Library & Resources
	Eighth Grade Summer Reading List 2007

Part I - Reading Two Classics and Book Talking One Classic
As you probably know, reading is the best way to improve your writing, vocabulary, and, of course, your reading comprehension.   Independent reading will be an integral part of your eighth grade year at LREI.   Your assignment for the summer will launch our reading workshop.

Directions:
•  Read two books from the attached list of classics; select any two that appeal to you and are the appropriate reading level.

•  When you are done reading both books, go back and make some notes on the one book that you will book talk when you return to school. At a minimum, you should have notes of your impressions of the book at three critical points - the beginning, the middle, and the end of the book. You should also take notes on your impression of at least three ways in which your two summer reading choices were similar (e.g., theme, characters, narrative, tone, etc.) You will use these notes to write a book talk that you will give when school begins (you do not need to write your book talk over the summer ).   You should have 2 pages of typed notes, double spaced.

•  Feel free to read other books as well whether from the list or not.

Part II - Launching the Eighth Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Curriculum: Reading, Reflecting, Creating a Project on Warriors Don't Cry
The attached handouts on the book Warriors Don't Cry should explain everything! Just to recap, you must do the following :

•  Read and understand the attached handout introducing the context of the book from "Choosing to Participate" from Facing History and Ourselves.
•  Read the book.
•  Do the assigned writing entries.
•  Select and think about how you might complete one of creative project assignments listed below. Projects will be due on Monday, September 10 th . If you choose to complete the project over the summer that is fine, but it is not necessary as you will have time to complete it once we return to school.   We do expect that these projects reflect an appropriate commitment of time, effort, and thought.

Note: Your project will be shared in a visual gallery with all of your classmates in the fall and will be posted in the halls so the LREI community may view it; you will want to display your best work.

Warriors Don't Cry, by Melba Petillo Beals
From "Choosing to Participate," Facing History and Ourselves

We have discovered this year that, although our nation was founded over two hundred years ago, our democracy continues to be a work in progress.   It is shaped by the choices ordinary people make about themselves and others.   Although these choices may not seem important at the time, little by little, they define an individual, create a community, and ultimately forge a nation.

In a democracy, the decisions people make are tested through conversation, discussion and debate.   It is a process that can only be carried out in what Jude Learned Hand once called the "spirit of liberty." He defined it as the spirit "which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women, and weighs their interests alongside one's own without bias."

That spirit is reflected in the Declaration of Independence.   It expresses the ideals of the American people.   The document boldly states that all people are "created equal."   They also have an "inalienable right" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."   In 1776, no community in the new nation lived up to those ideals.   Their efforts often began close to home and gradually expanded to include the entire nation.

The push to end slavery in the United States was one of many movements that began in churches and other small community-based groups.   The first successes of these groups were at the local and state levels.   In time, they organized nationally and then internationally.   The Civil War was fought, at least in part, to advance the democratic ideals they advocated.   Although the War ended slavery in the nation, it did not end discrimination.

In 1896, an African American named Homer Plessy challenged in court practices that discriminated against blacks.   The case known as Plessy v. Ferguson , went to the Supreme Court.   The justices ruled that separate facilities for blacks do not violate the Constitution as long as they are equal to those of whites.   The decision permitted the growth of "Jim Crow" laws - a system of state and local laws that established racial barriers in almost every aspect of life.   In many places, black and white Americans could not publicly eat, drink, or travel side by side.   Churches, movie theatres, even cemeteries were segregated.

By the early 1900's, writes historian Lerone Bennett, Jr., "America was two nations - one white, one black separate and unequal.   He likens segregation to "a wall, a system, a way of separating people from people".   The wall did not go up in a single day.   It was built - "brick by brick bill by bill, fear by fear."

In the 1940s and early 1950s. when Melba Pattillo Beals, the author of Warriors Don't Cry, was growing up in Arkansas that wall seemed almost impenetrable.   Yet during those years, a number of Americans both black and white, were chopping away at the wall - little by little, brick by brick.

In May of 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. the Board of Education that racial segregation in the nation's public schools is unconstitutional. Warriors Don't Cry is a first-person account of one attempt to turn that ruling into a social reality.   Melba Pattillo Beals was one of nine African American students (known as the "Little Rock Nine") chosen to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas, in the fall of 1957.   Her memoir chronicles the terror and fear that marked her experiences and those of the other eight African American students who attended the high school during that year.

This book is a powerful memoir that many can't put down.   The following work will be used as the foundation for our discussions of the book when we return to school in September.   You may read this book at any point during the summer.   Two suggested approaches: if you are dying to read it, go ahead and read it now!   Then review your writing and the book before school starts.   Or, complete your reading and writing near the end of the summer so that they will be fresh in your mind when school starts.   The book is divided into 18 chapters and an Epilogue (be sure to read this last section).

