Greetings!

I hope you are enjoying your summer vacation. If you are like my daughter, however, I am sure you have uttered the sentence “I’m bored” by now.  This letter is sent to provide some relief from that ennui!

Here is your summer reading list – a collection of novels written for students at your grade level.  As your English teacher, I am requesting that you read TWO (2) of these books before September 6, 2006 (the first day of the new school year) and that you will have completed the first of the two by the end of the first week in August (8/5/06). 

You see, I will be sending out an assignment that week. If you choose to complete this assignment, you will be starting off the 2006-2007 with some Extra Credit!!!

In any event, there will be assigned work in September that deals with this reading so get to it!

Here are your choices: Please choose books you have not yet read!

      Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

Dicey has a flair for music, but she must overcome both disability and prejudice

The Contender by Robert Lipsyte

A high school dropout desperately wishes to change his life and prove to himself that he can be somebody. But does he have the courage to face new risks and responsibilities?

The Bumblebee Flies Away by Robert Cormier

A 16 year old boy faces the realization that his medical treatment is only experimental.

Still Me by Christopher Reeve

In this autobiography, Reeve describes his courageous struggle to live a productive life after a horseback riding accident left him a paraplegic.

The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton

Thomas moves into a big, old house in Ohio that is supposed to be haunted.

A Candidate for Murder by Joan Lowery Nixon

Cary , the daughter of a candidate for governor of Texas , unexpectedly starts to receive strange phone calls and feels she is being followed.

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, or the Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman

A fantasy series that explores the themes of good and evil and coming of age.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The classic adventures of young Tom and his cohorts.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The journal of Charlie Gordon , a mentally retarded adult who becomes a genius after undergoing a brain operation.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The classic horror story of a science experiment that went awry.

Accepting your thanks for giving you something productive to do with your leisure hours, I remain,

Your favorite English teacher,