Western Reserve Academy

Summer Reading Program 2008 Western Reserve Academy Summer Reading 2008

Most members of the Reserve community find pleasure 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 this booklet of recommended books for summer reading. This list is intended to be for student LEISURE reading. We hope students will find titles that will peak their interest, expand their horizons and capture their curiosity. Some titles are included just for the fun of it – titles that offer enter- tainment, escape and enjoyment. Other titles are included to broaden student hori- zons – titles to provide insight into history, science, social issues and the lives of others. Several titles offer insight into other places around the world – titles to increase awareness of different cultures in our global society. And finally many “classic” titles are included – titles to acquaint students with some of the “best” literature in the world. This list is updated annually by the John D. Ong Library staff and is intend- ed to provide some variety: “classic” to recently published titles, relatively easy to challenging reading levels, and fiction, non-fiction and biography selections covering diverse subjects. Also included is a list of recommended websites to locate further suggestions for award-winning books and titles in specific genres. Several of these titles have been suggested over the years by WRA students, faculty members and their families and the WRA librarians. Others are award- winning or “best” titles recommended by respected review sources including the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. 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. In general, books included in the WRA curriculum are not listed. However, the English Department will have a REQUIRED summer reading assign- ment for students. This information will be mailed to students and is also available on Summer Reading link listed below. Look for Summer Reading – Required. This list is accessible on the Ong Library home page at http://library.wra.net and then by selecting Library Publications/Summer Reading/Leisure Reading. Lists from previous years are accessible as well. All the books on this list should be available in libraries and/or bookstores. Check the Ong Library home page for summer hours; students are welcome. Enjoy your summer, your free time and try to spend some of it reading. Your feedback about any title on this list is welcome – and we also welcome your rec- Western Reserve Academy adheres to a longstanding policy of admitting students of any race, color, creed, religion, national and ethnic origin subject to all the rights, privileges, programs and activi- ommendations for titles to add in the future. ties generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, or disability in the administration of The John D. Ong Library Staff its educational policies, scholarship and loan program or other school-administered programs. Table of Contents Summer Reading for Ninth/Tenth Graders

Fiction: Summer Reading for Ninth/Tenth Graders...... 1 1984 (George Orwell, 1949) The classic novel in which Big Brother rules soci- Fiction ...... 1 ety. Ministry of Truth employee, Wilbur Smith, joins the underground in his Non-fiction ...... 11 effort to resist mind control. Biographies/Memoirs ...... 16 Summer Reading for Eleventh/Twelfth Graders ...... 20 Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (The) (Sherman Alexie, 2007) Arnold Spirit and his best friend, Rowdy, lament and laugh about life on the Fiction ...... 20 Spokane Indian Reservation. When Arnold decides to attend a rich white Non-fiction...... 30 school, he soon finds himself scorned in his old community and an oddity in Biographies/Memoirs ...... 37 his new school. Collections: Short Stories and Essays...... 40 Something for Everyone: Informational Titles for Teenagers ...... 42 All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929) Enlisting with enthusiasm, four German youths are sent to the front in World War I in this Poetry, Anyone?...... 43 classic novel depicting the horrors of war. Looking for a Good Book? Some Websites to Help You ...... 46 Title Index ...... 48 Amnesia Clinic (The) (James Scudamore, 2007) After Anthony moves with his Author Index...... 55 family from England to Ecuador, he meets Fabian, a local teen with whom he trades wild, invented tales that lead to a life-changing quest.*

Anahita’s Woven Riddle (Megan Whalen Turner, 2006) Young Anahita tries to avoid marriage to a much older man by convincing her father to let her marry the man who can solve a riddle she has woven into a carpet. An inside look at Persian culture and history.

Arrival (The) (Shaun Tan, 2007) A lone immigrant leaves his family and jour- neys to a new world, both bizarre and awesome, finding struggle and dehuman- izing industry but also friendship and a new life.*

Ask Me No Questions (Marina Budhos, 2006) Both the secrets and the family dynamics are dramatic in teenage Nadira’s first-person narrative, which reveals her mixed-up feelings about being an illegal alien as well as the diversity in her family and her contemporary Muslim community in New York.*

Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (The), Traitor to the Nation, v.1: The Pox Party (M. T. Anderson, 2006) A young black boy in pre-revolutionary Boston experiences slavery’s monstrous horrors in this ambitious story rooted in eighteenth-century literary traditions.*

1 Bad Monkeys (Matt Ruff, 2007) In a holding cell in the psychiatric wing of a Detective/Crime Mystery Writers: Try any book by the following mystery prison, a psychologist is interviewing inmate Jane Charlotte. She’s been charged writers: Donna Andrews (featuring Artificial Intelligence Personality Turing with homicide. Although she does not deny it, she weaves an outrageous story Hopper as an amateur sleuth); Nancy Atherton (featuring amateur sleuth Lori about the circumstances surrounding the murder.* Shepard with help from her ghostly Aunt Dimity); Stephanie Barron (featuring 19th century author Jane Austen as an amateur sleuth) C. J. Box (featuring Birds of Prey (Wilbur Smith, 1998) Set in 1667, the story follows the escapades of Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett); Diane Mott Davidson (featuring Goldy the infamous pirate Sir Francis Courteney and his son, Hal. After the Courteneys Bear, a caterer with a nose for trouble; delicious recipes are also part of the read- and their rough-hewn pirate crew raid a Dutch East India Company ship (in the ing bargain); Laurie R. King (featuring Mary Russell, former protégé to name of the British crown), they are pursued from one end of the African coast to Sherlock Holmes); Edward Marston (look for the Domesday series set in the other. During the chase, treacherous sea battles ensue, with gory deaths and medieval England featuring commissioner Ralph Delchard); Alexander McCall gruesome shark and crocodile attacks thrown in for good measure.* Smith (featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, owner of Botswana’s #1 Ladies Detective Agency); Elizabeth Peters (featuring Edwardian Egyptologist Black Green Swan (David Mitchell, 2006) In a small English town in the Amanda Peabody); Ellis Peters (mysteries of the medieval monk, Brother 1980s, 13-year-old Jason lives in the wake of his brilliant sister and mediates Cadfael); or Les Roberts (featuring Cleveland private detective Milan Jacovich). between his feuding parents.* Dream Duet (The): Dreamhunter and Dreamquake (Elizabeth Knox, 2006- Bless Me, Ultima (Rudolfo Anaya, 1972) Ultima, a wise old mystic, helps a 2007) Imagining a society where dreams can be harvested and sold, Knox young Hispanic boy resolve personal dilemmas caused by the differing back- smartly explores the ramifications of this conceit through the coming-of-age grounds and aspirations of his parents and society.* experiences of 15-year-old cousins Rose and Laura.*

