7th Grade Required Reading List for 2016-2017

Grace really gave me grief last year over how easy some of her book were on her 6th grade reading list- see it here. It was the first year I had given her a list of the books I wanted read instead of just letting her read what she likes or choose simply by different genre from Drawn Into The Heart of Reading. I think I probably will edit the list a bit before Cian has it in 6th grade, but some of them will probably stay. We'll see.

I took her request in mind when creating her 7th grade list. It is a mix of books that are classics, award winners or just have themes that I want to have her read. We will be using the Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts program which has 3 classic novels which are part of the supplementary curriculum. Mind you, he recommends kids be assigned a book each month and then still be reading on their own. I feel the same. I'm not even putting the "on your own books" in their lesson plans as they all (thankfully) love to read already. I am, however, assigning books in addition to the 3 MCT classics. Each of the MCT books will have its own assessments and written assignments so I am allotting a third of the school year just to these three classic books. That means, I expect Grace to get 8 books read and a report of some type done in the first 120 days of school. This will give her 3 weeks on each book, which will be plenty of time. (Last year I expected 20, this year the unspoken expectation would be 8 or 9 on her own across the year, my assigned 8 and MCT's 3 for a total of around 20 also for this school year.)

Grace's 7th Grade Required Reading List:

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

The Incredible Journey - Sheila Burnford

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank (Grace has already read this)

Replaced with: The Giver - Lois Lowry

Esperanza Rising - Pam Munoz Ryan (this one will go to the 6th grade list after Grace reads it)

Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery

 The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

 ------also-----

Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Search Trilogy:

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

The Invisible Man - H. G. Wells