Note: The word "nigger" is used throughout the book.   It is upsetting and disgusting, as it should be.   It will be difficult for some of you to read over and over and to see how this word has been (and is) used to insult, oppress, and hurt people.   You will get a sense of what the word really means; we hope that this will help us all carefully consider what we think about the ways the word is used today.

Directions: You will complete the three following written assignments and one creative one from the back page. Title and date each entry, and please write legibly.   Please note that these books are yours to keep!   Therefore, you may underline, highlight, and take notes in them if you wish.   Please take care of the books because we need them in the fall.

Part I: Early Response
After reading the first five chapters, write a response/reaction to the story so far.   You may write it in your writer's notebook OR type it up.   Be sure to save your work on the hard drive.   What are you thinking about as you read?   What have you learned?   What did you find surprising?   Confusing? Troubling?   Interesting?

Part II: Middle Response
When you have finished between 9 and 12 chapters, write a letter to Melba.   You decide whether you are back in her era OR if you are in the present as you write.   Say to her whatever you'd like- ask questions, tell her something about her story that you liked and why, etc.   Be yourself.

Part III: Final Response
After you have finished the book, write another response using the directions for the "Early Response." Include your thoughts about the ending of the book and how your thinking has changed since the first response.

Once you have completed the written work, review the following list of creative projects and spend some time thinking about which one of the projects is most appealing to you. Spend some additional time thinking about how you might complete this project. Your completed project will be due on Monday, September 10th after we return to school.

1.  Give a Gift
Create a visual (painting, mobile, drawing, photograph, sketch, computer presentation, slide show, etc.) that you think the current president of Central High would present to Melba.   Your visual should express all that he would want to communicate to her (you can assume he knows her story).   Be sure that your visual allows the viewer to have insight into HIS experiences.   Include a paragraph that clearly explains your visual and what it represents.

2.   Current Event
Choose a current event from a newspaper or magazine that you think would be important to Melba.   Take some poster board and put the article in the middle.   Circle or underline particular parts of the article that you think Melba would want to respond to.   Imagine what she would say and record it around the article in the space on the poster board.   Make it clear which responses go with which part of the article.   The poster should be visually appealing; use colors, symbols, drawings or magazine cutouts that relate to your work and to Melba's thoughts on the news from this summer.   Your responses should demonstrate what you know about Melba and should sound authentic. (Remember, you are writing from HER point of view!).

3. First Hand Account
Find a relative, neighbor, or friend who lived during the time of the beginning of school integration in the United States.   Interview this person about what he/she remembers about the time period.   Begin the interview by telling your subject about Warriors Don't Cry, and that you are interested in gathering a first-hand account of someone else's experience of this tumultuous time in American history.   Your subject may then begin to talk and describe his/her memories of that time.   In case you need to prompt the person, create a list of 10 open-ended questions to ask him/her during the interview.   You may or may not use the questions. Either tape record   (with permission of the subject) the interview or make notes about the person's recollections (make them at the time or right after so you are sure to record them accurately). After the interview, create a visual of any sort that tells the story of this person's experience of the years in which integration began.   You might decide to compare/contrast Melba's experiences with this person's.   Your visual should be visually appealing; use colors, symbols, drawings or magazine cutouts that relate to the story you are trying to tell.

4.  Newspaper Article and Photo Montage
Do research online or in a library to locate photographs from the events from one or all of the following: the events depicted in the book; other Civil Rights-related events of the 1950's; daily life in the South during this time period.   The Library of Congress's online historical photo archive might be a good place to start.   Reproduce the photographs, create captions for each, and write a short newspaper article or editorial that might accompany them.    Be sure to let the reader know if you are writing from your own, or another person's, perspective and date the article accordingly.   Mount the photos and article for presentation.
Follow your creative instincts!

Summer Reading and Warriors Don't Cry Project Timeline
The purpose of this timeline is to help you plan your work for this project so that you are not working on it at the last minute.   Given the varied nature of your classmates' plans for the summer, we will not provide specific dates.   Speak with your family, consult your calendar and create a schedule for your work so that you have sufficient time to complete the necessary work that will allow you to put together a high-quality project over the weekend of September 8 th and 9 th . The attached rubric should clarify what we mean by "high quality." It is our assumption that you will complete steps 1-12 prior to the first day of school and that step 13 will be completed over the weekend of September 8 th and 9 th . It has been our experience that when this does not happen, projects are rarely up to the expected standard. Some of you may choose to complete the final step prior to the first day of school. This is fine, but not necessary.