Blue Sky: A Novel (Galsan Tschinag, 2006) The people of Tuva, nomadic shep- Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer, 2007) In the third book in the popular Twilight Saga herds in western Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, revere the sky as sacred. But the series, Meyer continues the vampire love story started with Twilight (2005) and sensitive young boy who narrates this novel of the joys and hardships of Tuvan New Moon (2006). life comes to doubt that the sky is a sheltering force as he stands to lose two great loves – his dog and the woman he calls Grandma.* Eldest (Christopher Paolini, 2005) The second book in the Inheritance Trilogy, following Eragon (2003), takes up the epic story just three days after the end of Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II (Joseph the bloody battle in which Eragon slew the Shade Durza, and the Varden and Bruchac, 2001) Six-year-old Ned Begay leaves his Navajo home for boarding dwarves defeated the forces of the evil ruler of the Empire. Although Eragon school, where he learns the English language and American ways. At 16, he has proven himself in battle as a Dragon Rider, he has much to learn, so he enlists in the U.S. Marines during World War II and is trained as a code talker, travels to the land of the elves to complete his rigorous training.* using his native language to radio battlefield information and commands in a Elsewhere (Gabrielle Zevin, 2005) The setting is an elaborately conceived code that was kept secret until 1969.* afterlife called Elsewhere, a distinctly secular island realm of surprising physi- David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1849) Dickens’ well-known classic is the cal solidity (no cottony clouds or pearly gates here), where the dead exist much story of a young man’s adventures as he journeys from an unhappy and impov- as they once did – except that no one dies or is born, and aging occurs in erished childhood to success as an acclaimed novelist. Several memorable char- reverse, culminating when the departed are returned to Earth as infants to start acters are included along the way. the life cycle again.* Eyes of the Emperor (Philip Salisbury, 2005) This novel is about a teen, this Death Be Not Proud (John Gunther, 1949) A father’s story of his courageous time from Honolulu, who lies about his age to enlist in the U.S Army during son who dies of a brain tumor at the age of seventeen. World War II. But Eddie Okubo, 16, is Japanese American, and the racism he encounters in the military is as terrifying to him as the fire of the enemy.*

2 3 Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury, 1953) In this classic novel, books are for burn- Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Robert Harris, 2006) Thrusting himself ing in this future society where thinking and reading are crimes. upon the tumultuous Roman political scene at age 27, Cicero, an ambitious provincial lawyer, matches wits and wills with political and military heavy- Fairest (Gail Carson Levine, 2006) Fifteen-year-old Aza feels awkward and weights Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. The author paints a brilliant portrait of ungainly – but her powerful and beautiful voice brings her to the attention of Roman senatorial intrigue and corruption, proving that the more things change, the new Queen who is a poor singer… But is that a good thing? the more they stay the same.*

Far Traveler (Rebecca Tingle, 2005) Following the sudden death of her moth- Incantation (Alice Hoffman, 2006) Growing up in Spain around 1500 in the er, 16-year-old Aelfwyn disguises herself as a bard to escape marriage to a village where her family has lived for 500 years, Estrella, 16, knows that there much older man, an ally of her uncle, the King.* are secrets in her home. As books are burned in the streets, and Jews from the nearby ghetto are murdered, she confronts the reality that she is a Marrano, part For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway, 1940) Set in the Spanish Civil of a community of underground Jews who attend a special “church.”* War, this is a classis story of war and personal honor. One of the best war nov- els of the 20th century. Keturah and Lord Death (Martine Leavitt, 2006) The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding – and it is as difficult to turn Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Anne Brashares, away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells to the people of her village, Tide- 2007) In the last book of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, the girls, by-Rood. But one day Keturah must use her storytelling skills with quite a dif- having finished their first year of college, spend another summer deepening ferent audience—Death.* their bond as they continue to mature and face adult problems. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow (Faiza Guene, 2006) Doria, 15, a child of Muslim Forgotten Fire (Adam Bagdasarian, 2000) Based on a true story from the immigrants, describes her daily struggle in Paris’ rough housing projects in a Armenian Holocaust, this is an eloquent, touching and heart-wrenching portrait contemporary narrative that touching, furious, and very funny.* of pain and triumph during a time of tragedy.* Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan, 1978) A group of high school students kid- Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) Despite being trivialized by cartoons, nap their English teacher to scare him, but the teacher dies as a result. spoofs, and toys, this powerful story is a portrayal of the pride of a scientist and the consequences of his abuse of power. Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster (The) (Kaye Gibbons, 2005) For orphaned Ellen Foster, now 15, this is a lucky time, centered around the home Genghis: Birth of an Empire (Conn Iggulden, 2007) This fictional account of that Laura provides, school (where Ellen earns money by writing poetry for the early life of Genghis Khan begins with the murder of his father by invading other students’ class assignments), and old and new friends.* The sequel to Tartars and follows his quest to become a warrior who eventually unites the fac- Gibbons’ 1987 novel Ellen Foster. tious Mongol tribes. Life As We Knew It (Susan Beth Pfeffer, 2006) A meteor is going to hit the Girls (The) (Lori Lansens, 2006) Lansens creates fully realized, vivid charac- moon, and 16-year-old Miranda, like the rest of her family and neighbors in ters in conjoined twins Rose and Ruby, who tell their stories of growing up in rural Pennsylvania, intends to watch it from the comfort of a lawn chair in her alternating narratives.* yard. But the event is not the benign impact predicted. The moon is knocked closer to Earth, setting off a chain of horrific occurrences: tsunamis, earth- Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1726) This classic novel, which satirized quakes, and, later, volcanic eruptions that disrupt life across the planet.* human moral and foibles, recounts the voyages of Lemuel Gulliver as he visits four remote countries.

4 5 Looking for Alaska (John Green, 2005) Miles is looking for the Great Perhaps, and an Alabama boarding school offers the possibility of finding it, especially after he meets the captivating and unpredictable Alaska.*

Lords of Discipline (The) (Pat Conroy, 1980) The story of friendship and betrayal in a Southern military academy. Highly suspenseful.

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (James Patterson, 2007) Slated for extermination by their scientist creators, rebel- mutant Max and other members of her flock, all of whom possess bird DNA and functioning wings, are on the lam again, their mission to save the world from a eugenics plot.*

Meteor Hunt (The): The First English Translation of Verne’s Original Manuscript (Jules Verne, 1909) A giant meteor made of gold is tumbling towards Earth in this classic story translated into English for the first time.

Mister Pip (Lloyd Jones, 2007) A group of young islanders, caught in the mid- dle of a civil war, become entirely riveted by their teacher’s recitation of Great Expectations.*

Name of the Wind (The) (Patrick Rothfuss, 2007) Travelers to the village where Kote runs an inn are rare, but those who’ve shown up lately have brought bad news. A sort of demonic spider attacks a local, and then Kote res- cues a wandering scholar, bringing him to the inn to recover. The man recog- nizes Kote as the legendary hero Kvothe and begs him to reveal the reality behind all the legends.* DID YOU KNOW? Old School (Tobias Wolff, 2003) A scholarship student with literary ambitions and a shameful secret experiences an unforgettable year when his prep school is The Ong Library visited by Robert Frost and Ayn Rand.* collection includes Over a Thousand Hills I Walk with You (Hanna Jansen, 2006) This account of 45,000 book perpetrators, victims, and bystanders tells the story of eight-year-old Jeanne, the volumes, nine only one of her family to survive the 1994 Rwanda genocide.* newspapers, 110 periodicals and Pearl (The) (John Steinbeck, 1947) Greed, treachery and loss are the focus of more than 3,000 this story featuring a poor Mexican pearl diver who finds a priceless pearl. videos and music CDs.

