The Seventeen-Year Summer: read-along
The Seventeen-Year Summer as a read-along for the projector: 13 pages, 2242 words, level 18, beyond grade 8.
Page 1 of 13
Bea Okafor had disliked insects for as long as she could remember, which was a considerable inconvenience in a family that otherwise adored the outdoors. She disliked moths for their dusty infatuation with lamps, beetles for their unpredictable trajectories, and anything with more than six legs on principle. So when her parents announced that she would be spending June with her grandfather in Corley's Bend, while they finished transporting the family's belongings into the new apartment, she accepted the arrangement calmly, right up until her mother mentioned, casually, over dinner, that it happened to be a cicada year. Bea inquired what that meant. Her mother explained that underneath her grandfather's lawn, at that very moment, there were probably several thousand insects that had been waiting in the darkness for seventeen years, and that they were about to emerge, every one of them, practically simultaneously. Bea set down her fork and asked, in an extremely level voice, whether it was too late to enroll in summer camp instead.
Keys: ← → or Page Up and Page Down turn the page, Space starts and pauses the voice, Home and End jump, F fills the screen. Tapping the right side of a page goes on; the left side goes back.
How to use it
- Press Full screen (F) to put the book on the projector.
- Press Read to me (Space), or read it yourself and turn pages with the arrow keys or a tap. Pick the Pace that suits the class.
- After the last page, three questions come up to talk about.
About this book
- Level 18, beyond grade 8
- 13 pages, 2242 words, about 17 minutes aloud
- A story, a little spooky
Related
About The Seventeen-Year Summer
Bea has never liked insects, so a June at her grandfather's, in the year the cicadas come up after seventeen years underground, is her idea of a nightmare. Her mother counted them under the same oak when she was twelve, and the blank line at the end of the old notebook is waiting for Bea's name.
Words to preview
- periodical (peer-ee-OD-ih-kul)
- coming at intervals
- quadrat (KWOD-rut)
- counting square
- nymph (NIMF)
- young insect
- translucent (trans-LOO-sunt)
- lets light through
- chorus (KOR-us)
- singing together
Questions that fit any book
- What happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end?
- Which page was your favorite? Why?
- How did the main character feel at the end? What tells you?
Questions
How long does The Seventeen-Year Summer take to read aloud?
It has 13 pages and 2242 words, so about 17 minutes at the Steady pace and a little less at Quick. If you stop to talk on the way, plan for more.
What reading level is The Seventeen-Year Summer?
Level 18, beyond grade 8. The library numbers its levels from 0 to 18 and puts the level of a book on its cover; levels above 13 are beyond grade 8 and have no grade. A level is a guide for choosing, so look at the pages yourself.
Whose voice is it?
Your browser's own. Read to me uses a speaking voice already on the computer, so it sounds like that computer and works without a sign-in. Voices differ: some light each word as it is spoken, and some do not, in which case the highlight follows a steady pace instead. Some browsers use an online voice; if yours does, the browser, not us, sends the words of the page to its speech service. If no voice is installed, turn the pages and read it aloud yourself.
Do students need an account?
No. Nothing is asked of anyone and nothing is sent to us. Project the page, or share the link and let students open it on their own screens.
Where does this book come from?
It was written for Peabody's library. It is not copied from a published book.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. The voice is your browser's own. No sign-in, no ads.