Summer
Reading List for 2009
Dickerson Middle School
Grade 8
Reading
is an important skill for success in all academic areas.
Studies show that students who read at least
three
books over the summer are more likely to maintain academic gains made during the
school year as well as score higher on achievement tests.
Summer is an excellent time to encourage your child
to read for enjoyment.
Students can also use summer months to get an early
start on meeting the 1,000,000 Word/25 Book Georgia Performance Reading
Standard.
Please refer to the list of recommended authors and books
in order to guide your child’s selection.
The
following book has been selected due to its correlation with the 7th grade
Language Arts curriculum.
Guided reading questions are provided to enhance
your child’s reading comprehension.
8th The
Wave by Todd Strasser (770L)
8th Grade Titles
Adams, Douglas
Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy
Kadohata, Cynthia
Kira-Kira
(740L)
(Newbery Winner 2005)
Mitchell, Margaret
Gone With the Wind
(1100L)
Sleator, William
The Last Universe (690L)
Taylor, Theodore
The Bomb (830L)
Wells,
Rosemary
Red Moon at Sharpsburg (760L)
Non-fiction
Bartoletti,
Susan Campbell
Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow (1050L) (non-fiction)
Ray, Janisse
Ecology of a
Cracker Childhood (non-fiction)
Bryson, Bill
A Short History of Nearly
Everything
(non-fiction)
Hickam, Homer
October Sky / Rocket Boys (non-fiction)
Krull, Kathleen
Isaac Newton (1000L)
(non-fiction)
Tucker, Tom
Brainstorm! The Stories of Twenty American Kid Inventors
(1070L) (NF)
8th
Grade Authors:
|
Laurie Halse
Anderson
Maya Angelou
Isaac Asimov
T. A.
Barron
Ray Bradbury
Bill Bryson
Meg Cabot
Susan Collins
Robert Cormier
Chris Crutcher
Sharon Draper
Daphne Du Maurier
Jeanne DuPrau
Nancy Farmer
|
Virginia Hamilton
S.E. Hinton
Langston Hughes
Coretta Scott King
Jack London
Margaret Mitchell
Walter Dean Myers
Garth Nix
Janet Tashjan
Mildred Taylor
J.R.R. Tolkien
Alice Walker
Cynthia
Voigt
|
Visit
www.lexiles.com
for more information on the Lexile reading level framework.
The Wave
by Todd Strasser
The Wave Presents a fictionalization of a real experiment at a California high
school in which a history teacher started a fascist youth movement in an effort
to show his students that the Holocaust could indeed happen again.
Discussion
Questions:
1. Think about the
positive and negative effects The Wave has on Ben Ross’ History class?
2. Who is Robert Billings and what about him is important to the story?
3. Who does Ben Ross pick as a bodyguard and why?
4. Do any of the parents become concerned about The Wave? Why?
5. Why does David finally turn against The Wave?
6. What do you think Mr. Ross says to Robert after the end of The Wave?
7. Why did Ben Ross create the Wave?
8. Was the Wave a successful this experiment?
9. Did Mr. Ross achieve what he had hoped?
10. Did he teach them things that he never intended to?
11. Was this a good way to learn about history?
Back to main summer
reading list page