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Summer is a great time to read for enjoyment. You are asked to read three books from this list. Teachers will ask you to demonstrate your knowledge of the books you have read in September.
Students entering grade 9 Honors are required to read The Odyssey by Homer as one of their selections. A suggested edition is translated by Stanley Lombardo and published by the Hackett Publishing Company.
Students entering grade 10 Honors are required to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens as one of their selections.
Suggested reading levels are noted at the end of each annotation.
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth century New England. (9-10)
Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Four lively Latinas are plunged from a pampered life of privilege on an island compound into the big-city chaos of New York. They rebel against Mami and Papi’s old-world discipline and embrace all that America has to offer. (11,12)
Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies
Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who oppose the dictatorship of Trujillo. (9-12)
Anonymous. Go Ask Alice
A fifteen-year-old drug user chronicles her daily struggle to escape the pull of the drug world. (9-10)
Binchy, Maeve. Tara Road
The story of two women – one Irish, one American who are struggling to overcome personal tragedies and who agree to swap houses for the summer. (9-12)
Binchy, Maeve. Evening Class
This novel evokes the lives of eight Dubliners who come together in an “Introduction to Italian” class which culminates in a magical trip to Italy. (9-12)
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon
The magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. (11-12)
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
In nineteenth-century Yorkshire, the passionate attachment between a headstrong young girl and a foundling boy brought up by her father causes disaster for them and others. (9-12)
Brown, Dan. Da Vinci Code
Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of symbology, finds himself entangled in a deadly conspiracy that stretches back centuries. (11,12)
Chevalier, Tracy. The Girl with the Pearl Earring
The novel tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with artistic genius. (11-12)
Christie, Agatha. And Then There Were None
First there were ten, a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. (9,10)
Crichton, Michael. Timeline
Set sometime in the future, a group of students is studying an archaeological site in France when the professor in charge disappears. (9-12)
Crichton, Michael. State of Fear
A commentary on how information is manipulated in the modern world. (11,12)
Dorris, Michael. Yellow Raft in Blue Water
This is a story that reveals the weave of family relationships and the strength of new beginnings. (9-12)
Dumas, Alexander. Count of Monte Cristo
Sent to prison on a false accusation in 1815, Edmond Dantes escapes many years later and finds a treasure which he uses to exact his revenge. (9-12)
Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca
A timeless classic of mystery and suspense. (9-12)
Eckert, Allan. The Frontiersmen
The epic tale of a towering Native-American. The book tells the story of Shawnee leader Tecumseh, a military genius whose vision was to unite the North American tribes into one powerful Indian nation. (9-10)
Esquival, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate
A “tall-tale,” soap opera romance, Mexican cookbook, and home-remedy handbook and tale of family life in turn of the century Mexico all rolled into one. (11-12)
Fisher, Antwone. Finding Fish
An extraordinary memoir of a young man who grew up in a daunting environment. Born to a single mother in prison, Fisher matured despite the savage discipline of a foster home and the sexual assault of a female neighbor (11,12)
Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain
The tale of a wounded soldier, Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the Civil War and back home to his prewar sweetheart, Ada. (11,12)
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars
In 1954 a fisherman from San Piedro Island in Puget Sound is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese-American is charged with his murder. The trial is haunted by memories of what happened to the Japanese residents during World War II when the entire community was sent into exile. (11,12)
Glass, Julia. Three Junes
A vividly textured novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. (11-12)
Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me
The author tells of his experiences after he darkened his skin and traveled through the South in order to find out how it feels to be black. (9-12)
Haddin, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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. (9,10)
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from the final days of Afghanistan’s monarchy to the atrocities of the present. (11-12)
Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany
In the summer of 1953, during a Little League baseball game, 11-year-old Owen Meany hits a foul ball that kills his best friend’s mother. What happens to him after that fateful day makes this novel extraordinary, terrifying, and unforgettable. (9-12)
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World
Huxley’s vision of the future. (11-12)
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Ramona
Ramona is Jackson’s popular story of undying love in the turmoil faced by American Indians in Old California. (11-12)
Khadra, Yasmina. The Swallows of Kabul
