8 Reading List - Jacksonville Public Library

Book
Summary
Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico-she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden
tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great
Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't
ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces.
When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her
difficult circumstances--Mama's life, and her own, depend on it
How did he walk through walls, escape drowning, and shatter iron chains that
were tightly wrapped around him?
The rare photos in this book might help you figure it out. So might the exclusive
update about the rumor that Houdini was poisoned. But just remember, a true
magician never reveals his tricks. . .
"If you ain't scared, you ain't human."
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name.
He's surrounded by strangers--boys whose memories are also gone.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, everchanging maze. It's the only way out--and no one's ever made it through alive.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
When Julian's parents make the heartbreaking decision to send him and his two
brothers away from Cuba to Miami via the Pedro Pan Operation, the boys are
thrust into a new world where bullies run rampant and it's not always clear how to
best protect themselves.
Over the course of history, men and women have lived and died. In fact, getting
sick and dying can be a big, ugly mess-especially before the modern medical care
that we all enjoy today. How They Croaked relays all the gory details of how
nineteen world figures gave up the ghost. Readers will be fascinated well past the
final curtain, and feel lucky to live in a world with painkillers, X-rays, soap, and 911.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a
shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts
waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each
district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event
called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old
Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as
a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The
terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is
constant: kill or be killed.
When young Iqbal is sold into slavery at a carpet factory, his arrival changes
everything for the other overworked and abused children there. It is Iqbal who
explains to them that despite their master's promises, he plans on keeping them as
his slaves indefinitely. But it is also Iqbal who inspires the other children to look to
a future free from toil...and is brave enough to show them how to get there.
This moving fictionalized account of the real Iqbal Masih is told through the voice
of Fatima, a young Pakistani girl whose life is changed by Iqbal's courage.
Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat along with aspirations
of leading his team all the way to the Little League World Series. But his firepower
is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly
orphaned after his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael’s only family
is his seventeen-year-old brother Carlos. If Social Services hears of their situation,
they will be separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back to Cuba.
Together, the boys carry on alone, dodging bills and anyone who asks too many
questions. But then someone wonders how a twelve-year-old boy could possibly
throw with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws. With no way to prove his
age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight for his cause, Michael’s secret
world is blown wide open, and he discovers that family can come from the most
unexpected sources.
Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not
comforted by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg.
Who cares about walking when you live to run?
As she struggles to cope with crutches and a first cyborg-like prosthetic, Jessica
feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don't know what to say,
act like she's not there. Which she could handle better if she weren't now keenly
aware that she'd done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl
who is going to tutor her through all the math she's missed. A girl who sees right
into the heart of her.
With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may
actually be able to run again. But that's not enough for her now. She doesn't just
want to cross finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her.
Maleeka suffers every day from the taunts of the other kids in her class. If they're
not getting at her about her homemade clothes or her good grades, it's about her
dark, black skin.
When a new teacher, whose face is blotched with a startling white patch, starts at
their school, Maleeka can see there is bound to be trouble for her too. But the new
teacher's attitude surprises Maleeka. Miss Saunders loves the skin she's in. Can
Maleeka learn to do the same?
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack,
government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant
young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his
sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister
Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program
but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle
School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where
children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial
community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his
peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien
invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like
the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved
sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic
experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and
the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's
two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways.
Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives,
that is.
High school sophomore Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an
asteroid knocks the moon closer to Earth, like "one marble hits another." The
result is catastrophic. How can her family prepare for the future when worldwide
tsunamis are wiping out the coasts, earthquakes are rocking the continents, and
volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August turns dark and wintery in
northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to
the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled
food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.
Told in a year’s worth of journal entries, this heart-pounding story chronicles
Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an
increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.
Kevin Midas is sick of being picked on, teased and tormented. So when he finds a
pair of magical sunglasses that give him the power to do--well, anything--he
couldn't be happier. At first, Kevin spends his time pulling ice cream cones out of
the air and getting every video game he ever wanted. But then he turns to darker
wishes. What if he used the glasses to get revenge?
In Neal Shusterman's dark fantasy, one boy finds out that sometimes, getting
everything you want can be deadly.
As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends and a louse
for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him. So begins
a coming-of-age masterwork full of equal parts comedy and tragedy from Newbery
Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt. As Doug struggles to be more than the “skinny
thug” that his teachers and the police think him to be, he finds an unlikely ally in Lil
Spicer—a fiery young lady who “smelled like daisies would smell if they were
growing in a big field under a clearing sky after a rain.” In Lil, Doug finds the
strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a whole town, and the
return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Together, they find a
safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John
James Audubon’s birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.
Inspired by the author's childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam after the Fall of
Saigon and immigrating to Alabama, this coming-of-age debut novel told in verse
has been celebrated for its touching child's-eye view of family and immigration.
Hà has only ever known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions,
and the warmth of her friends close by. But now the Vietnam War has reached her
home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship
headed toward hope—toward America.
This moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing received
four starred reviews, including one from Kirkus which proclaimed it "enlightening,
poignant, and unexpectedly funny."
Resource
Website
Just Read, Florida! 2015 Summer Recommended
Reading List
http://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/just-readfl/recommended-reading-lists/summer-reading.stml
Achieve 3000
Students can use the powerful reading and writing
tools in Achieve 3000 anytime, anywhere with
internet-based access via laptops, iPads, and
smartphones. Students may use the username and
password provided to them in May 2015.
https://portal.achieve3000.com
Why Summer Reading?
Reading could be one of the many fun activities students can participate in to fill their summer time.
Research has shown it is also much more! Students who read over the summer not only avoid the
“summer slide” in learning, but also score higher on reading achievement tests than those who do not read
over the summer.
“The two largest contributions to reading achievement were access to interesting books and student choice
of the books they would read. Both factors moved reading achievement ahead more than a full standard
deviation, which would move a student from the 16th to greater than the 50th percentile on standardized tests
of reading comprehension.” Cahill, C., Horvath, K., McGill-Franzen, A., & Allington, R. (2013). Why Not?
What Works? In No More Summer Reading Loss (p. 21). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
The suggested books on this list may be available on eBook, audiobook, and print formats at your local
Jacksonville Public Library branch, neighborhood middle school, and/or area book store.
For questions or concerns, please contact Minika Jenkins, Executive Director of Instructional Programs, at (904) 3902673, or at [email protected].