8th Grade ELA Assignments

Summer Reading Assignment

for Incoming 8^th Graders

Hello incoming 8^th graders!

We are thrilled to spend the 2015-2016 academic year with you, reading amazing books, discussing your thoughts, ideas and dreams, and writing beautifully fabulous essays, poetry and short stories!

As you may already know, Dr. Mulholland simply adores literature and writing, (in fact, she has a Ph.D. in American Literature and Creative Writing). Mrs. Brummer is smitten with grammar, vocabulary and literature circles (in fact, she is an avid reader who loves to discuss books!). Together we make up your enthusiastically bookish 8^th grade ELA team!

This summer we will be eagerly transforming our classroom into a literary Wonderland, complete with collaborative maker’s spaces and book nooks! We cannot wait to meet you all and show you around our new ELA room on August 31^st. To help get ready for this exciting adventure, we ask that you read two books during the summer.

The purpose of this assignment is twofold:

 To explore our theme for the 2015-2016 academic year: “Trust the Lord, Your Path is Known” via literary analysis.

To prepare you to intelligently enter our class discussion on the first day (and beyond).

We have carefully chosen all of the books below based on theme (the hero’s journey) and their thematic content: (“a stranger in a strange land”). As you read both books, Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass (required) and a book of your choice from the list below, be sure to keep this essential question in mind:

What does the protagonist learn on her/his path?

(For example: What does she/he learn about her/himself, about others, about human nature, about faith, about friendship, about love, about family, etc.)

Detailed Instructions:

1. Everyone is required to read: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (Bantam Classics edition)

During the first two weeks of school, you will be tested on your knowledge of the characters, plot, setting(s), conflict(s), and the historical background of this book. There is tremendous value in rereading, so even if you have read this book previously, or in another form, you must reread the text using the edition above so we are all on the “same page” at the beginning of class. The book and the Disney movie (as well as other movie versions) are very different from the written novel, so please do not cheat yourself out of the opportunity to read this fantastic literary classic!

After you have completed Alice in Wonderland you must choose and read one additional work from the options listed below.

Summer Reading Book #2 Options:

Book #1 is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and is required reading for everyone.

Book #2 is your choice from the list below:

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering — kira-kira — in the future.

White Fang by Jack London

In this companion volume to his classic masterpiece, The Call of the Wild, Jack London follows the life of a magnificent wolf-dog in the Yukon wilderness. White Fang is part wolf, part dog, but for the early part of his life he doesn't know what he should be. Born in a cave, suffering from famine, he has been raised as a wolf, but feels conflicted as he gets to know the world of dogs — and humans.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,701 — and everything has changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings — unearth their secret and then return to his own time — until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Kit Tyler is marked by suspicion and disapproval from the moment she arrives on the unfamiliar shores of colonial Connecticut in 1867. Alone and desperate, she has been forced to leave her beloved home on the island of Barbados and join a family she has never met. Torn between her quest for belonging and her desire to be true to herself, Kit struggles to survive in a hostile place.