Suggested Summer Reading List Rising 7th Grade Students I Represent Sean Rosen – Jeff Baron Sean Rosen has a great idea that will change the entertainment industry affecting TV, movies, theaters and video games. He’s willing to sell the idea for 10 million dollars (although he may settle for a bit less). But, before he can peddle his idea to the major companies, he has to get someone to represent him. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer – John Grisham With two attorneys for parents, thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone knows more about the law than most lawyers do. But when a high-profile murder trial comes to his small town and Theo gets pulled into it, it's up to this amateur attorney to save the day. Dead End in Norvelt – Jack Gantos Plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a feisty old neighbor with a most unusual chore--typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, a homemade airplane, a dancing plague, and possibly murder. Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls A young boy is on a quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs. Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. They romp relentlessly through the Ozarks, trying to tree the elusive "Ghost" raccoon and win the coveted gold cup in the annual coonhunt contest, capture the ghost coons, and bravely fight a mountain lion: a timeless and poignant coming of age story. Watership Down – Richard Adams A phenomenal worldwide and timeless classics. Set in England's Downs, a once rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage, and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey through harrowing trials posed by predators to mysterious promised-land and a more perfect society. Ellen Foster – Kaye Gibbons An eleven-year-old heroine tells her unforgettable story with honesty, perceptivity, humor, and unselfconscious heroism. "The honesty of thought and eye and feeling and word!"--Eudora Welty. Summer of My German Soldier – Bette Green The summer Patty Bergen turns twelve will haunt her forever. Her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of German Internment Camp during World War II. Even though she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi, but as a frightened young man with feelings. Patty risks losing family, friends -- even her freedom -- for this dangerous friendship. It is a risk she has to take and one she will have to pay a price to keep. The Call of the Wild – Jack London The story is set in the Yukon during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush—a period when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The novel's central character is a dog named Buck, who is stolen from his home and sold into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog and is forced to adjust to, and survive, cruel treatments and fight to dominate other dogs in a harsh climate. Relying on instincts and lessons he learns, he emerges as a leader in the wild. A Day No Pigs Would Die – Robert Newton Peck This is a story of a Vermont boyhood that is part fiction, part memoir. The result is a moving coming-of-age story that still resonates with teens today. To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done," especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter. Tangerine – Edward Bloor Paul Fisher sees the world from behind glasses so thick he looks like a bug-eyed alien. But he’s not so blind that he can’t see there are some very unusual things about his family’s new home in Tangerine County, Florida. Where else does a sinkhole swallow the local school, fire burn underground for years, and lightning strike at the same time every day? Paul begins to discover what lies beneath the surface of his strange new hometown. He gains the courage to face up to some secrets his family has been keeping from him for far too long. Anything is possible. The Witch at Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare Sixteen-year-old Kit is marked by suspicion when she arrives on the shores of colonial Connecticut in 1687. She has been forced to leave her home in Barbados and join a family she has never met. She struggles to survive in a hostile place. Just when it seems she must give up, she finds a friend, Hannah Tupper, who is believed to be a witch. Kit must choose between her heart and her duty. The Lord of the Flies – William Golding A group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behavior collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith A poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. This is the story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan in the slums of Williamsburg. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer, and a rigid social order. She becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr. Rochester. There is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry A wise, enchanting fable. The author reminisces about a day when his plane was forced down in the Sahara. There he encountered a most extraordinary small-person. "If you please," said the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And thus begins the remarkable story of the Little Prince, whose strange history he learned, bit by bit, in the days that followed. This story will, in some way, in some degree, change the world forever for its readers.