2015 The Westminster School at Oak Mountain Summer Reading
Rising 2nd through Rising 6th grades
In order to maintain and improve the reading skills of our students and to foster a love for reading,
we believe that summer reading is an important part of your child’s continuing education. Studies
show that most young readers suffer a regression in reading skills over the summer months, but
children who continue to read actually gain skills. We pray that our families will make reading a
priority during the summer months, helping our students realize that people never take a vacation
from learning.
2nd Through 6th Grade Required Reading Books
Rising 2nd graders: Magic Tree House #22: Revolutionary War on Wednesday
Nate the Great
Sharmat
Rising 3rd graders: The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Cleary
th
Rising 4 graders: The Whipping Boy
Fleischman
Rising 5th graders: Summer of the Monkeys
Rawls
Rising 6th graders: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Taylor
Osborne
The additional pagination requirement for summer reading is as follows:
3rd grade: 300 pages (in addition to the required reading)
4th grade: 400 pages (in addition to the required reading)
5th and 6th grades: 500 pages (in addition to the required reading)
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD IS READING 30 MINUTES EVERY DAY.
Bolded titles will be the Summer Book Club choices for the listed grade level. Students who
choose to read those books as part of their pagination requirement are invited to a Book
Club discussion with Mrs. Keeler at her home and the dates are as follows:
Rising 1st grade: July 6 at 9:00 a.m.
Rising 2nd grade: July 7 at 9:00 a.m.
Rising 3rd grade: July 8 at 9:00 a.m.
Rising 4th grade: July 9 at 9:00 a.m.
Rising 5th grade: July 10 at 9:00 a.m.
Rising 6th grade: July 10 at 11:30 a.m.
Other suggested titles are listed below. Feel free to choose other books as well and to
recommend them to Mrs. Keeler for inclusion on next summer’s suggested reading list!
Rising 1st graders:
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (di Camillo)
Rising 2nd graders:
Rikki Tikki Tavi (Kipling)
Rising 3rd graders:
Because of Winn Dixie (diCamillo) Newbery
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Doctor DeSoto
Ramona and Her Father
All Alone
Charlotte’s Web
My Father’s Dragon
The Family Under the Bridge
The Matchlock Gun
Red Sails to Capri
Shadrach
Rising 4th graders:
Trouble River (Byars)
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Crispin: The Cross of Lead
Maniac Magee
On My Honor
Abel’s Island
Rabbit Hill
King of the Wind
Ginger Pye
Because of Winn-Dixie
The Noonday Friends
Number the Stars
Summer of the Swans
Sign of the Beaver
Caddie Woodlawn
Ella Enchanted
Turtle in Paradise
Flora and Ulysses
Rising 5th graders:
Masterpiece (Broach)
The King’s Fifth
Shadow of a Bull
Old Yeller
Holes
The Twenty-One Balloons
Adam of the Road
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Golden Goblet
The House of Sixty Fathers
Indian Captive
Sign of the Beaver
The Cay
Catherine, Called Birdy
Hatchet
Moon Over Manifest
Rising 6th Graders:
Wonder (Palacio)
I, Juan de Pareja
The Black Pearl
Sounder
The View from Saturday
Onion John
A Wrinkle in Time
Call it Courage
My Brother Sam is Dead*
The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
The Dark Frigate
A Long Way from Chicago
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
One Crazy Summer
Bridge to Terabithia
When You Reach Me
The Giver *
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963*
* Mature content – See Mrs. Keeler with questions.
