Summer Reading

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on May 13, 2008 at 6:57pm

I teach gifted kids and have some great suggestions-- this is what they are raving about this week:

Airborn and Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel (both of these have fantasic high level reader guides)

All three of Libba Bray's books (best for girls)

Book Thief by Markus Zusak (too intense for most of my kids)

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (I think this one is best read and discussed aloud)

I have lots of other suggestions but here are a couple to get you started.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Bloom on May 13, 2008 at 7:33pm

Hi Cathy,

Here are a few of the books we use for summer reading.

8th into 9th grade

1. Shattering Glass by Gail Giles
2. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by David Lubar
4. the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon

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Permalink Reply by Kate on May 14, 2008 at 1:41pm

The Wave by Todd Strasser
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
To Walk the Sky Path by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

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Permalink Reply by Cathy Duffy on May 19, 2008 at 8:58pm

Great titles, thanks for the suggestions! Any ideas for projects/assessments to go along with the reading?

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Permalink Reply by Shuchi Grover on May 22, 2009 at 11:56am

There are so many posts on summer reading ideas, and I find myself responding to all with the suggestion to visit the section on award winning books (from the UK, Canada and Australia as well in addition to the big name US awards) on SmartBean :) The award winners are organized in excellent fashion.

The other books listed/recommended in the store (besides the award winning ones) are also great titles. You may get some ideas from their recommendations for the 9-12 and young adult age groups.

Incidentally the site recommends StarClimber - the third in the Kenneth Oppel trilogy that Nancy recommended - it recently won the Canadian Library award.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on May 22, 2009 at 4:56pm

Shuchi, I've read the first Oppel Airborn out loud 3-4 times, it is great! The biggest hit of the year was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I read it outloud to my gifted 6th graders--they only come one day a week so we had to read it pretty fast. The last day of class I read for 2 hours--they were mesmerized, every time I tried to stop they rioted!! It's intense but really well written and great for tweens and teens. Watch for the movie!

Check out Cybils blog. It awards the best books every year in multiple categories--I get a lot of ideas from them.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Stinson on May 23, 2009 at 5:29pm

Here are some that my students have enjoyed:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Unwind by Neil Shusterman
Peak by Roland Smith
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Maximum Ride series by James Patterson

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