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9th
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ELE
Reading List 10, 11, 12
ELE
Reading List 9th Grade
Reading Response Form
ELE Reading Response Form
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Summer
Reading Requirements
2009
Reading and Writing are actions necessary to
everyone’s success in school, at work and in life. Reading and responding
to reading in writing are essential to learning. Prepare for your success
in the new school year by completing the following Summer Reading
Requirements:
Ø
All students
are required to choose at least one book from the list. Please notice course
recommendations. Fiction and Nonfiction books are listed.
Ø
All Students
are required to complete a Reading Response Form. Responses should be
complete and include specific details from the Summer Reading Book.
This assignment is due the first week of school.
Students will
write an in class essay response using their Summer Reading
Book and/or their Reading Response Form during the first week of the school
year.
Book lists and response packets
are also available on the school website,
www.gltech.org
Students who do not complete this
assignment will receive comments on their Term 1 Progress Report.
The grade for the
Reading Response Form and the in class essay response
are included in first marking period averages.
These Books are recommended Summer Reading for
12th Grade —– ENGLISH 4
Jazmin’s Notebook
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Nikki Grimes
Funny, tender, angry, and tough Jazmin’s diary entries and occasional poems
about growing up in Harlem in the 1960’s make us share her struggle to find
community and her own space.
The Wreckers
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Iain Lawrence
It
is dark and stormy night when a merchant ship is lured onto the rocks of the
Cornish coast. Part survival story, part historical fiction, this tale,
narrated by one of the ship’s survivors, is a page-turner.
I Am Mordred: A tale from Camelot
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Nancy Springer
Springer humanizes Arthurian arch-villain Mordred in a thoroughly
captivating and poignant tale that follows Mordred as he tries to sort out
his love-hate feelings for his father.
The Rag and Bone Shop
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Robert Comier
Cormier's (published posthumously, is characteristically dark and thought
provoking) Characters include: Trent, an ambitious and renowned
interrogator who holds a perfect record wrenching confessionals out of
criminals, and 12-year-old Jason Dorrant, suspected of murdering his
neighbor, seven-year-old Alicia Bartlett. The killing attracts much
publicity plus the attention of a senator. The local police, anxious to
solve the case quickly, call on the expertise of Trent to get Jason, the
last person seen with the victim, to confess to the crime.
Tell No One
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Harlan Coben
After eight years of struggling with grief over his wife’s murder by a
serial killer, Dr. David Beck receives a mysterious e-mail including a
secret word only the two of them knew.
The Lords of Discipline
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Pat Conroy
Cadets at a southern military academy face hazing, hatred, and prejudice as
they confront members of a secret society dedicated to preserving
traditions.
(Available in Audio)
And Still We Rise:
The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City Students
(recommended for English 4)
by
Miles, Corwin
The award-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times chronicles the
incredible challenges faced by high school seniors in a South-Central Los
Angeles gifted program.
America: A Novel
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
E.R. Frank
The enduring love of this foster mother and a dedicated therapist are
fifteen-year-old America’s only positive life forces in this disturbing
powerful story of forgiveness and “against the odds” survival.
All the Pretty Horses
–
(recommended for English 4)
by
Cormac McCarthy
McCarthy’s great epic Border Trilogy whose first novel, All the Pretty
Horses, has become McCarthy’s most famous. It tells the story of 20th
century cowboys. The book examines characters desperately trying to inhabit
the cowboy myth and to subscribe to the cowboy code of stoicism.
(Available in Audio)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster –
NON-FICTION
by
Jon Krakauer, (Introduction)
–
(recommended for all levels)
A riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount
Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and
seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest
guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the
end of summit day eight people were dead.
Snow in August – NON-FICTION
by
Peter Hamill
–
(recommended for all levels)
The story of an unlikely friendship (Michael Devlin and a
lonely rabbi from Prague) – and of how the neighborhood reacts to it. For
Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival
anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday
mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like
their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling
prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of
The following books are RECOMMENDED
for students who will be in
COLLEGE ENGLISH 4
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
–
(recommended for College English 4)
by
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
After serving eight years in various prisons and labor camps in Russia,
Solzhenitsyn wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. This work was
the first public mention of forced collectivization of farms and of forced
labor camps in Russia. The novel take us through a typical day of Ivan
Denisovich, a prisoner at a Stalinist labor camp in 1951.
The Bell Jar
–
(recommended for College English 4)
by
Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel that conforms closely to the
events of the author’s le. The Bell Jar recounts, in slightly fictional
form, the events of the summer and autumn after Plath’s junior year at Smith
College. Psychological treatment and suicide are a large part of the novel’s
plot.
The Plague
–
(recommended for College English 4)
by
Albert Camus
Throughout his life, Camus was deeply concerned with the problem of human
suffering in an indifferent world. In The Plague, Camus addresses the
collective response to catastrophe when a large city in Algeria is isolated
due to an outbreak of the bubonic plague.
In Cold Blood
–
(recommended for College English)
by
Truman Capote
Capote based this novel on a small newspaper article describing the murder
of a Kansas ranch family of four. Capote became close to the murderers, the
townspeople of Holcomb, Kansas and did much research into the police
investigation in writing this epic nonfiction novel.
Catch-22
–
(recommended for College English 4)
by
Joseph Heller
Heller wrote Catch-22 based on his own Air Force experience. It is a war
story that is at once hilarious, grotesque, cynical and stirring. Catch-22
relies heavily on humor to convey the insanity of war and presenting the
horrible meaninglessness of armed conflict.
Robinson Crusoe
–
(recommended for College English 4)
by
Daniel Defoe
Widely acknowledged as
the first English novel, Daniel Defoe’s adventure story of a shipwrecked
sailor became an instant classic upon its publication in 1719 and the
yardstick for countless castaway novels to follow. Robinson Crusoe is more
than a great story. It is a story of survival seen through the eyes of an
ordinary man stranded on a deserted island for over 30 years.
The Count of Monte Cristo
–
(recommended for College English 4)
by
Alexander Dumas
A popular novel
weritten in 1844. The Count of Monte Cristo is a story of a wrongful
trial, imprisonment, an escape to riches, vengeance and redemption. The
novel is primarily concerned with the themes of hope, justice, vengeance,
mercy and death. A truly great adventure story.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster –
NON-FICTION
by
Jon Krakauer, (Introduction)
–
(recommended for all levels)
A riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount
Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and
seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest
guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the
end of summit day eight people were dead.
Snow in August – NON-FICTION
by
Peter Hamill
–
(recommended for all levels)
The story of an unlikely friendship (Michael Devlin and a lonely rabbi from
Prague) – and of how the neighborhood reacts to it. For Michael, the rabbi
opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival anything in Captain
Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of
America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero
Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of
the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael
and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there’s
only one way out – a miracle.
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These Books are recommended Summer Reading for
11th Grade —– ENGLISH 3
The Things They Carried
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Tim O’Brien
This novel depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins,
Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the
character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a
father and writer at the age of forty-three.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Christopher Paul Curtis
Humorous portrayal of African American family life in Flint, Michigan
during the 1960s;explores issues and effects of racism through the eyes
of a ten-year old boy; a story of strong family values, courage, and
coming of age.
You Don't Know Me
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Davis Klass
No one knows who the real John is. Not his mother, to whom he feels
invisible, not his friend who is not a friend, not the man who is not
his father, the students at his anti-school, and not the music teacher
who tries to help him. In his house that is not a house, the man who is
not John's father abuses him severely, and John is afraid to confide the
secret to anyone.
Phoenix Rising
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Karen Hesse
Teenager Nyle and her grandmother raise sheep on their Vermont farm. In
a post-nuclear accident future, Nyle wishes to be isolated from anyone
with radiation sickness, while her grandmother wants to take in Ezra and
his mother, two unfortunate people infected with the deadly disease.
Under the Blood-Red Sun
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Graham Salisbury
It was an ordinary Sunday morning at Pearl Harbor. Tomi releasing the
homing pigeons for their daily exercise. Then came the first
explosions. Tomi looked up to see the rising sun on the attacking
plane’s wings; Grandpa ran out of the house waving Japanese flag. Tomi’s
world will never be the same, but some things never change, his family,
his friends, the Rats.
The Jacket
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Andrew Clements
When Phil accuses an African American boy of stealing his younger
brother’s jacket, he discovers what prejudice really is. Each boy
learns about the other and by doing so, most importantly, they learn
about themselves.