Biography
Rising 3rd Graders:
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth (Lasky)
Columbus (D’Aulaire)
Alexander the Great (Green)
Cleopatra (Stanley &Vennema)
Senefer: A Young Genius in Old Egypt (Lumpkin)
William Bradford: Pilgrim Boy (Smith)
Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life
Abraham Lincoln D’Aulaire
The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson (Freedman)
Ride on the Wind Dagliesh
Touch of Light: The Story of Louis Braille Neimark
Rising 4th Graders:
Luther the Leader (Robinson)
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine Bendick
Archimedes and the Door of Science
Bard of Avon (Stanley)
Saint Patrick: Pioneer Missionary to Ireland (McHugh)
Augustine, The Farmer’s Boy of Tagaste (Zeeuw)
Leonardo da Vinci (Stanley)
George Washington (Giblin)
Johannes Kepler: Giant of Faith and Science (Tiner, John Hudson)
A Piece of the Mountain: The Story of Blaise Pascal (McPherson)
Rising 5th Graders:
Daniel Boone (Daugherty)
Salt in His Blood (Rang)
America’s Paul Revere (Forbes)
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery (Freedman)
Traitor: Benedict Arnold (Fritz)
Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
C.S. Lewis (Catherine Swift)
The Great Little Madison (Jean Fritz)
Five Ships West: The Story of Magellan (Charles Israel)
Rising 6th Graders:
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane (Freedman)
Lincoln: A Photobiography (Freedman)
Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women (Meigs)
Rosa Parks: My Story
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Stonewall (Jean Fritz)
Robert E. Lee: Christian General and Gentleman (Lee Roddy)
Eric Liddell (Catherine Swift)
The Voice that Challenged a Nation (Russell Freedman)
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Hoose)
Poetry for all grades:
Nonfiction
Rising Third Graders:
Carver: A Life in Poems
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Pomes for Innocent and Experienced
A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by C. Kennedy
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Harriet and the Promised Land by Jacob Lawrence
When We Were Very Young by Milne
Now We Are Six by Milne
A Pillar of Pepper by Knapp
The Children’s Own Longfellow
Goblin Market Christian Rosetti
Cautionary Verses by Hilaire Belloc
Rhymes and Verses: Collected Poems for Children (de la Mare)
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from Medieval Village (Schlitz)
Shel Silverstein collections
Robert Frost collections
Poetry for Young People series
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?
Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution
Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?
Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?
Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln
The Fourth of July Story
Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George?
Who’s Stepping on Plymouth Rock?
Rising Fourth Graders:
Turn of the Century Ellen Jackson
Through My Eyes Ruby Bridges
Rising Fifth Graders:
Christopher Columbus: First Voyage to America
(Veritas #190-060)
Hero Tales by Theodore Roosevelt (#170-045)
Guns for General Washington (Reit)
Homes in the Wilderness: A Pilgrim’s Journal of Plymouth
Plantation in 1620 (M.W. Brown)
The Pilgrims of Plymouth (Marcia Sewell)
Rising Sixth Graders:
The Good Fight: How WWII Was Won Ambrose
The Boys’ War Murphy
To Be a Slave Lester
Immigrant Kids Freedman
The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia (Hautzig)
Plantation in 1620 (M.W. Brown)
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary (Fleming)
Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous
Weapon (Sheinkin)
Series books:
Missionary Biographies:
Fantasy Fiction:
Classics For All Grades:
If You…History series
The Hardy Boys
Nancy Drew
Little House on the Prairie
Anne of Green Gables
Drums of War
appropriate reading level
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Redwall Series
The Wilderking Triology by Jonathan Rogers
The Light Princess and Other Fantasy Stories
by George MacDonald
Susan Cooper books
Madeline L’Engle books
Lloyd Alexander books
Robin McKinley books
C.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia
The Dragon Trilogy
Lawhead
The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster)
Harry Potter Series
Andrew Peterson books
The Little Prince (de Saint-Exupery)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Lin)
Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (Andersen)
Heidi
My Friend Flicka
Charlotte's Web
Around the World in Eighty Days
Little Women
Betsy-Tacy
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Secret Garden
The Little Princess
Little Lord Fauntleroy
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Peter Pan
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Daddy Longlegs
The Wind in the Willows
Mary Poppins
Black Beauty
The Adventures of Pinocchio
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Enchanted Castle
Treasure Island