Set in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban, this novel takes readers into the lives of two couples. Mohsen comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers whom the Taliban have destroyed; and Zunaira, his beautiful wife, once a brilliant teacher, is now no longer allowed to leave her home without escort or covering her face. Intersecting their world is Atiq, a prison keeper, a man who has sincerely adopted the Taliban ideology. (9-12)
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees
Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owns has shaped her entire life around one devasting, blurred memory- the afternoon her mother was killed when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her “stand-in-mother.” (9-12)
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air
A childhood dream of someday ascending Mount Everest, a lifelong love of climbing, and an expense account all propelled writer Jon Krakauer to the top of the Himalayas. (9-12)
Lansing, Alfred. Endurance
Ernest Shackleton defined heroism in 1915 when his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in ice and then destroyed on its way to Antartica. This tense week-by-week, month-by-month reconstruction charts the incredible journey undertaken by his crew of 27 men through 850 miles of the southern Atlantic’s heaviest seas. (9,12)
Lewis, C. S. Out of the Silent Planet
The first book in C.S. Lewis’s acclaimed Space Trilogy series, and the adventures of the remarkable Dr. Ransom. (9,10)
Martel, Yann. The Life of Pi
This novel is a story of a young castaway who faces immeasurable hardships on the high seas, and a meditation on religion, art and life. (9-12)
Meyers, Walter Dean. Slam
Sixteen-year- old “Slam” Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently. (9-10)
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye
This is the story of a black girl who prays – with unforeseen consequences- for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be accepted. (11-12)
Nafisis, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir
An inspiring account of a desire for intellectual freedom in Iran, before, during, and after the 1979 revolution. (11-12)
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried
A novel about the Vietnam War. A classic study of men at war that shows the capacity, and the limits of the human heart and soul. The novel focuses on the members of a single platoon. (11,12)
Packer, Anne. The Dive From Clausen’s Pier
A story about loyalty, self-knowledge, and the conflict between who we want to be to others and who we must be to ourselves. (11,12)
Parks, Gordon. The Learning Tree
A moving, true-to-life novel of growing up as a black man in this country in the twentieth century. (9-10)
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
The Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass also by this author. (9-10)
Quindlen, Anna. Blessings
An elderly, aristocratic woman set in her ways, a young man searching for his place in life, and an abandoned baby dependent upon others, come together creating a most unusual “family” unit – and a poignant novel of redemption. (11-12)
Russo, Richard. Empire Falls
This novel tells of the plight of the working class in a decaying Northeast mill town. (11,12)
Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican
Eldest daughter in an ever-growing family, Santiago remembers growing up in Puerto Rico and the shock of moving to New York City and its change of pace and lifestyle. (9-10)
Sebold, Anne. Lovely Bones
When we first meet Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. As she looks down from this strange new place, she tells us, in the fresh spirited voice of a fourteen-year-old girl, a tale that is both haunting and full of hope. (9-12)
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein
A monster, assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies, develops a mind of his own. (9-12)
Shreve, Anita. The Pilot’s Wife
An engrossing thriller. With one late-night knock on her door, Kathryn Lyon’s worst fears as a pilot’s wife come true. Her husband Jack has died in a mid-air explosion off the coast of Ireland. A phone number found in his pocket leads Kathryn to London and to his secret life. (11,12)
Silko, Marmon. Ceremony
Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. This novel is written in stream of consciousness format. (11,12)
Sparks, Nicholas. Message in the Bottle
Challenged by the mystery of a message found in a bottle signed by Garret, Theresa Osborne searches for him and takes the reader along on a hunt about love. (9-12)
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath
The story of an Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. (11,12)
Toffler, Alvin. Future Shock
Toffler examines the effects of rapid industrial and technological changes upon the individual, the family, and society. (9-12)
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five
Unstuck in time, Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut’s shattered survivor of the Dresdan bombing, relives his life over and over again under the gaze of aliens; he comes at last to some understanding of the human comedy. (11,12)
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple
Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell her story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate. (12)
Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth
Lily Bart, a ravishing young woman who lacks a fortune of her own, needs to find a wealthy husband in order to secure her position in early 20 th century New York society. (11,12)
White, T. H. Once and Future King
A magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlin and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly; of wizardry and war. (9-12)
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray makes a Faustian bargain to sell his soul in exchange for eternal youth and beauty (11-12)