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Western Reserve Academy Summer Reading Program 2004 Western Reserve Academy English Department Summer 2004 Required Reading ENGLISH I (Class of 2008): All freshmen should read at least one of the following texts this summer. In September, all freshmen should bring their book to class and be ready to discuss and write on it. Non-Fiction: This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy Fiction: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ENGLISH II (Class of 2007): All members of the Class of 2007 should carefully the read the following text over the summer. Come to class in September with the book, ready to discuss and write about it. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse ENGLISH III (Class of 2006): All members of the Class of 2006 should carefully the read the following text over the summer. Come to class in September with the book, ready to discuss and write about it. Selections from Stephen Crane: Prose and Poetry ENGLISH IV (AP and non-AP) (Class of 2005): Mrs. Campbell either Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela OR Tomorrow is Another Country by Allister Sparks Mr. Davis Creation by Gore Vidal AND The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene AND Ishmael by Daniel Quinn Mr. Donnelly Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Mr. Fry A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving AND Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Mr. Haile EITHER Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth OR Grendel by John Gardner (your choice) AND The Elizabethan World Picture by E.M.W. Tillyard Mr. Hoffman This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald Mr. Moodey Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat- Moon If you have any questions about these summer reading requirements, please contact Peter Fry (English Department Chair) at (330) 650-5822 or at [email protected]. Western Reserve Academy Summer Reading 2004 Most members of the Reserve community find pleasures in reading. For those of us tied to the academic calendar, summers and holidays give us what we need most – time. With that in mind, we offer students a booklet of recommended books for summer reading. Several of these titles have been suggested over the years by WRA students, faculty members and their families, and the WRA librarians. Other titles are recommended by the American Library Association for Young Adults. This list is updated and titles rotated annually by the John D. Ong Library staff and is intended to provide some variety: classic to recently published titles, relatively easy to challenging reading levels, fiction and non-fiction selections covering diverse topics, and a list of recommended websites for further suggestions for award-winning books and titles in a specific genre. In general, books that are included in the WRA curriculum are not included. A few titles have frank passages that mirror some aspects of life explicitly. Therefore, we urge parents to explore the titles your teenagers choose and discuss the book as well as the choice with them. This list is accessible on the WRA website from the Library home page. Last year’s Summer Reading List is accessible as well. We hope every student will find several books that peak his curiosity or expand his horizon. Enjoy your summer, your free time, and try to spend some of it reading. All the books on this list should be available in libraries and/or bookstores. The John D. Ong Library is open mornings in the summer 2-3 days per week, and stu- dents are welcome to use its facilities. Hours are posted on the library website. Enjoy! The John D. Ong Library Staff Table of Contents Recommended Summer Reading for Ninth/Tenth Graders........................... 1 Recommended Summer Reading for Eleventh/Twelfth Graders.................18 Something for Everyone: Informational Titles for Teenagers......................36 Poetry, Anyone?.................................................................................................37 Looking for a Good Book? Some Websites to Help You..............................40 Title Index..........................................................................................................41 Author Index......................................................................................................47 Summer Reading for Ninth/Tenth Graders Fiction: All That Remains (Bruce Brooks, 2001) In three novellas, Brooks highlights Read teens whose lives are affected in various ways by a death in the family.* Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1946) This satire on dictatorship focuses on the overthrow of a farmer by the animals on his farm. At All Costs (John Gilstrap, 1998) That Federal agents happened to be looking for someone else didn’t matter once they learned that Jake and his wife, Carolyn, were on their Ten Most Wanted List. They try to prove their innocence as they go on the run with their 13-year-old son in this terrific nail-biter.* Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie, 2001) Set in Mao’s China, this book examines the lives of two Chinese boys taken from their wealthy families and sent to a remote village to be “re-educated.” There they dis- cover a suitcase of Western literature with which they feed their minds and cre- ate their own education. Black Mirror (Nancy Werlin, 2001) Sixteen-year-old Frances, an outsider at school, grapples with questions about her older brother’s suicide, which leads back to school cliques and power games.* Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932) In a chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without a soul.* Call of the Wild (The) (Jack London, 1906) Buck is stolen from his life as a beloved pet. His life then changes drastically as he is abused as a Klondike sled dog. He later enjoys life with a loving master, John Thornton, and finally he becomes the leader of a pack of dogs in the wild. Count of Monte Cristo (The) (Alexander Dumas, 1844) One of the greatest thrillers of all time tells the tale of young Edmond Dantes, who, falsely accused of treason and arrested on his wedding day, escapes from prison to seek revenge on his enemies.* Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (The) (Mark Haddon, 2003) Fifteen-year-old Christopher is an autistic math genius determined to find out who killed his neighbor’s poodle. Haddon’s debut novel is an inventive mystery about self-discovery and living with illness.* The staff of the John D. Ong Library includes, from top left, Archivist Tom Vince, Library Director Martha Regula, Tracy Schooner, Holly Bunt, Jacque Miller, Melissa Slager, Paula Campanelli and Sue Donnelly, and in front, Jane Spencer and Melissa Darling. 1 Dead Man’s Gold and Other Stories (Paul Yee, 2002) Drawing on ghost stories Five People You Meet in Heaven (The) (Mitch Albom, 2003) The author of told among early Chinese immigrants in Canada and the U.S., Yee brings the super- Tuesdays with Morrie offers a terrific novel about an 83-year-old man who dies natural right into daily life, setting the harsh facts on the edge of horror or redemp- while trying to save a child. A story of reflection and a bit of whimsy, he imag- tion. His plain, beautiful words speak with brutal honesty in 10 short stories about ines what happens when you get to heaven. the immigrant struggle: the backbreaking work in the gold mines, on the railroads, in the forests, laundries, kitchens; the anguish of leaving home, and of being left For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway, 1940) Set in the Spanish Civil behind; the dreams of riches and reunion; the shock of prejudice and betrayal.* War, this is a classic story of war and personal honor. One of the best war novels of the 20th century. Detective/Crime Mystery Writers: Try any book by the following mystery writers: Agatha Christie (for the classic British mystery); Elizabeth Peters Foundation Series (The): Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second (featuring Edwardian Egyptologist Amanda Peabody); Ellis Peters (mysteries of Foundation (Isaac Asimov) Written originally as a series of magazine novel- the medieval monk, Brother Cadfael); Gillian Roberts (featuring amateur sleuth lettes or novellas over an eight year period and later published in novel form, Amanda Pepper, a prep school English teacher); Lilian Jackson Braun (featur- Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation ing journalist/philanthropist James Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and (1953) were then collected as a trilogy under one cover in 1963. Winner of the Yum Yum); Diane Mott Davidson (featuring a caterer with a nose for trouble; Hugo Award for the Best All-Time Science Fiction Series. delicious recipes are also part of the reading bargain); or Les Roberts (featuring Cleveland private detective Milan Jacovich). Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) Despite being trivialized by cartoons, spoofs, and toys, this powerful story is a portrayal of the pride of a scientist and Ellen Foster (Kaye Gibbons, 1987) Casting an unflinching yet humorous eye on the consequences of his abuse of power. her situation, eleven-year-old Ellen survives her mother’s death, an abusive father, and uncaring relatives to find for herself a loving home and a new mama.* Freewill (Chris Lynch, 2001) Why are you carving statues, Will? Do you think it’s causing the suicides? Are you doing it of your own free will? Will you ever Every Time a Rainbow Dies (Rita Williams-Garcia, 2001) A 16-year-old boy know?* witnesses a rape from his roof. He helps the naked, injured girl, and afterward, he tries to get to know her. Stark and moving, this book will stay with readers for a Gabriel’s Story (David Anthony Durham, 2002) In this powerful coming-of-age long time.* story about two post-Civil War African American teens who leave home to become cowboys, Durham formulates his own slant on the settlement of the Eyre Affair (The) (Jasper Fforde, 2002) Meet Thursday Next, a literary detec- American West—one that speaks directly to the multicultural character of the tive for England’s Special Operations Network.