2011 SUMMER READING Rising 8th Grade ... - Hammond School

2011 SUMMER READING
Rising 8th Grade Summer Reading List
(Prices quoted include tax)
This summer, rising 8 th graders are required to read a total of three books. The first required book is Murder on
the Orient Express, required for English class. The second required book is The Hunger Games or any other
title in the series you have not read. This title is for Government. Please note the assessment for this title that
accompanies the description of the book below. The third book selection may come from the list of choice
novels below. For all three of these books, the students will complete an assessment. See the book report form
for Murder on the Orient Express and the choice novel under the “Related Forms” section of this webpage.
Required for English: Assessment instructions are posted on the Summer Reading List page under
“Related Forms.”
Christie, Agatha Murder on the Orient Express $7.48
Detective Hercule Poirot has a wealth of suspects to choose from when a wealthy American is
stabbed to death en route to Paris on the famous long distance passenger train known as the Orient
Express.
Required for Government: Assessment instructions below.
Collins, Suzanne The Hunger Games $9.62
(or any title in the series you have not read)
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger
Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against
one another in a televised fight to the death.
Assessment for Government: (To be turned in to Mrs. Riley the first day of school)
Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Government exists for the interest of the governed, not for the governors.”
After reading The Hunger Games, does this quote apply to the Capitol for the people of Panem? Why or why
not? Give your response in a three paragraph essay using specific examples from the book.
Third required book: Choose one from the list below. Assessment instructions will be posted at a later
date on the Summer Reading List page under “Related Forms.”
Alcott, Louisa May Little Women $7.44
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in
eighteenth century New England during the Civil War.

Capote, Truman The Grass Harp $14.93
The story of an orphaned boy and two old ladies who teach the gift of love and freedom from a
treehouse where they have taken up temporary residence. A quirky, lyrical coming-of-age tale.
Card, Orson Scott Ender’s Game $6.41
Young Ender Wiggin may prove to be the military genius Earth needs to fight a desperate battle
against a deadly alien race that will determine the future of the human race.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin The Seeing Stone $8.55
In late twelfth-century England, a thirteen-year-old boy named Arthur recounts how Merlin gives
him a magical seeing stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of
whose life seem to have many parallels to his own.
Farmer, Nancy The House of the Scorpion $10.69
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El
Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United
States.
Frank, Anne The Diary of a Young Girl $6.41
A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven
others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps.
(Non-fiction)
Howarth, David
We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance
$18.14
A World War II escape narrative, telling the story of how Jan Baalsrud, a member of a team of
expatriate Norwegian commandos who were ambushed on their way to organize and supply the
Norwegian resistance, managed to evade the Nazis and make his way to a small arctic village
whose residents were determined to save him. (Non-fiction)

Rubalcaba, Jill and Eric H. Cline Digging for Troy: From Homer to Hisarlik
$10.65
Rubalcaba teams up with Eric Cline, a noted archaeologist, to make sense of the complicated,
controversial, contradictory history and remains of the Turkish site called Hisarlik, better known
as Troy. It has been intermittently occupied for almost 3500 years, from 2900 BCE to 550 CE, and
is often thought to be the Troy written about by Homer in The Iliad. (Non-fiction)
Schmidt, Gary D. The Wednesday Wars $7.48
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.
Taylor, Mildred D. Let the Circle Be Unbroken $8.55
Sequel to: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial
antagonisms and hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need to
survive.
Wells, H. G. The War of the Worlds $6.37
Martians invade London!
(Many annotations courtesy of Follett Library Resources)