Upper School English Department Summer Reading 2021-2022 - Montgomery ...
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Upper School English Department
Summer Reading
2021-2022
English I: The Journey to the Self (9th)
Students may use a physical book or an e-book.
Required Book
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
ISBN-10: 0763660655
ISBN-13: 978-0763660659
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a
monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been
expecting-- he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare
he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The
monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants
something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.
Choose One of the Following Books
Boy 21 by Matthew Quick
ISBN-10: 9780316127974
ISBN-13: 978-0316127974
Two lovers of the game of basketball, brought together by stunning
circumstances. One a “minimalist” speaker who suffers from a terrible family
loss; the other a self-proclaimed spaceman named Boy21 who has his own
heartbreaking brush with family tragedy. Together they find their way to their
own answers on how to overcome suffering and a violent neighborhood and
stay true to themselves.
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
ISBN-10: 0062421034
ISBN-13: 978-0062421036
What would you do if life as you had always known it suddenly changed
in a single flash? After “The Day” the people of Ft. Repose, Florida, will never
enjoy life as it was again. Pat Frank’s classic apocalyptic tale features heroes
and villains, those who rise above and those who sink under as a brave new
world begins.
All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry
ASIN: B01F9Q5QTE
Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town
of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently
mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and
family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently
pouring out her thoughts to the boy who's owned her heart as long as she
can remember--even if he doesn't know it--her childhood friend, Lucas. But
when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and
Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice,
even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever.
True Grit by Charles Portis
ISBN-10: 159020459X
ISBN-13: 978-1590204597
[True Grit] tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age
when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in
Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash
money. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed
Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie
pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.
The Red Bandanna by Tom Rinaldi *
ASIN: B01CDVCAZQ
9/11 brought much suffering and much heroism. Among those heroes was
a young man wearing a red bandana. Unknown to the many people he
helped save that day in the South Tower of the World Trade Center where
he worked, that young man was Welles Crowther, and this is his enduring
story told powerfully by Tom Rinaldi.
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeane Wakatsuki Houston and James
Houston *
ISBN-10: 1328742113
ISBN-13: 978-1328742117
During World War II a community called Manzanar was created in the high
mountain desert country of California. Its purpose was to house thousands
of Japanese Americans. Among them was the Wakatsuki family. Jeanne
Wakatsuki Houston, who was seven years old when she arrived at Manzanar
in 1942, recalls life in the camp through the eyes of the child she was.
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper
ISBN-10: 1416953485
ISBN-13: 978-1416953487
Amari's life was once perfect. Engaged to the handsomest man in her
tribe, adored by her family, and living in a beautiful village, she could not
have imagined everything could be taken away from her in an instant. But
when slave traders invade her village and brutally murder her entire family,
Amari finds herself dragged away to a slave ship headed to the Carolinas,
where she is bought by a plantation owner and given to his son as a birthday
present. Survival seems all that Amari can hope for.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
ISBN-10: 0061537969
ISBN-13: 978-0061537967
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly
human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated
himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the
words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. A heart-
wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty,
and hope.
Monster by Walter Dean Meyers
ISBN-10: 0064407314
ISBN-13: 978-0064407311
This New York Times bestselling novel from acclaimed author Walter Dean
Myers tells the story of Steve Harmon, a teenage boy in juvenile detention
and on trial. Presented as a screenplay of Steve's own imagination, and
peppered with journal entries, the book shows how one single decision can
change our whole lives.
Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
ISBN-10: 0452282152
ISBN-13: 978-0452282155
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic
vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-
year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius . . .
even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls *
ISBN-10: 9780743247542
ISBN-13: 978-0743247542
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a
revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant.
When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s
imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life
fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother
was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the
responsibility of raising a family.
The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
ISBN-10: 0142401099
ISBN-13: 978-0142401095
Hannah thinks tonight's Passover Seder will be the same as always.
Little does she know that this year she will be mysteriously transported into the
past where only she knows the horrors that await.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Kamkwamba and Mealer *
ISBN-10: 0061730335
ISBN-13: 978-0061730337
William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and
modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and
hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building
one that would bring to his small village a set of luxuries that only 2 percent
of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. A remarkable true
story!