Morning Girl
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Michael Dorris
This book is the story of a girl, Morning Girl, and her brother, Star
Boy, two Native Americans of the Taino Tribe. It tells of their family
and community as they grow up together in the Bahamas in the fateful
year of 1492. Morning Girl and her brother are anxious about change, but
the change isn’t one they will look forward to at the end.
(Available in Audio)
Behind the Lines:
Powerful and Revealing American and foreign
War Letter--and One Man’s Search to Find Them –
(recommended for English 3)
by
Andrew Carroll
These are, as Carroll writes, "the first, unfiltered drafts of history."
His rich sample testifies to the universal and poignant themes of love
and honor, courage and rage, duty and fear and mortality. The playful
and heartfelt voices grant us the personal perspective all too often
lost in news reports and government statements. Taken together, they
remind us that, despite the playful good cheer, the human cost of war is
far too high. A remarkable contribution to the understanding of war and
its impact, and a powerful tribute to those undone by it.
Watership Down
–
(recommended for English 3)
by
Richard Adams
The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction
of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven,
skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and
its compelling culture and mythos. Adams has crafted a touching,
involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside,
complete with its own folk history and land.
To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family
– NON-FICTION
by
Joan D. Criddle -
(recommended for all levels)
A story of remarkable courage, fortitude and dignity in the face of
adversity. TO DESTROY YOU IS NO LOSS follows one Cambodian family's
struggle to survive four years of unprecedented brutality and wanton
destruction during the Khmer Rouge regime. Featuring fifteen-year-old
Teeda, it is the true story of the four generation Butt family's efforts
to stay alive, and their eventual terror-filled escape attempts from a
war-ravaged, famine-riddled nation.
I Am an American: The True Story of the Japanese Internment
– NON-FICTION
by
Jerry Stanley
–
(recommended for all levels)
They were U.S. Citizens, many of them born in this country. Why were
they being taken from their homes and sent to desolate places that were
unlike anyplace they had ever lived?
The following books are RECOMMENDED
for students who will be in
COLLEGE ENGLISH 3
Slaughterhouse Five
by
Kurt Vonnegut
–
(recommended for College English3)
We are introduced to Billy Pilgrim a man who becomes unstuck in time
after he is abducted by aliens from the plant Tralfamadore. In a
plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously
through all phrases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut’s)
shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the
firebombing of Dresden. Vonnegut’s book is as important as any written
since 1945. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author’s experiences in the
Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery
in the service of authority.
Beloved
by
Toni Morrison
–
(recommended for College English 3)
An unspeakable act of horror and heroism: a woman brutally kills her
infant daughter rather than allow her to be enslaved. The woman is Sethe,
and the novel traces her journey from slavery to freedom during and
immediately following the Civil War. Woven into this circular,
mesmerizing narrative are the horrible truths of Sethe’s past: the
incredible cruelties she endured as a slave, and the hardships she
suffered in her journey north to freedom. Just as Sethe finds the past
too painful to remember, and the future just “a matter of keeping the
past at bay,” her story is almost too painful to read. Yet Morrison
manages to imbue the wreckage of her characters’ lives with compassion,
humanity, and humor. Part ghost story, part history lesson, part folk
tale, Beloved finds beauty in the unbearable, and lets us all see the
enduring promise of hope that lies in anyone’s.
To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian
Family
– NON-FICTION
by
Joan D. Criddle -
(recommended for all levels)
A story of remarkable courage, fortitude and dignity in the face of
adversity. TO DESTROY YOU IS NO LOSS follows one Cambodian family's
struggle to survive four years of unprecedented brutality and wanton
destruction during the Khmer Rouge regime. Featuring fifteen-year-old
Teeda, it is the true story of the four generation Butt family's efforts
to stay alive, and their eventual terror-filled escape attempts from a
war-ravaged, famine-riddled nation.
I Am an American: The True Story of the Japanese
Internment – NON-FICTION
by
Jerry Stanley
–
(recommended for all levels)
They were U.S. Citizens, many of them born in this country. Why were
they being taken from their homes and sent to desolate places that were
unlike anyplace they had ever lived?
