Southfield Public Schools | Summer Reading List
Pre-School
 | One-osaurus, Two-osaurus Words by Kim Norman Pictures by Pierre Collet-Derby One-osaurus, two-Osaurus, three-Osaurus, four! Look there, in a child's bedroom, where some prehistoric pals are gathered in a counting game. Nine dinosaurs are playing a sing-song rendition of hide-and-seek--but something isn't adding up. Where is number ten? |
 | Please, Baby, Please Words by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee Pictures by Kadir Nelson A toddler's antics keep his mother busy as she tries to feed him, watch him on the playground, give him a bath, and put him to bed |
 | Colors of Me Words by Brynne Barnes Pictures by Annika M. Nelson A young child questions the significance of skin color and wonders if the natural world believes any particular color to be more important than another. |
 | The Zoo: A Can-You-Find-it Book Sarah L. Schuette Treat kids to a seek-and-find field trip to the zoo. |
 | The Day the Crayons Quit Words by Drew Daywalt Pictures by Oliver Jeffers When Duncan arrives at school one morning, he finds a stack of letters, one from each of his crayons, complaining about how he uses them. |
 | Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? Words by Bill Martin, Jr. Pictures by Eric Carle Children see a variety of animals, each one a different color, and a teacher looking at them. |
 | Kindness is My Superpower: A Children's Book About Empathy, Kindness and Compassion Alicia Orego Kindness is something anyone can learn: Give to others and ask nothing in return. Helping others is simply the best thing to do. When you are kind, kindness comes back to you. |
1st Grade
 | We are Growing! Laurie Keller Walt is not the tallest or the curliest or the pointiest or even the crunchiest. A confounded blade of grass searches for his 'est' in this hilarious story about growing up. |
 | Hair Love Words by Matthew A. Cherry Pictures by Vashti Harrison A little girl's daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self. |
 | Eyes that Kiss in the Corners Words by Joanna Ho Pictures by Dung Ho A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers'. They have big, round eyes and long lashes. She realizes that her eyes are like her mother's, her grandmother's, and her little sister's. |
 | The Bad Seed Words by Jory John Pictures by Pete Oswald The bad seed changes his mind about being bad and decides that he wants to be happy. |
 | Caterpillar to Butterfly Laura Marsh Describes a caterpillar's four stages of life. |
 | It's Not Easy Being a Bunny Words by Marilyn Sadler Pictures by Robert Bollen Tired of being a bunny, P.J. Funnybunny decides to become a bear. But hibernating is so dull, he thinks he'd rather be a bird, or a pig . . . or a possum. . . . And so it goes, until P.J. learns that bunnyhood is not so bad after all. |
 | The Book With No Pictures B. J. Novak In this book with no pictures, the reader has to say every silly word, no matter what. |
2nd Grade
 | Firebird: Ballerina Misty Copeland Shows a Young Girl How to Dance Like the Firebird Words by Misty Copeland Pictures by Christopher Myers American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland encourages a young ballet student, with brown skin like her own. |
 | Sumo Joe Words by Mia Wenjen Pictures by Nat Iwata Sumo Joe and his friends pretend to be sumo wrestlers, but when his little sister who takes Aikido wants to join them, Sumo Joe must choose between his friends and his sister. |
 | Under my Hijab Words by Hena Khan Pictures by Aaliya Jaleel As a young girl observes that each of six women in her life wears her hijab and hair in a different way, she considers how to express her own style one day. |
 | Me, Frida: Frida Kahlo in San Francisco Words by Amy Novesky Pictures by David Diaz Artist Frida Kahlo finds her own voice and style when her famous husband, Diego Rivera, is commissioned to paint a mural in San Francisco, California, in the 1930s and she finds herself exploring the city on her own. |
 | Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up Words by Melissa Thomson Pictures by Frank Morrison Keena Ford chronicles her many mishaps as she begins second grade. |
 | Your Name is a Song Words by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow Pictures by Luisa Uribe Saddened by her classmates' and teacher's mispronunciations of her name, a girl is empowered by her discovery that names are like songs when she and her mom celebrate the musicality of African, Asian, Black-American, Latinx, and Middle Eastern names. |
3rd Grade
 | EllRay Jakes the Recess king!/a> Words by Sally Warner Pictures by Brian Biggs Eight-year-old EllRay Jakes of Oak Glen Primary School is looking for a new best friend, and he decides that the best way to find one is to come up with a bunch of amazing things to do at recess--and see who shares in the fun. |
 | The Chocolate Touch Patrick Skene Catling In this witty take on the legend of King Midas, John is about to learn that there is, indeed, such a thing as too much chocolate. |
 | Introduction to Mythology for Kids: Legendary Stories from Around the World Zachary Hamby Stories of magic, heroes, and monster from all over the world. |
4th Grade
 | Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut Words by Derrick Barnes Pictures by Gordon C. James Celebrates the magnificent feeling that comes from walking out of a barber shop with newly-cut hair. |
 | Sideways Stories from Wayside School Words by Louis Sachar Pictures by Julie Brinckloe Humorous episodes from the classroom on the thirtieth floor of Wayside School, which was accidentally built sideways with one classroom on each story. |
 | Hoot Carl Hiaasen Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. |
5th Grade
 | Wishtree Words by Katherine Applegate Pictures by Charles Santoso When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires--literally. |
