Rimshots, and the High School Summer Reading List

“Rimshots,” one of the three books required for upcoming 7th graders to read over the summer has finally arrived at the book fair. A good number of students had ordered their copy in advance, so these were delivered today.

In addition, the High School list was posted on their library’s web page. I made hard copies for the students to use in the book fair and sent it to all of their 8th grade English teachers. I also went over the list with a few of the parent volunteers in the book fair who have 8th grade students.

The book fair has about 10 of the titles that are on the high school’s list, which means 8th graders will also have a chance to purchase books of interest for their high school summer reading pleasure.

Hoop Queens and Hoop Kings

The Summer Reading Book Fair continued today with the addition of “Hoop Queens” and “Hoop Kings.” These books are part of the series of books required of the soon-to-be 7th graders (current 6th graders). Another required book, “Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls and Rhythm” is expected to be here later in the week. All of these books are by Charles R. Smith, Jr.

The students will be expected to choose one of these titles to read over the summer, and be prepared to discuss it with their English teachers in September.

Summer Reading Book Fair

Today was the first day of the PTC’s annual Summer Reading Book Fair. To plan for the Fair, the Parent Teacher Council (PTC) gets the Summer Reading list in advance and tries to have as many of those titles available for purchase as possible. As a result, when students come with their English teachers throughout the week, they can shop for books to read for the summer. In addition, there are books for purchase that do not come from the list, as well as adult titles for teachers and parents to read over the summer. When students came to browse and shop, I book talked various titles to get them excited.

In addition to the Fair, I worked on boxing books from the collection for High Rock. So far, I have filled 31 boxes. Each box has 27-30 books. I still have alot to do to get 3100+ books all packed and ready to go before the last day of school on June 23rd!

Book Fair Hours for the rest of the week:

Tuesday: 8-12 (half day) and 6-8 pm

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: 8-2:30 pm

2009 Summer Reading List

Below is the 2009 Summer Reading List for Pollard and High Rock.

There is no one book requirement for rising 6th graders (current 5th graders) or rising 8th graders (current 7th graders), however, students are expected to read at least 2-3 books from the list below and be prepared to discuss what they read with their English teachers in the fall.

Rising 7th graders (current 6th graders) will be required to read one of the following titles by Charles R. Smith, Jr.: “Rim Shots”, “Hoop Queens” or “Hoop Kings.” In addition, students are expected to read 1 or 2 more books from the list below and be prepared to discuss what they read with their English teachers in the fall.

Rising 9th graders (current 8th graders) will be required to read “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.” The high school list has other titles they need to read to prepare for the fall.

Taken from the letter for parents about the Summer Reading Program at Pollard: “Whether you are on the threshold of your 6th, 7th, or 8th-grade school year, please read a minimum of two books from the list below and be prepared to discuss or write about one of these two books during the first few weeks of school. If possible, bring to school a copy of one of the books you read. Additionally, we ask that you fill out the brief parent sign-off form as well.”

Titles in Bold are NEW this year! Happy reading!

100+ Sizzling Summer Reads: 2009 Summer Reading List

Adventure

1. Breakpoint or any in Alex Rider series (Anthony Horowitz)
2. Bull Rider (Marilyn Halvorson)
3. Running Out of Time (Margaret Peterson Haddix)
4. Someone is Hiding on Alcatraz Island (Eve Bunting)
5. The Thief Lord (Cornelia Funke)
6. The Twenty-One Balloons (William Pene DuBois)
7. A Week in the Woods (Andrew Clements)
8. Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)

Biography

1. All But My Life (Gerta Weisman Klein)
2. The Diary of Anne Frank (Anne Frank, Otto Frank)
3. Guts: the true stories behind Hatchet and the Brian Books (Gary Paulsen)
4. Leonardo DaVinci (Kathleen Kruel)
5. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (James Giblin)
6. My Life in Dog Years (Gary Paulsen)
7. Persepolis ( Marjane Satrapi)
8. *The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom (Margarita Engle)
9. Woodsong (Gary Paulsen)
10. Ryan White: My Own Story (Ryan White)

Fantasy

1. The Amber Spyglass or The Subtle Knife (Philip Pullman)
2. Artemis Fowl and series (Eoin Colfer)
3. Clay (David Almond)
4. Dealing With Dragons and series (Patricia C. Wrede)
5. Dracula (Bram Stoker)
6. Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine)
7. First Test (Tamora Pierce)
8. The Golden Compass (Philip Pullman)
9. *The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
10. Half Magic (Edward Eager)
11. The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, or The Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien)
12. Inkheart (Cornelia Funke)
13. The Lightning Thief or others in Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Rick Riordan)
14. The Lost Years of Merlin and series (T.A. Barron)
15. Redwall and series (Brian Jacques)
16. *Savvy (Ingrid Law)
17. The Secret of Platform 13 (Eva Ibbotson)
18. Something Wicked This Way Comes or The Illustrated Man (Ray Bradbury)
19. *The Underneath (Kathi Appelt)
20. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (Roald Dahl)
21. Zel (Donna Jo Napoli)

