Rising 8th Grade Summer Learning

Scroll to the bottom of this page to find printable Choice Book lists and discussion questions for Required Books.
Required Math Practice
This summer we are offering four options for students to reinforce their math proficiency over the summer months. Practicing 1 to 1.5 hours a week consistently every week of the summer (10 to 15 hours total) will help ensure a smooth transition back to school in August. If your child wants to do more, all the better! Review the following options with your child to determine which are preferred and would be beneficial.
  • ​Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/math/get-ready-for-8th-grade​): Complete the entire course or target specific areas for practice. 
  • Kuta Software (http://kutasoftware.com/): Select Free Worksheets then click the appropriate course. There you will find a wide variety of topics and sub-topics with pre-made worksheets (and associated answer keys).
  • IXL Ultimate Seventh Grade Math Workbook: It is expected that all students choosing this option will complete all odd-numbered pages. Then, students can work on the even-numbered pages for additional practice. 
  • ALGEBRA 1 HONORS STUDENTS: You may choose the IXL Ultimate Eighth Grade Math Workbook instead for additional challenge. It is expected that all students choosing this option will complete all odd-numbered pages. Then, students can work on the even-numbered pages for additional practice. 
World Languages
REQUIRED for NEW STUDENTS  /  RECOMMENDED for RETURNING STUDENTS
​This is intended to be a relaxed-pace nine-week program. It is expected for students to spend approx. 1-2 hours per week learning & reviewing this material. 
Spanish Language Students: Spanish summer learning
French Language Students: French summer learning
Keyboarding Practice
Ideally by fifth grade, students have developed beginning level keyboarding skills with attention to correct finger and hand positioning with touch typing skills. For students entering grades 6-8, computer literacy and keyboarding expectations continue to grow. Students are expected to type assignments and complete and submit assignments in Google Classroom in each of their classes. Depending on your student's current technology exposure and typing skills, we strongly recommend summer practice to increase typing speed and accuracy and computer literacy to ease their transition. Typing.com offers fun, helpful, and free practice for keyboarding, along with computer literacy modules and information. Students should create an account to keep track of their progress (not for teachers to monitor) and aim to complete courses based on their unique skill levels. Typing practice at the intermediate and advanced levels are encouraged, along with informational modules in digital literacy as time and interest allow.
Required Book
Read BOTH books and answer associated discussion questions.
Picture
The Breadwinner ​
​by Deborah Ellis

​ISBN-13: 978-1554987658
 Picture
A Wrinkle in Time ​
​by Madeleine L'Engle

​ISBN-13: 978-0312367541
Choice Books
Choose at least TWO, preferably from different genres; as well, select titles you have NOT read previously. If you choose a graphic novel as one of your choice books, please choose a traditional book as your second choice book.
Please be aware that some books may use strong language, including profanity.
​Printable lists available below.
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his younger sister Lizzie are obsessed with puzzles, riddles, and word games which lands both of them in opposite positions at the book's start. Jakob takes a job as a code breaker at Bletchley Park alongside Alan Turing and others all attempting to crack the Nazi's Enigma cipher. Lizzie narrowly escapes her Gran's plan to relocate her to the United States, tracks down her brother in England, and promptly starts her own search for their disappeared mother who seemingly left some clues behind. Now Jakob and Lizzie have to work as a team to get the answers they need, and quickly before more menacing officials beat them to it.

The Davenports (or any in series) by Krystal Marquis
a Historical Romance
In 1910 Chicago, the Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company. The Davenports live surrounded by servants and endless parties, finding their way and finding love even where they’re not supposed to. Olivia is torn between duty and passion when she meets a charismatic civil rights leader. Her sister Helen prefers fixing cars but finds herself drawn to Olivia’s suitor. Their maid and childhood friend, Amy-Rose, dreams of owning a business and secretly loves their brother, John, who is also pursued by Olivia’s best friend, Ruby. Inspired by the real-life Patterson family, The Davenports follows these four young women as they navigate love and societal expectations in this new America.
​
Displacement (graphic novel) by Kiku Hughes
Kiku is on vacation when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated to during World War II. These displacements keep occurring until Kiku finds herself "stuck" back in time. Living alongside her young grandmother and other Japanese-American citizens, Kiku witnesses the lives of Japanese-Americans who were denied their civil liberties and suffered greatly, but managed to cultivate community and commit acts of resistance in order to survive.

