With Spring Break quickly approaching, teachers realize the school year is nearly over. Instead of letting your students be completely free over the break, consider it an ideal time for curling up with a good book. Use Spring Break to your advantage by assigning a novel that you might normally run out of time for, or a book outside of your assigned curriculum.
Each of the recommended books are engaging time-tested reads that students can read while on break or family vacations. Teachers can choose different assignments to go along with the reading including reflective journaling, book reviews, book reports, or Castle Learning assessments.
For Elementary Students:
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, by Roald Dahl
“How James escapes from his miserable life with two nasty aunts and becomes a hero to his new insect family, including Miss Spider, the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the Centipede (with his 21 pairs of gorgeous boots), is Dahl-icious fantasy at its best.”
Book description from Random House
For Middle School Students:
HATCHET, by Gary Paulsen
“Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother has given him as a present — and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart ever since his parents’ divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or despair — it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.”
Book description from Scholastic
FREAK THE MIGHTY, by Rodman Philbrick
“Learning disabled and physically overgrown Max has no friends until a tiny and brilliant boy moves into the house next door. The two misfits forge a friendship that gives them enough courage to face school, bullies, and even Max’s jailed father. The inspiration for the feature film The Mighty, this moving and funny story will inspire any kid who’s ever felt like an outsider.”
Book description from Scholastic
For High School Students:
A SEPARATE PEACE, by John Knowles
“Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happened between them at school one summer during the early years of World War II is the subject of A Separate Peace. A great bestseller for over thirty years–one of the most starkly moving parables ever written of the dark forces that brood over the tortured world of adolescence.”
Book description from Random House
AS I LAY DYING, by William Faulkner
“One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, As I Lay Dying vividly brings to life Faulkner’s imaginary South, one of literature’s great invented landscapes, and is replete with the poignant, impoverished, violent, and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark. “
Book description from Random House
SPEAK, by Laurie Halse Anderson
”Speak up for yourself–we want to know what you have to say.” From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.”
Book description from Macmillan