Summer Reading assignment for incoming 7th graders!

If you have access to a computer this summer, please type and then print out your responses to the questions about your summer reading books. To do so,  click here to find a Word version of the questions. To download the Word version:

When the Google doc opens, click on the File menu, then choose Download as..., then choose Word. (I cannot share the google doc itself with you.)

If you don't have access to a computer to type your answers, you can neatly handwrite your responses on the paper version I gave out in June. If you didn't get it, you can print it from this document.

For suggestions for great books to choose from for your choice book, click here.

If you are curious what I'm reading this summer, see below.

Happy reading!

Josh

Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee, the just-released, long-awaited sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, which we will be reading this year!

The Invisible Bridge, by Rick Perlstein, about US society and politics during the 1970s. I am a history and politics geek born in the '70s, and this guy is an amazing writer, so this book is a natural for me.

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an extended letter to his son about race and racism in the US. Anyone who people are comparing to the great African American writer and commentator James Baldwin has my attention.

Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, by Sharon Salzberg. I just started learning about mindfulness and meditation. Summer is a good time to do some good deep breathing, I figure.

World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements, by John Hunter. For inspiration from a great teacher and his students.

Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928, by Stephen Kotkin, about the dictator of the Soviet Union who we will be studying this year. I know a good deal about this guy but I still want to know even more about how he came to be the dominant historical figure that he was.

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T. J. Stiles. I went on a tour of his grandson's ridiculously huge and ornate mansion in Newport, Rhode Island last week and decided to learn where all that money came from.