Grade 7 - FICTION - Summer Reading List 2010
*Alcott, Louisa May Little Women
Chronicles the fortunes of four sisters as they grow into young ladies in 19th-century New England.
Anderson, Laurie Halse Fever, 1793
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about
perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
Applegate, Katherine Sharing Sam
High schoolers and best friends Alison and Iz both fall for Sam, the new boy in town, but when Iz is diagnosed with cancer, Alison must balance her own feelings with thoughts for her friend's happiness
Avi Iron Thunder
Tom's job as an assistant to Captain John Ericsson, the inventor of the Monitor, makes him a target of Confederate spies.
Avi Seer of Shadows
Photographer Horace Carpetine is commissioned to do a portrait for society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht; however, the photos evoke both the image and the ghost of the Von Macht's dead daughter, Eleanora, who has returned to seek vengeance on those who killed her.
Baskin, Nora Raleigh Anything But Typical
Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.
# Bloor, Edward Tangerine
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly recalls the incident that damaged his eyesight.
Bunting, Eve The Presence
While visiting her grandmother in California, seventeen-year-old Catherine comes in contact with a mysterious stranger who says he can help her contact a friend who died in a car crash for which Catherine feels responsible.
Clements, Andrew Things Not Seen
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.
Collins, Suzanne Gregor The Overlander (and sequels)
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.
Cochrane, Mick The Girl Who Threw Butterflies
Eighth-grader Molly's ability to throw a knuckleball earns her a spot on the baseball team, which not only helps her feel connected to her recently deceased father, who loved baseball, it helps in other aspects of her life, as well.
Cummings, Priscilla Red Kayak
Living near the water on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, thirteen-year-old Brady and his best friends, J.T. and Digger, become entangled in a tragedy which tests their friendship and their ideas about right and wrong.
Deaver, Julie Reece Say Goodnight, Gracie
Close friendship between artistic boy and girl who ultimately confronts tragedy.
#Denman, K.L. The Shade
Safira, spending time at swim camp in the weeks before her sister Mya's wedding, sees a ghostly apparition; and together with her friend, Trinity, try to figure out who it is and where it came from.
Deuker, Carl Night Hoops
While trying to prove that he is good enough to play on his high school’s varsity basketball team, Nick must also deal with his parents’ divorce and erratic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street.
Dowd, Sioban The London Eye Mystery
When Ted and Kat's cousin Salim disappears from the London Eye ferris wheel, the two siblings must work together--Ted with his brain that is "wired differently" and impatient Kat--to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Salim.
DuPrau, Jeanne The City of Ember (and sequels)
In the city of Ember, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
Feinstein, John Change-up
While covering baseball's World Series between the Washington Nationals and the Boston Red Sox, teenage sports reporters Stevie and Susan Carol investigate a rookie pitcher whose evasive answers during an interview reveal more than a few contradictions in his life story.
*Funke, Cornelia Caroline Inkheart (and sequels)
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can “read” fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.
*Funke, Cornelia Caroline The Thief Lord
Orphaned brothers Prosper and Bo, having run away from their cruel aunt and uncle, decide to hide out in Venice where they fall in with the Thief Lord, a thirteen-year-old boy who leads a crime ring of street children. (Fantasy)
Gaiman, Neil The Graveyard Book
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
Goldman, William Princess Bride
Story of a beautiful young princess who marries a handsome but less than perfect, prince.
Goodman, Allegra The Other Side Of The Island
Honor, living with her mom and dad on Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea, an environment controlled by the Earth Mother corporation in a post-apocalyptic world, becomes more fearful as she grows older and realizes that her nonconformist parents are putting the entire family at risk.
Gordon, Roderick Tunnels (and sequels)
When Will Burrows and his friend Chester embark on a quest to find Will's archaeologist father, who has inexplicably disappeared, they are led to a labyrinthine world underneath London, full of sinister inhabitants with evil intentions toward "Topsoilers" like Will and his father
Greenwald, Lisa My Life In Pink And Green
When the family's drugstore is failing, seventh-grader Lucy uses her problem-solving talents to come up with a solution that might resuscitate the business, along with helping the environment.
