Summer Reading Rocks........................

Happy Summer...

I hope that all the future fabulous 4th graders are spending their summer reading! Spending an hour reading each day (60minutes) will help prepare you for the upcoming school year. Below is a list of the Battle of the Book list for the 2010-2011 school year. The title, author, AR book level, and brief summary is provided for each book. Look over the list and pick a book that interests you to read. Here are some ideas of how to incorporate reading into your summer life:

Join a public library summer reading program

Keep a book in the car and read whenever travelling, rather it is a short trip across town or a family road trip across the country.

Incorporate a family reading hour each evening after dinner in which mom or dad take turns reading to you and your siblings from a book appropriate and interesting to all family members.

Schedule a trip to your local library once a week regularly and spend an hour reading a book without even needing to check it out!

Start a book club with neighborhood friends in which you all pick the same book to read for two weeks and then rent a movie interpretation of the book.Have a movie night in which you all watch the movie together and compare it to the book. (The book is better everytime!!)

If none of those ideas interest you then simply pick up a book and start reading!!!!

Every student was given the following list at the end of the school year to use for the summer but in case you don't have it anymore check out the following list for all your summer reading:

Battle of the Books 2010/2011
(4th- 5th Grade level)

All about Sam
by Lois Lowry
4.0 135 3 The adventures of Sam, Anastasia Krupnik's
younger brother, are related--from his first day as a
newborn through his mischievous times as a
toddler.

The Best School
Year Ever
by Barbara
Robinson
5.4 117 3 The terrible kids at Woodrow Wilson Elementary
School return with more wild behavior and
outrageous lies.

Call it Courage
by Armstrong
Sperry
6.2 128 3 This is the inspiring story of a youth who
overcomes his fear of the sea and proves his
courage to himself and his tribe.

Charlie and the
Chocolate
Factory
by Roald Dahl
4.8 176 5 Each of five children lucky enough to discover an
entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka's mysterious
chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation
in his own way.

The Courage of
Sarah Noble by
Alice Dahlgliesh
3.9 54 1 A charming and brave eight-year-old girl
accompanies her father into the wilderness of
Connecticut in 1707 to cook for him while he builds
a new home for his family.

Dealing with
Dragons
by Patricia
Wrede
5.5 212 8 Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes
off to live with a group of dragons and soon
becomes involved with fighting against some
disreputable wizards who want to steal away the
dragons' kingdom.

Each Little Bird
that Sings
by Deborah
Wiles
4.5 260 6 Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death
since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small
southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is
unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching
events that begins on the first day of Easter
vacation.

Fables
by Arnold Lobel
4.2 48 1 This book tells twenty original fables about an array
of animal characters from crocodile to ostrich.

Ida B
by Katherine
Hannigan
5.3 246 5 In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy
hours being home-schooled and playing in her
family's apple orchard, until her mother begins
treatment for breast cancer, and her parents must
sell part of the orchard and send her to public
school.

Island of the Blue
Dolphins
by Scott O’Dell
5.4 192 6 This book portrays the courage and self-reliance of
an Indian girl who lived alone for eighteen years on
an isolated island off the California coast when her
tribe emigrated and she was left behind.

Jeremy
Thatcher,
Dragon Hatcher
by Bruce Coville
4.9 148 4 Small for his age but artistically talented, twelveyear-
old Jeremy Thatcher unknowingly buys a
dragon's egg.

The Magic
School Bus Inside
the Earth by
Joanna Cole
3.6 40 0.5 On a special field trip in the magic school bus, Ms.
Frizzle's class learns first hand about different kinds
of rocks and the formation of the earth.

Million Dollar
Shot by Dan
Gutman
4.2 114 3 Eleven-year-old Eddie gets a chance to win a
million dollars by sinking a foul shot at the National
Basketball Association finals.

Miss Rumphius
by Barbara
Cooney
3.8 28 0.5 Alice Rumphius wants to travel the world and do
the one thing her grandfather told her to do--make
the world more beautiful.

Night of the
Twisters
by Ivy Ruckman
4.7 153 4 A twelve-year-old relates an account of the night
that freakish and devastating tornadoes hit Grand
Island, Nebraska.

Original
Adventures of
Hank and the
Cowdog by John
R. Erickson
4.3 160 3 Hank the Cowdog, Head of Ranch Security, is
accused of the murder of a chicken and becomes
an outlaw with the coyotes.

Ralph S. Mouse
by Beverly
Cleary
5.1 160 3 Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, is off on
another adventure and acquires a new sports car to
replace his broken motorcycle.

Regarding the
Fountain:…
by Kate Klise
5.8 144 2 When the principal asks a fifth grader to write a
letter regarding the purchase of a new drinking
fountain for their school, he finds that all sorts of
chaos results.

Ruby Holler
by Sharon
Creech
4.3 310 6 Thirteen-year-old fraternal twins Dallas and Florida
have grown up in a terrible orphanage, but their
lives change forever when an eccentric but sweet
older couple invites them each on an adventure,
beginning in an almost magical place called Ruby
Holler.

Running Out of
Time
by Margaret
Haddix
4.8 184 7 When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840s village,
thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a
1996 tourist site under the observation of heartless
scientists, and it is up to Jessie to escape the
village and save the lives of dying children.

Sarah Plain &
Tall
by Patricia
MacLachlan
3.4 64 1 In this loving story of a motherless family, a tall,
plain woman comes to stay with them.

Seven Wonders
of Sassafras
Springs
by Betty Birney
4.8 207 5 Eben McAllister searches his small town to see if
he can find anything comparable to the real Seven
Wonders of the World.

Snow Treasure
by Marie
McSwigan
5.3 196 5 In 1940, when the Nazi invasion of Norway reaches
their village, twelve-year-old Peter & his friends use
their sleds to transport nine million dollars worth of
gold past the German soldiers to the harbor ready
to take the gold for safekeeping in the US.

Summer of the
Monkeys
by Wilson Rawls
4.8 280 13.0 A fourteen-year-old Ozark Mountain boy attempts
to recapture monkeys escaped from a traveling
circus.

The Hobbit
by JRR Tolkien
6.6 330 16.0 This stirring adventure is a fantasy that introduces
the far-wandering hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.

The Sign of the
Beaver
by Elizabeth
George Speare
4.9 135 5.0 A young boy in Maine, when rescued by an Indian
chief and his grandson, must decide whether to
spend the winter alone in the woods waiting for his
family to return or move on to a new life with his
new friends.

The Velveteen
Rabbit
by Margery
Williams
4.9 30 1.0 Magical fable of the toy rabbit who becomes a real
rabbit with the help of the boy who loves him.

Wanted…Mud
Blossom
by Betsy Byars
4.2 180 4.0 Convinced that Mud is responsible for the
disappearance of the school hamster that he was
taking care of for the weekend, Junior Blossom is
determined that the dog should be tried for his
"crime."

The Westing
Game
by Ellen Raskin
5.3 217 8.0 Sixteen game players, heirs to Sam Westing's
fabulous fortune, are all suspected of his murder.
This book is part mystery story, part play-along
game, and part do-it-yourself puzzle.

Worth
by A. LaFaye
4.5 160 4.0 After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels
useless because he cannot work on the family farm
in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father
brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores,
Nate feels even worse.