Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
–Richard Steele, Tatler, 1710
Summer Reading is a valued part of The Wardlaw-Hartridge School experience. Students are exercising their minds and preparing for the year ahead.
This list of required reading has been created by the Middle School English teachers and is designed both to challenge and engage. The books will be used in the first weeks of classes.
It is important to remember that these required books represent a minimum reading commitment. We encourage our students to go beyond the minimum and read additional books that will broaden their perspectives, their knowledge, and their ability to share in the life experiences of others.
Entering Grade 7 Reading Assignment
With this Summer Reading, as well as through their reading and work throughout the upcoming school year, students entering Grade 7 are to consider the essential question, “What creates a close-knit community?”
- All students read one of the titles from the following list:
Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
Nine-year-old Ling has a very happy life. Her parents are both dedicated doctors at the best hospital in Wuhan, and her father teaches her English as they listen to Voice of America every evening on the radio. But when one of Mao’s political officers moves into a room in their apartment, Ling begins to witness the gradual disintegration of her world.
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding.
The Revealers
Parkland Middle School is a place the students call Darkland because no one in it does much to stop the daily harassment of kids by kids. Three bullied seventh graders use their smarts to get the better of their tormentors by starting an unofficial e-mail forum at school in which they publicize their experiences. Unexpectedly, lots of other kids come forward to confess their similar troubles.
Seedfolks
A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds.
Pay it Forward (Young Readers Edition)
When 12 year-old Trevor accepts his social-studies teacher’s assignment to come up with a plan to change the world, his idea is simple. Do a good deed for three people and ask them each to “pay it forward” to three others who need help. He imagines a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading beyond his small California town and to the world.
(You may read the unadapted version if you prefer)
Hatchet
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present—and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent’s divorce.
Ender’s Game
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.
A Wrinkle in Time
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
- All students also need to read one book of choice.
Students entering Grade 7 can read another book on the list above or one listed on these two websites:
or Students are invited to choose books that are both challenging and interesting to them.