For rising 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. Rising 9th grade students

For rising 6th, 7th and 8th grade students.
Rising 9th grade students should check with the high school for the reading list.
The purpose of the PWCS Summer Reading Program is to encourage students to enjoy quality
literature and to continue developing their independent reading skills. Student participation in the
program is voluntary. Students who choose to participate in the program are required to complete a
minimum number of readings over the summer.
Students in Grades 6 - 8 who participate will complete a list of books read. The documentation is to
include the name of the author, the title of the book, and an explanation of the topic or plot of the
book, and a parent or guardian statement that the student has completed the reading. For Grades 6 8 students who participate in Prince William County Public Library's Summer Reading Program, the
Public Library documentation will apply. Students will receive an extra A (100) for each book
completed, for a total of two. Completion of the summer reading will be recorded for students by the
end of the second week of school.
Suggested Reading
The following titles are suggestions for summer reading. Other books selected by the student with
guidance from a parent/guardian and/or librarian are also acceptable. Participation in the PWC
Public Library Summer Reading Program and its documentation are also acceptable.
Lexile Scores
To help in choosing books that can promote reading growth, this year each child’s 2010 English SOL
score will include a Lexile Level. The Lexile Level is based on a student*s SOL score on the English
portion of the SOL and approximates his/her reading level. This means a child should be able to read
and understand books in a Lexile range of approximately 100 points below to 50 points above the
designated score.
Knowing a child’s Lexile range can help to locate books that he/she might enjoy reading. Student
interest and motivation for reading books that are age appropriate are critical factors to consider as
book choices are made. Remember that nothing replaces conversation with the student, his teachers,
and librarians in making great choices.
It is important to note that the Lexile measure does not address the content or quality of the book.
Many other factors affect the relationship between a reader and a book, including its content, the age
and interests of the reader, and the design of the actual book. The Lexile measure is a good starting
point in the book-selection process, but parents should always consider these other factors when
making a decision about which book to choose.
Suggested Titles for Any Beville Student
Virginia Readers Choice Nominees for 2010-2011
Additional titles are listed in this brochure for each grade level.
After Tupac and D Foster © 2008
By Jacqueline Woodson
Lexile: 750
In the New York City borough of Queens in
1996, three girls bond over their shared love of
Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to
make sense of the unpredictable world in which
they live.
All of the Above © 2008
By Shelley Pearsall
Lexile: NC
Five urban middle school students, their teacher,
and other community members relate how a
school project to build the world's largest
tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone
involved.
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. © 2009
By Kristin Levine
Lexile: 680
Harry "Dit" Sims and his newest friend Emma
Walker work together to come up with a plan
that could save the town barber, an AfricanAmerican, who is on put on trial and faces a
horrible end.
Breathe: A Ghost Story © 2009
By Cliff McNish
Lexile: 680
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 Girl Who Could Fly © 2008
By Victoria Forester
Lexile: 920
Piper McCloud's ability to fly sets her apart from
the other kids, so her mother sends her to an
exclusive school for children with exceptional
abilities, but even there she does not fit in with
the other students.
Little Audrey © 2008
By Ruth White
Lexile: 630
In 1948, eleven-year-old Audrey lives with her
father, mother, and three younger sisters in
Jewell Valley, a coal mining camp in Southwest
Virginia, where her mother still mourns the death
of a baby, her father goes on drinking binges on
paydays, and Audrey tries to recover from the
scarlet fever that has left her skinny and needing
to wear glasses.
The London Eye Mystery © 2008
By Siobhan Dowd
Lexile: 640
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.
Shooting the Moon © 2008
By Frances O’Roark Dowell
Lexile: 890
When her brother is sent to fight in Vietnam,
twelve-year-old Jamie begins to reconsider the
army world that she has grown up in.
T4: A Novel © 2008
By Ann Clare LeZotte
Lexile: NP
After the Nazi party takes control of Germany,
thirteen-year-old Paula, who is deaf, is forced to
go into hiding because of Adolf Hitler's
Tiegartenstrasse 4--T4--which was put in place
to kill any mentally ill or disabled people.