6 Poison (Chris Wooding, 2005) After her baby sister is kidnapped by Phaeries, Snakehead: An Alex Rider Adventure (Anthony Horowitz, 2007) In his sev- Poison is determined to get her back, not realizing that she and her sister are enth adventure, teenage secret agent Alex Rider leaves outer space (where the part of a much larger, darker story.* last book in the series, Ark Angel, ended) and splashes down in Australian waters where he is promptly recruited by the Australian secret service, ASIS, to Promise (The) (Chaim Potok, 1969) In this sequel to The Chosen, two Jewish infiltrate a human smuggling organization. friends, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders, decide to change the life paths that their fathers have chosen for them. Step from Heaven (A) (An Na, 2003) Young Ju’s parents don’t want her to become too American, and Young Ju is ashamed of them. It’s the classic immi- Raptor Red (Robert T. Bakker, 1995) Introducing his superb animal biographi- grant child conflict, told here in the present tense with the immediacy of the cal “novel,” Bakker…imagines a year in the life of such a dinosaur, a young girl’s voice. This coming-of-age drama will grab teens and make them think of adult female he dubs, on account of her distinctive species markings, Raptor their own conflicts between home and outside.* Red.* Swim to Me (Betsy Carter, 2007) Teenage Delores Walker is determined to Real Time (Prina Moed Kass, 2004) A suicide bomb attack on a crowded make something of her life, motivated, in part, by her sad-sack Brooklyn fami- Jerusalem bus is the focus of Kass’ tense, terrifying debut, told from the view- ly. After her father walks out, her embittered mother is forced to work two points of the passengers and their families, friends, and lovers.* jobs. Delores, eager to escape her dismal family life, heads to Florida, where she is hired as a mermaid for an operation that has fallen on hard times, losing Red Sea (Diane Tullson, 2005) Libby, the book’s sullen, cranky 14-year-old business to the recently opened Walt Disney Resort.* heroine, fights her stepfather, Duncan, at every turn and finds ways to cross her mother. But she is on a year’s sailing voyage with them, whining all the way. Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal (Mal Peet, 2007) It was There’s lots of fascinating sailing lore and the joy of watching Libby figure out her taciturn but beloved grandfather, William Hyde, who gave Tamar her what to do next, and how to do it. An absolute page-turner.* strange name. But in 1995, when she was 15, he committed suicide, leaving her to wonder if she knew him at all. Later, when she opens the box of War II Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719) During an adventurous voyage, a sev- memorabilia that he left her, she’s struck by the need to find out what it means, enteenth century Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and who he really was, and where she fits in. Tension mounts incrementally in an lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island. intricate wrapping of wartime drama and secrecy, in which Tamar finds her namesake and herself.* Samurai Shortstop (Alan M. Gratz, 2006) Growing up in Tokyo in the 1890s, after the emperor outlawed the samurai tradition of his ancestors, Toyo was not Three Musketeers (The) (Alexandre Dumas, 1844) This perennial favorite trained in the old disciplines. He must find his own path between the old ways and chronicles the adventures of swordsman D’Artagnan and the three musketeers the new ones, which are symbolized for Toyo by the sport he loves: baseball.* he befriends in 17th century France as they serve the King and Queen and out- wit the devious Cardinal Richelieu. Sharing Sam (Katherine Applegate, 2006) Just as Alison Chapman begins to fall in love with Sam Cody, the handsome yet distant new guy in school, she Thursday Next: First Among Sequels (Jasper Fforde, 2007) The fifth book learns that her best friend, Isabella, is dying of a brain tumor. How can she pos- in the witty and clever Thursday Next series continues the zany exploits of the sibly be so happy, so full of hope for the future, when Isabella has no future?* literary detective. Earlier titles in the series are The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten. Silver Ship and the Sea (The) (Brenda Cooper, 2007) The first solo novel by [Cooper] portrays the thoroughly convincing human colonial society on Fremont, a dangerous planet rife with vicious predators, frequent earthquakes, and falling meteors.*

8 9 Uglies (Scott Westerfeld, 2005) Fifteen-year-old Tally’s eerily harmonious, Yossel: April 19, 1943: A Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Joe Kubert, post-apocalyptic society gives extreme makeovers to teens on their sixteenth 2003) In this starkly illustrated and sharply written graphic novel, the author birthdays, supposedly conferring equivalent evolutionary advantages to all. imagines his fate if he had not left the Warsaw Ghetto. A chilling portrayal of When a top-secret agency threatens to leave Tally ugly forever unless she spies horror and courage.* on runaway teens, she agrees to infiltrate the Smoke, a shadowy colony of refugees from the “tyranny of physical perfection.”* You Can’t Go Home Again (Thomas Wolfe, 1940) This autobiographical novel focuses on a successful writer who returns home after publishing a novel about Under the Feet of Jesus (Helena Maria Viramontes, 1996) Migrant Mexicans his home town. An insightful look at America and Europe in the dramatic shackled to a life of itinerant farm labor form the backdrop for a summer in the 1930’s. life of young Estrella and her family. Seemingly a prescription for sorrow, in Viramontes’ hands the canvas instead teems with color and builds toward hope Non-fiction: for a liberating future – at least for Estrella.* American Insurrection (An): The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 (William Under the Persimmon Tree (Suzanne Fisher Staples, 2005) Najmah, an Doyle, 2001) When James Meredith decided to integrate the University of Afghan girl, witnesses the death of her mother and brother as well as her Mississippi, it caused the worst crisis in American history since the Civil War.* father’s and older brother’s conscription by the Taliban before she finds refuge in Pakistan with an American Muslim.* American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China (Matthew Polly, 2007) Growing up as Whistling Season (The) (Ivan Doig, 2006) Doig’s latest foray through the little guy always picked on, Matthew Polly had constantly dreamed of going Montana history begins in the late 1950s, with Superintendent of Public to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the strongest kung fu fighter in the Instruction Paul Milliron on the verge of announcing the closure of the state’s world. Deciding he could wait no longer, he dropped out of Princeton to follow one-room schools, seen as hopelessly out of date in the age of Sputnik. But his dream. quickly the narrative takes us back to Paul’s pivotal seventh-grade year, 1910, when he was a student in one of those one-room schools, and two landmark And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City events took place: the Milliron family acquired a housekeeper, and Halley’s High School Students (Miles Corwin, 2000) During the year that California comet came to Montana.* began dismantling affirmative action at state universities, Los Angeles Times reporter Corwin chronicled youngsters who would be affected by that change. White Darkness (The): (Geraldine McCaughrean, 2007) Fourteen-year-old He spent a school year at Crenshaw High School in South-Central L.A., and he Symone’s only friend is an imaginary incarnation of Captain Laurence “Titus” profiles Crenshaw students who braved great odds to even get to the point of Oates, an explorer who accompanied Robert Scott on his failed expedition to college admission.* the South Pole. Sym is passionate about the Antarctic and her infatuation is fed by Uncle Victor, an eccentric family friend who has cared for Sym and her Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo (Lawrence mother since Sym’s father’s death. When Victor surprises Sym with a trip to Anthony and Graham Spence, 2007) This remarkable story recounts the recent “the Ice,” she has some doubts, especially when she discovers that her mother wartime rescue of the once-world-renowned Baghdad Zoo through the experi- can’t come.* ences of a South African conservationist and heroic Iraqi zookeepers.*

