Parents
Summer Reading: Middle School
6th, 7th & 8th Grade English: Read a book from the list and write a one page typed, single spaced, response to one of the questions below.
- Do any of the characters change in the story? What caused them to change?
- Would you like to read something else by this author? Why or why not?
- If you had been one of the characters, which one would you be? Why? How would you have responded to the situations in the book?
- How might the story be different if it happened somewhere else (or in a different time period)?
- How are some of the characters in the story like you or like someone you know?
- Write a letter to the author of the book saying what you think of the novel and ask him or her any questions you might have.
- What was the theme or the author's message? What events helped you figure out the message?
- Write an alternate ending to this story.
Recommended Reading List for Students Entering 6th, 7th & 8th Grades
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| 20,000 Leagues under the Sea | Jules Verne |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The | Mark Twain |
| Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The | Mark Twain |
| African Queen, The | C.S. Forester |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll |
| Amos Fortune, Free Man | Elizabeth Yates |
| Around the World in Eighty Days | Jules Verne |
| Bell for Adano, A | John Hersey |
| Ben-Hur | Lewis Wallace |
| Big Sky, The | A.B. Guthrie |
| Black Arrow, The | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| Bridge of San Luis Rey, The | Thornton Wilder |
| Bridges at Toko-Ri, The | James Michener |
| Christmas Carol, A | Charles Dickens |
| Cimarron | Edna Ferber |
| Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A | Mark Twain |
| Count of Monte Christo, The | Alexander Dumas |
| Cry, the Beloved Country | Alan Paton |
| Dandelion Wine | Ray Bradbury |
| Death Be Not Proud | John Gunther |
| Deerslayer, The | James Fenimore Cooper |
| Dracula | Bram Stoker |
| Drums along the Mohawk | Walter D. Edmonds |
| Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton |
| Frankenstein | Mary Shelley |
| Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell |
| Goodbye, Mr. Chips | James Hilton |
| Green Mansions | W.H. Hudson |
| High Wind in Jamaica, A | Richard Hughes |
| Hiroshima | John Hersey |
| Hobbit, The | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Hornblower series, The | C.S. Forester |
| Hunchback of Notre Dame, The | Victor Hugo |
| Illustrated Man, The | Ray Bradbury |
| Innocents Abroad | Mark Twain |
| Island of the Blue Dolphins | Scott O'Dell |
| Ivanhoe | Sir Walter Scott |
| Johnny Tremain | Esther Forbes |
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | Jules Verne |
| Kim | Rudyard Kipling |
| King Must Die, The | Mary Renault |
| King Solomon's Mines | H. Rider Haggard |
| Kon-Tiki | Thor Heyerdahl |
| Last of the Mohicans, The | James Fenimore Cooper |
| Le Morte d'Arthur | Sir Thomas Malory |
| Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The | Washington Irving |
| Life on the Mississippi | Mark Twain |
| Life with Father | Clarence Day |
| Little Men | Louisa May Alcott |
| Little Prince, The | Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
| Lord of the Rings, The | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Lorna Doone | Richard D. Blackmore |
| Lost Horizon | James Hilton |
| Madame Curie: A Biography | Eve Curie |
| Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury |
| Member of the Wedding | Carson McCullers |
| Men of Iron | Howard Pyle |
| Mutiny on the Bounty | Charles & J.N. Hall Nordhoff |
| Mysterious Island | Jules Verne |
| National Velvet | Enid Bagnold |
| Night to Remember, A | Walter Lord |
| Northwest Passage | Kenneth Roberts |
| Old Man and the Sea, The | Ernest Hemingway |
| Ox-Bow Incident, The | Walter Clark |
| Pearl, The | John Steinbeck |
| Pilgrim's Progress, The | John Bunyan |
| Poems | Robert Frost |
| Prince and the Pauper, The | Mark Twain |
| Profiles in Courage | John F. Kennedy |
| Raisin in the Sun | Lorraine Hansberry |
| Rebecca | Daphne Du Maurier |
| Ring of Bright Water | Gavin Maxwell |
| Robe, The | Lloyd C. Douglas |
| Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe |
| Scarlet Pimpernel, The | Baroness Emma Orczy |
| Sea Wolf, The | Jack London |
| Separate Peace, A | John Knowles |
| Shane | Jack Schaefer |
| Snow Goose, The | Paul Gallico |
| Stories | Saki |
| Story of My Life | Helen Keller |
| Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The | Robert Louis Stevenson |
| Thirty-Nine Steps, The | John Buchan |
| Three Musketeers, The | Alexander Dumas |
| Through the Looking Glass | Lewis Carroll |
| Thurber Carnival, The | James Thurber |
| Time Machine, The | H.G. Wells |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| Tortilla Flat | John Steinbeck |
| Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A | Betty Smith |
| Two Years before the Mast | Richard Henry Dana |
| Up from Slavery | Booker T. Washington |
| Virginian | Owen Wister |
| Wall, The | John Hersey |
| War of the Worlds | H.G. Wells |
| Wind, Sand and Stars | Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
| Yearling, The | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings |