November 9, 2015
Parent(s)/Guardian(s):
This letter is to inform you that our class will be completing an assignment in which the students will read a contemporary health-related fiction or non fiction novel in connection to the topics related to health. Students will type a one to two page book summary, design an outline, and prepare a two minute speech on the health related topic in the book. The students will be allowed to choose any novel listed on the 8th grade Health Book List. There is an additional list of books recommended for grades 9 and up. This advanced list was created because some of the material will be adult in nature, but valid in the overall message it is presenting on the. Books on both lists have been approved by the School Library Journal and are currently in our media center. I realize that you may not be comfortable with some of the content in these novels. So, I am asking for your help. I ask that you look over the choice your student is making and work together with your student to make sure it is the appropriate choice for him/her and your family. I do encourage you to read the book as well; it would make for great conversation with your student. Again the list of books on the grade 8 list are considered “SAFE” books for 8th graders. If you have a suggestion to add to the list, or another possible alternative for your student, please let me know. Thank you for your help in this matter, and if you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].
Book lists, grading rubrics, and detailed instructions can be found on my teacher web page and also on the online google classroom. http://www.riversidelocalschools.com/ScharJill.aspx
Students will need to bring their book selection to class on November 16 (Monday). Students will be given class time on Nov. 16, 17, 23, 24 prior to Thanksgiving break to work on this project. Students will need books and chrome books to make effective use of their time to read and research. Additional class time will be given on December 7 and 8.
THIS PROJECT WILL COUNT AS YOUR STUDENT’S SEMESTER EXAM FOR PHYSICAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS CLASS. SPEECHES WILL BEGIN ON DEC. 14.
Sincerely,
Jill Schar
Health and Physical Education
(Please return the bottom portion of this paper)
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Student’s Name: __________________________________________________________________________
Parent/Guardian’s Name: ____________________________ email or phone number: ___________________
Student Book Selection:_____________________________________________________________________
Student Speech Topic:_______________________________________________________________________
Please read and sign:
Together, my student and I have chosen the novel listed above. I feel the content is acceptable for their reading and maturity level.
_________________________________________
Parent Signature
Please return this form by November 13, 2015.
Physical Health and Wellness Semester Book Project
Books in Riverside Media Center
This list contains books for 8th grade students.
Because I am Furniture By: Thalia Chaltas
The youngest of three siblings, fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father abuses her brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally becomes angry enough to take action.
Lock and Key By: Sarah Dessen
When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.
Fat kid rules the world By: K.L. Going
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly three hundred pounds, gets a new perspective on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on guitar, asks Troy to be the drummer in a rock band.
The Orange Houses By: Paul Griffin
Tamika, a fifteen-year-old hearing-impaired girl, Jimmi, an eighteen-year-old veteran who stopped taking his antipsychotic medication, and sixteen-year-old Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Africa, meet and connect in their Bronx, New York, neighborhood, with devastating results.
Crank By: Ellen Hopkins
Kristina Georgia Snow's life is turned upside-down when she visits her absentee father, gets turned on to the drug "crank", becomes addicted, and is led down a desperate path that threatens her mind, soul, and her life.
Good night, Mr. Tom By: Michelle Magorian
A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during World War II.
Freaky green eyes By: Joyce Carol Oates
Fourteen-year-old Frankie relates the events of the year leading up to her mother's mysterious disappearance and her own struggle to discover and accept the truth about her parents' relationship.
Crackback By: John Coy
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.
Forged by Fire By: Sharon Draper
Gerald, a teenager who has spent years protecting his fragile half-sister from their abusive father, must face the prospect of one final confrontation before the problem can be solved.
Going Bovine By: Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old diagnosed with mad cow disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.
Marcelo in the Real World By: Francisco Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.
Cut By: Patricia McCormick
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.
Or Give Me Death - A Novel of Patrick Henry’s Family By: Ann Rinaldi
With their father away most of the time advocating independence for the American colonies, the children of Patrick Henry try to raise themselves, manage the family plantation, and care for their mentally ill mother.
Gym Candy By: Carl Deuker
Mick Johnson works hard for a placement on the varsity team during his freshman year, and decides to use steroids in order to hold onto his edge, despite the consequences to his health and social life.
Deadly By: Julie Chibbaro
Sixteen-year-old Prudence Galewski takes a job in the early 1900s as assistant to the head epidemiologist at New York's Department of Health and Sanitation, who is trying to discover how a seemingly healthy woman can be spreading typhoid fever.
Tangerine By: Edward Bloor
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors By: Francisco Stork
Seventeen-year-old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q, who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q.'s caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.
After Ever After By: Jordan Sonnenblick
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.
Scrawl By: Mark Shulman
When eighth-grade school bully Tod and his friends get caught committing a crime on school property, his penalty--staying after school and writing in a journal under the eye of the school guidance counselor--reveals aspects of himself that he prefers to keep hidden.
Almost a hero By: John Neufeld
When Ben's social-studies teacher assigns her class to spend spring break volunteering at a charitable organization, Ben chooses a day-care facility for homeless children--and throws himself into his work. When he reports what appears to be the physical abuse of one of his charges, Ben runs headlong into a system that seems bound not to do what's right.
