Summer Reading

2011-2012 Summer Reading List - Upper School

9/10 Team - Teacher,  Gena Lopata

Download this as a PDF:  2011-12SummerReading9-10.pdf

 

DIRECTIONS: If you are a rising freshman, welcome to the 9/10 team! Here is your first assignment: Select and read a book from the following list.

 

Finish your reading before the beginning of the school year. Early in the first semester, students complete a follow-up project based on the summer reading books. This project will be given a significant grade. An extra-credit assignment will be available for reading a second book from the list.

 

Note that all books were selected based on this year’s theme, “Identity.” Please consider this as a theme, however it may work for you, as you read.

 

NOTE: In order to receive credit, you must read a book that you have never read before.

 

 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the 1969 autobiography about the early years of African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou . The first in a six-volume series, it is a coming - of - age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma . The book begins when three-year-old Maya and her older brother are sent to Stamps , Arkansas , to live with their grandmother and ends when Maya becomes a mother at the age of 17. In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice. (Source: Wikipedia.com)

 

Fallen Angels – Walter Dean Myers

Richie Perry didn't have a plan for getting out of his dead-end inner-city life, so he joined the Army. But at this point in history, joining the Army means fighting in Vietnam, and Richie hadn't realized how horrifying that would be. Now, he and his friends can't take the time to worry about why they are in Vietnam, who they are fighting or what is happening in the real world--they just want to get out alive. (Source: google.books.com)

 

The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier

Does Jerry Renault dare to disturb the universe? You wouldn't think that his refusal to sell chocolates during his school's fundraiser would create such a stir, but it does; it's as if the whole school comes apart at the seams. To some, Jerry is a hero, but to others, he becomes a scapegoat--a target for their pent-up hatred. And Jerry? He's just trying to stand up for what he believes, but perhaps there is no way for him to escape becoming a pawn in this game of control; students are pitted against other students, fighting for honor--or are they fighting for their lives? (Source: amazon.com Book review)

 

The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they don't know about their earlier never-spoken of lives in China. The mothers want love and obedience from their daughters, but they don't know the gifts that the daughters keep to themselves. Heartwarming and bittersweet, this is a novel for mother, daughters, and those that love them. (Source: Amazon.com Editorial reviews)

 

Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins, "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."(Source: amazon.com Book review)

 

When I Was Puerto Rican – Esmerelda Santiago

Esmerelda and her seven siblings live in a corrugated metal shack in Puerto Rico. She is uprooted as a result of poverty and her parents' quarreling and suffers blows to her ego from their expectations of her. The girl goes to New York, where her grandmother lives, and must rely on her intelligence and talents to help her survive in an alien world in which being Puerto Rican is not advantageous. (Source: Ginny Ryder, Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA, School Library Journal)

 

 

Touching Spirit Bear - Ben Mikaelsen

Cole Matthews is a violent teen offender convicted of viciously beating a classmate, Peter, causing neurological and psychological problems. Cole elects to participate in Circle Justice, an alternative sentencing program based on traditional Native American practices that results in his being banished to a remote Alaskan Island where he is left to survive for a year. Cynical and street smart, he expects to fake his way through the preliminaries, escape by swimming off the island, and beat the system, again. But his encounter with the Spirit Bear of the title leaves him desperately wounded and gives him six months of hospitalization to reconsider his options.  Cole's gradual transformation into a human kind of being happens in fits and starts. He realizes he must accept responsibility for what he has done, but his pride, pain, and conditioning continue to interfere. He learns that his anger may never be gone, but that he can learn to control it. …The truth of the Japanese proverb cited in the frontispiece, "Fall seven times, stand up eight" is fully and effectively realized. (Source: Amazon.com - Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA

 

More challenging books:

 

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when she’s roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayor’s reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative. (Source: Amazon.com, Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

 

 

The Color of Water – James McBride

The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew,          immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all. (Source: Amazon.com)

 

The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury

In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. (Source: Stanley Wiater, amazon.com Book review)

 

 

Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

This is a complicated tale of a young girl who grows into a man. The story of Cal Stephanides begins generations before his birth, in a small Greek village, when his grandparents succumb to incestuous desires. Immigration to the United States keeps Desdemona and Lefty's secret intact - until their grandchild Cal reaches puberty. Told with both humor and earnestness, the story grows  more engaging with every page. The brilliance of this book emerges not from the superficial story of a hermaphrodite but from the context - historical, scientific, psychological, political, geographical - of Cal's birth and subsequent rebirth. MIDDLESEX is about much more than gender confusion.   Cal's mixed gender can be taken as a metaphor for the experience of first- and second-generations born of immigrants. (Source: Amazon.com book review, D.L.Wesselman)

