To: All Incoming 8Th Grade Magnet Students

To: All Incoming 8th Grade Magnet Students

Re: Summer Homework for History

You are required to read one of the books listed below(available at your neighborhood library, bookstore, or for your ipod) prior to beginning your 8th grade year. You will be required keep a reading log (with parent signatures), a summary for each day you read, and a book report and take a test on the novel within the first week of school. Please follow the book review guidelines.

****This assignment will be your first grade for English and History.DO NOTprocrastinate on this assignment as you will be required to take a test on this novel within the first week of returning to school.

My Brother Sam is Dead

By Collier & Collier Tim Meeker’s brother, Sam, is part of the new American Revolution. He talks about defeating the British and becoming independent. But not everyone in town wants to be part of the new America. Most people are loyal supporters of the English king—especially Tim and Sam’s father. The war is raging and

Tim knows he’ll have to choose a side: his brother’s or his father’s.

Alicia My Story

by Appleman-Jurman
After losing her entire family to the Nazis at age 13, Alicia Appleman-Jurman went on to save the lives of thousands of Jews, offering them her own courage and hope in a time of upheaval and tragedy. Not since The Diary of Anne Frank has a young voice so vividly expressed the capacity for humanity and heroism in the face of Nazi brutality.

Just Jane

By William Lavender

The orphaned teenage daughter of an English earl, Lady Jane Prentice arrives in Charlestown, South Carolina, full of hope and excitement about her new life in the fabled colonies.

But soon after arriving in the

New World, she finds herself plunged in the middle of a heated war—a war not

only between her former country and her new home, but also between members of her own family. As the American Revolution rages on, Jane struggles to forge her own identity.

Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes, Lynn Ward
A story filled with danger and excitement, Johnny Tremain tells of the turbulent, passionate times in Boston just before the Revolutionary War. Johnny, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught up in a dramatic involvement with Otis, Hancock, and John and Samuel Adams in the exciting currents and undercurrents that were to lead to the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington -- and finally, a touching resolution of Johnny's personal life. Johnny Tremain is historical fiction at its best, portraying Revolutionary Boston as a living drama through the shrewd eyes of an observant boy.

I look forward to a fun and challenging year.

Ms. Figueroa 8th grade History and English Teacher

P.S. This assignment will count as a grade for History and English if you are in my English class.