I hope your long awaited summer break is off to a roaring start. This summer, as an incoming seventh grader, you are to read seven books, which can be a combination of audiobooks, novels, memoirs, and other specific genres. Within the first five days of summer break, I have already finished two books! The classic, A Wrinkle in Time and a modern mystery, The Woman in Cabin 10. What a treat to have some time to sit back, relax, and read. I do hope you find some great books to enjoy and share with all of us.

Be sure to watch one another’s book talks to get some ideas for your own personal reading, and remember you MUST read the books, Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen and The Code: The Five Secrets of Teen Success, by Mawi Asgedom.

Please reach out to me via email at jmchristiansen@cps.edu if you have any questions.

Please click here to access Flip Grid for your summer book talks.

Below are links to some book lists you may want to check out:

2017 Young Adult Library Association Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults

2017 Best Fiction for Young Adults

2017 Great Graphic Novels for Teens

Summer Young Adult Reading List

The day before Halloween, my outfit was planned out, I was going to be matching M&M’s with my best friend. It was a classic tradition since we were babies to have matching costumes. I checked my phone and saw something interesting. On Instagram everything was about “Killer Clowns, so I went downstairs and asked my mom about these clowns.  I told her I didn’t want to go Trick-or-Treating so, instead Janice and I are going to watch scary movies. *Halloween Night* Janice and I were alone watciing movies…it was eerie …then the lock clicked and… it was a clown.

I hadn’t known that I’d been locked in, isolated from the outside until I’d seen that the door was locked. Looking through the keyhole of the door I’d seen bats and rats, scurrying through what I once thought I’d loved. Thinking of my banking job,” i was a banker until i’d lost interest.” I laugh and soon realize i’m drifting away from reality and need to find a way to pick the lock. I see 2 rusted screws and try to pick the lock, I say out loud, Finally I have hope;Getting out! Then the lock clicked and I was FREE!

It was a dark room with wooden walls. The lights were flickering like fireflies in the night sky. There was whole in the ceiling that illuminated only a little light from the stars. I could make out that the room was kind of like an rectangle like shape. I creep through like a cat on the hard stone floor. I couldn’t see him but I knew he was behind me. Then I hear footsteps coming behind me. Then the lock clicked and I broke into a run. And I could tell he did too. I fell, and he got me.

Today is my long awaited 14th birthday.I go down stairs and see if my parents have made me my breakfast which consisted of pancakes, sausage,and grits. I walk down the stairs and see my parents doing anything but cooking. I want to scream but instead I walk out the door and go to school.When I come back from school, I sit on the dirty porch and try to calm myself down.I opened the door,then the lock clicked and…… SURPRISE! My family and friends were there to celebrate my birthday. Today was the BEST DAY EVER!

“Well, what a start,” I subconsciously said out loud as the stage it up and the complex dance moves were carried out by the group of 7 men on stage. It was probably some time around 8:30 pm but I wasn’t going to check the time. My only focus was the stage and trying to get a grasp on reality. I’m here. I’m really here I thought. I did have to ask anyone if this was actually happening because I could tell by their smiles, sweat, and music, it was all real. I knew it by the passion emitting from the stage.

When I was exploring space through a screen, everything was fine. Now, going into space, everything is not okay. Working at NASA is a big thing, but so is going into space. No one ever asked me how I felt about being an astronaut. They just shipped me off to Baylor with my major already picked. I never thought I’d be an astronaut. You might be saying to yourself, “What is so bad about being an astronaut?” Well, I am deathly afraid of heights and I thought, “Well, what a start.”

We were all stressed. I was excited for our vacation, but all I can think about is how we were going to miss our plane. There was a long line for Security, and the moment we were free we ran to our gate. Lizzie tripped and hurt her knee, making her start to cry, slowing us all down. As we ran by we all eyed the restaurants we passed. We were very hungry but there was no way we could stop. We finally made it, just in time…and as we ran in I thought, “Well, what a start.”

“Mom?”

I tried it out to see how it would work. It felt rough on my tongue, like sandpaper. The word  mom can only be matched with one image, my real mom. Brown hair, blue eyes, pale skin. Not the image of Mrs. Thomson. Platinum blonde hair, green eyes, and cream skin.

“Noah?”

I snapped to attention, my arm knocking my uneaten pasta to the floor where Bailey the bulldog ate it. I covered my face with my hands. This wouldn’t have happened if my parents hadn’t died. I sighed and thought, “Well, what a start to my new life.”

And I thought, “Well, what a start,” as I squatted to pee right by the litter box. Not in the litter box, by the litter box. Finally, the human is gone. How I can sit on a couch even though she tells me not to! Then, I licked my self for awhile. All of a sudden, I heard a “Ruff!” I quickly leapt out the window landing gracefully and silently in the courtyard. I heard a “Lola!” I craned my head to see my human coming out of the car and toward me angrily, so I nonchalantly pranced back to the apartment.