A Ring of Endless Light By: Madeleine L’Engle
During the summer her grandfather is dying of leukemia and death seems all around, 15-year-old Vicky finds comfort with the pod of dolphins with which she has been doing research.
The Specter By: Joan Lowery Nixon
A seventeen-year-old orphan with Hodgkin's disease becomes very involved with her new hospital roommate, a nine year-old girl who insists that the man who killed her father is trying to kill her.
Somebody Please Tell Me Who I Am By: Harry Mazer
Wounded in Iraq while his Army unit is on convoy and treated for many months for traumatic brain injury, the first person Ben remembers from his earlier life is his brother who has autism.
Detour for Emmy By: Marilyn Reynolds
This novel tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who must face the consequences of becoming pregnant.
Willow By: Julia Hoban
Sixteen-year-old Willow, who was driving the car that killed both of her parents, copes with the pain and guilt by cutting herself, until she meets a smart and sensitive boy who is determined to help her stop.
Teens with AIDS speak out By: Mary Kittredge
Teenagers with AIDS describe how they became infected and what it is like to live with the disease.
Out of my mind By: Sharon Draper
Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.
Th1rteen R3asons Why By: Jay Asher
High school student Clay Jensen receives a box in the mail containing seven cassette tapes recorded by his crush, Hannah Baker, who committed suicide, and spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
It Happened to Nancy By: Beatrice Sparks, Ph.D
Presents a true story written by an anonymous fourteen-year-old teenage who reveals how she fell for a handsome college student who raped her and infected her with the HIV virus.
The Silent Boy By: Lois Lowry
Young Katy Thatcher, the daughter of the town doctor, becomes friends with Jacob, a teenager who is "touched in the head," which allows her to understand what really happened when the unwanted infant of Jacob's sister is found dead.
A Mango Shaped Space By: Wendy Mass
Afraid that she is crazy, thirteen-year-old Mia, who sees a special color with every letter, number, and sound, keeps this a secret until she becomes overwhelmed by school, changing relationships, and the death of her beloved cat, Mango.
Speak By: Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
Wintergirls By: Laurie Halse Anderson
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
The First Part Last By:Angela Johnson
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
Chandra’s Secret By: Allan Stratton
Chanda Kabelo, a sixteen-year-old in a small South African town, faces down shame and stigma in her efforts to help friends and family members who are dying of AIDS.
Garden of Angels By: Lurlene McDaniel
Fourteen-year-old Darcy's life undergoes a drastic change when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974 and is unable to help Darcy deal with the teenage struggles of starting high school, falling in love, and worrying about the Vietnam War.
After the Rain By: Norma Mazer
Rachel has one last chance to understand her dying grandfather and she learns about herself in the process.
Physical Health and Wellness Semester Book Project
Books in Riverside Media Center
**Books on this list are recommended for grades 9 and up**
The Death of Jayson Porter By: Jamie Adoff
Sixteen-year-old Jayson Porter wants to believe things will get better. But the harsh realities of his life never seem to change. Living in the inland-Florida projects with his abusive mother, he tries unsuccessfully to fit in at his predominantly white school, while struggling to maintain even a thread of a relationship with his drug-addicted father. As the pressure mounts, there’s only one thing Jayson feels he has control over—the choice of whether to live or die.
Keesha’s House By: Helen Frost
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.
Ellen Foster By: Kaye Gibbons
Having suffered abuse and misfortune for much of her life, a young child searches for a better life and finally gets a break in the home of a loving woman with several foster children.
Go Ask Alice By: Anonymous
Based on the diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user chronicling her struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.
Break By: Hannah Moskowitz
To relieve the pressures of caring for a brother with life-threatening food allergies, another who is a fussy baby, and parents who are at odds with one other, seventeen-year-old Jonah sets out to break every bone in his body in hopes of becoming stronger.
17: a novel in prose poems By: Liz Rosenberg
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie journeys from fall to spring and from childhood to womanhood as she experiences first love and deals with her fear of inheriting her mother's mental illness.
Ana’s Story: a journey of hope By: Jenna Bush
Jenna Bush presents a nonfiction account of Ana, a young Latin American mother, who shared with Bush the loss of her parents to AIDS, abuse from her grandmother and aunt, and of her own battle with AIDS.
Rooftop By: Paul Volponi
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows.
Please Stop Laughing at Me By: Jodee Blanco
The author, a victim of bullying, provides an account of her miserable school career, telling how her experiences as an outcast affected her life, and sharing her perspective on the events as an adult.
Please Stop Laughing at Us By: Jodee Blanco
The author reflects on her experiences being bullied in school; and discusses ways parents, teachers, and students can prevent bullying. Includes frequently asked questions, a glossary of terms, and emails to the author.
Autobiography of a Face By: Lucy Grealy
A memoir in which award-winning poet Lucy Grealy recalls her experiences with a potentially terminal cancer that required she have a third of her jaw removed when she was nine years old, and discusses the suffering she endured as she was growing up from classmates, strangers, and other people because of her looks.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By: Mark Haddon
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
The Fault in our Stars By: John Green
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.
Twisted By: Laurie Halse Anderson
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.
Dreamland By: Sarah Dessen
After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.