Nashua School District Printable List (PDF)
SUMMER READING LIST 2008
Grades 5-8
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13: thirteen stories that capture the agony and ecstasy of being thirteen
edited by James Howe
Contains thirteen short stories in which the authors explore what it is like to be thirteen, including selections by Bruce Coville, Meg Cabot, James Howe, and others.
Allison, Jennifer. Gilda Joyce, psychic investigator
During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower.
Cooper, Michael L. Dust to eat : drought and depression in the 1930s
With lots of stunning black-and-white archival photos and a clear, spacious text that draws on eloquent eyewitness reports--including comments from John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie--this small, handsome photo-essay tells the history of the Dust Bowl and the drought that drove desperate families to California in search of work.
Cooper, Susan.Victory
Molly, upset by her family's move from London to the U.S., is strangely drawn to an old book about the life of Admiral Lord Nelson, and soon finds her life intertwined with that of Sam, a boy her age who served with Nelson aboard the HMS "Victory" a century earlier.
Fleischman, Sid. The 13th floor: a ghost story
When his older sister disappears, twelve-year-old Buddy Stebbins follows her back in time and finds himself aboard a seventeenth-century pirate ship captained by a distant relative.
Hardinge, Frances. Fly by night
Taught to read by her scholar father, orphaned book lover Mosca Mye is an anomaly in a culture where literature is highly suspect and tightly controlled. When silver-tongued poet-spy Eponymous Clent passes through her village, the word-starved 12-year-old stubbornly installs herself as his traveling companion, serving as his uneasy accomplice in a mission that exposes the cutthroat intrigues roiling the surface of her troubled fantasy realm.
Horowitz, Anthony. Evil Star
Raven's Gate Sequel to: Nightrise. Having locked the Raven's gate, fourteen-year-old Matt travels to Peru where he meets the second of the five gatekeepers and works with him to try to stop the opening of a second gate somehow related to the Nazca Lines.
Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.
Lowry, Lois.Gossamer
While learning to bestow dreams, a young dream giver tries to save an eight-year-old boy from the effects of both his abusive past and the nightmares inflicted on him by the frightening Sinisteeds.
Martin, Rafe. Birdwing
Prince Ardwin, known as Birdwing, the youngest of six brothers turned into swans by their stepmother, is unable to complete the transformation back into human form, so he undertakes a journey to discover whether his feathered arm will be a curse or a blessing to him.
McNaughton, Janet. The Secret Under my Skin
In the year 2368, humans exist under dire environmental conditions and one young woman, rescued from a work camp and chosen for a special duty, uses her love of learning to discover the truth about the planet's future and her own dark past.
Morris, Gerald. The ballad of Sir Dinadan
Though he would rather pursue his talent as a musician, eighteen-year-old Dinadan is forced to follow his older brother Tristram's path and become a knight. Set at the time of King Arthur.
Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Biodiversity
Provides a global perspective on environmental issues while demonstrating the concept which encompasses the many forms of life on earth and their interdependence on one another for survival. This is a book for browsing, with an alluring cover, a handsome, spacious design, and a crucial message.
Pratchett, Terry.Only You Can Save Mankind
Twelve-year-old Johnny endures tensions between his parents, watches television coverage of the Gulf War, and plays a computer game called Only You Can Save Mankind, in which he is increasingly drawn into the reality of the alien ScreeWee.
Sachar, Louis.Small Steps
Sequel to: Holes. Three years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is trying hard to keep his life on track, but when his old pal X-Ray shows up with a tempting plan to make some easy money scalping concert tickets, Armpit reluctantly goes along.
Schlosser, Eric. Chew on this : everything you don't want to know about fast food
A look at fast food, what's in it, how it's made, and what it does to our bodies. They trace the hamburger's early years and the evolution of the McDonald's Corporation's revolutionary Speedee Service System. They follow with vivid tours through feedlots, abattoirs, and a chicken-processing plant to explore how fast food has achieved spectacular international success, particularly among an increasingly obese youth market, then round off with glimpses of Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard initiative and other alternatives less likely to lead to gastric bypass surgery.
Shreve, Susan. Kiss Me Tomorrow
Confused by all of the males in her life, thirteen-year-old Alyssa "Blister" Reed wants to help when her best friend Jonah's quest for popularity lands him in deep trouble, but his desire to make her his girlfriend gets in the way.
Springer, Nancy. The case of the bizarre bouquets : an Enola Holmes mystery
Intriguing bits of Victorian social history mix with unnerving suspense in the latest Enola Holmes mystery. Enola, the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, has refused to take on the traditional role of a young lady preparing for marriage. Instead, she lives by her wits, working as a “perditorian,” a finder of the lost. In this caper, Dr. Watson has gone missing. Enola bends her considerable deductive skills to finding Doctor Watson, a companion of her famous older brother, Sherlock.
Wardlaw, Lee. 101 ways to bug your teacher
Steve "Sneeze" Wyatt attempts to thwart his parents' plan to have him skip eighth grade, but he has bigger problems when his friends disapprove of his new list and Mrs. "Fierce" Pierce threatens to keep him from the Invention Convention.
Whiteman, Dorit Bader. Lonek's journey : the true story of a boy's escape to freedom
Recounts the true story of an eleven-year-old Jewish boy who escaped from Nazi-occupied Poland in 1939 and a Siberian slave labor camp to find freedom in Palestine.
Woods, Brenda. My Name is Sally Little Song
When their owner plans to sell one of them in 1802, twelve-year-old Sally and her family run away from their Georgia plantation to look for both freedom from slavery and a home in Florida with the Seminole Indians.
Wunsch, Susi Trautmann. The adventures of Sojourner : the mission to Mars that thrilled the world
Tells the story of the mission that placed the Sojourner remote-control rover on Mars on July 4, 1997 This book provides enough information for reports, and may inspire students to pursue further research. An entertaining, factual, and immensely readable volume.