 | One Crazy Summer Rita Williams-Garcia In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. |
 | Love That Dog Sharon Creech A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem. |
6th Grade
 | As Brave as You Jason Reynolds When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires--literally. |
 | Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. |
7th Grade
 | The Night Diary Veera Hiranandani Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary. |
 | Harbor Me Jacqueline Woodson When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. |
8th Grade
 | When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead Four mysterious letters change Miranda's world forever. By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it's safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner. But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. |
 | A Good Kind of Trouble Lisa Moore Ramée After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity. |
9th Grade
 | The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd During the summer of 1964 in rural South Carolina, a young girl is given a home by three black, beekeeping sisters. As she enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees and honey, she discovers a place where she can find the single thing her heart longs for most. |
 | Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny Hill Harper Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Harper, a young black actor and graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, offers similar inspiration to young men clamoring for advice and encouragement at a time when popular culture offers little positive direction. |
 | Letters to a Young Sister: Define Your Destiny Hill Harper Author Harper's vision for young women on facing tough issues and becoming the architect of your own life. Harper delivers straight talk, interspersed with questions answered in the form of e-mails written by well-known, accomplished women. |
 | A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. |
10th Grade
 | Becoming: Adapted for Young Readers Michelle Obama This volume for young people is an honest and fascinating account of Michelle Obama's life led by example. She shares her views on how all young people can help themselves as well as help others, no matter their status in life. She asks readers to realize that no one is perfect, and that the process of becoming is what matters, as finding yourself is ever evolving. In telling her story with boldness, she asks young readers: Who are you, and what do you want to become? |
 | The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talkingin Harlem. |
11th Grade
 | Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie In the city of Egunu, Nigeria, fifteen year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a somewhat cloistered life. Their father is a wealthy businessman, they live in a beautiful home, and attend private school. But, through Kambili's eyes, we see that their home life is anything but harmonious. |
 | Invisible Man Ralph Ellison In the course of his wanderings from a Southern Negro college to New York's Harlem, an American black man becomes involved in a series of adventures. |
12th Grade
 | Kindred Octavia E. Butler Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father the daughter who will become Dana's ancestor. Yet each time Dana's sojourns become longer and more dangerous, until it is uncertain whether or not her life will end, long before it has even begun. |
 | Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood Trevor Noah Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist, his mother is determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. With an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. |
University Middle and High School Academies | Summer Reading List
 | 6th Grade A Long Walk to Water: a Novel Linda Sue Park When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. |
 | 7th Grade The Crossover: a Basketball Novel Kwame Alexander Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. |
 | 8th Grade Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths Words by Bernard Evslin Pictures by William Hofmann Retellings of the ancient Greek myths, arranged in four sections: the Gods, Nature Myths, Demigods, and Fables. Includes a brief section on words from the Greek myths which are part of the English language. |
 | 9th Grade The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt; with Lisa Frazier Page Three doctors grew up in the streets of Newark, facing city life’s temptations, pitfalls, even jail. But one day these three young men made a pact. They promised each other they would all become doctors, and stick it out together through the long, difficult journey to attaining that dream. |
 | 10th Grade Lay That Trumpet in our Hands Susan Carol McCarthy In 1951, the brutal murder of nineteen-year-old Marvin Cully transforms the town of Mayflower, Florida, into a battleground as violence erupts across the state and the NAACP joins in the efforts to uncover the killers. |
 | 11th Grade The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother James McBride James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in this poignant and powerful debut. |
 | 11th Grade - Advanced Placement (AP) Language and Composition And Still we Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City Students Miles Corwin Bestselling author of "The Killing Season" and veteran "Los Angeles Times" reporter Miles Corwin spent a school year with twelve high school seniors -- South-Central kids who qualified for a gifted program because of their exceptional IQs and test scores. |
 | 12th Grade The Alchemist Paulo Coelho; translated by Alan R. Clarke An Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. |
 | 12th Grade - Advanced Placement (AP) Language and Composition Homegoing Yaa Gyasi Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. |