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Little House series
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh
The Borrowers (Norton)
Anne of Green Gables series
Myths, Legends, Fairy Tales, and Folklore: (Read one selection from the collections)
Rising Third Graders:
About Wise Men and Simpletons: 12 Tales from Grimm tr. Shub
Aesop’s Fables translated by S.A. Hanford
Treasury of Fairy Tales Hans Christian Anderson
Paul Bunyan
Steven Kellogg
Rising Fourth Graders:
The Arabian Nights: Their Best Known Tales ed. Wiggin &Smith
D’Aulaire’s Norse Gods and Giants
The Green Fairy Book (edited by Andrew Lang)
Rising Fifth Graders:
Twelve Tales: Hans Christian Andersen (Blegvad)
Favorite Fairy Tales Told Around the World (Haviland)
The Gifts of the Child Christ and Other Stories and Fairy
Tales (George MacDonald)
Rising Sixth Graders:
Faerie Gold: Treasures from the Land of Enchantment
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (Hamilton)
The Rainbow People (Yep)
Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (Lester)
The Magic Fishbone by Charles Dickens
Retellings:
Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad (Sutcliff)
David’s Songs: His Psalms and Their Story (Eisler)
Gulliver in Lilliput (Hodges)
St. George and the Dragon:An adaptation of Spenser’s Fairie
Queen (by Margaret Hodges)
Stories from Shakespeare (McCaughrean)
The Children’s Homer (Colum)
The Wanderings of Odysseus (Sutcliff)
In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid (Lively)
William Tell (Early)
Cinderella (Evans)
The Tale of Troy (Roger Lancelyn Green)
Tales of the Greek Heroes (Roger Lancelyn Green)
Pandora’s Box and Tanglewood Tales (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Historical Fiction:
Rising Third Graders:
Quintus by R. Weerdstand
A Triumph for Flavius by Caroline Dale Snedeker
A Lion to Guard Us (Bulla)
Rising Fourth Graders:
The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day O’Dell
Beorn the Proud (Polland)
Magical Melons: More Stories about Caddie Woodlawn (Brink)
The Mostly True Adventures of the Homer P. Figg (Philbrick)
Whittington (Armstrong)
Rising Fifth Graders:
Sarah Bishop O’Dell
The Tinker’s Daughter (Lawton)
We Were There with Mayflower Pilgrims (Robert Webb)
The King’s Fifth (O’Dell)
Heart of a Samurai (Preus)
Rising Sixth Graders:
North to Freedom Holm
The Ides of April Kay
Twice Freed (St. John)
Huguenot Garden (Jones)
Scottish Seas (Jones)
The Perilous Journey (Humphrey Johnson)
Iron Scouts of the Confederacy (Lee McGiffin)
Breaking Stalin’s Nose (Yelchin)
Glory Be (Scattergood)
Young Fredle (Voight)
Because of Mr. Terupt (Buyea)
Elementary Fiction:
The Mysterious Benedict Society Collection (Stewart)
The Magician’s Elephant (diCamillo)
The Wednesday Wars (Schmidt) 6th
My Side of the Mountain (George)
Julie of the Wolves (George)
Al Capone Does My Shirts (Choldenko)
No Ordinary Day (Ellis)
The Incorrigble Children Series (Wood)
Books by Raold Dahl
All-of-a-Kind Family Series
Paperboy (Vawter) 6th
Okay for Now (Gary Schmidt) 5th & 6th
Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh) 3rd and 4th
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Akin) 5th
The Magic Walking Stick (John Buchan) 3rd through 6th
What Katy Did (Susan Coolidge) elementary girls
Jared’s Island (Marguerite De Angeli) elementary boys
Shadrach (Meindert DeJong) 3rd and 4th
Calico Bush (Rachel Field) 4th through 6th
The Doll’s House (Rumer Godden) elementary girls
The Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge) elementary girls
The Reluctant Dragon (Kenneth Grahame) 3rd through 6th
Mountain Born (Elizabeth Yates) 3rd and 4th
Danny, the Champion of the World (Raold Dahl) 3rd-5th
Gentle Ben (Walt Morey) 3rd through 6th
Homer Price (Robert McCloskey) 3rd
Summer Reading is Killing Me (Jon Scieszka)
Loser (Jerry Spinelli) 4th through 6th
Otto of the Silver Hand (Howard Pyle) 5th and 6th
Tuck Everlasting (Natalie Babbitt) 4th through 6th
Blue Willow (Doris Gates) elementary girls
Lassie Come Home (Eric Knight) 3rd through 6th
Understood Betsy (Dorothy Canfield Fisher) 3rd through 5th
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Bette Lord)4th
Lily’s Crossing (Patricia Reilly Giff) 3rd through 6th
Listening for Lions (Gloria Whelan) 3rd through 6th
The Golden Key (George MacDonald) 3rd through 6th
The Plain Princess (Phyliss McGinley) elementary girls
Titus in Trouble (James Reeves) elementary boys
Treasures in the Snow (Patricia St. John) 3rd through 6th
The Griffin and the Minor Canon (Frank Stockton) 3rd- 6th
Hannah (Gloria Whelan) 3rd through 6th
The Happy Prince (Oscar Wilde) 6th
A Day No Pigs Would Die (Robert Peck) 6th
Big Red (Jim Kjelgaard) 5th
****There are also some great websites to visit for summer math activities for each grade level that
we hope our students will use and enjoy:
The NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) website
PBS Mathline
Mathforum
AAAMath
Matti.usu.edu (The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives)
CoolMath.com
Figurethis.org
Funbrain.com
Ixl.com