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These Books are recommended Summer Reading for
10th Grade —– English 2
The Silver Kiss
–
(recommended for English 2)
by
Annette Klause
A novel of a young girl struggling to accept the impending death of her
mother is curiously interwoven with her entanglement with a vampire.
Romiette and Julio
–
(recommended for English 2)
by
Sharon M. Draper
Romiette Cappelle, a black American girl, meets Julio Montague, a
Hispanic boy from Texas, in a chat room. When they meet in person in
the school cafeteria it is love at first sight. The similarity of their
names with Shakespeare's heroes is not coincidence. Romiette and
Julio's relationship attracts harassment by the school's gang. Things
go from bad to worse when the couple and their friends try to expose the
gang's illegal activities in order to persuade gang members to leave
them alone.
Monster
–
(recommended for English 2)
by
Walter Dean Myers
Monster is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his
supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But
was Steve really the lookout who gave the “all clear” to the murderer,
or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
(Available in Audio)
The Killer Angels
–
(recommended for English 2)
by
Michael Shaara, Don Pitcher
Allows the reader to enter into the minds and hearts of the men who
fought at Gettysburg; portrays idea that it is not armies who fight
wars, but individuals; it is not theories of strategy which yield
victory, but human insight and effort.
(Available in Audio)
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World:
The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton
and the Endurance –
NON-FICTION
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World vividly recreates one of the most
extraordinary adventure stories in history.
In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 men sailed from England in an
attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross the Antarctic
continent from one side to the other. Five months later and still 100
miles from land, their ship, Endurance, became trapped. In this amazing
survival story, Shackleton and five others navigated 800 miles of the
treacherous open ocean in a 20-foot boat and then hiked across the
unmapped, glacier-strewn interior of South Georgia Island to a whaling
station. In August 1916, 19 months after Endurance first became
icebound, Shackleton led a rescue party back to Elephant Island for his
men.
The following books are RECOMMENDED
for students who will be in
HONORS ENGLISH 2
or
COLLEGE ENGLISH 2
The Book Thief
–
(recommended for Honors 2 and College English 2)
by
Markus Zusak
By her brother’s graveside, Liesel Memingers’s life is changed when she
picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The
Grave Digger’s Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first
act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as
Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to
read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s
wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
–
(recommended for Honors 2 and College English 2)
by
Zora Neale
Hurston
Sympathetic portrayal of a young black woman’s struggles in central
Florida in the early 1900s; a notable and historic example of black
fiction and a powerful evocation of feminine self-actualization.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
–
(recommended for Honors 2 and College English 2)
by
Maya Angelou
In a poetic, yet detached way, Maya Angelou captures the heart of her
struggles growing up female and Black during the Depression. Her style
and description draw in the reader and keep her spellbound even during
the most painful scenes. You feel deeply for the author and her little
brother as they drift through their lives living for a bit of affection.
Neglected by their divorced parents, Maya and her brother get sent to
Arkansas at ages 4 and 5 to live with their grandma and handicapped
uncle. Although life is hard and love not demonstrated, Maya learns much
from her grandma and uncle.
The theme of this book is the quest for the child to be loved by the
adult. Maya feels inferior. She feels ugly and compares herself to her
magical brother Bailey. Both children are starved for true affection and
daydream a white movie actress on the screen is their long lost mother.
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World:
The
Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton
and the Endurance –
NON-FICTION
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World vividly recreates one of the most
extraordinary adventure stories in history.
In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 men sailed from England in an
attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross the Antarctic
continent from one side to the other. Five months later and still 100
miles from land, their ship, Endurance, became trapped. In this amazing
survival story, Shackleton and five others navigated 800 miles of the
treacherous open ocean in a 20-foot boat and then hiked across the
unmapped, glacier-strewn interior of South Georgia Island to a whaling
station. In August 1916, 19 months after Endurance first became
icebound, Shackleton led a rescue party back to Elephant Island for his
men.
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These Books are recommended Summer
Reading for
9th Grade English 1
Children of the River
by Linda Crew
–
(recommended for English 1)
Sundara fled
Cambodia with her aunt's family to escape the Khmer Rouge Army when she
was thirteen, leaving behind her parents, her brother and sister, and
the boy she had loved since she was a child. Now, four years later, she
struggles to fit in at her Oregon high school and to be "a good
Cambodian girl" at home.