The Underneath © 2008
By Kathi Appelt
Lexile: 830
An old hound that has been chained up at his
hateful owner's run-down shack, and two kittens
born underneath the house, endure separation,
danger, and many other tribulations in their
quest to be reunited and free.
Rising Grade 6 Suggested Titles
Something Upstairs © 1997
By Avi
Lexile: 580
When he moves from Los Angeles to
Providence, Rhode Island, Kenny discovers that
his new house is haunted by the spirit of a black
slave boy who asks Kenny to return with him to
the early nineteenth century and prevent his
murder by slave traders.
Blood on the River: James Town 1607
© 2006
By Carbone, Elisa Lynn
Lexile: 820
Traveling to the New World in 1606 as the page
to Captain John Smith, twelve-year-old orphan
Samuel Collier settles in the new colony of
James Town, where he must quickly learn to
distinguish between friend and foe.
Gregor the Overlander © 2003
by Collins, Suzanne
Lexile: 630
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-yearold 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.
Love That Dog © 2001
By Creech, Sharon
Lexile: Not Available
A young student, who comes to love poetry
through a personal understanding of what
different famous poems mean to him, surprises
himself by writing his own inspired poem.
The Devil, Banshee and Me © 2006
By Falcone, L. M.
Lexile: Not Available
Will decides to visit the new neighbors at the old
house across the street; but between the crazy
sumo wrestler, the wild man who chases him
through the cemetery, and a ghostly figure who
appears at the gates, he decides to keep watch
from a safe distance until he can figure them
out.
Once Upon a Marigold © 2002
By Ferris, Jean
Lexile: 840
A young man with a mysterious past and a
penchant for inventing things leaves the troll
who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he
has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against
her and her father.
Book of a Thousand Days © 2007
By Hale, Shannon
Lexile: 850
Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her
sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren,
shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a
tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her
true love, where both must hide who they are as
they work as kitchen maids.
The Music of Dolphins © 1996
By Hesse, Karen
Lexile: 560
Using sophisticated computer technology, a
fifteen-year-old girl who has been raised by
dolphins, records her thoughts about her
reintroduction to the human world.
The Black Book of Secrets © 2007
By Higgins, F. E.
Lexile: 830
When Ludlow Fitch runs away from his thieving
parents in the city, he meets up with the
mysterious Joe Zabbidou, who calls himself a
secret pawnbroker, and who takes Ludlow as an
apprentice to record the confessions of the
townspeople of Pagus Parvus, where
resentments are many and trust is scarce.
La Linea © 2008
by Jaramillo, Ann
Lexile: 650
When fifteen-year-old Miguel's time finally
comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross
the border illegally, and join his parents in
California, his younger sister's determination to
join him soon imperils them both.
North © 2006
By Napoli, Donna Jo
Lexile: 600
Tired of his mother's over protectiveness and
intrigued by the life of African American explorer
Matthew Henson, twelve-year-old Alvin travels
north and spends a season with a trapper near
the Arctic Circle.
Midnight for Charlie Bone © 2003
By Nimmo, Jenny
Lexile: 630
Charlie Bone's life with his widowed mother and
two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change
when he discovers that he can hear people in
photographs talking.
The Wednesday Wars © 2007
By Schmidt, Gary D.
Lexile: 990
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday
afternoons when all his classmates go to either
Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader
Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's
classroom where they read the plays of William
Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value
about the world he lives in.
What the Moon Saw: A Novel © 2008
By Resau, Laura
Lexile: 750
Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna spends the
summer with her grandparents in the tiny,
remote village of Yucuyoo, Mexico, learning
about her grandmother's life as a healer, her
father's decision to leave home for the United
States, and her own place in the world.
Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost
Boys of Sudan © 2005
By Williams, Mary
Lexile: 670
Eight-year-old Garang, orphaned by a civil war
in Sudan, finds the inner strength to help lead
other boys as they trek hundreds of miles
seeking safety in Ethiopia, and then Kenya,
before being offered sanctuary in the United
States many years later.
Rising Grade 7 Suggested Titles
The Trial: A Novel © 2005
by Bryant, Jennifer
Lexile: Not Available
Living in Flemington, New Jersey, in 1935,
twelve-year-old Katie Leigh Flynn describes, in a
series of poems, the effect on her small town of
the ongoing trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the
kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's
baby son.
