WMS Summer Reading List—Grade 7

Author	Title	Genre
Sharon Creech	Absolutely Normal Chaos	realistic fiction
Mike Lupica	Travel Team	realistic fiction
Lipsyte, Robert	One Fat Summer	realistic fiction
Van Draanen, Wendelin	Flipped	realistic fiction
Nixon, Joan Lowery	Search for the Shadowman	mystery, historical fiction
Paulsen, Gary	The Transall Saga	science fiction
Richter, Conrad	The Light in the Forest	historical fiction

In Absolutely Normal Chaos, thirteen-year-old Mary Lou grows up considerably during the summer while learning about romance, homesickness, death, and her cousin's search for his biological father.

Lupica writes for the thoughtful sport enthusiast in Travel Team. After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national prominence--twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.

While most people are happy to take off their heavy jackets and long pants, Bobby, in One Fat Summer, can't even button his jeans or reach over his belly to touch his toes. This particular summer at RumsonLake promises to be worse than usual. His parents can't stop fighting. His best friend, Joanie, goes home to New York City. Dr. Kahn, a rich, stingy estate owner who hires him to manage an enormous lawn, is working him to death. And to top it off, a local bully won't stop torturing him.Bobby is about to find out just how terrifying and exhilarating one fat summer can be.

The first time she saw him, she Flipped.The first time he saw her, he ran. That was the second grade, but not much has changed by the seventh.This is a classic romantic comedy of errors told in alternating chapters by two fresh, funny new voices. Wendelin Van Draanen is at her best here with a knockout cast of quirky characters and a hilarious series of misunderstandings and missed opportunities.

The Search for the Shadowmanis by award winning author Joan Lowry Nixon.In this story, Andy Thomas discovers a black sheep in his family while conducting research for a school history project.Against his parents’ wishes, he decides to try and solve a murder mystery by using the Internet.

The Transall Saga is a science fiction adventure story and coming of age tale by Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet.For Mark, what started as an ordinary day hike turns into a nightmare when he is mysteriously transported into a primitive world by a strange blue flash of lightening.First Mark is caught in a world he is not familiar with and then becomes a slave.Mark is forced to grow up before he can return to the life he once knew.

The Light in the Forestis an unforgettable story of a white boy raised by Native American Indians, torn between the claims of blood and loyalty."True Son," born John Butler in a little frontier town, was captured by the LenniLenape Indians when he was four years old, and adopted into the tribe by the great warrior Cuyloga who re-named him and reared him as his own. True Son grew up to think, feel, and fight like an American Indian.