 

 

Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

In 1993 a mountaineer named Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants’ kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools – especially for girls – in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit. (Source: Book jacket)

 

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

On the surface a fairly conventional Gothic romance (poor orphan governess is hired by rich, brooding hero-type), Jane Eyre hardly seems the stuff from which revolutions are made. But the story is very much about the nature of human freedom and equality, and if Jane was seen as something of a renegade in nineteenth-century England, it is because her story is that of a woman who struggles for self-definition and determination in a society that too often denies her that right. But self-determination does not mean untrammeled freedom for men or women. Rochester, that thorny masculine beast whom Jane eventually falls for, is a man who sets his own laws and manipulates the lives of those around him; before he can enter into a marriage of equals with Jane he must undergo a spiritual transformation. Should the lesson sound dry, it's not. Jane Eyre is full of drama: fires, storms, attempted murder, and a mad wife conveniently stashed away in the attic. (Source: 500 Great Books by Women ; review by Chris Kellett

 

 

 

11/12 Team - Teacher,  Ann Croxon

Download this as a PDF:  2011-2012SummerReading11-12.pdf

DIRECTIONS: If you are a rising junior, welcome to the 11/12 team! Here is our first assignment for 2011-2012: Select and read a book from the following list. In order to receive credit, you must read a book that you have never read before.

Finish your reading before the beginning of the school year. Early in the semester, students will complete a follow-up project based on the summer reading books. This project will count as a significant grade. Also, an extra-credit assignment will be available for reading a second book from the list.

To choose your book, I recommend that you browse in a bookstore, read the back cover and the first two paragraphs of the first chapter. These selections represent a wide array of subject matter, style, and reading difficulty. Consider the reading levels & choose wisely!

* Very accessible reading level

 

* * Most 11th & 12th graders find the reading level works for them

 

* * * Challenging reading level; strong readers may enjoy more

 

The following descriptions were taken from Wikipedia & Amazon.com, or written by myself:

* * Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell: Ree Dolly is 17 and living in the Ozark Mountains with her mother and two little brothers. She already has many responsibilities on her shoulders when she finds out that her father, a long-time drug dealer, put the family house up as bail security. When he does not show up for court, Ree discovers that her home and land will be taken in a few weeks if her father does not reappear. Part mystery and part heroic journey, the novel traces Ree's search to find her father as she enters into the shadowy underworld of a rural crime family.

 

The author Daniel Woodrell is a resident of the Ozarks and published this novel in 2006. In 2010, Winter's Bone was made into an acclaimed, independent film. It received excellent reviews and numerous awards, including four Academy Award nominations. There are some significant changes from the book, so I recommend watching the movie after we finish the summer reading assignment in September.

 

* * King Dork by Frank Portman: Tom Henderson (a.k.a. King Dork, Chi-mo, Hender-fag, and Sheepie) is a typical American high school loser until he discovers the book, The Catcher in the Rye, that will change the world as he knows it. When Tom discovers his deceased father's copy of the Salinger classic, he finds himself in the middle of several interlocking conspiracies and at least half a dozen mysteries involving dead people, naked people, fake people, ESP, blood, a secret code, guitars, monks, witchcraft, the Bible, girls, the Crusades, a devil head, and rock and roll. And it all looks like it's just the tip of a very odd iceberg of clues that may very well unravel the puzzle of his father's death and-oddly-reveal the secret to attracting semi-hot girls.

 

* * The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver:   Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources.

 

* * Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley: Published in 1994 as the tobacco industry was fighting to reverse ever decreasing profits, this satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins propaganda on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son. Fast-paced and tongue-in-cheek, the story veers to the zany while lampooning lobbyists, big industries, and politicians. 

 

* * The Collector by John Fowles: Published in1963, the novel is disturbing, engrossing, and an unforgettable page-turner.  The story focuses on an obsessive young man and the girl he kidnaps and holds prisoner in his cellar. The main character, Frederick Clegg, works as a clerk in a city hall and collects butterflies in his spare time. He is obsessed with Miranda Grey, an upper-class art student. The first part of the novel tells the story from his point of view. The second part of the novel is narrated by Miranda in the form of fragments from a diary that she keeps during her captivity.

 

* * The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler: This hopeful tale is set in a dystopian future United States of walled cities, disease, fires, and madness. Lauren Olamina is an 18-year-old woman with hyper-empathy syndrome--if she sees another in pain, she feels their pain as acutely as if it were real. When her relatively safe neighborhood enclave is inevitably destroyed, along with her family and dreams for the future, Lauren grabs a backpack full of supplies and begins a journey north. Along the way, she recruits fellow refugees to her embryonic faith, Earthseed, the prime tenet of which is that "God is change." This is a great book--simple and elegant, with enough message to make you think, but not so much that you feel preached to.