White Fang (Jack London, 1906) London tells the story of a wolf-dog who Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion (The) (Harry Blackstone, Jr., 2002 endures great cruelty before he comes to know human kindness.* reprint) The classic of legerdemain [sleight of hand] describes the rich history of magic and reveals a few ‘tricks of the trade.’*

10 11 Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager’s Story (Said Hyder Akbar Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine and Susan Burton, 2005) In this thrilling memoir recorded during the summers (Leslie Dendy and Mel Boring, 2005) An extraordinary and often disturbing of 2002 through 2004, a California teen returns to his father’s homeland to story introduces 10 people who cared so much about scientific exploration that help rebuild Afghanistan.* they experimented upon themselves to test their theories.*

Deep (The): The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss (Claire Nouvian, 2007) How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary (Louis A. Spectacular photographs and insightful essays about many of the little known Bloomfield, 2006) Examine the physics behind all the everyday objects in our creatures are a treat for anyone interested in the mysterious depths of the ocean. lives.

Demon in the Freezer: A True Story (Richard Preston, 2002) A striking por- Hunt for Justice (A): The True Story of a Woman Undercover Wildlife Agent trait of smallpox makes readers uncomfortably aware that it could rise again as (Lucinda Delaney Schroeder, 2006) When Schroeder infiltrates a camp of clan- a biological weapon of mass destruction.* destine and unscrupulous hunters and hunting outfitters illegally killing game animals in the deep backwoods in Alaska, she enters a secret world and puts her Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a High School Basketball Team in Arctic life on the line to take the criminals down.* Alaska (Michael D’Orso, 2006) This fascinating sensitive account follows an Alaskan high-school basketball team through its season in a town above the In the Heart Of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (Nathaniel Arctic Circle. The sports narrative is as gripping as the intimate portraits of the Philbrick, 2000) Philbrick’s accessible narrative of the tragic 1820’s whaling teens and their changing community.* voyage whose central disaster was the violent encounter with a sperm whale engages readers with descriptions of Nantucket’s unusual commercial, religious, Endurance (The): Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition (Caroline and social characteristics, the class and racial aspects of Nantucket whaling, and Alexander, 1998) It’s man against nature at the dawn of World War I, as the other issues raised by the Essex’s final whale hunt. A fascinating tale, well-told.* lure of the last unclaimed land on earth dazzles with its beauty and danger in this adventure of discover and survival.* Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World (Jack Weatherford, 1990) Discover how profoundly the native peoples of North Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed the World (Leslie Horvitz, and South America influenced what we eat, how we trade, and our system of 2002) Horvitz explores the dramatic events and thought processes of twelve great government.* minds that lead to profound scientific discoveries. The author examines the impact of these discoveries on the way we live, think, and view the world around us.* Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse (David Brown, 2002) Whose idea was it? [Read about] the human stories and faces Everest: Summit of Achievement (The Royal Geographical Society, 2003) behind American scientific concepts and technological innovations and achieve- Spectacular photographs and gripping text commemorate nine historical ments.* Everest expeditions. The climbers’ physical accomplishments are balanced by thought-provoking discussion of how Westerners and Tibetans differ in Invisible Allies: Microbes that Shape Our Lives (Jeanette Farrell, 2005) This their views of the mountain.* lively examination of microbes traces the path of a sandwich-and-chocolate-bar lunch through the human body, from beginning to end.* Grayson (Lynne Cox, 2006) In the darkness of 5 a.m., outside the water break on California’s coast, [Cox] encountered something swimming in the water with Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance (Peter her. She felt something beneath her and worried that it might be a shark. It Stark, 2001) Whether the danger is hypothermia, mountain sickness, or cere- turned out to be a baby gray whale. She realized that the 18-foot-long whale, bral malaria, this blend of adventure and science takes you to the absolute edges which she called Grayson, had lost his mother on their travel to the feeding of human endurance.* grounds in the Bering Sea. How could she help?*

12 13 Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law That Changed the Future of Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Girls in America (Karen Blumenthal, 2005) In 1972, Congress passed Title Inhabitants (Robert Sullivan, 2005) Perhaps this is more than you would ever IX, a momentous law that changed opportunities for American women. want to know about rats, but if not, Sullivan will give you the inside scoop Blumenthal introduces the historical events that led to the law.* based on his observations of rats in Manhattan: rat history, rat control, and rat ecology, just to name a few. Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold (Michael Benanav, 2006) Benanav reveals that for the last 1,000 years, the so-called cara- Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey (Rachel Simon, 2002) van of white gold has plied the desolate sands of the Sahara to hack rock Rachel Simon’s sister, who has mental retardation, spends her days riding buses salt…[where] men lead strings of camels over some of the most severe terrain in the Pennsylvania city where she lives. When Rachel begins to accompany on earth. The author joined a caravan after learning that trucks have begun her sister on the bus, she learns a lot about her sister and her disability and competing for the salt trade…he wanted to get a glimpse of this age-old culture about her own limitations.* on the brink of extinction. The result is fascinating.* Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (Tom Holland, 2004) Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Journey Home to Ancient history lives in this vivid chronicle of the tumultuous events that My Father (Nando Parrado and Vince Rause, 2006) After his plane crashed in impelled Julius Caesar across the one small river that separated the Roman the mountains of Uruguay, Parrado led some of the survivors over the Andes to Republic from cataclysmic civil war…[and] pulls readers deep into the treach- rescue. Parrado recounts his story in graphic, unforgettable detail.* erous riptide of Roman politics.*

On the Water: Discovering America in a Rowboat (Nathaniel Stone, 2003) Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, Stone, a former teacher and newspaper publisher, followed his childhood dream the World’s Most Feared Mountain (Jennifer Jordan, 2005) Five women, each of traveling on water – a dream he took to a higher level after reading about the with seemingly preternatural abilities to climb, have reached the summit of efforts of Howard Blackburn, a fisherman from Gloucester, MA, to sail around K2…These five women – Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, French climbers the eastern United States in the 19th century. Stone decided to trace Blackburn’s Lilane Barrard and Chantal Mauduit, and British climbers Julie Tullis and route but does it entirely by rowing. A delightful account of a remarkable soli- Alison Hargreaves – so very different from each other, were alike in their tary voyage.* strength, ability, determination, and willingness to endure not only the pain of high altitude but also the massive prejudice of the male-dominated climbing On Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet from the 16th Century to Today (Trudy world.* Garfunkel, 2002) Immerse yourself in the world of ballet, from its earliest cho- reography to the life of a modern ballerina.* Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea (Gary Kinder, 1999) The steamship Central America sunk off the Carolina coast in 1857 laden with 200 passengers One Kingdom: Our Lives with Animals (Deborah Noyes, 2006) In this and 21 tons of gold. Kinder interweaves its story with the exploits of the insightful, provocative photo-essay, Noyes examines the ways that human lives Columbus-America Discovery Group that discovered and salvaged the wreck in have overlapped with animals and how our beliefs, culture, and science have 1989, recovering an estimated billion dollars in gold coin and bullion. been impacted throughout history by the essential but frequently paradoxical human-animal connection.* Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer (Peter Howe, 2002) War photographers seek out the most horrifying and dangerous places in Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (Guy Delisle, 2005) A French the world to practice their craft. What compels them to do it?* Canadian animator is sent to North Korea to oversee an outsourced animation project. He describes his experiences as a foreigner in communist North Korea in this graphic novel.

