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SUMMER READING LIST—Grades 7 and 8:

 Pick three books and for each complete the assignment below.

 

Alborn, Mitch

Tuesdays with Morrie

 

Five People You'll Meet in Heaven

Babbit, Natalie

Tuck Everlasting

Bradbury, Ray

Fahrenheit 451

Christie, Agatha

The ABC Murders

 

And Then There Were None

 

Murder on the Orient Express

Buck, Pearl

The Good Earth

Conan Doyle, Arthur

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Dickens, Charles

A Christmas Carol

Erdrick, Louise

Love Medicine

 

The Beet Queen

 

Tracks

Fox, Paula

The Slave Dancer

Golding, William

Lord of the Flies

Hemingway, Ernest

The Old Man and the Sea

Hersey, John

Hiroshima

Hinton, S.E.

The Outsiders

Hurston, Zora Neale

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Keyes, Daniel

Flowers for Algernon

King, Stephen

The Green Mile

Kinsella, W.P.

Shoeless Joe

Knowles, John

A Separate Peace

Lipsyte, Robert

The Contender

London, Jack

White Fang

 

The Call of the Wild

Lowry, Lois

Gathering Blue

 

Messenger

Morrison, Toni

Beloved

Orwell, George

1984

 

Animal Farm

Paulsen, Gary

The River

Peck, Richard

Something for Joey

Speare, Elizabeth

The Sign of the Beaver

Steinbeck, John

Of Mice and Men

 

The Pearl

 

Travels with Charlie

 

The Red Pony

Stevenson, Robert L.

Treasure Island

Swarthout, Glendon

Bless the Beasts and Children

Taylor,.Theodore

The Cay

Twain, Mark

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

 

Tom Sawyer

Wells, H.G.

Island of Dr. Moreau

 

The Time Machine

Wiesel, Elie

Night

 

 
   

SUMMER PROJECT - CRITICAL LENS ESSAY

        A Critical Lens essay is one in which the writer examines a character in each of the books he or she has read and then compares or contrasts the three characters on the basis of a quotation. The quotation we will use is the following quotation from Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

“To do great things for God does not require extraordinary accomplishments. Ordinary things will do. It is how much love you put in the doing that makes of your life Something Beautiful for Almighty God.”

Do your essay in the following way:

 1. Select and read your three books from the reading list.

 2. Select a main character from each of the books and compare and contrast them. You should use as the basis of your essay the quotation from Mother Teresa, considering such questions as: Did each of these characters do ordinary or extraordinary things? What made their lives important, as far as you are concerned? How much love did they put (or not put) into their lives? Did they make their lives “Something Beautiful for Almighty God.

3. Your essay should be in the following format:

a.         Introduction—stating the theme of your essay.

b.         Next three paragraphs describing each of the characters you have chosen.

c.         Next paragraph or paragraphs comparing or contrasting these three characters on the basis of Mother Teresa’s quotation.

d.        Conclusion—your comment on how a person like you can learn from the three characters you selected.

 4. Your essay should be 2-3 pages, double spaced, #12 font. You should have a title page with your name on it and “Summer Reading Essay.”

5. Your essay is due on Monday, September 14.

NO EXCEPTIONS.