Fallout by Todd Strasser
In an alternate-history of the Cuban missile crisis, eleven-year-old Scott's family becomes the laughingstock of their neighborhood when they build a bomb shelter. However, when the Civil Defense siren sounds, sending them to the shelter, they can't keep their neighbors out. In chapters that alternate between their time in the shelter and the weeks leading up to the attack, the story reveals the true nature of each person in the shelter.

MYSTERY
The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry
Olivia Reinhart grew up believing her mother had been murdered by her father. After the death of the grandmother who became her guardian, Olivia found herself adrift in the foster care system and was briefly adopted. Now a 17-year-old emancipated minor living on her own, she's stunned to learn from local police that her father's body has been discovered and that he was not her mother's killer. Olivia decides to return to her hometown and search for the truth about what happened to her parents. She tells no one that she's really the daughter who witnessed her mother's murder. Aided by Duncan, a childhood friend who recognizes her but agrees to keep her secret, Olivia begins putting together a list of suspects -- a list that includes some of the people closest to her parents.

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Conan Doyle
Set on Dartmoor in Devon, England, The Hound of Baskervilles tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case.

The Inheritance Games (any in the series) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
16-year-old Avery lives with her older sister Libby. Since their parents are gone, it's just the two of them, and money is tight. In a bolt out of the blue, Avery learns that she's inherited $46 billion from a Texas oil tycoon she's never even heard of and, to get the inheritance, Avery will have to live in Tobias Hawthorne's palatial home for a year. Which might sound pretty ideal, except she'll have to live there with Tobias' family, who don't hide their resentment of Avery. Determined to find out why the money was left to her, Avery starts following clues and puzzles Tobias left behind. With her every step of the way are Tobias' grandsons. Each one has a past, each one has secrets, and each one has a reason to want Avery dead.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot must sift through clues--some real and some planted--to find a murderer aboard a crowded train speeding through the snowy European landscape.

NONFICTION/MEMOIR
​The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (Full edition; NOT the young reader's ed.)
​When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's village, his family lost the season's crops, leaving them with nothing. William began to explore science books, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea to build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's miraculous windmill brought electricity to his village and helped them access the water they needed!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (Full edition; NOT the young reader’s ed.)
No one expected a ragtag crew team from the University of Washington to rise to the top of their sport-much less go to the Olympics. It was the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression and the dawn of Nazi party ascendancy. The school had never been able to beat the Ivy League teams, but coach Al Ulbrickson had big ambitions. Over the next few years, the UW rowing team endured grueling days of training and countless setbacks. In the end, it was their collective dedication that brought them to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin-and beat the team rowing for Adolf Hitler. Note: May use strong language, including profanity.

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin
As WWII ends, the US and the Soviet Union emerge as the greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. The two nations begin a competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night. The Cold War game grows more precarious with fingers literally on the trigger. The showdown culminates in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world's very close call with a third world war.

A First Time For Everything (graphic novel) by Dan Santat
It’s 1989 and Dan hasn’t experienced much beyond the small Southern California town he grew up in. He stays out of trouble, helps his parents, and tries to go unnoticed in middle school. That plan gets thwarted when he is made to recite poetry at school and is humiliated by his peers. When eighth grade is over and his parents send him on a three-week study abroad program, Dan isn’t excited at first. He’s traveling with the girls from school who made fun of him, his camera breaks, and he feels completely out of place. But with the help of some new friends, a crush, and an encouraging teacher, Dan begins to appreciate and enjoy the journey. Through experiences like his first taste of Fanta, first time hearing French rap, and first time getting lost on his own, he finally begins to feel comfortable just being himself and embracing the unexpected. 

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (Full edition; NOT the young reader's ed.)
Before John Glenn orbited Earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as 'human computers' used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among them were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation.​
NONFICTION/MEMOIR (cont'd)
​Hiroshima by John Hersey
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city. This book tells what happened on that day, told through the memoirs of survivors.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
​On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso? Travel back to an extraordinary period of change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world that should never have existed.

