Crawford Middle School’s

Summer Reading List for Summer 2009

6^th Grade

Please select two books from the list below to read during summer break.  Be prepared for an assessment activity when school begins in the fall.  If you have already taken an AR quiz on any of these books, you will not be able to use the AR quiz as your assessment.

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldeno

Moose Flannigan, 12, is dismayed when his family moves to Alcatraz after his father gets a new job as a prison guard.  Life on the island is confining, the warden’s daughter is a pain, and baseball is the best game around.

 Chinese Cinderella: the True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah

The author tells the story of her painful childhood in China where she lived until the age of fourteen with her father, stepmother, and siblings, all of whom considered her bad luck because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her.

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South in 1859, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

In the late 1860s in the Texas hill country, a big yellow dog and a fourteen-year-old boy form a close, loving relationship.

Penny from Heaven by Jennifer Holm

Penny Falucci is 11 in 1953 when she learns the secret that has kept her mother and her deceased father’s family apart since she was a baby.  Restrictions on Italian Americans during World War II, the fear of polio, wringer washing machines, and Penny’s mother starting to date the milkman combine to make this an interesting story of an imperfect family.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake

Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

With nowhere else to turn, a field mouse asks the clever escaped lab rats living under the rosebush to help save her son, who lies in the path of the farmer's tractor, too ill to be moved.

Shabanu by Suzanne Staples       

When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.

Harris and Me by Gary Paulson.  Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city boy meets his distant cousin Harris and is given an introduction to a whole new world.

Hatchet by Gary Paulson. This Newbery Honor book is a dramatic, heart-stopping story of a boy who, following a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness must learn to survive with only a hatchet and his own wits.

Queenie Peavy by Robert Burch. A captivating story about the biggest troublemaker in schoola remarkable girl named Queenie who learns a lesson about responsibility when her father is put in jail.

Redwall by Brian Jacques. When the peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy.

Haveli by Suzanne Staples

Having relented to the ways of her people in Pakistan and married the rich older man to whom she was pledged against her will, Shabanu is now the victim of his family's blood feud and the malice of his other wives.  This is a sequel to Shabanu.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. 

Book 1 in the Underland Chronicles.  When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving humans, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs.

In this survival story, fifteen year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in Central Mexico.

Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz.

As punishment for a crime he really didn’t commit, Matt was given a choice:  go live with an old woman named Mrs. Deverill in a remote town called Lesser Malling.  He should have chosen jail.

Note: Book descriptions have been taken from a variety of sources including Amazon.com, “The School Library Journal”, Titlewave, and the jackets of the books themselves.