Be a Reading Superhero!

Be a Reading Superhero!

RCSA 2016 Summer Reading Project

Our School will be participating in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. In this packet you will find a letter from Scholastic explaining the challenge and instructions for your student to log in to their summer reading account. All reading minutes will be logged online and we will be able to compete with other schools around the country for most minutes read!

K-2nd Grade Required Reading

All students entering grades K-2nd must log 500 minutes of reading this summer. This should consist of at least ten books, eight fiction and two non-fiction. Books must be chosen from the attached list. If students are reading chapter books they may read four chapter books including one non-fiction.

Grades K–2

Suggested Reading List

Fiction

Biscuit and the Lost Teddy- Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Mr. Putter & Tabby Clear the Decks- Cynthia Rylant

Touchdown!- Alyson Heller

Tell Me the Day Backwards- Albert Lamb

You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fables to Read Together- Mary Ann Hoberman

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site-Sherri Duskey Rinker

Starry, Starry Night- Wade Cooper

Cake Soup- Erica Farber

The Big Fat Cow that Goes Kapow- Andy Griffiths

Houndsley and Catina: Plink and Plunk- James Howe

Ducks Go Vroom- Jane Kohuth

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!- Grace Lin

Katie Woo: Where Are You?- Fran Manushkin

Just a Little Sick- Mercer Mayer

Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day- Kate McMullan

Fancy Nancy: My Family History- Jane O’Connor

Trucks Line Up- Jon Scieszka

Bad Kitty Meets the Baby- Nick Bruel

Prudence Wants a Pet- Cathleen Daly

Madeleine – Ludwig Bemelmans

Arthur (series) – Marc Brown

The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle

The Grouchy Ladybug – Eric Carle

The Great Kapok Tree – Lynne Cherry

Hairs = Pelitos – Sandra Cisneros

Ramona (series) – Beverly Cleary

The Josefina Story Quilt – Eleanor Coerr

The Treasure Hunt – Bill Cosby

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type – Doreen Cronin

The Empty Pot – Demi

Amber Brown (series) – Paula Danziger

• Planting a Rainbow – Lois Ehlert

The Doorbell Rang – Pat Hutchins

The Snowy Day – Ezra Jack Keats

Leo the Late Bloomer – Robert Kraus

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? – Bill Martin, Jr.

Junie B. Jones (series) – Barbara Park

The Stories Julian Tells (series) – Ann Cameron

The Keeping Quilt – Patricia Polacco

The Complete Adventures of Curious George – H.A. and Margret Rey

Tar Beach – Faith Ringgold

Henry and Mudge (series) – Cynthia Rylant

The Relatives Came – Cynthia Rylant

A Bad Case of Stripes – David Shannon

Hip Cat – Jonathan London

Sister Anne’s Hands –Marybeth Lorbiecki

God Bless the Child – Billie Holiday and Jerry Pinkney

The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Judith Viorst

Frog and Toad – Arnold Lobel

The Berenstain Bears (series) – Stan and Jan Berenstain

Miss Birdie Chose A Shovel – Leslie Connor

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Judi Barrett

Luka’s Quilt – Georgia Guback

Chrysanthemum – Kevin Henkes

How My Parents Learned to Eat – Ina Friedman

Tuesday – David Wiesner

Uncle Jed’s Barbershop – Margaree King Mitchell

A Country Far Away – Nigel Gray

Miss Nelson is Missing! – Harry Allard

Goodnight, Moon – Margaret Brown

Non-Fiction

Hello, Baby Beluga- Darrin Lunde,

Plants Grow!- Mary Dodson Wade

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow?- Susan A. Shea

Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man – David Adler

Corn is Maize – Aliki

Crinkleroot (series) – Jim Arnosky

Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids – Gail Gibbons

Many Nations: An Alphabet of Native America – Joseph Bruchac

The Magic School Bus (series) – Joanna Cole

Animal Dads – Sneed B. Collard

The Story of Ruby Bridges – Robert Coles

Ten Black Dots – Donald Crews

Me on the Map – Joan Sweeney

Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Doreen Rappaport

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman – Kathleen Krull

Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones (World of Nature Series) – Ruth Heller

Exactly the Opposite – Tana Hoban

• Snowflake Bentley – Jacqueline Briggs Martin

The Dinosaur Alphabet Book – Jerry Palotta

Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman – Alan Schroeder

Poetry

Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown

Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom – Bill Martin, Jr.