(Available in Audio)
Miracle’s Boys
by Jacqueline Woodson
–
(recommended for English 1)
Three brothers who struggle to survive after the death of their mother
to diabetes and father to hypothermia. The Bailey brothers face many
obstacles and find their hopes and dreams sometimes unreachable. These
three NYC street smart teenagers’ relationship changes as does their
family bond.
Among the Hidden
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
–
(recommended for English 1)
In a society where family size is strictly limited to two children, Luke
is a third child. Living in an attic bedroom to avoid being seen by
authorities, Luke peers through an outside vent and observes another
""shadow child"" hiding in a nearby home, thereby beginning a secret
friendship with Jen, who plans to rebel against the government system.
(Available in Audio)
Hush
by Jacqueline Woodson
–
(recommended for English 1)
Contemporary fiction. Thirteen-year old Toswiah must leave her town, her
friends, even her name behind to begin a new life when her father
exposes a crime committed by his fellow police officers.
(Available in Audio)
Quinceanera Means Sweet Fifteen
by Veronica Chambers
–
(recommended for English 1)
For Marisol, planning a quinceañera is more like a daydream since she
and her single mother have little to spend on an extravagant party.
Magda drops their friendship when she takes up with new friends who
shoplift and find Marisol uncool. Chambers uses the quinceañera and
family traditions to introduce Latin American heritage and the concept
of community
The Breadwinner
by Deborah Ellis
–
(recommended for English 1)
Imagine living in a country in which women and girls are not allowed to
leave the house without a man. Imagine having to wear clothes that
cover every part of your body, including your face, whenever you go
out. This is life in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, members of an
extreme religious group, run most of the country. (RL 5; IL 5-8)
The Legend of Bass Reeves
by
Gary Paulsen
–
(recommended for English 1)
Born into slavery, Bass Reeves became the most successful US Marshal of
the Wild West.
Many "heroic lawmen" of the Wild West, familiar to us through television
and film, were actually violent scoundrels and outlaws themselves. But
of all the sheriffs of the frontier, one man stands out as a true hero:
Bass Reeves.
He was a black man, born into slavery. And though the laws of his
country enslaved him and his mother, when he became a free man he served
the law, with such courage and honor that he became a legend.
All for
the Better: A Story of El Barrio
(Stories of America)
by Nicholas Mohr, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)
–
(recommended for English 1)
All for the Better
tells the story of how one caring person can make a difference. In
1933, the Great Depression had hit Puerto Rico hard as it had hit the
United States. Evelina Lopez, then 11, left her mother and sisters to
live with an aunt in New York City. Her journey to Spanish Harlem, El
Barrio, and the life that followed there make up this simple biography.
Imitate the Tiger
by Jan Cheripko
–
(recommended for English 1)
Chris Serbo looks for salvation in football and drinking,
but neither will fill the emptiness inside. Not until he finds himself
in danger on a lonely road does he come face-to-face with the person he
has become.
Falling Leaves
by Yen Mah
–
(recommended for English 1)
Adeline Yen Mah, the youngest daughter of an affluent Chinese family
endured a childhood of appalling emotional abuse. Her struggles reveal
the harsh realities of growing up female in twentieth-century China.
Fat Kid Rules the World
by K. L. Going
–
(recommended for English 1)
Troy Billings
is seventeen, 296 pounds, friendless, utterly miserable, and about to
step off a New York subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Then
he meets Curt MacCrae, a, semi-homeless, high school dropout guitar
genius. Soon, Curt's recruited Troy as his new drummer—even though Troy
can't play the drums. Together, Curt and Troy will change the world of
punk, and Troy's own life, forever.
Sunrise
Over Fallujah
by
Walter Dean Myers
–
(recommended for English 1)
A young Soldier’s experience about his tour in Iraq is told by e-mails
and letter sent home.
(Available in Audio)
The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones
by
Helen Hemphill
–
(recommended for English 1)
A 14-year-old African cowboy who was born on the day that Lincoln freed
the slaves, to a mother and father who were slaves. The Adventurous
Deeds of Deadwood Jones tells the story of how Prometheus challenges
and predominant beliefs of the Old West in the era following the U.S.