Halam, Ann Dr. Franklins Island
When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical island and then imprisoned by a doctor performing horrifying experiments on humans, involving the transfer of animal genes.
Hesser, Terry Spencer Kissing Doorknobs
Fourteen-year-old Tara describes how her obsessive compulsive disorder begins to take over her life and affect her relationships with her family and friends.
# Hiassen, Carl Hoot
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Hiassen, Carl Scat
Nick and Marta are both suspicious when their biology teacher, the feared Mrs. Bunny Starch, disappears, and try to uncover the truth despite the police and headmaster's insistence that nothing is wrong.
*Isaacs, Anne Torn Thread
In an attempt to save his daughter’s life, Eva’s father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war.
#Kellerhals-Stewart, Heather Extreme Edge
Jay is determined to make his name by climbing a tough rock face known as "The Wall" -- solo. No partner, no ropes, no equipment. Little does Jay suspect that it's his own life that will one day hang in the balance.
Korman, Gordon Son of the Mob (and sequels)
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
*London, Jack White Fang
The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog that is part wolf.
# Lubar, David In the Land of the Lawn Weenies
A collection of short stories about kids who find themselves in some strange situations. These stories originally appeared in two volumes: Kidzilla and The Witch’s Monkey and other tales.
#Lubar, David My Rotten Life
Tired of continually having his feelings hurt by popular students and bullies, fifth-grader Nathan agrees to try an experimental formula, Hurt-Be-Gone, and becomes a half-dead zombie, a condition which, he soon discovers, has some real advantages.
Luper, Eric Bug Boy
Set amid the rough backstretch of thoroughbred
racing during the Great Depression, this novel follows a young athlete whose
rise to glory in the most popular sport in America is accompanied by
ever-increasing pressure to do something that could leave him trampled in the
dirt.
# Lupica, Mike
Travel Team (and
other sports titles)
After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national
prominence--twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.
Mackel, Kathryn Boost
Thirteen-year-old Savvy's dreams of starting for her elite basketball team are in danger when she is accused of taking steroids.
Martin, Ann A Corner of the Universe
The summer that Hattie turns twelve, she meets the childlike uncle she never knew and becomes friends with a girl who works at a carnival that comes to Hattie’s small town.
#McClintock, Norah Taken
While she is walking home from school Stephanie is grabbed from behind, drugged, and taken to a secret cabin in the woods where she tries to escape her captor and make her way to safety.
McDonald, Joyce Swallowing Stones
Dual perspectives reveal the aftermath of seventeen-year-old Michael Mackenzie’s birthday celebration during which he discharges an antique Winchester rifle with disastrous results.
McMullan, Margaret When I Crossed No-Bob
Ten years after the Civil War's end, twelve-year-old Addy, abandoned by her parents, is taken from the horrid town of No-Bob by schoolteacher Frank Russell and his bride, but when her father returns to claim her she must find another way to leave her O'Donnell past behind.
Meyer, Carolyn Mary, Bloody Mary
Mary Tudor, who would reign briefly as Queen of England during the mid sixteenth century, tells the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII.
Myers, Walter Dean Hoops
A talented young basketball player and his coach are told to lose a tournament and they must decide what to do.
# O’Connor, Barbara How to Steal a Dog: a Novel
Living in the family car in their small North Carolina town after their father leaves them virtually penniless, Georgina, desperate to improve their situation and unwilling to accept her overworked mother's calls for patience, persuades her younger brother to help her in an elaborate scheme to get money by stealing a dog and then claiming the reward that the owners are bound to offer.
# Pearson, Mary Scribbler of Dreams
Kaitlin Malone hates the Crutchfields. Her family has feuded with them for generations, and now her dad is in jail for killing one of them. This legacy of hatred has never been questioned--until Kaitlin falls for a Crutchfield boy. As if that's not bad enough, that boy is the son of the man her father murdered.
