Summer Reading for Magnolia II
Summer Reading | Assigned Reading | Fun Reading Challenges | Reading Logs | Email Library[Download List to Print]
ASSIGNED READING
Be prepared to discuss these three books when school resumes in the fall.
CLICK ON THE BOOK COVERS TO ACCESS ASSIGNED READING DETAILS.
Roshani Chokshi
Rita Garcia-Williams
Sharon Draper
Ready for more?
After finishing the assigned readings, Magnolia II students might enjoy some of these books.
FICTION
Manañaland
Pam Muñoz Ryan
Maximiliano Córdoba loves stories, especially the legend Buelo tells him about a mythical gatekeeper who can guide brave travelers on a journey into tomorrow. If Max could see tomorrow, he would know if he'd make Santa Maria's celebrated fútbol team and whether he'd ever meet his mother, who disappeared when he was a baby.
Frightful’s Mountain
Jean Craighead George
Sam Gribley has been told that it is illegal to harbor an endangered bird, so when his beloved falcon, Frightful, comes home, he has to let her go. But Frightful doesn’t know how to live alone in the wild. She can’t feed herself, mate, brood chicks, or migrate. Frightful struggles to survive and learns to enjoy her new freedom. But she feels a bond with Sam that can never be broken, and more than anything else, she wants to return to him.
Wayside School: Beneath the Cloud of Doom
Wayside School is back in session in this brand-new, fourth installment in the perennially beloved and bestselling series by Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar. Your favorite students and teachers are all here. Everyone is scrambling to prepare for the all-important Ultimate Test, but meanwhile, there is a mysterious Cloud of Doom looming above them…
Front Desk
Kelly Yang
Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Winner of the Asian / Pacific American Award for Children's Literature
Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Jason Reynolds
This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy. Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life.
We’re Not from Here
Geoff Rodkey
Imagine being forced to move to a new planet where YOU are the alien! The first time I heard about Planet Choom, we'd been on Mars for almost a year. But life on the Mars station was grim, and since Earth was no longer an option (we may have blown it up), it was time to find a new home. That's how we ended up on Choom with the Zhuri. They're very smart. They also look like giant mosquitos. The Zhuri don't like us. And if humankind is going to survive, it's up to my family to change their minds. No pressure.
Out of my mind
Sharon Draper
Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. All because she has cerebral palsy. But she also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.
The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1)
Sayantani DasGupta
On the morning of her 12th birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey...until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying, talking birds. There she must solve riddles and battle demons in order to find her parents and basically save New Jersey, her entire world, and everything beyond it...
MORE FICTION
Amina’s Voice - Hena Khan
The List of Things That Will Not Change - Rebecca Stead
Land of Stories (series) - Chris Colfer
Track (series) - Jason Reynolds
Dragon Pearl - Yoon Ha Lee
The Wild Robot Escapes - Peter Brown
Wings of Fire (series) - Tui Sutherland
The Untouchables - Gordon Korman
The Penderwicks - Jeanne Birdsall
The Strangers - Margaret Peterson Haddix
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library - Chris Grabenstein
The Girl Who Drank the Moon - Kelly Barnhill
Refugee - Alan Gratz
NONFICTION
Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Written especially for young readers, Becoming Kareem chronicles how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar become the icon and legend he is today, both on and off the court. At one time, Lew Alcindor was just another kid from New York City with all the usual problems: He struggled with fitting in, with pleasing a strict father, and with overcoming shyness that made him feel socially awkward. But with a talent for basketball, and an unmatched team of supporters, Lew Alcindor was able to transform and to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Dinosaurs existed. That’s a fact we accept today. But not so long ago, the concept that these giant creatures could have roamed Earth millions of years before humans was unfathomable. The First Dinosaur tells the story of the idea of dinosaurs, and the chain of fossil discoveries and advances in science that led to that idea. Be prepared to meet eccentric men and overlooked women who uncovered the pieces to a puzzle so much bigger than themselves, a puzzle far stranger and more spectacular than they could have ever imagined.
Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space
Tam O’Shaughnessy
An inspirational advocate for space exploration, public policy, and science education, Sally Ride fought gender stereotypes and opened doors for girls and women in all fields during the second half of the twentieth century. This vivid photobiography, written by Sally's life, writing, and business partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, offers an intimate and revealing glimpse into the life and mind of the famously private, book-loving, tennis-playing physicist who made history. Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman Astronaut, is an intimate journey from her formative years to her final moments.
What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal
Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger
In this brilliant follow up to Turtle Island, esteemed academic Eldon Yellowhorn and award-winning author Kathy Lowinger team up again, this time to tell the stories of what Indigenous people did when invaders arrived on their homelands. What the Eagle Sees shares accounts of the people, places, and events that have mattered in Indigenous history from a vastly under-represented perspective--an Indigenous viewpoint.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
The Underground Abductor (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #5): An Abolitionist Tale about Harriet Tubman
Nathan Hale
Araminta Ross was born a slave in Delaware in the early 19th century. Slavery meant that her family could be ripped apart at any time, and that she could be put to work in dangerous places and for abusive people. But north of the Mason-Dixon line, slavery was illegal. If she could run away and make it north without being caught or killed, she'd be free. Facing enormous danger, Araminta made it, and once free, she changed her name to Harriet Tubman. Tubman spent the rest of her life helping slaves run away like she did, every time taking her life in her hands.
New kid
Jerry Craft
Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature. Instead of sending Jordan to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?
White bird: A wonder Story
R.J. Palacio
Julian’s grandmother, Grandmère, shares her heartrending story: how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II; how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her savior and best friend. Sara's harrowing experience movingly demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives. As Grandmère tells Julian, "It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything."
Sunny Side up
Jennifer Holm
Sunny Lewin has been packed off to Florida to live with her grandfather for the summer. She meets Buzz, a boy who is completely obsessed with comic books, and soon they’re having adventures of their own: facing off against golfball-eating alligators, runaway cats, and mysteriously disappearing neighbors. But the question remains -- why is Sunny down in Florida in the first place? The answer lies in a family secret that won’t be secret to Sunny much longer. . .
MORE NONFICTION
13½ Things to Know About Everything - DK
Myth Atlas - Thiago de Moraes
What We See in the Stars - Kelsey Oseid
We Are the Ship - Kadir Nelson
Mummies Exposed - Kerrie L. Hollihan
The People Could Fly - Virginia Hamilton
Reaching for the Moon- Katherine Johnson
MORE GRAPHIC NOVELS
Awkward - Svetlana Chmakova
Real Friends- Shannon Hale
City of Ember- Jeanne DuPrau
Pashmina - Nidhi Chanani
Guts - Raina Telgemeier