​Outcasts United by Warren St. John (Full edition; NOT the young reader's ed.)
​Clarkston, GA, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for families in flight from the world’s war zones. Soon Clarkston’s streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to unify Clarkston’s refugee children. These kids named themselves the Fugees. Outcasts United follows a season in the life of the Fugees, documenting the lives of this diverse group as they coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals. At the center of the story is fiery Coach Luma, who drives her players to success on the soccer field while holding together their lives in the face of a series of challenges. NOTE: May use strong language, including profanity.

​They Called Us Enemy by (graphic novel) George Takei (with Eisinger, Scott, and Becker, illus.)
Before George Takei braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up to find his own birth country at war with his father's and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In 1942, at the order of President Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was shipped to a "relocation center," where they would be held for years under armed guard. This is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire.

​Unbroken OR Unbroken (Young Adult Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand (either edition is acceptable)
​Louis Zamperini was headed toward juvenile delinquency until he got into something more productive: running. Louis became a world-class runner and Olympian. Following his running career and WW II looming, Louis joined the Army Air Corps, and it was with the downing of his bomber that his harrowing journey began. Adrift in the Pacific Ocean, attacked by sharks, brutalized as a POW, Louis' is a tale of survival against all odds. NOTE: Full adult edition uses strong language, including profanity.

​REALISTIC FICTION
The Final Four by Paul Volponi
There are only four teams left in March Madness-the NCAA basketball championship. The heavily favored Michigan Spartans and the underdog Troy Trojans meet in the first game in the seminfinals, and it's there that the fates of Malcolm, Roko, Crispin, and M.J. intertwine. As the last moments tick down, you'll learn how each player went from being a kid who loves to shoot hoops to a powerful force in one of the most important games of the year. Which team will leave the Superdome victorious? In the end it will come down to who has the most skill, the most drive, and the most heart.

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
As Bridge makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her best friends, curvaceous Em, crusader Tab, and a curious new friend-or more than friend-Sherm, she finds the answer she has been seeking since she barely survived an accident at age eight: "What is my purpose?".

Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
When 17-year-old Lina loses her mom, she honors her mom's dying wish that she spend a summer in Tuscany and get to know her father, Howard. There, Lina is given a journal that her mom kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her father—and even herself. People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts by Thorton Wilder (ISBN 13: 978-0060512637)
Set in a mythical New England village, Our Town, is an American classic. It is the simple story of a love affair that asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life, and death. It explores the relationship between two neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage, parenthood, and, ultimately, death.

​SCI-FI/DYSTOPIAN/FANTASY/FOLK TALES
Away by Megan E. Freeman (or the companion novel, Alone, for those who haven't read it)
After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat. And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there’s less truth and more cover-up to what they’re being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late?

​Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card  (ISBN 13:  978-0312853235)
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind, yet distant  parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves most, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut―young Ender does. Ender's skills make him a leader at school yet he suffers from isolation, peer rivalry, adult pressure, and fear. Is Ender the general Earth needs?

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
12-year-old Lyra and her dæmon, Pan, live in a mystical universe where children have dæmons, animal-like creatures that are the physical embodiment of the child’s inner self. After Lyra and Pan witness her uncle nearly being poisoned, presumably because of his research into "Dust," a power that may allow them to cross into a parallel universe, Lyra meets Mrs. Coulter, a mysterious socialite who decides that she wants Lyra to go North with her as an assistant. As she is leaving, Lyra finds out that her best friend, Roger, is kidnapped by a child-snatching gang known as the Gobblers. When she learns that Mrs. Coulter runs the Gobblers, she escapes, touching off a race to save the kidnapped children. With the help of an armored polar bear, a Texan balloonist, and a group of nomads, she travels to the Arctic, in a deadly attempt to save the children from being subjected to the Gobbler’s ghastly experiments.

The Selection by Kiera Cass (or any in series)
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love, who is a caste below her, and competing for a crown she doesn’t want. Then America meets Prince Maxon and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
​Rising 8th Grade Summer Reading List (alpha by title)

Rising 8th Grade Summer Reading List (alpha by genre; includes summaries)

​Discussion Questions for Required Reading
Answer the discussion questions in complete sentences. You may type or write your responses. We will discuss them as a class in August. 

​Summer Reading Record​