Required Books: Students entering grades three through five in Fall have one required read over the summer. These required books provide an excellent, shared foundation for children as they enter into a new year at Curtis. Mrs. May will be using these books for projects and discussion at the beginning of the school year so it is best to read them a bit later into the summer.
Note: Please refer to the “Book Accessibility” tab for how to access these books.
3rd through 5th Grade
Each grade will have a required read. Please note the title for your child’s INCOMING grade level in Fall.
If you have any questions please reach out to Mrs. May at smay@curtisschool.org
3rd grade – Search for the Giant Squid: A Pick Your Path Adventure by Amy Seto Forrester.
This series starter takes emerging readers on an expedition to the ocean’s twilight zone in search of a giant squid. But giant squids are hard to find. Readers will need to join the expedition and help make choices along the way.
First they’ll pick their submersible. And then their pilot and dive site. They’ll need to be careful—not every path leads where it seems, but whatever path they pick, they’ll see and learn amazing things. Your child can pick one of three paths to “find” the giant squid. They can choose their pilot, their submersible, and/or the ocean they want to explore. They can choose one path or all three!
** The goal of this book is to expose incoming third graders to nonfiction texts and text features, new subject-specific words, maps, and facts. **
4th grade – Gracie Under the Waves by Linda Sue Park
A Green Earth Book Award Honor Book
Inspired by her own experience, beloved author Linda Sue Park tells the story of a girl learning how to impact a cause she cares about while navigating the ups and downs of a sibling relationship and turning disappointment into opportunity. Gracie loves snorkeling! She loves it so much, she convinces her parents to let her plan a family vacation to Roatán, Honduras, where they can all snorkel together. She even makes a new friend there. Now, if only her irritating little brother would leave her alone, everything would be perfect. Then Gracie hurts her leg, and all her carefully made plans start to come apart. Worse still, she learns the reef itself is in serious danger. Gracie wants to help the reef . . . but she’s just a kid. What can she do to make a difference? Fortunately, her new friend has a few ideas!
5th grade – Thirst by Varsha Bajaj
Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is limited to a few hours a day and the communal taps have long lines. Lately, though, even that access is threatened by severe water shortages and thieves who are stealing this precious commodity—an act that Minni accidentally witnesses one night. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where she just started to work, she discovers that water streams out of every faucet and there’s even a rooftop swimming pool. Then one day, Minni encounters the water mafia boss and faces her biggest dilemma yet—should she expose him even if it means risking her job . . . and maybe her life? How did her future get so complicated?
6th Grade
Required:
Students can choose which version best suits their reading abilities and needs. Print copies have been provided to each student by the school.
The Giver by Lois Lowry OR The Giver (The Graphic Novel Adaptation) adapted by P. Craig Russell
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. (Print copies have been provided to each student by the school. E-book and audiobook available through Sora and the LAPL and the graphic novel e-book is available through Sora and the LAPL.)
Also Recommended for 6th grade:
Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She’s had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined.
(E-book and audiobook available through Sora and the LAPL)
White Bird by R. J. Palacio
In R. J. Palacio’s bestselling collection of stories Auggie & Me, which expands on characters in Wonder, readers were introduced to Julian’s grandmother, Grandmère. Here, Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with Grandmère’s heartrending story: how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II; how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her savior and best friend. Sara’s harrowing experience movingly demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives. As Grandmère tells Julian, “It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything.” (E-book available through Sora and the LAPL)
A “witty thriller” (The New York Times) for middle-grade readers about how the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, how the robbery made the portrait the most famous artwork in the world—and how the painting by Leonardo da Vinci should never have existed at all.
SIBERT MEDAL WINNER • BOSTON GLOBE—HORN BOOK AWARD WINNER • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, The New York Public Library, The Chicago Public Library, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
(E-book available through Sora and the LAPL, audiobook available through the LAPL)
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Eleven-year-old Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Parvana’s father ― a history teacher until his school was bombed and his health destroyed ― works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, reading letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for the crime of having a foreign education, and the family is left without someone who can earn money or even shop for food. (E-book available through Sora and the LAPL and the audiobook available through the LAPL)
Curtis School Summer Reading 