2020 Summer Reading

* Titles marked with an asterisk (*) are primarily recommended for readers entering seventh or eighth grade.

Fantasy

  • Dragons in a Bag, Zetta Elliott

Historical Fiction

  • Planet Earth is Blue, Nicole Panteleakos

Nonfiction

  • Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth, Latin American Youth Center

Realistic Fiction

  • *A Very Large Expanse of Sea, Tahereh Mafi

  • Almost American Girl, Robin Ha

  • Clean Getaway, Nic Stone

  • *Darius the Great is Not Okay, Adib Khorram

  • *Girls Like Me, Lola StVil

  • It Wasn’t Me, Dana Alison Levy

  • Love Like Sky, Leslie C. Youngblood

  • Martin McLean, Middle School Queen, Alyssa Zaczek

  • The Size of the Truth, Andrew Smith

  • When Stars are Scattered, Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed, & Iman Geddy

Summer Reading Expectations for VLUS Students

  • Cambridge Public Schools require that all incoming middle school students read for 20 minutes each day during the summer and record their reading on a reading log (additional copies can be found on CPS Summer Reading web page).

  • Students entering the Vassal Lane Upper School will receive books from the 2020 VLUS Summer Book List (titles above) to read during the summer. These books will be purchased and students will be able to pick them up outside the school in June.

  • Students are also encouraged to read nonfiction this summer by participating in the New York Times Summer Reading Project in which teenagers are invited to choose any article, essay, photo, video, graphic, podcast or illustration published in 2019 or 2020 on NYTimes.com and explain why it got their attention. At the end of each week, judges from the Times newsroom will pick favorite responses and publish them.

Grades 6-8 Recommended Online Resources from CPS Libraries for Families

General


Library/ELA/Reading/Literacy

  • Sora eBooks and digital audio books: sign in using Google log in

Websites for Online Reading .pdf

Summer Reading at the Cambridge Public Library!

Imagine Your Story at the Cambridge Public Library

June 22-August 28, 2020

The Cambridge Public Library invites you to read, explore, and learn with us this summer! All ages and abilities welcome!

Collect badges for the activities and challenges you choose to try. Cambridge readers with all their badges by August 28 are eligible for a Porter Square Books gift certificate while supplies last.

Don't miss all our virtual programs and events coming this summer as well.

Registration and more information about Summer Reading at the Library coming soon at http://cambridgepubliclibrary.org/

You can now request library books online, and pick them up at the Main Cambridge Public Library!

You can also return items in the Main Library drop bin. See the Cambridge Public Library website for important details. RAUC Librarian, Ms. Musher, made an instruction video to help with the process. If you try this and get stuck, you can call the Cambridge Public Library at 617-349-4040, or you can contact Ms. Riley (email, or Google Hangouts). Happy reading!