Godless by Pete Hautman
ISBN-10: 9781416908166
ISBN-13: 978-1416908166
"Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own
customized religion?" Fed up with his parents' boring old religion, agnostic-
going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god -- the town's water tower.
He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend,
Shin, cute-as-a-button (whatever that means) Magda Price, and the violent
and unpredictable Henry Stagg. As their religion grows, it takes on a life of
its own.
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore *
ISBN-10: 0385528205
ISBN-13: 978-0385528207
Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each
other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had
difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both
ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes
Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while
the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Wes
Moore, the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer this profound
question.
* Indicates a nonfiction work
(all summaries taken from amazon.com)
English II: The Ethics of Deciding (10th)
Students may use a physical book or an e-book. Students may also listen to the books, but they
are required to have a copy of the book in some format, too.
Required Book
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
ISBN-10: 0743253973
ISBN-13: 978-0743253970
Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of
World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the
dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas
is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two
friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these
boys and their world.
Choose One of the Following Books
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
ISBN-10: 9781402217098
ISBN-13: 978-1402217098
Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older
cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a
man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the
cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to
Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies suddenly.
Jealous of his marriage, racked by suspicion at the hints in Ambrose's
letters, and grief-stricken by his death, Philip prepares to meet his cousin's
widow with hatred in his heart. Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this
beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious Rachel like a moth to the flame. And
yet... might she have had a hand in Ambrose's death?
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
ISBN-10: 0393332144
ISBN-13: 978-0393332148
Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy
sociopath. Here, in the first Ripley novel, we are introduced to suave Tom
Ripley, a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan. A
product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie,
Ripley meets a wealthy industrialist who hires him to bring his playboy
son, Dickie Greenleaf, back from gallivanting in Italy. Soon Ripley's
fascination with Dickie's debonair lifestyle turns obsessive as he finds
himself enraged by Dickie's ambivalent affections for Marge, a charming
American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James's The
Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley serves as an unforgettable introduction to this smooth
confidence man, whose talent for murder and self-invention is chronicled in four subsequent
Ripley novels.
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
ISBN-10: 1420958992
ISBN-13: 978-1420958997
A classic and thrilling tale of espionage and murder, Joseph Conrad’s “The
Secret Agent” was first published in 1907. Set in London in 1886, the novel
centers around Mr. Adolf Verloc, a spy who owns a small shop and lives
with his wife Winnie, her mother and her mentally disabled brother Stevie,
above his business. He is also a member of a largely ineffectual anarchist
group, whom he meets with regularly to discuss politics and produce
anarchist literature. Unknown to his fellow anarchists, Verloc is secretly
working for the Embassy of an unnamed country as an “agent
provocateur.” Verloc is told by his government contact that he and his
associates are to bomb the Greenwich Observatory in London in order to
make the British see anarchism as a greater threat and work more actively to suppress it. In
scenes alternating between both before and after the bombing, the novel follows the police
investigation of the bombing and the family drama unfolding in Verloc’s own home, as Stevie’s
inadvertent involvement in the bombing comes to light. Considered to be one of Conrad’s best
works, as well as a prescient study of modern terrorism, it is also a searing and tragic story of
family love and loyalty.
Crooked House by Agatha Christie ISBN-10: 0062073532 ISBN-13: 978-0062073532 In the sprawling, half-timbered mansion in the affluent suburb of Swinly Dean, Aristide Leonides lies dead from barbiturate poisoning. An accident? Not likely. In fact, suspicion has already fallen on his luscious widow, a cunning beauty fifty years his junior, set to inherit a sizeable fortune, and rumored to be carrying on with a strapping young tutor comfortably ensconced in the family estate. But criminologist Charles Hayward is casting his own doubts on the innocence of the entire Leonides brood. He knows them intimately. And he's certain that in a crooked house such as Three Gables, no one's on the level... Defending Jacob by William Landry ISBN-10: 0345533666 ISBN-13: 978-0345533661 Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis — a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control. (Warning: Contains mature subject matter and language). The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett ISBN-10 : 0593286103 ISBN-13 : 978-0593286104 The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? (Warning: Contains mature subject matter and language).
