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2015 RCPS Summer Required Reading Novel List
Grade 8: Students must choose ONE of the following 6 title choices.
Author
Title
Summary
Card, Orson Scott
Ender’s Game
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Elijah of Buxton
Kadohata, Cynthia
Kira-Kira
This story chronicles the close friendship between two
Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during
the late 1950s and early 1960s and the despair when one sister
becomes terminally ill.
Lexile: 740 L
Peck, Richard
Long Way From Chicago
When Joey and his sister Mary Alice travel from their home in
Chicago to their Grandmother’s small town, they don’t expect
the crazy adventures they encounter there. How do these
adventures shape the growth of the characters?
Lexile: 750 L
Taylor, Mildred D.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
A family deals with racism in Mississippi in different ways.
How will individuals within the family meet the challenges?
Lexile: 920 L
Schmidt, Gary
The Wednesday Wars
During 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.
Lexile: 990 L
Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the
human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter,
the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses –
and then training them in the arts of war. The early training,
not surprisingly takes the form of “games.” Ender Wiggin is a
genius among geniuses; he wins all the games. He is smart
enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart
enough to save the planet?
Lexile: 780 L
Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in
Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the
American South in 1859, uses his wits and skills to try to bring
to justice to the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to
be used to buy a family’s freedom.
Lexile: 1070 L
RCPS 2015