Students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade must read the assigned book for their grade level. We suggest this required book be read at the end of the summer before the return to school.
Sixth Grade Required Reading:
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Kira, newly orphaned and lame from birth, is taken from the turmoil of the village to live in the grand Council Edifice because of her skill at embroidery. There she is given the task of restoring the historical pictures sewn on the robe worn at the annual Ruin Song Gathering. Joining forces with Thomas the Carver and a tiny girl who is being trained as the next Singer, Kira and her friends face the menace of authority, seemingly kind but suffocating to their creativity, and the dark secret at the heart of the Ruin Song.
Seventh Grade Required Reading:
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Erdrich’s (Grandmother’s Pigeon) debut novel for children is the first in a projected cycle of books centering on an Ojibwa family on an island in Lake Superior. Opening in the summer of 1847, the story follows the family, in a third-person narrative, through four seasons; it focuses on young Omakayas, who turns “eight winters old” during the course of the novel. In fascinating, nearly step-by-step details, the author describes how they build a summer home out of birchbark, gather with extended family to harvest rice in the autumn, treat an attack of smallpox during the winter and make maple syrup in the spring to stock their own larder and to sell to others. Against the backdrop of Ojibwa cultural traditions, Omakayas also conveys the universal experiences of childhoodAa love of the outdoors, a reluctance to do chores, devotion to a petAas well as her ability to cope with the seemingly unbearable losses of the winter. The author hints at Omakayas’s unusual background and her calling as a healer, as well as the imminent dangers of the “chimookoman” or white people, setting the stage for future episodes. Into her lyrical narrative, Erdrich weaves numerous Ojibwa words, effectively placing them in context to convey their meanings. Readers will want to follow this family for many seasons to come. Ages 9-up. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Eighth Grade Required Reading:
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
Mark Haddon has written a moving novel about love and bravery through the eyes of an autistic boy. Christopher discovers his neighbor’s poodle dead, and because he adores puzzles, he sets out to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington. Christopher doesn’t like to be touched and cannot decipher emotions beyond the tools his teacher has taught him, so the task requires huge effort of testing rules and facing his own fears.
