Level One-Students are required to read two books from this list.*

1. You are required to have fun over the summer, to spend time outdoors, to laugh with family and friends, and to read!  • You will be tested on your reading when you return to school. • You must complete a QVCIPC worksheet for each assigned book. • It is important that you read the correct books for the course level that you will be in next year. If you are not certain about this, please check with your teacher.

2. Level One-Students are required to read twobooks from this list.* • Endangered-Eliot Schrefer • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-Betty Smith • Flowers for Algernon-DanielKeyes • The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates-Wes Moore *We have revised this list, so please do not assume that a book that your older brother, sister, friend, or neighbor read is still an option. For example, To Kill a Mockingbird is no longer a summer reading text.

3. Endangered This unforgettable new novel is set in the Congo during a violent coup. Sophie is initially reluctant to spend her summer visiting her activist mother’s sanctuary for bonobos. However, when revolution breaks out and the sanctuary is attacked, it is Sophie who must rescue the animals. Together, they will hide in the jungle and fight to survive. Eliot Schrefer’s adventure story challenges readers to think about the 8th grade Language Arts theme of social justice and what it means to be human.

4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn In 8th grade, all students are required to read a classic. Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a beloved American classic about daydreaming Francie Nolan and her bittersweet childhood in Williamsburg in the first two decades of the twentieth century. This is the heartwarming and heartbreaking story of an Irish family, but also the story of a whole Brooklyn neighborhood.

5. ." The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates Two kids with the same name live in the same decaying city of Baltimore. One becomes a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other receives a life sentence in prison. Wes Moore writes this powerful memoir about his own life and that of the “other Wes Moore”, including both the fascinating ways their lives parallel each other and the different choices they made.

6. Flowers for Algernon In this classic science fiction novel, Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled adult, becomes a genius through an experimental operation. The experiment is initially tried on a white mouse named Algernon. The book is written in the form of journal entries kept by Charlie for the experiment. As the book progresses, the language in the journal changes to reflect Charlie’s change in IQ and ultimately his sad realization that the world is more complicated that he thought.

7. Level Two-Students are required to read two books from this list. Level Three-Students are required to read one book from this list. Beast-Walter Dean Myers Crossing the Wire-Will Hobbs Endangered-Eliot Schrefer Flowers for Algernon-Daniel Keyes *We have revised this list, so please do not assume that a book that your older brother, sister, friend, or neighbor read is still an option. For example, Roll of Thunder is no longer a summer reading text.

8. The Beast Seventeen-year-old Anthony "Spoon" Witherspoon left his neighborhood in Harlem for a great opportunity at an exclusive prep school. But when Spoon returns home, he is shocked. His beautiful girlfriend, Gabi, once a vibrant young poet, is now a thin, wasted drug addict. Walter Dean Myers, the acclaimed author of many teen favorites, writes a powerful story about the beauty of first loveand the reality of drug abuse.

9. Crossing the Wire When falling crop prices threaten his family with starvation, fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north in an attempt to "cross the wire" from Mexico into the United States so he can find work and send money home. But with no coyote money to pay the smugglers, Victor must struggle to survive as he jumps trains, stows away on trucks, and hikes grueling miles through the Arizona desert. In this novel, Will Hobbs reveals a boy’s courage and one immigrant’s story.

10. Endangered This unforgettable new novel is set in the Congo during a violent coup. Sophie is initially reluctant to spend her summer visiting her activist mother’s sanctuary for bonobos. However, when revolution breaks out and the sanctuary is attacked, it is Sophie who must rescue the animals. Together, they will hide in the jungle and fight to survive. Eliot Schrefer’s adventure story challenges readers to think about the 8th grade Language Arts theme of social justice and what it means to be human.

11. Flowers for Algernon In this classic science fiction novel, Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled adult, becomes a genius through an experimental operation. The experiment is initially tried on a white mouse named Algernon. The book is written in the form of journal entries kept by Charlie for the experiment. As the book progresses, the language in the journal changes to reflect Charlie’s change in IQ and his sad realization that the world is more complicated that he thought. .