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7th Grade
Books for a reader interested in an easy-read
• Midnight
Magic by Avi: A nervous king, a playful princess, and evil count,
a strange kitchen boy, a magician who doesn’t believe in magic,
and a servant who knows far too much for his own good. When this
bizarre group of people journey on a medieval ghost hunt, fate throws
plenty of twists and turns their way.
• Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes: Something more
than a high school poetry assignment. Kids are taking a look, leaning
in close, asking why and how. Eighteen teenagers take on the risky
challenge of exploring their identities. Together and separately
their words and lives clash and question, search and shout, creating
bonds that intertwine, pull them close, and set them free.
Books for a reader looking for something right on their level or
perhaps a little bit challenging
• Tangerine
by Edward Bloor: So what if he’s legally bind? Even with his
bottle-thick, bug-eyed glasses, Paul Fisher can see better than
most people. He can see the lies his parents and brother live out,
day after day. No one listens to Paul, though – until the
family moves to Tangerine. In Tangerine, even a blind outcast can
become cool. Who knows? Paul might even become a hero!
• A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park: In Ch’ul’po,
a potter’s village, Craneman (a man with a shriveled leg)
raises 10-year-old orphan Tree Ear. Though they live under a bridge,
surviving on rubbish and fallen grains of rice, they believe “stealing
and begging…make a man no better than a dog.” Tree Ear
admires the work of the potters until he accidentally destroys a
piece by Min, the most talented potter in town, and must become
his servant for nine days. You must read this book to find out about
the amazing journey Tree Ear must go on to help Min, who at first
he did not get along with at all!
• Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath: In the small
Canadian town of Coal Harbor, in a quaint restaurant called The
Girl on the Red Swing, everything comes on a waffle – lasagna,
fish, you name it. Even waffles! Eleven-year-old Primrose Squarp
loves this homey place, especially its owner, Kate Bowzer, who takes
her under her wing, teaches her how to cook, and doesn’t even
yell at her when she puts her guinea pig too close to the oven and
it catches fire! Primrose’s parents were lost at sea, and
her uncle who took her in doesn’t have much time to spend
with her. This is the story of a community teaching a young girl,
and a young girl teaching a community.
Books for a reader looking for a real challenge to take their mind
off the summer heat.
• The Golden
Compass by Philip Pullman: The main character of this fantasy
is young Lyra Belacqua, an orphan growing up within the buildings
of Oxford University in England. It quickly becomes clear that Lyra’s
Oxford is not like the Oxford famous to the world. For one thing,
people there each have a personal daemon, animal forms that are
part of them. Lyra’s spectacular adventures in more that one
fantasy world are amazingly exciting and suspenseful!
• Crocodile Burning by Michael Williams: This is a
tale of corruption and inequality in two countries: the United States
and South Africa. The Main character, Seraki, a South African teenager,
has witnessed destruction caused by hatred and violence in his own
country. When he joins a cast of actors bound for Broadway in New
York City, Seraki learns that the United States is all to similar
to his own country. While his South African people fight against
a racist government, Seraki fights against similar racism in the
Unites States.
• The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E.L. Konigsburg: The
greatest artist of his time, an apprentice with an unlawful heart
and an aversion to the truth, and a young duchess whose plain face
hides her beautiful soul…Could the complex ways these three
lives intertwine hold the key to a historical riddle as enigmatic
as the Mona Lisa’s smile – why Leonardo da Vinci devoted
three years to a painting of the second wife of an unimportant merchant
when all the nobles of Europe were begging for a portrait by his
hand? Read on to find and intriguing answer to the puzzle behind
the most famous painting of all time.
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding: What happens
when a plane goes down in an accident that should have left everyone
dead…but a group of young boys survive? As you delve into
a story of brutal survival, you will witness the evolution of children
into animals…sometimes even animals capable of murder!
Summer Reading Journal Form |
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