14 15 Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea (Frank Delaney, 2006) On Daugher of the Ganges: A Memoir (Asha Miro, 2006) Born in India in 1967, Christmas Day, 1951, the Liberty ship Flying Enterprise began splitting apart in Miro was adopted by her Spanish parents from a Bombay orphanage when she a North Atlantic gale. Possibly guarding a secret cargo, the captain stayed was six. In 1995 she returned to India to participate in a work camp, but more aboard almost to the end, and a media blitz made him a hero. One of the great importantly “to reconcile with the past.” She visits the orphanage in Bombay sea stories of the 20th century. (now Mombai), then the first orphanage in which she was placed, hoping to learn more about her biological parents.* Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust (Barbara Rogasky, 2002) Some of history’s darkest days are examined in this new look at the horror and Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (Richard humanity of the Holocaust and its aftermath.* Rodriguez, 1982) Rodriguez’s journey through the educational system leads to his belief that family, culture, and language must be left behind to succeed in There is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue Africa’s mainstream America.* Children (Melissa Fay Greene, 2006) The scope of the AIDS epidemic is illus- trated through the heartwarming story of Haregowoin Teferra, a humanitarian In Code: A Mathematical Journey (Sarah Flannery, 2001) One teenager’s dis- who runs an orphanage in Ethiopia.* coveries in the science of cryptography dramatically impact the modern world.*

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates Journey Toward Freedom: The Story of Sojourner Truth (Jacqueline Bernard, (David Cordingly, 1996) From Long John Silver to Captain Hook to Captain 1967) Bernard skillfully recounts the life of Sojourner Truth who was born into Blood, the lore and romance of the pirate has become a fixture in Western litera- slavery, freed some 30 years later, and began traveling the country as a outspo- ture and film. The reality was far less romantic but perhaps more interesting. A ken voice for God and against slavery. Her influence extended into many areas distinguished specialist in maritime history has written a fascinating narrative that of social reform including women’s rights and prison reform. concentrates on the seventeenth-century “golden age” of piracy.* Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid Witch Hunt: Mysteries Of the Salem Witch Trials (Marc Aronson, 2003) South Africa (Mark Mathabane, 1986) Growing up under the brutalities of Revisit a time of nightmare, fear, hysteria…, sift through the myths, half-truths apartheid South Africa, Mathabane describes the growing uprest in his country and misinformation to make up your own mind about what really happened in and his eventual escape through his ties to the tennis community.* Salem Village and why.* Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (The): A Memoir (Bill Bryson, 2006) Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman (Zac Unger, 2004) A Now the author of A Walk in the Woods (1998) and I’m a Stranger Here Myself young rookie provides a look behind the firehouse doors, bringing close the (1999) delves more deeply into his midwestern roots in a bittersweet, laugh-out- danger, excitement, and challenge of fighting fire in a big city.* loud recollection of his growing-up years.*

Biographies/Memoirs: Long Way Gone (A): Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah, 2007) Beah speaks about his harrowing life as a teen soldier in Sierra Leone and shows the All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot, 1972) A Scottish veterinarian reality of civil war, behind the headlines.* enchants readers with this delightful memoir of his experiences treating nature’s animals. Madame Curie (Eve Curie, 1937) A biography of the remarkable pioneering woman scientist written by her daughter. An inspirational story for women Brave Companions: Portraits in History (David McCullough, 1991) The emi- everywhere. nent historian offers a rich compilation of mini-biographies of 17 well-known and lesser known individuals who have made cultural contributions in a variety of fields including social work, etymology, architecture, literature, and history.

16 17 Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (Charles Shields, 2006) The reclusive author of To Kill A Mockingbird never granted interviews after the mid-1960’s and refused to talk to Shields. Shields, therefore, relies on a variety of sources, including over 600 interviews with acquaintances and personal correspondence, in this first-ever biography of the famed author.

Player (The): Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century (Philip M. Seib, 2003) This is the biography of the first real national “star” the game of baseball saw, who preceded Babe Ruth and the 1919 World Series scandal. Not just about baseball, this is about a man who lived to the highest of moral and ethical standards amongst a pretty raucous crowd, both in baseball and society.

Rainbow’s End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and An African Farm (Lauren St. John, 2007) The daughter of a white soldier and his spirited wife, Lauren was excited when her family left South Africa for Rhodesia in the mid-1970s [during the Rhodesian civil war]. Her father longed to fight again as he had in his youth, and Lauren found herself as caught up in it as he was. When several members of a nearby family, including a boy in Lauren’s class, are murdered by insurgents, Lauren and her family move into their farm home, Rainbow’s End.*

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution (Ji-Li Jiang, 1997) A young Chinese girl must make difficult choices when the government urges her to repudiate her ancestors and inform on her own parents.*

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography (David Michaelis, 2007) No other cartoon- ist tapped the nation’s psyche, or touched its heart, like Charles Schulz, who wrote and drew Peanuts for 50 years. While Schulz’s gentle humor and endear- DID YOU KNOW? ing characters are what made Peanuts arguably the most beloved comic of all time, it’s the strip’s psychological insights and underlying melancholy that The Ong Library turned it into enduring art.* features a computer Sense of the World (A): How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest laboratory, a Traveler (Jason Roberts, 2006) James Holman (1786-1857) was a Royal Navy bibliographic Lieutenant who went blind at the age of 25. Not content to let his condition hin- instruction room, der his ambition, Holman traveled the world alone, encountering hardship, pain, study rooms, and danger. Renowned in his time and known as the Blind Traveler, Holman reading areas, and served as a role model for explorers who followed him. Truly one of the most dramatic and inspiring stories of the human spirit. the WRA Archives Collection.

19 Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (Malika Oufkir and Michele Amy (Mary Hooper, 2002) In a chilling story about the dangers of Internet Fitoussi, 2001) The shocking true story of one family’s fight to survive an dating, lonely teenager Amy finds company in Internet chat rooms, and an unjustified and lengthy political imprisonment in Morocco. online romance flourishes with Zed. Their face-to-face meeting, however, is far from idyllic as her recorded statement to the police reveals.* Terror of the Spanish Main: Sir Henry Morgan and His Buccaneers (Albert Marrin, 1999) What lies behind the dark and romantic image of the pirate, and Angelmonster (Veronica Bennett, 2006) A novel based on the scandalous life what is the legacy of this brutal and bloody time?* of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.

This Boy’s Life: A Memoir (Tobias Wolff, 1989) In and out of trouble in his Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy, 1877) Considered a literary masterpiece, the youth, this charter member of the “Bad Boy’s Club” survives a boyhood that novel tells of the doomed love affair between Anna and the dashing Count stretches from Florida to the Pacific Northwest.* Vronsky and offers a splendid look at society life in 19th century Russia.

Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle of Integrate Little Rock’s Appeal (The) (John Grisham, 2007) The verdict is in—the jury has decided Central High (Melba Pattilo Beals, 1995) In this touching and poignant mem- against a chemical company. Appealing the verdict will lead to the Supreme oir, Beals tells her story as one of the nine black students who integrated Little Court. How can the powerful head of the company make the court “his” and Rock High School in Arkansas in 1957. ensure a reversal?

Summer Reading for Eleventh/Twelfth Graders Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes In New England (An): A Novel (Brock Clarke, 2007) New Englander Sam Pulsifer always insisted that burning down Fiction: Emily Dickinson’s Amherst home was an accident. The jury wasn’t convinced. Now, after serving 10 years in prison, the 28-year-old is determined to get his Abundance of Katherines (An) (John Green, 2006) Colin Singleton believes life back on track: he gets married, has a couple of kids, and moves into a cook- he is a washed-up child prodigy. A graduating valedictorian with a talent for ie-cutter Massachusetts suburb called Camelot. But the tranquility doesn’t last.* creating anagrams, he fears he’ll never do anything to classify him as a genius. To make matters worse, he has just been dumped by his most recent girlfriend Beautiful Miscellaneous (The) (Dominic Smith, 2007) At 17, Nathan Nelson (all of them have been named Katherine), and he’s inconsolable. What better has no idea what he wants to be. His particle-physicist father, however, has time for a road trip!* already made up his mind: Nathan will be a genius! The boy, who considers himself only slightly above average, has his doubts… But things change dra- Age of Innocence (The) (Edith Wharton, 1920) Considered possibly matically when – as the result of an accident – Nathan develops synesthesia; he Wharton’s best novel, this classic focuses on New York socialite Newland begins seeing, tasting, and feeling words. He also develops an encyclopedic Archer who is engaged to May Welland, but becomes infatuated with her visit- memory.* ing cousin Countess Ellen Ollenska—who has left her unfaithful husband behind in Europe. Will convention or passion win out? Birth of Venus (The) (Sarah Dunant, 2004) Dunant’s lush and intellectually gripping novel is set in fourteenth-century Florence at the height of the American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang, 2006) Yang introduces three char- Renaissance. Fifteen-year-old Alessandra Cecchi does not fit the mold of the acters in connected tales that touch on facets of Chinese American life. The compliant Florentine woman. She avidly consumes books written in Greek and thoughtful, powerful stories have a simple, engaging sweep as they introduce Latin as she keeps abreast of the art movement, hoping to some day create her weighty subjects, such as shame and racism.* own masterwork.*

20 21 Book Thief (The) (Marcus Zusak, 2006) Death, overwhelmed by the souls he Cry the Beloved Country (Alan Paton, 1948) The struggle of Zulu pastor must collect, turns his attention to orphaned Liesl, struggling to survive in Nazi Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom in racist South Africa and their ultimate Germany, who discovers horrifying cruelty as well as kindness in unexpected peaceful reconciliation between black and white. places.* Detective/Crime Mystery Writers: Try any book by the following mystery Color of the Sea (John Hamamura, 2006) In this simmering, provocative first writers: Nevada Barr (featuring National Park Ranger Amanda Pigeon; novels novel, two young first-generation Japanese Americans fall in love on the eve of are set in various U.S. National Parks); Lindsey Davis (featuring “informer” World War II.* Marcus Didius Falco in ancient Rome); Janet Evanovich (featuring bail bondswoman Stephanie Plum in an outrageously funny series set in the “Burg” Confederacy of Dunces (A) (John Kennedy Toole, 1980) In this Pulitzer in New Jersey); Dick Francis (featuring a variety of sleuths and locations); Sue Prize-winning novel, the raucous and profane misadventures of an American Grafton (featuring female sleuth Kinsey Millhone); Charlaine Harris (featur- comic anti-hero, a corpulent Holden Caulfield living in New Orleans, are ing a variety of sleuths and locations, including the Southern Vampire Mystery unfolded in this funny and sad novel of lunatic excess.* series); Henning Mankell (featuring Swedish police detective Kurt Wallender in detailed police procedurals); Robert B. Parker (featuring hard-boiled Confidential Agent (The) (Graham Greene, 1939) The forerunner of the Boston detective Spenser); Will Thomas (featuring “enquiry agent” Cyrus modern spy thriller, this Greene novel finds special agent D the prime suspect Barker and his young assistant Thomas Llewelyn in Victorian England) or in a murder of a young woman. Steve Womack (WRA alumnus whose novels feature Nashville reporter turned private investigator, Harry James Denton). Copper Sun (Sharon Draper, 2006) A searing work of historical fiction that imagines a 15-year-old African girl’s journey through American slavery. The Digging to America (Anne Tyler, 2006) Two families converge at the story begins in Amari’s Ashanti village, but the idyllic scene explodes in blood- Baltimore airport, each nervously anticipating the arrival of an adopted Korean shed when slavers arrive and murder her family. Amari and her beloved, Besa, baby girl. Bitsy and Brad Donaldson appear to be stereotypical white middle- are shackled, and so begins the account of impossible horrors from the slave class Americans. The Yazdans – Ziba, Sami, and Sami’s glamorous, long-wid- fort, the Middle Passage, and auction on American shores…* owed mother, Maryam – are Iranian Americans. Hoping that the families will stay in touch so that their daughters can grow up together, Bitsy invents Arrival Corean Chronicles (The) (L.E. Modesitt, Jr., 2002-2006) Modesitt’s complex Day, an annual celebration that grows increasingly elaborate each year.* trilogies chronicle the migration of aliens to the planet Corus. The problem? The aliens drain the biological life force of the planets they live on before mov- Farewell to Arms (A) (Ernest Hemingway, 1929) The story of an American ing on to their next “home”. The first trilogy includes Legacies (2002), ambulance driver on the Italian war front in World War I and his relationship Darknesses (2003), and Scepters (2004), and the second includes Alector’s with an English nurse. Considered by some to be the best American novel about Choice (2005) Cadmian’s Choice (2006), and Soarer’s Choice (2006). World War I.

Cotton (Christopher Wilson, 2006) Over a period of 30 years, Cotton experi- Farming of Bones (The) (Edwidge Danticat, 1998) A Caribbean holocaust ences life as a black boy, a white man, a white woman and a black woman story, when nationalist madness and ethnic hatred turn island neighbors into through several bizarre (to say the least) experiences. A thought-provoking executioners. Amid the rumors of terror, Annabelle and Sebastian hold on to novel about what it means to be human. love, to dignity — and struggle to survive.*

Crooked River Burning (Mark Winegardner, 2001) Set in 1950’s and 1960’s Cleveland, Ohio, this highly entertaining novel charts the rise and fall of an aging industrial center and profiles its inhabitants both real and imagined.*