English III: Crime and Punishment/Then and Now (11th)
Students may use a physical book or an e-book.
Required Book
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
ISBN-10: 9780812984965
ISBN-13: 978-0812984965
ASIN: 081298496X
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful true story about the
potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system
of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time
and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.
Choose Two of the Following Books
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
ISBN-13: 978-0385511513
This extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside
America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities, where some
40,000 people still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the
Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these
Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
ISBN-13: 978-0679751526
Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning
hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade,
the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly
beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's
sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly
engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully
interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated
remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a
landmark murder case.
Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
ISBN-13: 978-0385523394
With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles
the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years
before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to
fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury,
Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424
—one of the millions of people who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the
American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release,
Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and
arbitrary rules. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of
generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and
at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is
we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there.
Devil’s Knot by Mara Leveritt
ISBN-13: 978-0743417600
In 2011, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history
was set right when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley
were released after eighteen years in prison. Award-winning journalist Mara
Leveritt’s The Devil’s Knot remains the most comprehensive, insightful
reporting ever done on the investigation, trials, and convictions of three
teenage boys who became known as the West Memphis Three.
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
ISBN-13: 978-0143118824
Equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The
Poisoner's Handbook is "a vicious, page-turning story that reads more like
Raymond Chandler than Madame Curie"(The New York Observer)Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
ISBN-13: 978-0062565419
C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster,
Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The
Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many
other beloved classics—brilliantly reimagines the story of Cupid and Psyche.
Told from the viewpoint of Psyche’s sister, Orual, Till We Have Faces is a
brilliant examination of envy, betrayal, loss, blame, grief, guilt, and
conversion. In this, his final—and most mature and masterful—novel, Lewis
reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives.
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
ISBN-13: 978-0765382948
Briar Rose is a historically sensitive retelling of Sleeping Beauty set amid
forests patrolled by the German army during World War II.
In the heat of midsummer 1942, deep in a forest in the heart of Poland,
Briar Rose arrives at a castle that has fallen into the hands of an evil army.
Corrupted by dark deeds and choked by a poisonous mist, the castle will
soon come to be known as Chelmno extermination camp. And in that place
of death, Briar Rose is plunged into a deep sleep
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
ISBN-13: 978-1400033836
This powerful twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare’s King
Lear centers on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to divide his farm
between his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of
his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and
explodes long-suppressed emotions. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly
written, A Thousand Acres takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride
—and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
ISBN-13: 978-0140280098
Bridget Jones's Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud
account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent
doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton
fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half
eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, "How's your
love life?" with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to: reduce
the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a
week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a
responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty
charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, Bridget Jones's Diary has touched a
raw nerve with millions of readers the world round. Read it and laugh—before you cry, "Bridget
Jones is me!"
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
ISBN-13: 978-0143037743
Having hit bestseller lists from the New York Times to the San Francisco
Chronicle, this wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has
rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family
living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose
misadventures in the culture wars—on both sides of the Atlantic—serve to
skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive
collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and
relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a
major literary talent.AP Language and Composition (11th)
Students may use a physical book or an e-book.
Required Book
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
ISBN-10 : 0142000663
ISBN-13 : 978-0142000663
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great
Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the
story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their
homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California.
Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of
an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is
intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet
plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.
Choose TWO of the following TWELVE books
(at least one must be NONFICTION)
NONFICTION
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot *
ISBN-10: 9781400052189
ASIN: 1400052181
She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her
slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one
of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells
grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for
more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine;
uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped
lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene
mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta
Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer ISBN-10: 9780385486804 ISBN-13: 978-0385486804 ASIN: 0385486804 In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou ISBN-10: 0345514408 ISBN-13: 978-0345514400 Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. If You Tell by Gregg Olsen ISBN-10: 154200523X ISBN-13: 978-1542005234 For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
ISBN-10: 0316017930
ISBN-13: 978-0316017930
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual
journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the
most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes
high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to
what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are
from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the
idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About
Racism by Robin Diangelo
ISBN-10 : 0807047414
ISBN-13 : 978-0807047415
In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson),
antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of
white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not
restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive
moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is
characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors
including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial
equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue.