Double Dutch © 2004
By Draper, Sharon M.
Lexile:760
Three eighth-grade friends, preparing for the
International Double Dutch Championship jump
rope competition in their home town of
Cincinnati, Ohio, cope with Randy's missing
father, Delia's inability to read, and Yo Yo's
encounter with the class bullies.
Perfect © 2004
By Friend, Natasha
Lexile:590
Following the death of her father, a thirteenyear-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her
mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well
as her own.
Bronx Masquerade © 2003
By Grimes, Nikki
Lexile: 670
While studying the Harlem Renaissance,
students at a Bronx high school read aloud
poems they've written, revealing their innermost
thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless
classmates.
Uprising © 2007
By Haddix, Margaret Peterson
Lexile: 790
In 1927, at the urging of twenty-one-year-old
Harriet, Mrs. Livingston reluctantly recalls her
experiences at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory,
including miserable working conditions that led
to a strike, then the fire that took the lives of her
two best friends, when Harriet, the boss's
daughter, was only five years old. Includes
historical notes.
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf: a
Year Told Through Stuff © 2007
By Holm, Jennifer L.
Lexile: Not Available
Ginny makes a to do list for her seventh grade
year, which includes landing a role in the school
play, trying to make friends, ignoring her
horoscope, and going to see her grandpa Joe in
Florida; but she always seems to come up short
in accomplishing any of it.
Bloody Jack : Being an Account of the
Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber,
Ship's Boy © 2002
By Meyer, L. A.
Lexile: 1120
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of
London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises
herself as a boy and connives her way onto a
British warship set for high sea adventure in
search of pirates.
Shiloh © 2000
By Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds
Lexile: 890
Marty finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his
West Virginia home, and tries to hide it from his
family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited
man known to shoot deer out of season and to
mistreat his dogs.
Charlie Bone and the Time Twister © 2003
By Nimmo, Jenny
Lexile: 590
While at Bloor's Academy, Charlie Bone gets a
surprise when Henry Yewbeam arrives from the
year 1916 and needs Charlie's help to stay alive.
Sweet Miss Honeywell's Revenge: A Ghost
Story © 2005
By Reiss, Kathryn
Lexile: 800
Just before her mother is to remarry and her
stepfamily is set to move in, twelve-year-old Zibby
gradually realizes that her antique dollhouse is
haunted by ghosts, one of whom is out for
revenge.
Night of the Twisters © 1984
By Ruckman, Ivy
Lexile: 790
A fictional account of the night freakish and
devastating tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska,
as experienced by a twelve-year-old, his family,
and friends.
Petty Crimes © 1998
By Soto, Gary
Lexile: 800
A collection of short stories about Mexican
American youth growing up in California's Central
Valley.
First Light © 2007
By Stead, Rebecca
Lexile: 760
Twelve-year-old Peter and his family arrive in
Greenland for his father's research, where he
stumbles upon a secret his mother has been
hiding from him all his life, and begins an
adventure he never would have imagined possible.
Treasure Island © 1883
By Stevenson, Robert Louis
Lexile: 1100
While going through the possessions of a
deceased guest who owed them money, the
mistress of an inn and her son find a treasure map
that leads them to a pirate's fortune.
Homeless Bird © 2001
By Whelan, Gloria
Lexile: 800
Thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated
arranged marriage and must either suffer a
destiny dictated by India's customs or find the
courage to oppose tradition.
Rising Grade 8 Suggested Titles
Crispin : At the Edge of the World © 2006
By Avi
Lexile: 730
Branded as traitors by the king's authorities,
Crispin and his guardian, Bear, flee to coastal
towns in fourteenth-century England, where they
perform a musical juggling act and bond as a
family after befriending a disfigured girl.
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up
Latino in the United States © 1994
Calson, Lori M. ed.
Lexile: Not Available
Celebrates the tones, rhythms, sounds, and
experiences of growing up Latino in America.
Includes works by poets such as Sandra Cisneros,
Martín Espada, Gary Soto, Ed Vega, and others.
