Powell Middle Believes That Summer Reading Has One of the Largest Benefits for Students

Required Summer Reading List

8th grade

Powell Middle believes that summer reading has one of the largest benefits for students’ ability to maintain reading comprehension skills while not in school. With that in mind, we are implementing a new summer reading expectation.

Students should read and annotate at least 1 of the following books. There will be assignments the third week of school in August. Happy Reading!

The Last of the Mohicansby James Fenimore Cooper

Deep in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye (Natty Bumppo) and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. The abduction of the beautiful Munro sisters by hostile savages, the treachery of the renegade brave Magua, the ambush of innocent settlers, and the thrilling events that lead to the final tragic confrontation between rival war parties create an unforgettable,

spine-tingling picture of life on the frontier. (1350L)

Link to free ebook/download at Gutenberg Project:

Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen

Samuel, 13, spends his days in the forest, hunting for food for his family. He has grown up on the frontier of a British colony, America. Far from any town, or news of the war against the King that American patriots have begun near Boston. (870L)

--Some cursing and violence.

April Morningby Howard Fast

When you read this novel about April 19, 1775, you will see the British redcoats marching in a solid column through your town. Your hands will be sweating and you will shake a little as you grip your musket … and you begin to shout at the top of your lungs because you are there, at the birth of freedom… (1050L)

--Some cursing and violence.

Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children

by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

This story of Thomas Jefferson's children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, tells a darker piece of America's history from an often unseen perspective-that of three of Jefferson's slaves-including two of his own children. As each child grows up and tells his story, the contradiction between slavery and freedom becomes starker, calling into question the real meaning of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This poignant story sheds light on what life was like as one of Jefferson's invisible offspring. (600L)

--some references to sexual relationship of slave and master(never explicit), some violence (whippings)

The Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood

In 1776, the rebellion of the American colonies against British rule was crushed. Now, in 1777-the year of the hangman-George Washington is awaiting execution, Benjamin Franklin's banned rebel newspaper,Liberty Tree, has gone underground, and young ne'er-do-well Creighton Brown, a fifteen-year-old Brit, has just arrived in the colonies. Having been shipped off against his will, with nothing but a distance for English authorities, Creighton befriends Franklin, and lands a job with his print shop. But the English general expects the spoiled yet loyal Creighton to spy on Franklin. As battles unfold and falsehoods are exposed, Creighton must decide where his loyalties lie...a choice that could determine the fate of a nation. (800L)

--- Some violence