Summer Classics for Seventh and Eighth Grade Students

Adams, Richard. Watership Down
A warren of Berkshire rabbits flee the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its strong sense of community. Adams has crafted a touching, involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside, complete with its own folk history and language (the book comes with a "lapine" glossary, a guide to rabbitese). As much about freedom, ethics, and human nature as it is about a bunch of bunnies looking for a warm hidey-hole, Watership Down will continue to make the transition from classroom desk to bedside table for many generations to come. (Jen Hubert Swan's FAVORITE book of ALL TIME.)

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women
Little Women is the heartwarming story of the March family that has thrilled generations of readers. It is the story of four sisters--Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth-- and of the courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their father during the Civil War.

Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima
Ultima, a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic, comes to Antonio Marez's New Mexico family when he is six years old, and she helps him discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past.   Besides winning the Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award, this novel of a young boy in New Mexico in the 1940s has sold more than 300,000 copies in paperback since its 1973 debut.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Marvelously told, with Angelou's "gift for language and observation," this "remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black woman from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant."

Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man
This is one of the classics from the golden age of sci-fi--sixteen tales of horror and terror in the tattoos on an "illustrated" man's body. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now.

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
A headstrong heroine, a dashing gentleman, a dark and brooding house with a terrible secret in the attic. A classic novel written in the very best Gothic tradition.

Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!
The story of an immigrant family's struggle to save their Nebraska farm. Cather's placement of a strong and capable woman at the center of the story, her realistic depiction of life on the midwestern prairie, and her vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience at the turn of the century make O Pioneers! a true American classic.          

Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War
Does Jerry Renault dare to disturb the universe? You wouldn't think that his refusal to sell chocolates during his school's fundraiser would create such a stir, but it does; it's as if the whole school comes apart at the seams. To some, Jerry is a hero, but to others, he becomes a scapegoat--a target for their pent-up hatred. And Jerry? He's just trying to stand up for what he believes, but perhaps there is no way for him to escape becoming a pawn in this game of control...

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist
One of Dickens's most popular novels, this is the story of an orphan raised in a workhouse, who runs away to London only to be captured by thieves from whom he eventually escapes. This novel is a morality tale and a detective story rolled into one and presents some of Dickens's darkest characters: Bill Sikes, the murderer; Fagin, the master thief; and the leering Artful Dodger.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles
What's the truth behind the legend of the hound of the Baskervilles? Is it really a devil-beast that's haunting the lonely moors? Enter Sherlock Holmes to find the answer, in this, the only full-length novel ever written by the creator of one of the most popular and enduring detective series ever written.

Flagg, Fannie. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
A folksy, funny and endearing story of life in a small town in Alabama in the Depression and in the 1980s.   It is the tale of a fierce friendship between two women from the 1920's and 30's, Idgie and Ruth, and how their story inspires a modern woman who has almost given up on life. Among revelations big and small, Fannie Flagg mixes direct and empowering confrontations with racism, sexism, and ageism with the colorful and endearing language of the depression-era South and the cafe's recipes for grits, collard greens, and, of course, fried green tomatoes.

Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl
A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945.

Gallman, Kiki. I Dreamed of Africa
At the age of 25, Kuki Gallmann moved to Kenya with her future husband, where they established a vast ranch. But Africa's beauty does't come without a price, and when tragedy struck, Kuki found herself pregnant and alone with her young son and 90,000 acres of Africa to oversee.

Garden, Nancy. Annie on My Mind
The modern classic of two girls who dared to love each other despite social taboos.   Looking back on her high school experiences, the now mature Liza narrates a story of friendship, betrayal   and loss between her and Annie, her first love.

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows
Since its beginnings as a series of stories told to Kenneth Grahame's young son, The Wind in the Willows has gone on to become one of the best-loved children's books of all time. The timeless story of Toad, Rat, Mole, and Badger has delighted readers of all ages for more than eighty years.

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier
When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, 12-year-old Patty Bergen learns what it means to open her heart. Although she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi--but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own, who understands and appreciates her in a way her parents never will. And Patty is willing to risk losing family, friends--even her freedom--for what has quickly become the most important part of her life.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World
Originally published in 1932, Huxley's terrifying vision of a controlled and emotionless future "Utopian" society is truly startling in its prediction of modern scientific and cultural phenomena, including test-tube babies and rampant drug abuse.

Huxley, Elspeth. The Flame Trees of Thika: memories of an African childhood
In an open cart Elspeth Huxley set off with her parents to travel to Thika in Kenya. As pioneering settlers, they built a house of grass, ate off a damask cloth spread over packing cases, and discovered--the hard way--the world of the African. For a young girl, it was a time of adventure and freedom, and Huxley paints an unforgettable portrait of growing up among the Masai and Kikuyu people, discovering both the beauty and the terrors of the jungle, and enduring the rugged realities of the pioneer life.

Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House
Five strangers meet at Hill House--a notorious estate in New England to take part in a paranormal science experiment.   Hill House is a foreboding structure of towers, buttresses, Gothic spires, gargoyles, strange angles, and rooms within rooms--a place "without kindness, never meant to be lived in...." Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. A tale of subtle, psychological terror, it has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of our time.

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon
In this classic story that inspired the hit movie Charlie, Charlie Gordon, a mentally challenged adult who cleans floors and toilets, becomes a genius through an experimental operation. But when his new intelligence begins to wane, Charlie must confront the loss of all he has learned.

Knowles, John. A Separate Peace
The volatile world of male adolescence provides the backdrop for John Knowles' engrossing tale of love, hate, war, and peace. Sharing a room at Devon, an exclusive New England prep school, in the summer prior to World War II, Gene and Phineas form a complex bond of friendship that draws out both the best and worst characteristics of each boy and leads ultimately to violence, a confession, and the betrayal of trust.

London, Jack. White Fang
In the desolate, frozen wilds of northwest Canada, a wolf cub soon finds himself the sole survivor of his litter. Son of Kiche -- half-wolf, half-dog -- and the aging wolf One Eye, he is thrust into a savage world where each day becomes a fight to stay alive. This adventure set   in the wild Yukon about a wild dog who learns to live with humans is not to be missed.

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye
This tragic study of a black adolescent girl's struggle to achieve white ideals of beauty and her consequent descent into madness was acclaimed as an eloquent indictment of some of the more subtle forms of racism in American society. Pecola Breedlove longs to have "the bluest eye" and thus to be acceptable to her family, schoolmates, and neighbors, all of whom have convinced her that she is ugly.

Paton, Alan. Cry the Beloved Country
Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor, and his son, Absalom, experience the joys and tragedies of a South African community struggling with the injustice of apartheid

Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows
Billy and his precious coonhound pups romp relentlessly through the Ozarks, trying to "tree" the elusive raccoon. In time, the inseparable trio wins the coveted gold cup in the annual coon-hunt contest, captures the wily ghost coon, and bravely fights with a mountain lion. But tragedy is waiting right around the corner...

Smith, Betty . A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics.

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men
The plot of this well-known classic centers on George Milton and Lennie Small, itinerant ranch hands who dream of one day owning a small farm. George acts as a father figure to Lennie, who is large and simple minded, calming him and helping to rein in his immense physical strength. When a terrible accident involving Lennie takes place, George has an equally terrible decision to make concerning his friend.

Stevenson, Robert Lewis. Treasure Island
Climb aboard for the swashbuckling adventure of a lifetime. Treasure Islandhas enthralled (and caused slight seasickness) for decades. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains,(including the famous Long John Silver) it seems unlikely that anyone who ever reads this exciting classic will ever forget it! (just ask Phil!)

Stoker, Bram. Dracula
This is the classic, hypnotic story of the undead creatures of the night--and the human lives they touch--as they relentlessly seek to satiate an accursed craving for their only sustenance: human blood. A Gothic novel of immense proportions, Dracula has only strengthened its grip on the public over the course of the last century.

Thomas, Piri. Down These Mean Streets
As a dark-skinned Puerto Rican, born in 1928, Piri Thomas faced with painful immediacy the absurd contradictions of America's racial attitudes (among people of all colors) in a time of wrenching social change. Three decades have not dimmed the luster of his jazzy prose, rich in Hispanic rhythms and beat-generation slang.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit
Bilbo Baggins loves his cozy hobbit hole and hopes to never have to go farther than his front door. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves arrive on his doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure. Prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain's classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, tells the story of a teenaged misfit who finds himself floating on a raft down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave, Jim. In the course of their perilous journey, Huck and Jim meet adventure, danger, and a cast of characters who are sometimes menacing and often hilarious.

Van der Post, Laurens. A Story Like the Wind
Young Francois Joubert, living in the remote region bordering the Kalahari Desert, thrills to the wonder of the still-primitive land until his idyllic world is shattered by the political violence of contemporary Africa.

Wright, Richard. Black Boy
Black Boy is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming off age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

Wright, Richard. Native Son
Widely acclaimed as one of the finest books ever written on race and class divisions in America, this powerful novel reflects the forces of poverty, injustice, and hopelessness that continue to shape our society. The plot charts the decline of Bigger Thomas, a young African-American imprisoned for two murders--the accidental smothering of his white employer's daughter and the deliberate killing of his girlfriend to silence her. In his cell Thomas confronts his growing sense of injustice and concludes that violence is the only alternative to submission to white society.