Peel, John Doomsday
Tritan must stop his evil clone from creating a computer virus that will end the world.
Perez, Marlene Dead Is The New Black
While dealing with her first boyfriend and suddenly being pressed into service as a substitute cheerleader, seventeen-year-old Daisy Giordano, daughter and sister of psychics but herself a "normal," attempts to help her mother discover who is behind a series of bizarre attacks on teenage girls in their little town of Nightshade, California.
*Pullman, Phillip The Golden Compass
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua, sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Rees, Celia Witch Child
In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.
Richardson, E.E. The Intruders
When soon-to-be stepbrothers, Joel and Tim, start having the same nightmare after moving into an old house, they decide to investigate its source and the many other strange occurrences in their new home.
Riordan, Rick The Lightning Thief (and sequels)
Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control his temper, learns the truth from his mother that his father is the Greek god Poseidon, and is sent to Camp Half Blood where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter of Athena who join him in a journey to the Underworld to retrieve Zeus's lightning bolt and prevent a catastrophic war.
#Rud, Jeff
Crossover
Rising basketball star Kyle's interest in theater causes huge problems both on and off the court.
Shanahan, Lisa The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year
I Truly Completely Lost It
Fourteen-year-old Gemma Stone struggles to understand her shifting emotions as her older sister plans her wedding, she overcomes her nerves and tries out for the school play, and she gets to know one of the most notorious boys in her class.
Shusterman, Neal Everlost (and sequels)
When Nick and Allie are killed in a car crash, they end up in Everlost, or limbo for lost souls, where although Nick is satisfied, Allie will stop at nothing--even skinjacking--to break free.
Shusterman, Neal Full Tilt
When sixteen-year-old Blake goes to a mysterious, by-invitation-only carnival he knows that it could save his comatose brother but soon learns that much more is at stake if he fails to meet the challenge presented there by the beautiful Cassandra.
Sleator, William The Boy Who Couldn’t Die
When his best friend dies in a plane crash, sixteen-year-old Ken has a ritual performed that will make him invulnerable, but soon learns that he had good reason to be suspicious of the woman he paid to lock his soul away.
# Smelcer, John The Trap
In alternating chapters, seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel, who is better known for brains than brawn, worries about his missing grandfather, and the grandfather, Albert Least-Weasel, struggles to survive, caught in his own steel trap in the Alaskan winter.
Smith, Roland Peak
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
Sorrells, Walter Fake ID (and sequels)
After a lifetime of moving and assuming new identities, sixteen-year-old Chass begins to piece together the past that haunts her and her mother which involves a mysterious tape, a deceased popular singer, and the secrets of several people in a small Alabama town.
# Spinelli, Jerry Stargirl (and sequel, Love Stargirl)
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.
Stead, Rebecca When You Reach Me
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.
*Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to share in an adventure from which he may never return.
# Trueman, Terry Stuck in Neutral (and sequels)
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is trying to kill him.
VandeVelde, Vivian Heir Apparent
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.
# Van Draanen, Wendelin Flipped
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.
Vance, Susanna Deep
Somewhere in the Caribbean, seventeen-year-old Morgan and thirteen-year-old Birdie, two girls whose lives are worlds apart, are brought together by the maniacal Nicholas.
Walden, Mark H.I.V.E. (and sequel, The Overlord Protocol)
Thirteen-year-old orphan Otto Malpense, identified as a boy with a special talent for villainy, is kidnapped and taken to the remote Higher Institute of Villainous Education, or H.I.V.E., where he is enrolled in a six-year training program and immediately begins formulating a plan to escape.
*Wells, H. G. The Time Machine
A scientist invents a machine that transports him into the future.
White, Ellen Emerson The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty,
United States Marine Corps
An eighteen-year-old Marine records in his journal his experiences in Vietnam during the siege of Khe Sanh, 1967-1968. Includes a history of Vietnam, war timeline, glossary, and related military information.