The Sight © 2002
By Clement-Davies, David
Lexile: 890
Morgra, a lone wolf that possesses a mysterious
and terrifying power known as the Sight, sets off a
battle that involves all of nature when she attempts
to find a pup, born into a brave and loving pack,
that holds the key to a power that could control the
world.
Replay : A New Book © 2005
By Creech, Sharon
Lexile: 850
While preparing for a role in the school play,
twelve-year-old Leo finds an autobiography that
his father wrote as a teenager and ponders the
ways people change. Includes the text for the
play, "Rumpopo's Porch."
Savvy © 2008
By Law, Ingrid
Lexile: 1070
Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont,
whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her
"savvy"--a magical power unique to each
member of her family--just as her father is
injured in a terrible accident.
The Breadwinner © 2006
By Ellis, Deborah
Lexile: 630
Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul,
Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on
women's freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old
Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that
her family can survive after her father's arrest.
The Other Side of Truth © 2003
By Naidoo, Beverley
Lexile: 710
Smuggled out of Nigeria after their mother's
murder, Sade and her younger brother are
abandoned in London when their uncle fails to
meet them at the airport and they are fearful of
their new surroundings and of what may have
happened to their journalist father back in
Nigeria.
Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery © 2006
By Feinstein, John
Lexile: 760
After winning a basketball reporting contest,
eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent
to cover the Final Four tournament, where they
discover that a talented player is being
blackmailed into throwing the final game.
The Skin I'm In © 2007
By Flake, Sharon
Lexile:670
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka Madison, insecure
about her very dark skin, rejects the support of a
new teacher, Miss Saunders, whose skin looks
blotched because of a rare medical condition-but soon Maleeka begins to see that Miss
Saunders could be a role model, and that she
must learn to love herself and accept love from
others.
Cats of the Clans © 2008
By Hunter, Erin
Lexile: 1120
Rock, the keeper of the world beneath the world,
tells about the most famous cats of the warriors
clans as well as the rogues, kittypets, and
others, to three kits that have recently entered
his realm.
The First Part Last © 2003
By Johnson, Angela
Lexile: 790
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever
when he becomes a father and must care for his
adored baby daughter.
Cuba 15: A Novel © 2005
By Osa, Nancy
Lexile: 750
Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student,
reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince,"
a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an
Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.
Lawn Boy © 2007
By Paulsen, Gary
Lexile: 780
Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy
when a neighbor convinces him to expand his
summer lawn mowing business.
Maus © 1986
By Spiegelman, Art
Lexile: Not Available
A memoir about Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish
survivor of Hitler's Europe, and about his son, a
cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his
father, his story, and with history itself. Cartoon
format portrays Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.
The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again
© 1937
By Tolkien, J. R. R.
Lexile: 1000
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, becomes a thief for a
band of dwarves and soon finds himself in the
midst of a war with the evil goblins and wargs,
and forced to make a decision between the call
of duty and the pull of the simple life.
Suggested Reading
The titles given are suggestions for summer reading. Other books selected by the
student with guidance from a parent/guardian and/or librarian are also acceptable.
Participation in the PWC Public Library Summer Reading Program and its
documentation are also acceptable.
Beville Middle School
Prince William County Schools
Summer Reading 2010
Documentation Grades 6 – 8
Students in Grades 6 – 8 will receive an extra A (100) for each book completed,
for a total of two. Please include the name of the author, the title of the book,
publishing information, and an explanation of the general topic or plot of the book
along with a parent or guardian signature stating that the student has completed
the reading.
The format to use in recording the bibliographic information includes the name of
the author, the title of the book, the location and name of the publisher, and date
of publication.
Example:
Hovius, Christopher. The Best You Can Be: A Teen’s Guide to Fitness and
Nutrition. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers, 2005.
**Please note students may also participate in the Prince William County Public
Library Teen Wild Reads; the Public Library documentation will apply.
Summer Reading Documentation Format
Grades 5 - 12
Use this format for EACH title you read.
Student Name:
Bibliographic Information:
Use MLA format (author’s last name, first name. Title. City of
publication: Publishing Company, date.)
Example:
Hovius, Christopher. The Best You Can Be: A Teen’s Guide to Fitness
and Nutrition. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers, 2005.
Explanation of the general topic or plot of book:
Parent or Guardian Signature
Date