SUMMER READING LIST (Pick ONE)

10th GRADE WORLD LITERATURE SUMMER READING LIST (Pick ONE)

Isabel Allende Herman Hesse City of the Beasts (Lexile: 1030) Demian 406 pages 237 pages When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his Presents in side-by-side German and English Hermann individualistic grandmother on an expedition to find a Hesse's 1919 novel about a young student's journey humanoid Beast in the Amazon, he experiences from boy to man, during which he comes to ancient wonders and a supernatural world as he tries understand the duality of human nature. to avert disaster for the Indians. Siddhartha: An Indian Tale Forest of the Pygmies (Lexile: 1010) 132 pages 296 pages Presents a moral allegory, set in ancient India, about Eighteen-year-old Alexander Cold and his grandmother one soul's quest for the ultimate answer to the enigma travel to Africa on an elephant-led safari, but discover of man's role in the world and features the hero, a corrupt world of poaching and slavery. Siddhartha, who undergoes a series of experiences to emerge in a state of peace and wisdom. The house of the spirits (Lexile: 1280) 433 pages Khaled Hosseini The epic story of the passionate Trueba family begins The kite runner (Lexile: 840) at the turn of the century in South America. 324 pages Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of Kingdom of the golden dragon (Lexile: 1080) his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to 437 pages Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been Sixteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing grandmother, a writer for a geography magazine, to Hassan's son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official. the remote Forbidden Kingdom in the Himalayas to help locate a sacred statue of a golden dragon before A thousand splendid suns (Lexile: 830) it is stolen by a greedy outsider. 372 pages A novel set against the three decades of Afghanistan's Tamim Ansary history shaped by Soviet occupation, civil war, and the West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan Taliban, which tells the stories of two women, Mariam American Story (Lexile: 940) and Laila, who grow close despite their nineteen-year 292 pages age difference and initial rivalry as they suffer at the Ansary, son of an Afghan father and American mother, hand of a common enemy: their abusive husband. describes his life in Afghanistan where he was born in 1948, and in America where he has lived since the age Francisco Jimenez (must read two books by him) of sixteen, and discusses the impact of an E-mail he Breaking through (Lexile: 750) sent to friends on Sept. 12, 2001 to express his 195 pages feelings about the Taliban, which gained worldwide Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, attention. fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his Margaret Atwood education. The handmaid’s tale 395 pages The circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child Set in the near future, America has become a (Lexile: 880) puritanical theocracy and Offred tells her story as a 116 pages Handmaid under the new social order whose function Explores a migrant family's experiences moving is to breed. through labor camps, facing poverty and impermanence, and discusses how they endure through faith, hope, and back-breaking work. Rosario Castellanos The book of lamentations Thomas Keneally 381 pages Schindler’s list (Lexile: 1150) Weaves together characters, plot lines, and perspectives in this fictional account of the Maya 398 pages uprisings of 1712 and 1868 in the southern Mexican The true story of a man who took incredible risks and state of Chiapas. spent his considerable fortune to build a factory camp to protect Jews during World War II. Sandra Cisneros (excluding House on Mango Street ) Barbara Kingsolver Caramelo, or, Puro cuento : a novel Animal dreams (Lexile: 790) 443 pages 342 pages Celaya "Lala" Reyes, traveling from Chicago to Mexico Codi returns to her hometown to confront her past and City each summer, draws together stories of her face her ailing father. What she finds is a town Mexican-American family of shawl-makers, including threatened by an environmental catastrophe and a her papa and Awful Grandmother. man who could change her life.

Woman hollering creek, and other stories (Lexile: The bean trees (Lexile: 900) 960) 232 pages 165 pages Taylor, a poor Kentuckian, makes her way west with A collection of short stories giving voice to the an abandoned baby girl and stops in Tucson. There vigorous and varied life on both sides of U.S.-Mexican she finds friends and discovers resources in apparently border. empty places.

Edwidge Danticat The poisonwood bible (Lexile: 960) Brother, I’m dying 546 pages 292 pages Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Edwidge Danticat describes the relationship between Congo in 1959, and the experiences they have while her father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph, living in Africa affect each member of the family in a discussing how their relationship changed from their different way. childhood in Haiti through their immigration to America to their eventual separation. Gabriel Garcia Marquez Clandestine in Chile : the adventures of Miguel The farming of bones Littín 312 pages 116 pages Amabelle, a Haitian woman who has grown up as a Littin, a film director, returned to Chile in disguise and servant in the home of Dominicans, falls in love with filmed a documentary. Sebastien, an itinerant sugarcane cutter, and together they try to weather the storms of persecution against One hundred years of solitude (Lexile: 1410) their people. 417 pages The rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town Sharon Draper (we have many of her books; here is a of Macondo as told through the history of the Buendía sampling) family. The battle of Jericho (Lexile: 700) 297 pages Yann Martel A high school junior and his cousin suffer the Life of Pi (Lexile: 830) ramifications of joining what seems to be a "reputable" 319 pages school club. Pi Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off Copper Sun (Lexile: 820) with his family at the age of sixteen to start anew in 302 pages Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when their Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other ship sinks in the Pacific, leaving him adrift on a raft an indentured servant--escape their Carolina with a 450-pound Bengal tiger for company. plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves. Frank McCourt Angela’s Ashes (Lexile: 1110) Darkness before dawn (Lexile: 670) 363 pages 233 pages The author chronicles his impoverished childhood in Recovering from the recent suicide of her ex- Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930s and 1940s, describing boyfriend, senior class president Keisha Montgomery his father's alcoholism and talent for storytelling; the finds herself attracted to a dangerous, older man. challenges and tragedies his mother faced, including the loss of three children; and his early experiences in Tears of a tiger (Lexile: 700) the Catholic church, and balances painful memories 180 pages with humor. The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car, and many others in the school. Chaim Potok Alexandre Dumas Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s history of the Jews. The three Musketeers (Lexile: 960) 431 pages 607 pages Surveys the 4,000-year history of the Jewish people During the reign of France's King Louis XIII, from the time of Abraham to the present. D'Artagnan and three musketeers unite to defend the honor of Anne of Austria against the plots of Cardinal The chosen (Lexile: 970) Richelieu. Includes commentary and discussion 271 pages questions. Two Jewish boys living in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn struggle through the joys and problems of The count of Monte Cristo (Lexile: 930) growing up. 1,102 pages After escaping from the island where he has been in prison, Edmond Dantés plots his revenge on the Esmerelda Santiago people responsible for his imprisonment. When I was Puerto Rican (Lexile: 1020) 274 pages Laura Esquivel Memoirs of the author's childhood and youth in Puerto Rico and New York City. Like water for chocolate : a novel in monthly installments, with recipes, romances, and home remedies (Lexile: 1030) Amy Tan 245 pages The Joy Luck Club (Lexile: 930) A romantic and poignant tale of love and family life in 288 pages turn-of-the-century Mexico. In 1949 four Chinese women began meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong. They called their Nicolai Gogol gathering the Joy Luck Club. Forty years later they look back and remember. The overcoat; and other tales of good and evil 271 pages Contains six short stories of good and evil by Simon Wiesenthal nineteenth-century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. The sunflower: on the possibilities and limits of forgiveness 289 pages Fifty-three men and women discuss the issue of forgiveness and try to help the author determine if he made the right choice when a Nazi officer confessed his sins to Wiesenthal and asked for his forgiveness.