HOW YOUTH CHANGED
AMERICA IN THE 60’S.The 1960s were a time of change, and at the forefront of
this change was America's youth. America Dreaming is a comprehensive
examination of America in the 1960’s
Gevinson, Tavi. ROOKIE YEARBOOK ONE. A 352 page collection of articles,
interviews, photo editorials, and illustrations from Rookie's first year.
Imagine South Vero Middle School Summer
Reading Projects
Students in Grades 6-8 are required to read at least two books from the assigned book list and
complete one of the projects below for each book. Projects are due to your ELA teacher the
FIRST DAY of school. Points will be deducted for late projects. Transfer students will have 30
days.
RL- Best used for fiction text
RI- Best used for non-fiction text
RL or RI
RL
RL
Imagine you are leading a book club
discussion. Write five to ten open‐ended
questions that come to mind as you read
the text. The questions should show
depth of thought. Then, for three of the
questions, create a well‐developed
response. Use R.A.C.E. to answer each
question.
Write a two page persuasive
“pitch” to a movie producer,
explaining why the novel would or
would not make a great movie. Be
sure to include details from the
text that highlight conflict, plot,
character development, etc.
Write an opinion column like those
that appear on the editorial page of a
newspaper. Choose a theme or topic
from the novel you just read and
write the column from the point of
view of one of the characters. The
column must be at least three
paragraphs.
RL or RI
RL or RI
RL
Design a multimedia presentation (about
1 and a half minutes long) for your text.
Some ideas are as follows: book/movie
trailer, recreate a scene, a recorded
book talk that covers one of the themes
in the novel, investigate and reveal the
intricacies of a character, rewrite a
chapter/scene, etc. (Be creative using
technology. No Power Points allowed.)
Options are endless! Some resources
would be iMovie or Windows Movie
Maker. Or web based programs like
Animoto (https://animoto.com/)
Make a flyer that highlights the key
details of your book. The flyer will
include at least four types of text
features as well as some narrative
text written by you. It must also
include drawings and/or other
decorations. Be creative! No
computer printout art allowed on
this project.
Imagine that you are the author of
the book you have just read.
Suddenly the book becomes a best
seller. Write a letter to a movie
producer trying to get that person
interested in making your book into a
movie. Explain why the story,
characters, conflicts, etc., would
make a good film. Suggest a filming
location and the actors to play the
various roles.
RL
RL
RL or RI
Newspaper - Create a newspaper
page based on events from the
novel. The newspaper page might
include weather reports, an editorial
or editorial cartoon, news events,
sports events etc. The title of the
newspaper should be relevant to the
theme of the book. Use Who, What,
Where, When, Why and How
questions to guide your writing. Also,
the major conflict and events should
be reported in the paper.
Write a 4-6 paragraph essay
comparing and contrasting story
elements of two characters,
conflicts, or two topics, people, or
ideas from non-fiction text. You
may compare elements from the
same book or two different books.
Make sure you use specific
examples from the text. Your
paragraphs should follow basic
grammar, spelling, and
punctuation rules.
Make a comic strip of ten panels.
Summarize the major events or key
details in your book. You should be
sure to name your characters and
include indications of setting and
conflict within your summarization.
The cartoon panels may be drawn or
created using technology software.