FICTION
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
ISBN-10 : 0060837020
ISBN-13 : 978-0060837020
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant,
beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—
maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into
Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s insanity becomes
completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an
experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark
and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment
and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne ISBN-13 : 979-8559482163 Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1640’s, Hester Prynne conceives a daughter in an adulterous relationship and is publicly punished and shamed by the townspeople. As part of Hester’s punishment, she is required to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her dress at all times.The father of the child is unknown to the townspeople and Hester refuses to divulge his identity. Roger Chillingworth, the local physician, motivated by a personal vendetta vows to uncover the identity of the adulterous man. NOTE: Do not read the introductory section called “The Custom House.” Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ISBN-10: 9780316769174 ISBN-13: 978-0316769174 ASIN: 0316769177 The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini ISBN-10: 9781594631931 ISBN-13: 978-1594631931 The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
ISBN-10: 0060850523
ISBN-13: 978-0060850524
Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave
New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-
advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially
indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an
authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and
perhaps also our souls.
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
ISBN-10 : 1984854801
ISBN-13 : 978-1984854803
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older
brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark
headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a
young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured
veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited
woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the
country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find
a place in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a part of himself has been left in
the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an
unexpected discovery—one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound
questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do you find the strength to put one foot in front of
the other? How do you learn to feel safe again? How do you find meaning in your life?
(all summaries taken from amazon.com)English IV: Heroic Lit./Brave New Worlds (12th)
Students may read electronic or print versions of these books. English IV students should have
access to the assigned movie as well.
Required Books
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
ISBN-10: 0143107550
ISBN-13: 978-0143107552
Centering on a renegade Roman Catholic priest known as a “whiskey priest”
for his moral failings, the story takes place in the Mexican state of Tabasco
during the 1930s, when the Mexican government was attempting to
suppress the spread of the Catholic Church. These events led to the Cristero
War. The Power and the Glory explores themes of faith, freedom, penance,
and the human quest for dignity. It is based on Greene’s experiences in
Mexico during the time periods where he saw the repressive atmosphere
first-hand. Controversial and condemned by the Roman Catholic Church at
the time, it went on to become one of Greene’s most enduring works.
(supersummary.com)
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
by Maxine Hong Kingston
ISBN-10: 0679721886
ISBN-13: 978-0679721888
As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to
which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother’s “talk
stories.” The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother’s tales clash
jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they
come. Kingston’s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these
stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words,
she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole,
achieving a new understanding of her family’s past and her own present.
(amazon.com)Required Movie Hidden Figures (movie) directed by Theodore Melfi, 2016 Three brilliant African-American women at NASA -- Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) -- serve as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation's confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world. (amazon.com)
AP Literature and Composition (12th)
Students may read electronic or print versions of these books.
Required Books
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
ISBN-10: 0307472272
ISBN-13: 978-0307472274
Just as her father makes the wrenching decision to send her away for a
chance at a better life, Claire Limyè Lanmè—Claire of the Sea Light—
suddenly disappears. As the people of the Haitian seaside community of
Ville Rose search for her, painful secrets, haunting memories, and
startling truths are unearthed. In this stunning novel about intertwined
lives, Edwidge Danticat crafts a tightly woven, breathtaking tapestry that
explores the mysterious bonds we share—with the natural world and
with one another. —amazon.com
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
ISBN-13: 978-0812988529
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great
antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of
Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a
twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed
as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science
fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim,
a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee.
As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW.
Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”
—amazon.comRead widely,
Read imaginatively,
Read deeply,
Read passionately,
Above all, read as if your life depends on it
(In so many ways, it does)
p.s.
have fun, too!You can also read