Historical Fiction

1. A Long Way from Chicago or A Year Down Yonder (Richard Peck)
2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
3. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (Ernest J. Gaines)
4. Behind the Bedroom Wall (Laura E. Williams)
5. Bud, Not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)
6. Catherine Called Birdy (Karen Cushman)
7. *Chains (Laurie Halse Anderson)
8. *Elijah of Buxton (Christopher Paul Curtis)
9. Island On Bird Street (Uri Orlev)
10. Milkweed (Jerry Spinelli)
11. Ties That Bind, Ties That Break (Lensey Namioka)
12. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi)
13. Under the Blood Red Sun or House of the Red Fish (Graham Salisbury)
14. Witness (Karen Hesse)

Memoir

1. *A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah)
2. Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter (Adeline Yen Mah)
3. Free the Children (Craig Kielburger)
4. It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (Lance Armstrong)
5. Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High (Melba Pattillo Beals)

Mystery

1. And Then There Were None, Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
2. Cover Up (John Feinstein)
3. *Found (Margaret Peterson Haddix)
4. *The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick)
5. Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief and series (Wendelin van Draanen)
6. What Could Go Wrong? (Willo Davis Roberts)

Realistic Fiction

1. The Afterlife (Gary Soto)
2. Alt Ed (Catherine Atkins)
3. Amazing Grace (Megan Shull)
4. Baseball in April and Other Stories (Gary Soto)
5. Because of Winn-Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)
6. Behind You (Jacqueline Woodson)
7. The Breadwinner and series (Deborah Ellis)
8. Cousins (Virginia Hamilton)
9. Cuba 15 (Nancy Osa)
10. Fallen Angels (Walter Dean Myers)
11. Fault Line (Janet Tashjian)
12. The First Part Last (Angela Johnson)
13. Homeless Bird (Gloria Whelan)
14. Hoot (Carl Hiaasen)
15. I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This or Lena (Jacqueline Woodson)
16. Jazmin’s Notebook (Nikki Grimes)
17. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key and series (Jack Gantos)
18. The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)
19. Like Sisters on the Homefront (Rita Williams-Garcia)
20. Locomotion (Jacqueline Woodson)
21. The Man in the Ceiling (Jules Feiffer)
22. Millicent Min: Girl Genius (Lisa Yee)
23. Money Hungry or sequel Begging for Change (Sharon G. Flake)
24. Monster (Walter Dean Myers)
25. On the Devil’s Court (Carl Deuker)
26. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
27. PS Longer Letter Later or Snail Mail No More (Paula Danziger, Ann M. Martin)
28. Replay (Sharon Creech)
29. The Schwa Was Here (Neal Schusterman)
30. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series (Ann Brashares)
31. Slam! (Walter Dean Myers)
32. Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)
33. Tangerine (Edward Bloor)
34. There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom (Louis Sachar)
35. The View From Saturday (E.L. Konigsburg)
36. *Waiting for Normal (Leslie Connor)
37. When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (Kimberly Willis Holt)
38. *Winning Words (Charles R. Smith, Jr.)
39. The Year They Burned the Books (Nancy Garden)

Science Fiction

1. The Duplicate (William Sleator)
2. The City of Ember or sequels: The People of Sparks; Prophet of Yonwood (Jeanne DuPrau)
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams)
4. The House of the Scorpion (Nancy Farmer)

True Stories

1. Between A Rock and a Hard Place (Aaron Ralston)
2. Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. (Susan Campbell Bartoletti)
3. *Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and Recovery of the Past (James M. Deem)
4. *The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition (Caroline Alexander)
5. Hoop Dreams (Ben Joravsky)
6. In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle (Madeleine Blais)
7. Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer)
8. *We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Kadir Nelson)
9. With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote (Ann Bausum)

Young Adult

1. *After Tupac and D. Foster (Jacqueline Woodson)
2. *The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation vol. 1 or vol. 2 (M.T. Anderson)
3. *Chameleon (Charles R. Smith, Jr.)
4. *Feed (M.T. Anderson)
5. *The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
6. *Kissing the Rain (Kevin Brooks)
7. *Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Gabrielle Zevin)
8. *Nation (Terry Pratchett)
9. *Strays (Ron Koertge)
10. *Three Clams and an Oyster (Randy Powell)
11. *Uglies and other books in the series (Scott Westerfeld)
12. *The White Darkness (Geraldine McCaughrean)