English Text Books: Grade 7 Novel Studies

"Richie "Ryder" Raymond has a gift. He can find the punchline in any situation, even in his limited vision and prosthetic eye. During the past year at Addison School for the Blind, Ryder's quick wit earned the respect and friendship of his classmates. Heading to mainstream, or "normal," school for eighth grade is going to be awesome... In just the first hour of "normal" school, Ryder is attacked by...Gramp's cat, causes his bio teacher to pass out cold, makes an enemy of town hero Max, and falls for Jocelyn, the fierce girl next door who happens to be Max's girlfriend"---Dust jacket.

Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style.

"Two entrepreneurial Korean-American teens butt heads--and fall in love--while running competing Korean beauty businesses at their high school"--

Unable to find their rhythm, once-close twin sisters Maya and Chaya make a bet: they'll switch places at summer camp and whoever can keep the ruse going the longest will get to make a life-changing decision, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

"In the summer of 1984, twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace of Huntsville, Alabama, visits her father in Harlem, where her fascination with outer space and science fiction interfere with her finding acceptance"--Provided by publisher.

Twelve-year-old Quijana is a biracial girl, desperately trying to understand the changes that are going on in her life; her mother rarely gets home before bedtime, her father suddenly seems to be trying to get in touch with his Guatemalan roots (even though he never bothered to teach Quijana Spanish), she is about to start seventh grade in the Texas town where they live and she is worried about fitting in--and Quijana suspects that her parents are keeping secrets, because she is sure there is something wrong with her little brother, Memito, who is becoming increasingly hard to reach.

Evan Pao and his family move to Haddington, Virginia in hopes of keeping his father's notoriety a secret, but a small southern town is not an easy place for a Chinese-American boy to fit in, and one kid, Brady Griggs, seems determined to make things difficult.

Thirteen-year-old Rob, a painfully shy wallflower, receives a series of mysterious text messages challenging him to leave his comfort zone as he tries to impress new student Destry Camberwick.

"Eleven-year-old Alex Petroski, along with his dog, Carl Sagan, make big discoveries about his family on a road trip and he records it all on a golden iPod he intends to launch into space"--Provided by publisher.

When AIDS devastates thirteen-year-old Auma's village in Kenya during the 1980s, Auma must choose between staying to help her family and working toward a track scholarship that will take her away from home"--Provided by publisher.

Two Burmese boys, one a Karenni refugee and the other the son of an imprisoned Burmese doctor, meet in the jungle and in order to survive they must learn to trust each other.

Anita, a typically self-absorbed twelve-year-old living in the Dominican Republic in the early 1960s, is surprised to discover her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.

On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own?"--Amazon.com.

"When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy Austrian household. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler"--Amazon.

Twelve-year-old Sora and her eight-year-old brother, Youngsoo, must try to escape North Korea's oppressive Communist regime on their own in 1950. Includes historical notes, photographs of the author's family, glossary of Korean words, and timeline.

"A novel in verse about a boy escaping slavers during the nineteenth century"--Provided by publisher.

A tale based on true events follows the coming-of-age of a girl who is motivated by an act of racism at school to learn about her ancestral heritage and her grandparents' experiences as lost children during the Korean War.

"Thirteen-year-old Yen and her family have survived a war, famine and persecution. When a powerful flood ruins their village in rural Vietnam, matters only get worse. With the help of neighbors and family, they decide to take the ultimate risk on a chance for a better life"--Provided by publisher.

In 1938, eleven-year-old Esther joins her father in tropical, multicultural Cuba, where they toil together to rescue the rest of their Jewish family from persecution in Poland. Includes notes about the author's grandmother, on whom the story is based.

After living in an Catholic orphanage for nearly four years, a naive Jewish boy runs away and embarks on a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents.

In alternating voices, friends Asha and Yesofu, one Indian and one African, find their world turned upside-down when Idi Amin decides to expel Asian Indians from Uganda in 1972.

Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.

t is 1805 and Mary Lambert has always felt safe among the deaf community of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard where practically everyone communicates in a shared sign language, but recent events have shattered her life; her brother George has died, land disputes between English settlers and the Wampanoag people are becoming increasingly bitter, and a "scientist" determined to discover the origins of the islands' widespread deafness has decided she makes the perfect "live specimen"--and kidnapped her.

In my head, I'm someplace else. I hear the crack of flaming wood, smell smoky campfire burning, lean against Mum's knee, listen to grannies tell stories. In my head, I'm home. Taken far from everyone and everything she knows and loves, Annie must make a new life in a strange world. A sister-friend brings fresh hope, but can it last?

In 1857 India, 12-year-old Meera escapes a life she has no say in - and certain death on her husband's funeral pyre - only to end up a servant to a British general in the East India Company. When a rebellion against British colonisers spreads, she must choose between relative safety in a British household or standing up for herself and her people.

"When Soviet troops invade Japanese-occupied Manchuria during the last days of World War II, twelve-year-old Natsu Kimura must care for her younger sister as they struggle to survive and return to Japan"--Provided by publisher.

A young Afghan girl, Najmah, befriends an American woman, Nusrat in Peshawar, Pakistan, after Najmah flees her native Afghanistan during the 2001 war; and together they begin a long journey to locate their missing loved ones after the war ends.

"South Africa, 1976. Joshua lives with his mother in the maid's room, in the backyard of their wealthy white employers' house in the city by the sea. He doesn't quite understand the events going on around him. But when he rescues a stranger and riots begin to sweep the country, Joshua has to face the world beneath--the world deep inside him--to make heartbreaking choices that will change his life forever"--Amazon.com.