Seventh Grade Summer Reading Assignment ●
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Choose ​
one book​
from the attached book list. Follow the instructions for close reading below. This assignment(the book) is due the first day of school. In addition to the below assignment, honors students must read ​
Treasure Island​
and be ready for a quiz the first week. ​
Instructions for Close Reading Literature Terms may be found on last page of this packet/Writing is done directly in the book. 1. Underline/highlight important description and dialogue (anything that is centered around the protagonist, antagonist, conflict, key plot points, etc.). 2. Label in the margins any figurative language and literary terms (similes, metaphors, personification, symbols, sensory details, foreshadowing, etc.). ​
Just identify these as you see them. You do not need to spend hours purposely finding them. 3. At the beginning or end of each chapter, write a brief summary of the chapter. It does not have to be in complete sentences; bullet points are acceptable. 4. In the front cover of your book, write two themes of the novel. If you have any questions, please email: English ­ Mrs. Taylor ​
[email protected] Honors English ­ Ms. Swanson ​
[email protected] Seventh Grade Summer Reading List ➢ The Secret Garden​
by ​
Frances Hodgson Burnett​
~ Genre: ​
Fantasy Two cousins are so monstrously spoiled that no one can stand them, and they can hardly stand themselves. With the help of a boy of the moors and some natural magic, they discover an abandoned garden and return it to abundance. As the garden grows the children grow­­into their own better selves. ➢ Where the Red Fern Grows ​
by ​
Wilson Rawls​
~ Genre: ​
Animals​
/Adventure Billy is growing up dirt­poor in the Ozarks during the Depression. More than anything he wants a pair of redbone coon hounds. As it is financially out of the question for his parents to buy them, he works and saves for two years to buy them himself, then hikes barefoot sixty miles round­trip to pick them up. He then spends months training the pups to be the best coon hounds in the hills. ➢ The Watsons Go to Birmingham ​
by ​
Christopher Paul Curtis​
~ Genre: ​
Historical Fiction They're called Weird Watsons, and sometimes Kenny, Joetta, and delinquent big brother Byron, deserve the name. But when they visit Grandma Sands in Birmingham, they head into a nightmare. ➢ The Trouble with Lemons b​
y Daniel Hayes ~ Genre: Mystery His real name is Tyler McAllister, but he feels like a lemon. He has allergies and nightmares and is the only un­famous person in his family. But one night he and a friend go swimming at the forbidden quarry, and Tyler finds a dead body. Now he's determined to find out who killed the man and why they're now after him. ➢ The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle ​
by ​
Avi​
~ Genre: ​
Historical Fiction Charlotte Doyle is a properly­brought­up young lady who is traveling from England to rejoin her family in America. Through a series of apparently coincidental, but suspicious, events, she finds herself the lone passenger on a forbidding ship. ➢ Treasure Island​
by Robert Louis Stevenson ~ Genre: Adventure When an old pirate staying at his family's seaside inn dies, young Jim Hawkins discovers that he left behind a map showing the location of buried pirate treasure. Jim sets sail to seek the treasure, but the dead pirate's shipmates, led by the charming and magnetic Long John Silver, want the treasure too, and will stop at nothing to get it. > A Wrinkle in Time​
by Madeleine L’ Engle –Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy A Wrinkle in Time​
is the story of Meg Murry, a high­school­aged girl who is transported on an adventure through ​
time​
and space with her younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O'Keefe to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet. ➢ My Brother Sam Is Dead ​
by ​
James Lincoln Collier​
~ Genre: ​
Historical Fiction At a distance, war looks glorious to 10­year­old Tim, but as it intrudes on his own life, it forces him to grow up. Tim witnesses the capture of his father, and patriots falsely accuse his brother of stealing his own family's cattle ­­ and Tim can do nothing to help them. By the time he is 14 years old, he knows, as his mother says, that "war turns men into animals." ➢ Farewell to Manzanar ​
by ​
Jeanne and James D. Houston​
~ Genre: Autobiography The true story of one spirited Japanese­American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native­born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States ➢ Little Women​
by ​
Louisa May Alcott​
~ Genre: ​
Family Life Alcott's semi­autobiographical classic, set in Boston during and just after the Civil War, follows the four March sisters as they struggle to overcome poverty and grow into proper young ladies. ➢ The Call of the Wild ​
by Jack London ~ Genre: Animals/Adventure Buck is a large dog living the good life on a comfortable California estate in the late 1800s when he is kidnapped and transported to the Yukon to be a sled dog during a gold rush there. At first he tries to rebel, but he is soon beaten into submission. As he passes through a succession of owners, he finds that ancient instincts from his wolf ancestors are awakening within him, enabling him to survive and prosper in the brutal wilderness of the North. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer​
by Mark Twain ~ Genre: Adventure ​
Close Reading Terms Description /sensory details​
– writing that appeals to the senses (hearing, sight, touch, taste ,and smell ) Dialogue ​
– Conversation between characters Protagonist​
– ​
The main character; the good guy; the one for whom the reader is cheering for. Antagonist ​
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The bad guy; the opposing force; the character who stands in the way of the protagonist's happiness. Conflict​
– A problem; a struggle between opposing forces Simile​
­ Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “ as” Life is like a box of chocolates Metaphor ​
– Comparing two unlike things without using “like” or “as” Bob is such a pig. Personification ​
– Giving human qualities to nonhumans The trees danced in the wind. Symbol ​
– An object, person, or place that stands for something beyond itself (find specific symbols for your book) heart=love ring=forever eagle=strength Foreshadowing ​
– The author provides hints about what will happen next Flashback ​
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story gets interrupted to go back in time Theme​
­ main message (find specific themes for your book)