Honey I Love, and Other Poems – Eloise Greenfield

Where the Sidewalk Ends – Shel Silverstein

Insectlopedia – Douglas Florian

A Pizza the Size of the Sun – Jack Prelutsky

Dizzy Dinosaurs: Silly Dino Poems- Hopkins, Lee Bennett

Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems- Kristine O'Connell George

The Great Migration: Journey to the North- Eloise Greenfield

Folklore and Fantasy

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain – Verna Aardema

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale – Verna Aardema

The Mitten: A Ukrainian Folktale – Jan Brett

The Story of the Milky Way: A Cherokee Tale – Joseph Bruchac

Strega Nona – Tommie de Paola

Anansi and the Talking Melon – Eric A. Kimmel

The Story of Ferdinand – Munro Leaf

Catwings – Ursula Le Guin

Tikki Tikki Tembo – Arlene Mosel

The Littles (series) – John Peterson

The Ugly Duckling – Hans Christian Anderson and Jerry Pinkney

Abiyoyo – Pete Seeger

Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters – John Steptoe

Tops and Bottoms – Janet Stevens

The Warrior and the Wise Man – David Wisniewski

Sleeping Ugly – Jane Yolen

Dinosaurs Before Dark – Mary Pope Osborne

My Father’s Dragon – Ruth Stiles Gannett

Graphic Fiction

Luke on the Loose- Harry Bliss

The Adventures of Polo- Régis Faller

Airplane Adventure – Cari Meister

Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!- Geoffrey Hayes

Binky to the Rescue- Ashley Spires

Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates -Kevin O'Malley and Patrick O'Brien

A Day at the Fire Station- Lori Mortensen

Hamster and Cheese- Colleen Venable

Johnny Boo: The Best Little Ghost in the World!- James Kochalka

Korgi: Book 1- Christian Slade

Little Mouse Gets Ready- Jeff Smith

• The Meeting- Brigitte Luciani

Otto's Orange Day -Jay Lynch

Owly: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer- Andy Runton

Patrick in a Teddy Bear's Picnic and Other Stories- Geoffrey Hayes

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts- Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman

Rick & Rack and the Great Outdoors- Ethan Long

Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons- Agnès Rosenstiehl

Top Reading Websites

Storyline Online

Developed by The Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Storyline Online features accomplished actors and actresses reading some of their favorite children’s books. Each story comes with a free Activity Guide and can be viewed on YouTube or SchoolTube.Rainbow Fish,Wilfrid Gordon Macdonald Partridge, andTo Be a Drumare just a few of the books available.

Read to Me

Similar to Storyline Online, Read to Me features popular children’s books being read by famous performers. There are activity guides with hands-on ideas and discussion questions.

We Give Books

A Pearson Foundation Initiative, We Give Books offers students a unique opportunity to read for social good. Each book that is read results in a book that is donated to a charity for children. While the books are not read aloud, they allow students to practice “Read to Self.” There are books for children in preschool through fourth grade.

Starfall

While some areas of Starfall are part of their premium service, they have many early reader stories available for free. Students can follow along as the story is read to them and can, in some instances, help create their own story.

Online Storytime by Barnes and Noble

FromThe Kissing Handread by author Audrey Wood toPinkaliciousread by Victoria Kann, Barnes and Noble’s Online Storytime has popular children’s books read out loud.

International Children’s Digital Library

Discover books from around the world at the International Children’s Digital Library. The free site does not read the books aloud, but students can read them independently during Read to Self or free time.

ABCya!

Children can listen to short stories read aloud to them as they follow along with the highlighted text. ABCya! has a variety of educational games in addition to the featured stories. Free resources and materials are available for grades K through 5.

Storynory

Storynory features a collection of original, fairytale, and classic children’s audio stories. Students can follow along with the story as it is read to them, as the text is also included on the site. There are also some great features available that give you the option of downloading the audio to your computer, listening to “catch phrase” explanations, translating text into different languages (especially helpful for your ELL students!), and more.

National Geographic Young Explorers

National Geographic Young Explorers is a magazine designed specifically for kindergarten and first grade students. Children can listen to the magazine being read to them as they follow along with the highlighted text.

Oxford Owl

After registering for a free account, you have access to over 250 children’s audio books.

EPIC!

FREE ONLINE BOOK

Rising 3-5th Grade Summer Reading List

Fiction

The Stonekeeper

Series:Amulet, Book #1

ByKazu KibuishiIllustrated byKazu Kibuishi

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Graphic novel star Kazu Kibuishi creates a world of terrible, man-eating demons, a mechanical rabbit, a giant robot --- and two ordinary children on a life-or-death mission.

Ghostopolis

ByDoug TenNapelIllustrated byDoug TenNapel

Imagine Garth Hale's surprise when he's accidentally zapped to the spirit world by Frank Gallows, a washed-out ghost wrangler. Suddenly Garth finds he has powers the ghosts don't have, and he's stuck in a world run by the evil ruler of Ghostopolis, who would use Garth's newfound abilities to rule the ghostly kingdom.

Can You Get an F in Lunch?

Series:How I Survived Middle School, Book #1

ByNancy Krulik

Best-selling author Nancy Krulik delves into the mind of a twelve-year-old girl just trying to survive middle school.

The Princess in Blackis the much anticipated early chapter book series by the author of Princess Academy.Princess Magnolia’s secret identity has her fighting the local monsters when they harass the shepherd’s charges. Tongue in cheek humor, color illustrations, spare text and a bit of action makes this a great book for early readers. When the shepherd decides to create his own alter ego, we know we will be getting a sequel.

