Click here for a printable version of the Summer Reading List for Students Entering 7th Grade
Students are required to read at least two books over the summer. One book MUST be from the list below. The second reading selection is a reading level appropriate book of their choice (can include titles from the list below). Students are expected to choose books at their independent reading level. Students are required to complete two index card projects, one on the book of their choice over the summer and another on a book from the list below to bring completed to school in September.
Click here for information on the index card project for fiction books.
Click here for information on the index card project for nonfiction books.
Books can be borrowed from a local library or purchased from a book store. To find out what books are available through public libraries search the CLAN system. For Summer Reading suggestions for parents check out the following sites:
Summer Reading Tips and Resources published by the American Library Association
CMS Entering 7th Grade Summer Reading List -2011
RL = Reading Level by Grade Level
Fic = Fiction
NFic = Nonfiction
Students in grades seven and eight who have read at least five of the Rhode Island Teen Nominees may participate in a series of competitions called the Teen Book Battle. If students choose to read two of the nominees for summer reading they count towards the five needed to play in the games. The Teen Book Battle does not include nominees that are recommended just for High School.
Rhode Island Teen Nominees for Middle School 2012 (Teen Book Battle books):
After Ever After by J. Sonnenblick RL 5.2 Fic Now that Jeffrey is in remission from cancer, he must face his next big challenge -- navigating eighth grade without the help of his older brother.
Ghostopolis by D. TenNapel RL 2.4 Fic A boy who is accidentally whisked into the spirit world discovers he has special powers there. But will they help him get back home?
Sources of Lightby M. McMullen RL 5.2 Fic In 1962, Samantha and her mother move from Pennsylvania to Jackson, Mississippi, a city on the edge of violence as the civil rights movements begin to shake up the racist status quo.
Touch Blueby C. Lord RL 4.4 Fic To save their school from closing, the families in Tess's island community take in foster children. She hopes Aaron will like her town and family, but what if he doesn't want to stay?
Woods Runnerby G. Paulsen RL 5.5 Fic
In 1776, Samuel sets out from Pennsylvania to New York to rescue his parents from the British soldiers and Indians who kidnapped them after slaughtering most of their community.
Rhode Island Teen Nominees for All Students 2012 (may contain mature themes these books are shared with high school students) (Teen Book Battle books):
Birthmarked by C. M. O’Brien RL 5.4 Fic In a world split between those who rule and those who serve, Gaia must smuggle herself into the guarded Enclave to rescue her imprisoned parents who face execution. (Mature Themes)
Borderlineby Allan Stratton RL 3.7 Fic When Sami’s Iranian dad is accused of involvement in a terrorist plot, Sami risks his own life to uncover the truth despite the fact that they don’t get along.(Mature Themes)
Heist Society by A. Carter RL 5.5 Fic A group of teens use their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save Kat’s father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector. (Mature Themes)
Matched by A. Condie RL4.8 Fic Cassia always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her, but she begins to question just how perfect her world really is when she notices things are not what they seem. (Mature Themes)
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi RL 4.4 Fic In the near-future, salvager Nailer has the chance of a lifetime when a yacht washes up after a storm. When he finds a survivor on board, he must decide whether to save her life or enrich his own. (Mature Themes)
Shutoutby Brendan Halpin RL 5.6 Fic When Amanda’s best friend Lena makes the varsity soccer team and she only makes junior varsity, their longtime friendship suffers dramatically. (Mature Themes)
Trash by Andy Mulligan RL 5.1 Fic Three boys in a Third World country find something at the dump and set out to unravel the mystery behind it while lying, stealing, and narrowly escaping death at every turn. (Mature Themes)
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri RL 3.4 NFic Based on the 1994 events that happened in a Chicago South Side neighborhood, this graphic dramatization recounts the gang-related killing of 14-year-old Shavon Dean. (Mature Themes)
The rest of the books on the list are not Teen Battle books!
Other Books to Consider:
Getting Away with Murder: the true story of the Emmett Till case by C. Crowe RL 7.1 NFic In 1954, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American was visiting his family in Mississippi when he was kidnapped, brutally tortured, and killed. What happened to those who committed the crime? They got away with it.
Buddha Boy by K. Koja. RL 7.2 Fic Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school. (Mature themes)
Gut-Eating Bugs: maggots reveal the time of death! by D. Denega. RL 5.0 NFic Describes how forensic entomologists examine the insects on a corpse to determine the corpse's time of death. Includes true-life case studies in which scientists studied the type of bugs on the corpses, and the stage of development of the bugs.
Graphic Novels:
Asterix and Obelix All at Sea by A. Uderzo. RL 6.0 Fic After Obelix drinks a potion that turns him to stone, Asterix sets out to find a cure, and along the way he finds himself on the continent of Atlantis.
Castawayby C. Pitcher. RL 2.0 Fic Presents a graphic novel in which six kids get cut off by the sea, and they only have themselves to blame when one of the gets hurt.
Student Picks:
Breathe: a ghost story by C. McNish RL 4.9 Fic When he and his mother move into an old farmhouse in the English countryside, asthmatic, twelve-year-old Jack discovers that he can communicate with the ghosts inhabiting the house and inadvertently establishes a relationship with a tormented, malevolent spirit that threatens to destroy both his mother and himself.
The Batboy by M. Lupica RL 6.3 Fic Even though his mother feels baseball ruined her marriage to his father, she allows fourteen-year-old Brian to become a bat boy for the Detroit Tigers, who have just drafted his favorite player back onto the team.
Hunger Games by S. Collins RL 5.3 Fic In this first book of a projected trilogy, the United States -- wracked with natural and man-made disasters - has been replaced by "Panem," a country comprised of the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year a boy and a girl from each district are chosen by lottery to participate in a violent reality TV show called The Hunger Games. The rules are simple -- there are no rules. (Mature Themes)
Bounce by N. Friend RL 3.3 Fic Thirteen-year-old Evyn learns that her widowed father is getting married and moving their family from Maine to Boston to live with his new wife and her six children. Trying to cope with the new stress in her life, Evyn begins sharing her thoughts with her dead mother.
I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You by A. Carter RL 5.9 Fic As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission. (Mature Themes)
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan RL 4.8 Fic Jason, Piper, and Leo, three students from a school for "bad kids," find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, where they learn that they are demigods and begin a quest to free Hera, who has been imprisoned by Mother Earth herself.
The Devil’s Breath by D. Gilman RL 6.4 Fic After fifteen-year-old Max Gordon's environmentalist father goes missing while working in Namibia, Max finds he has become the target of a would-be assassin at his school in England, and decides he must find his father in Africa before they both are killed.
Challenge Books (for students looking for a more difficult book):
The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J. TolkienRL7.5 Fic The adventures of the well-to-do hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who lived happily in his comfortable home until a wandering wizard granted his wish.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by M. Twain RL 8.1 Fic Presents the adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth century.
Chew on this : everything you don't want to know about fast foodby E. Schlosser RL 7.4 NFic A look at fast food, what's in it, how it's made, and what it does to our bodies.
The Count of Monte Cristo by A. Dumas RL? Fic After falsely imprisoned on his wedding day and enduring years of incarceration, Edmond Dantes escapes prison, discovers a vast hidden treasure, transforms into the mysterious and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, and seeks vengeance on his enemies.
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