Civil War, beliefs that didn’t magically disappear when the Emancipation
Proclamation was signed. His quest makes for a great ride, with a few
history lessons thrown in for good measure.
Nation
by
Terry Pratchett
–
(recommended for English 1)
Discover a breathtaking new adventure of a boy whose journey to manhood
requires the strength to defy expectations and the courage to forge new
beliefs.
Tuesday With Morrie
by
Mitch Albom
–
(recommended for English 1)
Mitch Albom had a chance to reconnect with a man, Morrie, who influenced
him and rediscovered Morrie in the last months of his life. Knowing
that Morrie was dying, Mitch met with him every Tuesday. An inspiring
story of the influence a mentor can have on our life.
(Available in Audio)
Greatest: Muhammad Ali
– NON-FICTION
by Walter Dean
Myers
–
(recommended for English 1)
Myers carefully crafts Ali's tale from his Clay family roots in
Louisville, Kentucky, to his struggles today with Parkinson Disease.
Myers weaves the events of Ali's personal life with those occurring in
our country during the twentieth century.
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine:
Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley
– NON-FICTION
by Sally W.
Walker
–
(recommended for all levels)
This fascinating account of the
development and disasters of the Civil War submarine is told with detail
and well-incorporated primary sources to capture readers. Diagrams show
how ballast enabled the boat to sink while towing a torpedo so that the
moving missile would ram and explode while the submarine was well off on
the other side of the boat. However, the experiment was not without
problems. An intriguing look at a wide variety of scientific fields and
scientists at work, a sidelight through Civil War history, and the
mysteries of the ocean floor are all hooks to interest readers in this
well-conceived book.
—Winner of the 2006 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
(Available in Audio)
The following books are RECOMMENDED
for students who will be in
HONORS ENGLISH 1 or COLLEGE ENGLISH 1
Black Like Me
– NON-FICTION
by John Griffin –
(recommended for Honors English 1 and College English 1)
In the deep south of the 1950s, journalist John Griffin decided to cross
the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown,
he exchanged his privileged life as a southern white man for the
disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still
chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity
– that in this new millennium still has something important to say to
every American.
The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper –
(recommended for Honors English 1 and College English 1)
Cooper’s most famous novel concerning the desperate struggle of the
Native Americans against the pressures and restrictions of white
civilization.
Revenge of the Whale–
NON-FICTION
by Nathaniel Philbrick
–
(recommended for Honors English 1 and College English 1)
On November 20, 1820, the whale ship Essex was rammed and sunk by an
angry whale. Within minutes, the twenty-one-man crew, including the
fourteen-year-old cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, found themselves stranded
in three leaky boats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with barely any
supplies and little hope. Three months later, two of the boats were
rescued 4,500 miles away, off the coast of South America.
Speak
by Laurie Anderson –
(recommended for Honors English 1 and College English 1)
Melinda Sordino busted an end of summer party by calling the cops. Now
her old friends won’t talk to her and people she doesn’t even know hate
her from a distance.
A Step from Heaven
–
by An Na –
(recommended for Honors English 1 and College English 1)
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English
and adjust to life in America. Debut novelist Na brings to life Young
Ju, a quiet heroine who must leave the only home she knows.
—A LA Printz award for teenage literature
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine:
Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley
– NON-FICTION
by Sally W. Walker
–
(recommended for all levels)
This fascinating account of the development and disasters of the Civil
War submarine is told with detail and well-incorporated primary sources
to capture readers. Diagrams show how ballast enabled the boat to sink
while towing a torpedo so that the moving missile would ram and explode
while the submarine was well off on the other side of the boat. However,
the experiment was not without problems. An intriguing look at a wide
variety of scientific fields and scientists at work, a sidelight through
Civil War history, and the mysteries of the ocean floor are all hooks to
interest readers in this well-conceived book.
—Winner of the 2006 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award
(Available in Audio)
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English Language
Learners (ELE)
ELE – 10, 11, 12 Summer Reading List
2009
Hoot
by Carl Haasen
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved
in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from
a proposed construction site.
Olive’s Ocean
by Kevin Henkes
A journal entry of a classmate killed in an accident sends
12-year-old Martha on an unexpected journey.
