MCCPS REQUIRED SUMMER READING 2011
FOR STUDENTS ENTERING 4th GRADE IN THE FALL
We begin our year studying Native Americans. What can we learn about these first Americans through fiction and nonfiction? Please have your new fourth grader read one of the following novels prior to the beginning of school. A reading comprehension activity is attached and should be completed before coming to school. (NOTE: the books are listed in the order of increasing reading levels) –
READING COMPREHENSION ACTIVITY: Likes-Dislikes about Book
1. Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac, ISBN 0679890521
In 1838, settlers moving west forced the great Cherokee Nation, and their chief John Ross, to leave their home land and travel 1,200 miles to Oklahoma. An epic story of friendship, war, hope, and betrayal.
2. Eagle Song by Joseph Bruchac, ISBN 0141301694
It’s a shock for fourth-grader Danny Bigtree to move to Brooklyn from his Mohawk Nation reservation: suddenly he has no friends, and his classmates taunt him, asking him where his war pony is and telling him to go home to his teepee. After his charismatic father makes a class visit to talk about Iroquois culture, his peers begin to warm up to him.
3. Pocahontas by George Sullivan, ISBN 0439165857
Famous for saving the life of Captain John Smith in 1608, Pocahontas grew up as the favorite daughter of the Native American chief of the Powhatans. Pocahontas¹s rescue of Smith made her famous not only in colonial America, but across the ocean in England as well. This is her story.
4. The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, ISBN 0440479002
Twelve-year old Matt is trying his best to survive on his own until his father returns to their cabin in the Maine wilderness with the rest of the family. Matt develops a deep friendship with a Native American boy. Matt must decide if he should continue waiting for his family or begin a new life with his friend.
5. Guests by Michael Dorris, ISBN 0786813563
Moss’s father extends his hospitality to a group of strangers who speak an entirely different language and who make the boy “uncomfortable with their oddness.” When his efforts to convince his parents that the guests should not participate in his people’s harvest feast are rebuked, Moss runs away into the nearby forest.
6. The Birchbark House by Louise Erdich, ISBN 0786814543
The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior’s Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847.
Please remind your child to bring the book to school this fall. Sharing will be a great way to start the year!
SUGGESTED SUMMER READING
Take a look at these great books!
Benton, Jim. Lunch Walks Among Us. Franny K. Stein is a mad scientist who prefers all things spooky and creepy, but when she has trouble making friends at her new school she experiments with fitting in–which works until a monster erupts from the trashcan. The story continues with Attack of the 50 ft. Cupid, Invisible Fran, The Fran that Time Forgot and Frantastic Voyage, Fran with Four Brains.
Catling, Patrick Skene. The Chocolate Touch. Everything John touches turns to chocolate.
Dahl, Roald. The Witches. A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches’ plot to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.
DiTerlizzi, Tony. The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles) When the Grace children go to stay at their Great Aunt Lucinda’s worn Victorian house, they discover a field guide to fairies and other creatures and begin to have some unusual experiences. Books included in this series are, Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree and The Wrath of Mulgrath.
McDonald, Megan. Judy Moody Gets Famous! When a third grade classmate gets her picture in the paper for winning a spelling bee, Judy is determined to find a way to become famous herself.
Pennypacker, Sara. Clementine . Features hilarious stories about the irrepressible eight year old Clementine. There are 3 books in this series.
Stewart, Paul. Beyond the Deepwoods. Thirteen-year-old Twig, having always looked and felt different from his wood troll family, learns that he is adopted and travels out of his Deepwoods home to find the place where he belongs. This is the first book in the Edge Chronicles, which continues with Stormchaser, Midnight over Sanctaphrax, etc.
Van Draanen, Wendelin. Secret Identity. (Shredderman Fifth-grader Nolan Byrd, tired of being called names by the class bully, has a secret identity–Shredderman!
Winkler, Henry. Niagra Falls, or Does It? Fourth-graders Hank, Ashley, and Frankie are excitedly preparing for a magic show at the Rock ‘N Bowl when Hank’s creative alternative to an English essay lands him in detention and grounded the week of the show. Hank Zipzer is a new series that continues with I Got a “D” in Salami, Day of the Iguana, Zippety Zinger, The Night I Flunked My Field Trip, Holy Enchilada, etc.
Sage, Angie. Araminta Spookie 1: My Haunted House Nerdy sixth-grader Simon Bloom finds a book that enables him to control the laws of physics, but when two thugs come after him, he needs the formulas in the book to save himself.
Vogel Frederick, Heather. Spy Mice: Goldwhiskers During a London vacation, Oz Levinson must deal with the bullying Priscilla Winterbottom, while mouse spy Glory Goldenleaf tracks the whereabouts of a valuable jewel, missing orphaned mouselings, and two evil ministers of rats.
James, Charlie. Billy the Fish After eating Dad’s experimental fish food, Ned’s little brother turns into a cod and finds himself sharing an aquarium tank with Kylie the killer whale.
Korman, Gordon. Swindle After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palamino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin Bing puts together a band of misfits to break into Palomino’s heavily guarded store and steal the card back, planning to use the money to finance his father’s failing invention, the SmartPick fruit picker.
Jonell, Lynne. Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat When Emmy discovers that she and her formerly loving parents are being drugged by their evil nanny with rodent potions that can change people in frightening ways, she and some new friends must try everything possible to return things to normal.