22 23 Farthing (Jo Walton, 2006) One summer evening in 1949, at a country-house Guns of the South (Harry Turtledove, 1992) What would have happened if the party of the Farthing set, a guest is murdered. The Farthing set is the group that South won the U.S. Civil War? Turtledove offers a fascinating “what if” sce- organized peace with Hitler in 1941 and remained prominent in British politics nario when the Southern troops are introduced to a new weapon—the AK 47. ever since. Lucy, daughter of two set members, was surprised to be invited to the party, because relations with her family have been strained since she mar- I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., ried David, a Jew. As the murder investigation proceeds, it becomes clear that Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 (Robert Graves, 1934) This historical novel is David was to be framed for the killing.* written as an autobiographical memoir of the Roman emperor Claudius who reigned in the first century A.D. Considered an embarrassment to his family Free Life (A) (Ha Jin, 2007) The horrors of Tiananmen Square, a faltering because of his physical weaknesses, Claudius eventually outlasted them all and marriage, and a poet’s need to write complicate the already daunting obstacles gained the throne of the Empire. His story continues in Claudius the God. facing immigrants striving to achieve the American dream in this tender and penetrating novel about a Chinese family reinventing home.* In War Times (Kathleen Ann Goonan, 2007) This superlative alternate-history novel begins when educated army private Sam Dance is literally seduced into Gatsby’s Girl (Caroline Preston, 2006) Preston reimagines the life of Genevra taking possession of something called the Hadnitz Device. According to its King, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first love, changing her name to Genevra Perry and inventory, said device can change the course of history.* positing that Genevra followed Fitzgerald’s career and work with interest. Inexcusable (Chris Lynch, 2005) Lynch’s chilling and thought-provoking Ghost (The) (Robert Harris, 2007) Harris, author of the historical novels novel explores the issue of date rape from the point of view of the accused. Pompeii (2003) and Imperium (2006), goes modern in this tale. Controversial, Teenage football player Keir is a “good guy” who’s funny, intelligent, and long-time British prime minister, Adam Lang, has recently left office and prom- polite—certainly not capable of what he is charged with. Lynch raises many ises to write his memoirs. When his long-time aide dies in a ferry accident, issues and questions about the culture of athletes, family denial, cultural vio- Lang decides to hire a ghostwriter to accomplish the monumental task, howev- lence, and the crime of rape. er, things don’t go as planned when the ghostwriter uncovers secrets that Lang doesn’t want revealed. Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino, 1974) Italian literary giant, Calvino offers an imaginary conversation between thirteenth century explorer Marco Polo and the Ginger Man (The) (J. P. Donleavy, 1955) This acclaimed novel, set in Ireland Kublai Khan as Polo describes the fifty-five cities found in the Khan’s empire. after World War II, follows the misadventures of American college student, Sebastian Dangerfield, who is studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Isle of Stone (The): A Novel of Ancient Sparta (Nicholas Nicastro, 2006) Nicastro brings to life the legendary war between Athens and Sparta, focusing Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell, 1936) The classic love story of on 400 Spartan soldiers stranded on a narrow strip of land and cut off from Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara and Yankee profiteer Rhett Butler set against the supplies who are surrounded by the massive Athenian navy. Civil War and told from the Southern point of view. Let It Be Morning (Sayed Kashua, 2006) Exposing the plight of Israel’s Arab Good Soldier (The): A Tale of Passion (Ford Madox Ford, 1915) This minority, a young journalist and his family return to his native village home American classic follows the relationship of two couples and the summers they after spending years in Tel Aviv. spend together in pre-World War I Germany. Mary Modern (Camille DeAngelis, 2007) After her parents’ deaths, Lucy, Grab On to Me Tightly As If I Knew the Way (Bryan Charles, 2006) It’s 1992, who has always lived in the [family] house, now takes in boarders in order to and Vim Sweeney, newly graduated from Kalamazoo High School and a mem- stay on and continue her father’s work as a geneticist. His basement lab con- ber of the band Judy Lumpers, is casting a wary eye toward the future: “college, tains all the elements necessary to bring his dream–human cloning–to fruition, beer, job, marriage, babies, debt, divorce, nuclear annihilation.”* and she means to try.*

24 25 Midnight at the Dragon Café (Judy Fong Bates, 2005) After leaving China Romance of Tristan and Iseult (Joseph Bedier, 1930) This is Bedier’s inter- with her mother, Su-Jen enjoys her comfortable new life in Canada, but dark pretation of one of the greatest love stories in Western literature. After defeating secrets threaten her family’s stability.* a famous Irish warrior and gaining the favor of his uncle, King Marc of Cornwall, the Cornish warrior Tristan sets out a great mission: to bring home a Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981) Two baby boys, born in a queen for his uncle. A story of doomed love and heartache. Bombay hospital during the first hour of Indian independence from Britain, are switched by a nurse and end up living very different lives. Secret River (The) (Kate Grenville, 2006) Grenville tells a story rooted in her family’s Australian past. In the early 1800s, William Thornhill is sentenced to Mission Song (The) (John Le Carre, 2006) Interpreter, Bruno “Salvo” death for stealing a shipload of expensive woods. Offered an alternative, he Salvador, [was] born in Eastern Congo of a white father and a black mother, chooses transportation to New South Wales, Australia. [Grenville] describe[s] both victims of African civil war. Salvo has remade himself as a British gentle- Thornhill’s progress from convict laborer to landowner, conveying the broader man and serves his country by interpreting transcripts for the secret service. But history of Australian colonization through the experience of one convict family.* now he’s been promoted to the big leagues, live interpretation at an off-the-radar conference involving three African warlords and a much-revered Congo leader.* Secret Servant (The) (Daniel Silva, 2007) This time out, the murder of a soci- ology professor, whose recent book asserts that Holland is under attack by Night Birds (The) (Thomas Maltman, 2007) In 1862, led by Chief Little Crow jihadist Islam, sends [Mossad agent] Allon to Amsterdam, where he cleans out and incited by the government’s failure to provide their annuity, the Dakota the professor’s files and discovers that five members of an Amsterdam mosque Sioux staged an uprising in Minnesota, slaughtering hundreds of settlers. As a have disappeared and are plotting something big.* result, 38 Dakota men were hanged, the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Maltman’s promising first novel bounces between the years leading up to this Sense of Honor (A) (James A. Webb, 1981) A top midshipman guides a plebe atrocity-laden conflict and 1876, when the James-Younger gang would stir up through the rigors of his first year at the Naval Academy. its own brand of bloody mayhem in Minnesota.* Shadow of the Wind (The) (Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 2001) In post-World War II Petropolis (Anna Ulinich, 2007) Ulinich blends satire, farce, and heart-wrench- Barcelona, young Daniel is taken by his bookseller father to the Cemetery of ing realism in this original coming-of-age story about a Russian Jewish teenag- Forgotten Books, a massive sanctuary where books are guarded from oblivion. er who enters America as a mail-order bride.* Told to choose one book to protect, he selects The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax. He reads it, loves it, and soon learns it is both very valuable and Plot Against America (The) (Philip Roth, 2004) In a chilling alternate history very much in danger because someone is determinedly burning every copy of set in 1940s America, hero and anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh wins the presi- every book written by the obscure Carax.* dency over FDR, and a Jewish family endures life in a new society.* Skylark Farm (Antonia Arslan, 2007) Arslan conjures the Armenian Holocaust Rasputin’s Daughter (Robert Alexander, 2006) In The Kitchen Boy (2003), of 1915 in the story of her immediate forebears—all but one of them female— Alexander creatively imagined an answer to the mystery of the last days of the who survived it. Related as if it were a legend, charged with suspense, this is a Russian imperial family during the revolution–the question centering on soul-shaking novel.* whether any family member survived the slaughter in the basement of their Siberian house of exile. Now he ventures into the-never-cleared-up last days of Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1968) A story of Billy Pilgrim, a Gregory Rasputin, the monk who held sway at the pre-revolution court.* man who becomes unstuck in time after being captured by aliens. The classic anti-war novel. Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier, 1938) This classic work of Gothic fiction tells the story of a poor girl who meets and falls in love with the wealthy widower, marries him and then lives in the shadow of the memory of the first wife.