Joey Pigza Loses
Control by Jack Gantos
A delightful and soulful attempt to keep the fragile peace in
his life intact is touching, and his intense longing to just be
normal will mirror the feelings of most preteens, whether they
had ADD or not. Joey Pigza may sometimes lose control, but he
never loses his heart.
Touching
Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelson
It’s about Cole Matthews having
anger, rage, and hate. But he soon discovers after fighting his
classmate, that he has another chance to straighten up, and get
real, by going to a disserted island.
A Deadly Game
of Magic
by Joan Lowery Nixon
Lisa and her three friends find themselves unwilling players in
a cat-and-mouse game with a murderous magician whose identity
and motivation baffle them.
Sounder
by William H. Armstrong
Sounder traces the keen sorrow
and the abiding faith of a poor African-American boy in the
19th-century South. The boy's father is a sharecropper,
struggling to feed his family in hard times. Night after night,
he and his great coon dog, Sounder, return to the cabin
empty-handed. Then, one morning, almost like a miracle, a
sweet-smelling ham is cooking in the family's kitchen. At last
the family will have a good meal. But that night, an angry
sheriff and his deputies come, and the boy's life will never be
the same.
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Greater Lowell Technical
High School
Incoming 9th Grade Students
ELE – Summer Reading List
2009
Frindle
by Andrew Clements
This is a story of Nick and how he created a new word. Who says
a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle? When
Nick and his friends use a new word, it causes an uproar in the
school, throughout the town and then across the country. Wait
till you read what happens!
The
Pinballs
by Betsy Byars
Carlie gets bounced around like a pinball – no say in what
happens to her, nobody to depend on. She is stuck in a foster
home with two other kids, Harvey and Thomas J. Together, they
realize they can stop bouncing around and take control of their
own lives.
Top
Fin: Dolphin
Dives
by Pete Sanders
A group of troubled teenagers come together as part of a program
where swimming with dolphins helps them learn to accept
themselves and others.
The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
This is an abridged version of the classic American story of a
boy’s life on the Mississippi river. Freedom is everything to
Huckleberry Finn, so how can he avoid being “civilized” by the
good-hearted widow Douglas? Huck has important things on his
mind – like helping his friend Jim escape the slave-catchers.
Love
You, Soldier
by Amy Hest
Katie didn’t know what it really meant to be part of a family
until her father went away to fight in WWII. She and her mother
are lonely in New York City but they build a new family of
friends. As the years pass however she realizes that no one can
ever take her father’s place.
The
Most Beautiful Place In The World
by Ann Cameron
This is the story of Juan, a young Guatemalan boy who is
abandoned first by his father, then by his mother, but who finds
love and happiness in spite of all his losses.
Soccer
Blaster
by Margo
Sorenson
Renny gets pulled into a video game and finds himself suddenly
transported to a World Cup Soccer practice field where someone
is trying to sabotage the U.S. team.
Summer
Friends
by Jane Porter
Meier
Cassie, who is spending the summer with her aunt while her
parents go through a divorce, becomes friends with Joey, a boy
in a wheelchair who lives nearby with his grandmother.
Tall
Shadow, a Navajo Boy
by Bonnie Highsmith Taylor
A Navajo boy struggles between his culture and the white man’s
ways.
Courage On The Causeway
by Sarah B. Beurskens
When Gabriella began her hike, she never imagined the terror the
day would bring.
Children of the River
by Linda Crew
Sundara fled
Cambodia with her aunt's family to escape the Khmer Rouge Army
when she was thirteen, leaving behind her parents, her brother
and sister, and the boy she had loved since she was a child.
Now, four years later, she struggles to fit in at her Oregon
high school and to be "a good Cambodian girl" at home.
Greatest: Muhammad Ali
by Walter Dean
Myers
Myers carefully
crafts Ali's tale from his Clay family roots in Louisville,
Kentucky, to his struggles today with Parkinson Disease. Myers
weaves the events of Ali's personal life with those occurring in
our country during the twentieth century.
Quinceanera
Means
Sweet
Fifteen by
Veronica Chambers
For Marisol,
planning a quinceañera is more like a daydream since she and her
single mother have little to spend on an extravagant party.
Magda drops their friendship when she takes up with new friends
who shoplift and find Marisol uncool. Chambers uses the
quinceañera and family traditions to introduce Latin American
heritage and the concept of community
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