Whitemore, Arvella Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun:
A Boy’s Journey
Twelve-year-old Jordan is becoming dangerously involved with a street gang when he is suddenly transported through time to become a slave on the plantation of his ancestors.
Yolen, Jane Sword of the Rightful King
Merlinnus the magician devises a way for King Arthur to prove himself the rightful king of England – pulling a sword from a stone – but trouble arises when someone else removes the sword first.
NON-FICTION
Adler, David A. B. Franklin, Printer
A biography of Benjamin Franklin which emphasizes his many talents as a printer, writer, scientist, inventor, and statesman.
Aronson, Marc If Stones Could Speak
Text, photographs, and explanatory maps and illustrations document archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson's study of Stonehenge and the surrounding area, describing what he found and what the artifacts reveal about the site and its history.
Armstrong, Jennifer Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World:
The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance
Describes the 1914 Shackleton Expedition to the Antarctic and their perilous nine month adventure.
Calabro, Marian The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party
Uses materials from letters and diaries written by survivors of the Donner Party to relate the experiences of that ill-fated group as they endured horrific circumstances on their way to California in 1846-47.
Capuzzo, Mike Close To Shore
Details the first documented cases in American history of sharks attacking swimmers, which occurred along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey in 1916.
Dahl, Roald Boy: Tales of Childhood
Presents humorous anecdotes from the author’s childhood which includes summer vacations in Norway and an English boarding school.
Freedman, Russell An Indian Winter
Relates the experiences of a German prince, his servant, and a young Swiss artist as they traveled through the Missouri River Valley in 1833 learning about the territory and its inhabitants and recording their impressions in words and pictures.
Freedman, Russell The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the
Airplane
Follows the lives of the Wright brothers and describes how they developed the first airplane.
Giblin, James Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth
and John Wilkes Booth
Tells the life stories of nineteenth-century actor Edwin Booth and his actor brother John
Wilkes Booth, describing the differences between the two men, chronicling John’s assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and examining the impact of John’s crime on the Booth family for decades afterward.
Herriot, James Favorite Dog Stories
Experiences of an English Veterinarian. A collection of 50 touching and memorable dog stories. Each of the 50 stories is preceded by a pen-and-ink sketch. Following each story, there are one or two paragraphs of Herriot's philosophy, outlook on life, and reminiscences about the dogs he has known. In these accounts he illustrates the various reactions of the dogs to the vet who treats them, thus providing the psychological side of animal doctoring.
Jiang, Ji-Li Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
The author tells about the happy life she led in China up until she was twelve-years old when her family became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party.
Jurmaine, Suzanne The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic
Story of Prudence Crandell and Her Students
Chronicles the life and struggles of Prudence Crandall who, in the 1830s closed her all-white
Boarding school for girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, and began admitting African-American
Students; and describes the intense opposition from the townspeople
Lawlor, Laurie Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirits
An illustrated biography of Helen Keller, sharing aspects of her personality and sometimes radical beliefs, and discussing her relationship with her teacher Annie Sullivan and other important people in her life and work.
*Mah, Adeline Yen Chinese Cinderella
As “Fifth Younger Sister,” Adeline Yen Mah experiences the harsh life of a stepdaughter at the hands of her father’s new wife.
Murphy, Jim Blizzard: The Storm That Changed America
Factual account of 1888 blizzard that hit northeast, focusing on events in New York City.
Murphy, Jim The Great Fire
Photographs and text, along with personal accounts of actual survivors tell the story of the great fire of 1871 in Chicago.
Myers, Walter Dean The Greatest: Mohammed Ali
An illustrated biography of boxing great Mohammed Ali that addresses his politics, his fight against Parkinson ’s disease, and boxing’s dangers.
Pfetzer, Mark Within Reach: My Everest Story
The author describes how he spent his teenage years climbing mountains in the United States, South America, Africa and Asia with an emphasis on his two expeditions up Mount Everest.
Spinelli, Jerry Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography
of a Kid
This Italian-American Newberry Medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood and youth in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
May, 2010
* - Honors
# - Easier Read
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