With that in mind, I decided to put together a required reading list for her 7th and 8th grade years. The idea is that she will read one book off the list a week. Most of the books can be read whenever, but a few--with similar themes or same historical time period--have to be read at the same time. That way we'll be working on history and/or science along with LA, some of the time anyway.
A few fun things have happened as I've been working on this list. One is that Miriam got wind of the list (I had to ask her if she'd read a few titles), she read through the list, and now she's been reading books from the list. Back to the drawing board again to add more! Not that I mind, funny girl.
The other fun thing is my perusal of every site I can find that suggesst good nonfiction titles. I didn't fall in love with nonfiction until college so I didn't read much YA nonfiction. In putting together the list I had to include some books on other people's recommendation (always scary) and debate internally about books I love. Some made the cut (Frederick Douglass's autobiography) and some didn't (The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary). Some were too old, some too young, some about topics that I don't find interesting but Miriam does (forensic science), or vice-versa.
It is such a joy to read about, think about, make lists about, and plan for books!!!
Bibliophile: a person who loves books, or, alternately, me!
Here's my mostly finished list, including the books Miriam has recently read that need to be replaced. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments on quality or age level of the books (or anything else!)--please, I'm seeking after those things.
Yes, I realize I have more books than weeks of school, but I thought that would give her some ownership in her choices.
Thanks for your help!!!!!!
Absolutely Normal Chaos, Sharon Creech
The Egypt Game
The Giver
Maniac Magee
Number the Stars
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Summer of My German Soldier
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Kira-Kira
The Dark is Rising series
Among the Hidden
The View from Saturday
The Moorchild
My Louisiana Sky
Holes
Homecoming and Dicey's Song
Esperanza Rising
The Fledgling
Little Women
Incident at Hawk's Hill
The Call of the Wild
Jacob Have I Loved
No Promises in the Wind
The Jungle Book
The Hero and the Crown
Freak the Mighty
Tangerine
Far North
Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman
The Outsiders
Across Five Aprils
Adam of the Road
Black Beauty
Cheaper by the Dozen
Christy
Girl of the Limberlost
The Hiding Place
Invincible Louisa
Johnny Tremain
Princess and the Goblin
Rifles for Watie
Snow Treasure
A Wrinkle in Time
A Christmas Carol
A Long Walk to Water
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Treasure Island
The Call of the Wild
The Moves Make the Man
The Red Pony
The Devil's Arithmetic
The Andromeda Strain
Jackaroo
Lyddie
Up a Road Slowly
The Prisoner of Zenda
Smith by Leon Garfield
Westmark
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
NONFICTION
Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor by
Michael Burgan
Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean
Motion by Loree Griffin Burns
Who Was First? Discovering the Americas by Russell Freedman
Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by
Phillip Hoose
Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to
Get Back on Board by Sheryl Berk
Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds,
Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit
Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism
and Changed the World by Temple Grandin
Kids Who Rule: The Remarkable Lives of of Five Child
Monarchs by Charis Cotter
Beyond the Dance: A Ballerina’s Life by Chan Hon Goh
The Bone Detectives:
How Forensic Anthropologists Solve Crimes and Uncover Mysteries of the Dead by
Donna M. Jackson
Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1917 by
Michael Capuzzo
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True
Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong
Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers
Outbreak! Plagues that Changed History by Bryn Barnard
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the
Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy
Years of Dust by Albert Marrin
Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During
the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport
Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine,
1845-1850 by SusanCampbell Bartoletti
Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy
by Albert Marrin
Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet
Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson
Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of
Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business—and
Won! By Emily Arnold McCully
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for
Civil Rights
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured
the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb
Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World
War II by Martin W. Sandler
Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles:
American’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone
Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World’s Most
Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by
Cynthia Levinson
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure,
Heroism, and Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of
Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal
Music was IT: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin
Can I See Your I.D.?: True Stories of False Identities by
Paul Hoppe
Unraveling Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Home
Front During World War I by Ann Bausum
Truce by Jim Murphy (WWI)
The War to End all Wars by Russell Freedman
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship
That Changed the World by Penny Colman
Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant
Communication by Ann Downer
The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life
of Showman P.T. Barnum by Candace Fleming
Scribbling Women: True Tales from Astonishing Lives by
Marthe Jocelyn
Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by
Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross (maybe use with the other kids for a whole
unit on navigation?)
I.M. Pei: Architect of Time, Place and Purpose by Jill
Rubalcaba
Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O’Keefe by
Susan Goldman Rubin
Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by
Rosalyn Shanzer
Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska’s WWII
Invasion by Samantha Seiple
Tom Thumb: The Remarkable True Story of a Man in Miniature
by George Sullivan (go along with the biography of Barnum)
Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust by Ruth Thomson
Raggin’ Jazzin’ Rockin’: A History of American Musical
Instrument Makers by Susan VanHecke
They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American
Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartolletti
The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA
Moles by Paul B. Janeczko
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by Frederick
Douglas
Frederick Douglas by David A. Adler
We Are Not Beasts of Burden: Cesar Chavez and the Delano
Grape Strike, California 1965-1970 by Stuart A. Kallen
Frozen Secrets: Antarctica Revealed by Sally M. Walker
The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton by Connie Nordhielm
Woolridge
Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial
Maryland by Sally M. Walker
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Leaving Glorytown: One Boy’s Struggle Under Castro by
Eduardo F. Calcines
Birmingham Sunday by Larry Dane Brimner (read with The
Watson’s Go To Birmingham)
Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work), in Words
and Pictures by Michael Goodwin
The Word Snoop by Ursula Dubosarsky (history of the English
language)
The Bat Scientists by Mary Kay Carson
The Hive Detectives: Chronicles of a Honey Bee Catastrophe
by Loree Griffin Burns
The Battle of Britain by Kate Moore
Mr. Lincoln’s High-tech War by Thomas B. Allen (use it with
the novel about three days of the war)
Women of the Frontier: 16 Tales of the Trailblazing
Homesteaders, Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers by Brandon Marie Miller
The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and
Anne by Catherine Reef (would work well with the other books about TB)
The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild,
Wild West by Sid Fleischman
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl’s Diary of Life on Summit
Avenue in the Jazz Age by Coco Irvine (use with Thoroughly Modern Millie)
St. Paul’s Historic Summit Avenue by Ernest R. Sandeen
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