rl7.htm

Grade 7 Summer Reading

June 2008

Dear Incoming Seventh Grade Student,

Your summer reading assignment is to read two works of fiction. The first book is entitled Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer. Ever since Hope's mother abandoned her as a baby, Hope follows her Aunt Addie around the country, longing for a permanent home and always looking for the father she doesn't know. However, she and her aunt, who is an extraordinary cook, go where the jobs and the money are. This last move is to Mulhoney, Wisconsin. Leaving the greatest diner in Brooklyn --- is the hardest challenge Hope has had to face. Hope says good-bye to New York by leaving her usual calling card, "Hope Was Here" written in half-inch tall letters on one of the boards. For this book, please complete the attached short answer questions.

The second book you will read this summer is called: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass. The summer he turns 13, Jeremy receives a mysterious box with the engraved words "the meaning of life: for Jeremy Fink on his thirteenth birthday." The box was left by his father, who has been dead for five years. It has four locks, but Jeremy finds no keys to open them. As Jeremy and his best friend, Lizzy, embark on a quest to find the keys, they travel across Manhattan from flea markets to fancy office buildings and museums, searching, as it turns out, not only for keys but also insights into science, religion, art, friendship, and family. For this book, your assignment is to compare Jeremy Fink to yourself. Would you react to the situation similarly or differently? Are you like Jeremy in certain ways or are you very different? This assignment should be in the form of a five-paragraph essay.

Enjoy your summer!

Miss Wheeler