Dear Middle School Students of Sacred Heart, You all have a had an eventful year full of learning and fun. Now, it is time to relax and enjoy summer, but you should still keep yourselves learning and having fun. Reading is one way in which to cover both. Attached, please find your required summer reading novel and project. The book and assignment is to be completed for class activities and discussion when we return to school. Below, please find a list of suggested titles for your summer reading pleasure. Enjoy, and may God bless you with a restful, relaxing summer. Adventure Stories: Hunger Games Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Julie of the Wolves Dogsong Homecoming Animal Stories: Hoot Ereth's Birthday Rascal The One and Only Ivan Classic Stories: Little Women Peter Pan Secret Garden Count of Monte Cristo Jungle Book Anne of Green Gables Tree Grows in Brooklyn Friend/Relationship Stories: Sounder Hope was Here Tiger Eyes Al Capone Does My Shirts Other Bells for Us to Ring Collins Doyle George Paulsen Voigt Hiaasen Avi North Applegate Alcott Barrie Burnett Dumas Kipling Montgomery Smith Armstrong Bauer Blume Choldenko Cormier
Whirligig My Louisiana Sky Missing May Holes Wringer Fantasy Stories: Last Years of Merlin Artemis Fowl Great and Terrible Beauty City of Ember Inkheart Wrinkle in Time Gifts Historical Fiction Stories Crispin: The Cross of Lead Dovie Coe Lily's Crossing Our only May Amelia Across Five Aprils Letters from a Slave Girl Harriet Tubman When You Reach Me Amos Fortune, Free Man Mystery: Curse Dark as Gold Court of the Stone Children Trouble with Lemons Westing Game Fleischman Holt Rylant Sacher Spinelli Barron Colfer Bray DuPrau Funke L'Engle Le Guin Avi Dowell Giff Holm Hunt Lyons Petry Stead Yates Bounce Cameron Hayes Raskin 39 Clues Riordan Calendar Papers Voigt Science Fiction Stories: Fantastic Voyage Martian Chronicles Z for Zachariah The Secret Hour Asimov Bradbury O'Brien Westerfield
Dear Soon to be 6 th Grade Students, Wonder is a children's novel written by R.J. Palacio. In February of 2012. this wonder ful book was published for young readers. Wonder was a #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list. I am certain that it will be on your list of favorite books ever read also Wonder s plot line focuses on a boy named August Auggie Pullman who was born with a rare facial deformity. Due to his medical and surgical needs, as well as emotional problems, Auggie has been home-schooled through fourth grade by his mother, who left her job as a children's book illustrator to help in August s healthcare and education. Auggie finally accepts going to school after many family discussions and arguments. After coming to terms with his decision, August visits Beecher Prep, the school he will now attend. Here is where the story starts to unfold. This experience is a new one for Auggie and it will be up to you, dear reader, to take this journey with him by reading this novel. After you have finished reading, look over the discussion questions below that we will explore during reading class once school has resumed. Respond to the guide questions on note cards using details read in the story as well as personal experience. When a reader connects with characters and their situations, comprehension and understanding of the story is a given. Wonder by R. J. Palacio Discussion Guide Questions Don t judge a boy by his face *What do you think of the line Don t judge a boy by his face which appears on the back cover of the book? Auggie s appearance *Did this affect how much you wanted to read the story? *How much did this line give away about the story you were about to read? *Throughout Wonder, Auggie describes the way that many people react to seeing his face for the first time by immediately looking away. Have you ever been in a situation where you have responded like this to seeing someone different? Having now read Wonder, how do you feel about this now? *Auggie s face is not fully described until quite far on in the story, in Via s chapter August: Through the Peephole. How close was this description to your own mental picture of Auggie? Did you have a picture of his face in your mind while reading the book? Did this description alter that picture?
Auggie s personality *How would you describe Auggie as a person in the first few chapters of the book? What about the final few chapters? Has he changed significantly? Are there any experiences or episodes during the story that you think had a particular effect on him? If so, how? The astronaut helmet *In the chapter Costumes Auggie describes the astronaut helmet that he wore constantly as a younger child. We later learn that Miranda was the one to give Auggie the helmet, and is proud of the gift, but that it was Auggie s father who threw it away. What do you think the helmet signifies to each of these characters and why do you think they all view it so differently? Star Wars *Star Wars is one of Auggie s passions. Why do you think this is? *Do you see any reasons for Auggie to identify with these characters, or to aspire to be like them? Humor in Wonder *Auggie s parents bring Auggie around to the idea of attending school by joking with him about Mr Tushman s name, and telling him about their old college professor, Bobbie Butt. To what extent is humor used as a tool throughout Wonder to diffuse difficult or tense situations, or to convey a part of the story that would otherwise be depressing or sad? Look at the chapter, How I Came To Life. Via *What did you think of Via as a character? Did you empathize or feel her worries with her? *Why do you think Via was so angry to learn that Auggie cut off his Padawan braid? *Do you think Via s own attitude towards her brother changes throughout the story? Mrs. Albans *Look at the emails between Mr Tushman, Julian s parents and Jack s parents in the chapter Letters, Emails, Facebook, Texts. Up to this point in the story we have seen how the children at Auggie s school have reacted to him. Is Mrs Albans s attitude towards Auggie different? *What do you make of Mrs. Albans s statement that Auggie is handicapped? *Do you think she is correct in saying that asking ordinary children, such as Julian, to befriend Auggie places a burden on them?
At the ice cream parlor *The R.J. Palacio has explained that she was inspired to write Wonder after an experience at a local ice cream parlor, very similar to the scene described in the chapter Carvel, where Jack sees Auggie for the first time. In this scene, Jack s babysitter Veronica chooses to get up and quickly walk Jack and his little brother Jamie away from Auggie, rather than risk Jamie saying something rude or hurtful. What do you think you would have done, if put in that position? PROJECT The following are rules that human beings, citizens of the world, should use a guide by which to live. After reading the novel Wonder create a poster with one of the following precepts as the focus. Your poster should be completed on poster board, should include the precept and the author of the saying in large, careful script, and pictures that support the precept in use. Those pictures can be hand drawn or copied, cut and pasted. The poster should include your name. As sixthgrade students, please know neat and thoughtful work is key Precepts: Rules to Live by "When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind." Dr. Wayne Dyer "Your deeds are your monuments." Inscription on ancient Egyptian tomb "Have no friends not equal to yourself." Confucius "Fortune favors the bold." Virgil "No man is an island, entire of itself." John Donne "It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." James Thurber "Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much." Blaise Pascal "What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful." Sappho "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can." John Wesley "Just follow the day and reach for the sun." The Polyphonic Spree "Everyone deserves a standing ovation because we all overcometh the world." Auggie Pullman ***You may also find and/or create one of your own around which you can build your poster.***