Summer

Summer Reading Ideas

What to read during the summer? There are endless possibilities!

Check the Blackwell Library web page with Award Winning Books and see several book lists below.
If you would like something similar to "Accelerated Reader" try the free program called "Book Adventure" http://www.bookadventure.com/
Go to the Sammamish Library and participate in their summer reading program! http://www.kcls.org/srp/index.cfm Sixth graders can also check out the Teen Zone page: http://kcls.org/teens/
Boys, check out Jon Scieska's webpage "Guys Read" www.guysread.com He encourages boys to: 1) Choose what you read 2) Pick from all different kinds of reading 3) Find out what other guys like to read
"Kidspace" on the Internet Public Library is a great resource for ideas: http://www.ipl.org/kidspace/browse/rzn0000
Start reading for next year's "Battle of the Books" that will begin in September!
For 6th Grade students that will be going to Inglewood Jr. High next year, click on the picture of Inglewood to find a list of suggested summer titles!

Here are some suggestions from Peggy Sharp:

Keeping track of the books read: Add sand to a bottle to identify the number of books read over the summer. Readers each select a quart bottle, measure half inch increments, and mark each increment with a piece of colored tape. After they read a book, they put enough sand, rice, etc. into the bottle to reach the next increment. How full is the bottle at the end of the summer? How many bottles can they fill during the summer?
Read through a crayon box. Select a box of crayons, and read a book with a book jacket that is the same color of each crayon in the box.
Read your way through the alphabet. Read books with titles that begin with each letter of the alphabet, or read books written by authors whose last names begin with each of the letters of the alphabet. How far through the alphabet can you go?

Read a book by an author who is celebrating
a birthday this summer.

JUNE: Eric Carle, Brian Jaques, Kathryn Lasky, Helen Lester, Cynthia Rylant, Chris Van Allsburg

JULY: Lynne Reid Banks, Jack Gantos, Jean Craighead George, Emily Arnold McCully, Patricia Polacco, E.B. White

AUGUST: Joanna Cole, Paula Danziger, Gail Gibbons, James Howe, Walter Dean Myers, Seymour Simon

Read all of the books written by your favorite author.
Read a book from each general Dewey category.
Read books about and by your namesake. Search through the King County computer system to find characters or authors whose first name is the same as yours.
Read a thousand pages during the summer.
Read across the country, and take a long summer vacation. Identify the state or country that is the setting for the books read, and mark on a map the places you "visited" this summer

2006 Sasquatch Reading Award Nominations - Great Books for Intermediate Readers

Frog Princess by E. Baker

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Mummy's Mother by Tony Johnston

Capture by Kathryn Lasky

Puppeteer's Apprentice by D. Anne Love

Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

Colder Than Ice by David Patneaude

Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Schyffert

Tadpole by Ruth White

Minn and Jake by Janet Wong

When the Circus Came to Town by Laurence Yep

Books for Primary Grades, K-2

Recommended By Peggy Sharp

Bad Boys by Margie Palatini (Two wolves, in trouble again, find the perfect hideout in a flock of sheep.)
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin (A worm relates his daily activities in this humorous journal.)
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems (The passengers are resolute, and won't let the pigeon behind the wheel.)
The Dot by Peter Reynolds (A young painter makes her mark in the world of art.)
George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora (A look at the first president in the context of what he was doing when he lost his teeth.)
How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long (A young boy goes on a swashbuckling adventure and discovers treasure.)
My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris (About Martin Luther King as told by his older sister.)
Old Cricket by Lisa Wheeler (Old cricket is cranky and crotchety, but not quite as clever as he thought.)

Books for Early Intermediate, 3-4

Recommended By Peggy Sharp

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Robert Sabuda (Beautiful pop-ups visually enhance this retelling.)

Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech (Granny and Rosie cook up food and answers to life's problems.)

The Green Dog by Suzanne Fisher Staples (The author tells about a dog who made all the difference in her young life.)

Mathematickles by Betsy Franco (Math, language, and science come together in this equation for the seasons.)

Minn and Jake by Janet Wong (Two seemingly different children become true best friends for each other.)

Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver (When the punctuation marks go on holiday, the class misses them terribly.)

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (A small mouse in love with a human princess tries hard to prove that anything is possible.)

There's a Frog in My Throat by Loreen Leedy and Pat Street (440 idiomatic sayings and phrases inspired by animals.)

A Voice of Her Own by Kathryn Lasky (The biography of Phillis Wheatley, slave poet.)

Books for Intermediate, 5-7

Recommended by Peggy Sharp

The Canning Season by Polly Horvath (A young girl learns what family is all about when she lives with her elderly aunts in Maine.)

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (The book characters want to return to where they belong, and it's up to Meggie's father to figure out how to make that happen.)

In Defense of Liberty by Russell Freedman (A clear and informative description of the Bill of Rights.)

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes (Martha and Olive's life are unexpectedly intertwined durinig the summer at the ocean.)

The River Between Us by Richard Peck (A woman brings a whole new way of life to a small Illinois town in this Civil War novel.)

The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley by Martine Murray (Cedar is her own person with her own unique way of viewing the world.)

The Tree Life by Peter Sis (A picture book biography of Charles Darwin.)

The Wright Sister by Richard Maurer (Katherine Wright gave up her career to help her brothers turn the airplane in to a business.)

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