Book Choices Gr 7-8 ‎(Briscoe Summer Reading 2009)‎

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Book Choices Gr 7-8

These are the eighteen summer 2009 book choices for students entering grades 7 or 8 at Briscoe Middle School. Follow the links to get more information about each title.

	Airball: My Life in Briefs Lisa Harkrader Lexile 700L, AR RL 4.4 – word count 42160 To help prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he has never known, uncoordinated Kansas seventh-grader Kirby Nickel braves his coach's ire and becomes captain of the basketball team.
	All of the Above Shelley Pearsall Lexile 1000L, AR RL 5.3 – word count 32,911 Five urban middle school students, their teacher, and other community members relate how a school project to build the world's largest tetrahedron affects the lives of everyone involved.
	Basher Five-Two Captain Scott O'Grady 1040L, AR RL 7.0 – word count 31,956 Nonfiction. U.S. Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady tells how he evaded capture and stayed alive with little water and no food in enemy territory after the F-16 he was flying on a peace-keeping mission in Bosnia was shot down.
	The Boy Who Spoke Dog Clay Morgan AR RL 4.2 - word count 29,915 After being marooned on an island near New Zealand, Jack, an orphaned cabin boy from San Francisco, becomes allied with a group of dogs who protect the local sheep from wild dogs.
	Crackback John Coy Lexile 490L, AR RL 3.2 - word count 37,791 Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and shunned by his best friend for not taking performance-enhancing drugs.
	Deep and Dark and Dangerous Mary Downing Hahn Lexile 650L, AR RL 4.0 - Word count 50,774 When thirteen-year-old Ali spends the summer with her aunt and cousin at the family's vacation home, she stumbles upon a secret that her mother and aunt have been hiding for over thirty years.
	Down the Rabbit Hole Peter Abrahams Lexile 680L, AR RL 4.3 – word count 70,449 Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls. Book # 1 in Echo Falls series.
	Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini Sid Fleischman AR RL 6.6 – word count 29,724 A biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death in 1926.
	H.I.V.E. Mark Walden Lexile 1040L, AR RL 7.5 - word count 65,909 Swept away to a hidden academy for training budding evil geniuses, Otto, a brilliant orphan, Wing, a sensitive warrior, Laura, a shy computer specialist, and Shelby, an infamous jewel thief, plot to escape the prison known as H.I.V.E. Book #1 in H.I.V.E. series.

	Finding Miracles Julia Alvarez Lexile 770L, AR RL 4.9 – word count 61,784 Fifteen-year-old Milly Kaufman is an average American teenager until Pablo, a new student at her school, inspires her to search for her birth family in his native country.
	Fire from the Rock Sharon Draper Lexile 830L, AR RL 5.0 – word count 59,236 In 1957, Sylvia Patterson's life, that of a normal African American teenager, is disrupted by the impending integration of Little Rock's Central High when she is selected to be one of the first black students to attend the previously all white school.
	I'd Tell You I'd Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You Ally Carter Lexile 1000L, AR RL 5.9 – word count 66,015 As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission. Book #1 in The Gallagher Girls series.
	Into the Wild Erin Hunter Lexile 790L, AR RL 5.6 – word count 62,751 Rusty, a bored house kitten, is apprenticed by the ThunderClan and must struggle to fit in when the group of feral cats is threatened by the enemy ShadowClan. Book #1 in the Warriors series.
	Peak Roland Smith Lexile 780L, AR RL 5.0 – word count 63,195 A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
	Perfect Natasha Friend Lexile 590L, AR RL 3.5 – word count 35,639 Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.
	Revenge of the Witch Joseph Delaney Lexile 840L, AR RL 5.6 – word count 59,544 Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties." Book #1 in Last Apprentice series.
	Schooled Gordon Korman Lexile 740L, AR RL 4.9 – word count 40,313 Cap lives in isolation with his grandmother, a former hippie, but when she falls from a tree and breaks her hip, Cap is sent to a foster home where he has his first experience in a public school.
	Uglies Scott Westerfeld Lexile 770L, AR RL 5.2 – word count 87,274 In Tally's world, reaching 16 brings an operation that turns you from ugly to pretty and Tally's almost there, but when her friend runs away, Tally learns about a new side of pretty world and must choose between betrayal and never turning pretty. Book #1 in the Uglies series.