 

* * The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley: If there was any one man who articulated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man was Malxolm X. His AUTOBIOGRAPHY is now an established classic of modern America, a book that expresses like none other the crucial truth about our times.

"Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." - THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

 

* * One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey: In this classic novel of the 1960's, Ken Kesey's hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Big Nurse. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Big Nurse, backed by the full power of authority...McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Big Nurse uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story's shocking climax.

 

* * In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

A highly acclaimed non-fiction story, it is one of the few 'true crime' books to be taught regularly in high schools and colleges. It inspired two movie adaptations as well as a recent critically acclaimed movie that traces Capote's writing of the book.

 

* Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates: In her first novel for young adults, acclaimed author Oates creates a provocative and unflinching story of friendship and family, loyalty and betrayal that hits close to home. Matthew Donaghy (Big Mouth) has always had a big mouth. But it never got him into trouble — until one day when two detectives escort him out of class for questioning. The charge? Matt has been accused of threatening to blow up Rocky River High School. Although he is innocent of the accusation, people shun him, and many adults, including the principal of Rocky River High School, get suspicious.

 

Ursula Riggs is a strong athlete at Rocky River High. She secretly gives herself the proper name "Ugly Girl." Ursula has no time for petty high school distractions like friends (except for her friend Bonnie) and dating. Ursula is content to mind her own business. She hardly knows Matt Donaghy at the start of the novel. But Ursula knows injustice when she sees it. And she's not afraid to speak out.

 

Joyce Carol Oates is an important contemporary American author who is known for her innovative and sophisticated style. This novel is her first written specifically for young adults, thus it is a more accessible read.

 

* * The Color Purple by Alice Walker: The novel tells the story of two sisters--one a missionary to Africa and the other a child wife living in the South--who remain loyal to one another across time, distance, and silence. The protagonist is Celie, a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she begins to protect her younger sister from their abusive father. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States. In 1983 Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for The Color Purple.

 

Controversial themes have led to this novel being banned by many school districts. However, it is already an important classic that is often taught in college courses. Both accessible and challenging, the novel is written as a series of letters. Walker's protagonist is barely literate at the beginning of the novel, so the writing style reflects Celie's dialect and poor spelling. This can be challenging at first, but the reader soon adjusts and the story becomes quite a page-turner with short letters that move the story along quickly.

 

* The Chosen by Chaim Potok: A bestselling novel published in 1967, it is about two teenage Jewish boys who form a friendship, though they come from different worlds. Set in 1940s Brooklyn, the novel explores the themes of tradition and independence. Reuven Malter, the narrator of the story, is the son of a writer and scholar who follows modern methods of studying Judaism and he is Orthodox. Danny, his new friend, is the genius son of a Hasidic rabbi, whose people live completely within the bounds of traditional Jewish law. The two boys learn from each other even as they encounter the cultural divide that separates them.

 

The novel received excellent reviews when it was first published and soon began to be taught in many school districts. A well crafted novel, it is an accessible read.

 

* * * Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Published in 1813 by a now legendary author of British literature, many consider this one of Austen's best. For over 150 years, it has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language, inspiring numerous movie versions and several modern adaptations. The satiric story begins with Mrs. Bennet's attempts to marry off her five daughters. Excitement fizzes through the Bennet household at Longbourn in Hertfordshire when young, eligible Mr. Charles Bingley rents the fine house nearby. He may have sisters, but he also has male friends, and one of these -- the haughty, and even wealthier, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy -- irks the vivacious Elizabeth Bennet. The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and Darcy is a splendid rendition of civilized sparring. As the characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, Jane Austen's radiantly caustic wit and keen observation sparkle.

 

A challenging read, it is often taught in 12th grade honors classes.

 

* * * House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende: The story details the life of the Trueba family, spanning four generations, and tracing the post-colonial social and political upheavals of the Latin American country they live in. The story is told mainly from the perspective of two protagonists and incorporates elements of magic realism. Published in Barcelona in 1982, the novel was critically acclaimed around the world, and catapulted Allende to literary stardom. That same year, the novel was named Best Novel of the Year in Chile, and she received the country's Panorama Literario Award. The novel has been translated to over 20 languages worldwide.

 

Allende is an important contemporary writer from South America who has been able to appeal to a large audience in the United States. A more challenging read from a very fine writer.

 

*The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: This science fiction novel introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where North America once stood. This is where a powerful government working in a central city called the Capitol holds power. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death. The Hunger Games exist to demonstrate not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol's power.