Leroy Ninker Saddles Up: Tales from Deckawoo Drive(series) With all of DiCamillo’s trademark humor, Leroy and his spaghetti-loving horse, Maybelline, charge into Deckawoo Drive. Great fun.

Emma and the Blue Genie One night, Emma finds a bottle, but the blue genie inside has lost his ability to grant wishes.Emma agrees to help him and they set off to find the yellow genie who stole his magic nose ring.

Beasts of Olympus. (series) Demon (short for Pandemonium) is the son of Pan, who sets him up with a job looking after mythical beasts on Olympus. Hera brings her injured Hydra to stables. Demon must find the cure, with the help of some dryads, or face Hera’s wrath. This series can get a little scary!

The Report Card. Andrew Clements is a popular author. It is about a girl who, although she can easily earn As, decides to get Ds and Cs on her report card in order to prove a point. Clements is a good author for kids who have trouble getting through some of the longer middle grade books that are out there these days.

Brixton Brothers. (SERIES) 12 year old Steve dreams of being a detective and has studiously read and re-read The Baily Brothers Detective Handbook. He knows everything about solving crimes, which comes in handy when he finds himself thrown into the middle of an exciting mystery. Every book has tons of adventure, twist and turns, loads of intelligent humor and a satisfying ending. Can you tell yet that I love them? These would be a great choice for kids who like Encyclopedia Brown.Also available as ebooks.

Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O’Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind. 7th grader Lenny Flem Jr.’s friend, Casper, comes into an unexpected windfall and purchases a suit and fake mustache. Shortly afterwards a string of robberies takes place and Casper makes a grab for world domination. Sound absurd enough for you? One of the surprising twists of this books is that half-way through, the narration switches from the Lenny (male) to Jodie (female) and somehow Angleberger makes it all work brilliantly. You won’t find another book with a plot quite like this.Also available as an ebook.

Henry Huggins. (SERIES) Henry often plays second fiddle to the wildly popular Ramona; I imagine because his scrapes are not quite as precarious as his more famous neighbor. If you have a Ramona fan who hasn’t yet been introduced to this series, he or she will love reading Henry’s perspective on her antics. Alternatively, if your son doesn’t want to read a “book about a girl” he’ll most definitely want to read the Ramona books after getting a glimpse of her through Henry’s eyes.Also available as ebooks.

How to Eat Fried Worms. This is a smart, funny, suspenseful book which paints a realistic portrait of boys in a state of “war” against each other. Billy accepts a challenge to eat 15 worms in 15 days. The prize is a whopping $50. While Billy thinks of new ways to make the worms palatable, his competitors come up with increasingly complex ways to outwit him.Also available as an ebook.

Tales from Dimwood Forest. (SERIES) Ragweed is a mouse who craves adventure. He leaves his family, hops a train and lands in a town where he makes friends with other mice, learns a lot about life and helps foil the local cats. Avi’s ability to convey complex human emotions and discuss subject matter like fear, death, ambition, love and friendship in a way that kids can understand and relate to is rather remarkable, especially given that the characters are all animals. Here’s a warning, though: Ragweed dies in the first chapter of the next book,Poppy. However, Avi’s brilliant handling of Poppy’s subsequent journey as a result of Ragweed’s death prevented my kids from finding the event traumatic.

The Candymakers. At 480 pages, this is one of the longest books on this list. When 4 kids gather for the Confectionery Association Conference, they end up trying to solve the mystery of a stolen secret ingredient and create the best candy ever. Also available as an ebook.

Mousenet. There is also a sequel,Mousemobile. 10 year old Megan and her uncle invent the “thumbtop”, a miniature computer. They set out to change the world by supplying every mouse hole with one. Clever and well-written.Also available as an ebook.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Claudia and her brother sneak away to live at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. They manage to hang out there for a week, get caught up in a mystery surrounding a statue and meet the intriguing Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Don’t let your kids grow up without reading it.Also available as an ebook.

Double Dog Dare. With an opening chapter titled, “A Pair of Boy’s Underwear,” who can blame kids for not loving this book? Don’t let the silliness of the chapter titles put you off. This is a terrific, funny book about a “dare contest” between two enemies who end up finding common ground in their mischievousways.Also available as an ebook.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Thisclassic book from the 40sabout a family that adopts a flock of penguins and takes them on tour is guaranteed to be loads of fun.Also available as an ebook.

Big Nate. Kids loves the Big Nate series. Nate has been compared toA Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Big Nate navigates the perils of school life in this combination graphic novel/comic/novel.Also available as an ebook.

The Map to Everywhereis very exciting! Two worlds collide when Fin, a master thief in a magical pirate world meets Marrill, a “normal” girl who boards a ship in a mirage in an Arizona parking lot. The two join up in a multi-world quest to find two parts of a famed pirate map that Fin thinks might help him find his mother. This is the first in a brand new series that looks to be very exciting!