26 27 Songs of the Kings (The) (Barry Unsworth, 2003) Join Unsworth on another Thirteenth Tale (The) (Diane Setterfield, 2006) Margaret Lea, a bookish one of his greatly atmospheric visits to times past, in this case, ancient Greece loner, is summoned to the home of Vida Winter, England’s most popular novel- on the eve of the Trojan War. Adverse winds are keeping the allied forces of ist, and commanded to write her biography. Miss Winter has been falsifying her King Agamemnon from sailing across the Aegean Sea in their planned siege of life story and her identity for more than 60 years. Facing imminent death and Troy, wherein inhabits Paris, who stole the beautiful Helen, wife of feeling an unexplainable connection to Margaret, Miss Winter begins to spin a Agamemnon’s brother, Menelaus.* haunting, suspenseful tale of an old English estate, a devastating fire, twin girls, a governess, and a ghost.* Spellman Files (The) (Lisa Lutz, 2007) The first novel in what will probably be a successful series features 28-year-old sleuth, Izzy Spellman, who works in Thousand Splendid Suns (A) (Khaled Hosseini, 2007) Following The Kite her parent’s detective agency. Laugh-out-loud characterizations of the dysfunc- Runner (2003), Hosseini views the plight of modern Afghanistan through the eyes tional Spellman family make for great entertainment. of two very different women to create an unforgettably sad and beautiful tale.*

Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea (Diane Glancy, 2003) You are there on Tree of Smoke (Denis Johnson, 2007) The legendary Colonel Francis F. X. the epic journey of Lewis and Clark that opened the west to the call of manifest Sands enlists the help of his nephew, Skip, an intelligence officer serving in destiny. Contrasts between the explorers’ actual journals and the young Vietnam, entangling both of them in an unauthorized secret operation involving Shoshone woman’s own records reveal the inherent clash of cultures in this vast a double agent who is ready to betray the Vietcong. new land.* Turn of the Screw (Henry James, 1898) This famous classic and terrifying Suite Francaise (Irene Nemirovsky, 2006) This posthumous novel by ghost story is about a governess who sees ghosts—or does she? Are the chil- Nemirovsky, who was killed in Auschwitz in 1942, represents the author’s dren in her charge being manipulated by these spirits of two former servants? insight into German occupied France during World War II. Can she save them from their evil influence? To be sure, it is a fascinating and chilling tale. Sword Song (Bernard Cornwell, 2007) In the latest installment of Cornwell’s rousing Saxon Chronicles, Uhtred, the Saxon-born, Danish-bred hero of The Ulysses (James Joyce, 1934) Voted top novel of the twentieth century, Ulysses Last Kingdom (2004), The Pale Horseman (2005) and The Lords of the North is usually reserved for college classrooms. Tackling such a rambling novel can (2006), enjoys a brief respite from Danish attacks which suddenly ends as be fun, if you have a guide book: check your local bookstore. Recounting the London becomes the new battleground between the Saxon forces of King day in the life of an Irish Jew named Leopold Bloom, the novel contains humor, Alfred and the invading Danes. strong language, stream-of-consciousness writing, drama-like passages, and intimate details of people’s lives. Talk Talk (T. C. Boyle, 2006) Boyle sculpts his bold but meticulous novel out of a frightening premise, a case of identity theft, which he develops into a Wapshot Chronicle (The) (John Cheever, 1957) Based in part on his child- breathtaking thriller.* hood, this novel follows the lives of the Wapshots—a family in a small Massachusetts fishing village. Winner of the National Book award, this work Terrorist (John Updike, 2006) This marvelous novel is a carefully nuanced established Cheever as an acclaimed novelist. building up of the psychology of those who traffic in terrorism.* Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen, 2006) Life is good for Jacob Jankowski. Thinner Than Thou (Kit Reed, 2005) Three teens embark on a heroic rescue He’s about to graduate from veterinary school and about to bed the girl of his mission through an America in which body perfection has become a religion in dreams. Then his parents are killed in a car crash, leaving him in the middle of this provocative, satiric novel.* the Great Depression with no home, no family, and no career. Almost by acci- dent, Jacob joins the circus.*

28 29 What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (Dave Canon (The): A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (Natalie Eggers, 2006) Deng is a Sudanese “Lost Boy,” and his story is one of unimag- Angier, 2007) This exhilarating introduction presents the fundamentals of sci- inable suffering. Reworking Deng’s powerful tale with both deep feeling and ence through interviews and clear, witty explanations.* subtlety, Eggers finds humanity and even humor, creating something much greater than a litany of woes or a script for political outrage.* Columbus in the Americas (William Least Heat-Moon, 2003) Was he a visionary and daring explorer, or a ruthless conquistador with dreams of riches White Teeth (Zadie Smith, 2000) Archie and Samad, two unlikely friends, are and glory? Discover the truth behind the myth of a man whose impact still brought together by bizarre twists of fate and near-death experiences in this resonates through the continents he stumbled across .* epic novel of family, culture, love and loss set in post- World War II London.* Cross-X: A Turbulent, Triumphant Season with an Inner-City Debate Squad Non-fiction: (Joe Miller, 2006) Journalist Miller details an inner-city high-school debate team’s season, moving from the squad’s wrenching personal stories to clear 1776 (David McCullough, 1997) A stirring account of the year that began observations about how poverty affects us all.* with the humiliating British abandonment of Boston and ended with Washington’s small but symbolically important triumph at Trenton. Yet it is his Demon Under the Microscope (The): From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, portrayals of the two principal antagonists [George Washington and George III] One Doctor’s Heroic Search for the World’s First Miracle Drug (Thomas in this struggle that makes this account both engrossing and poignant. This is a Hager, 2006) In medical-writer Hager’s opinion, sulfa, not penicillin, is the first first-rate historical account.* real miracle drug, and he feels its discovery is too often overlooked and underap- preciated. His effort to amend this insult commences by tracing the life of physi- American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the cian Gerhard Domagk, from his days as a German military medical assistant dur- Republic (Joseph J. Ellis, 2007) Ellis displays outstanding acuity about the ing World War I to his belated Nobel Prize… The drama of his undertaking, per- successes and failures of the Founders as he selects key movements from the formed in the face of fierce competition and opposition from other physicians American Revolution and early republic, dramatizes them, and analyzes their and scientists, unfolds as a well-told tale of trailblazing science.* crucial ramifications for America’s future.* Distant Mirror (A): The Calamitous 14th Century (Barbara Tuchman, 1978) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Barbara Kingsolver, 2007) Castles and crusades, plague and famine, the glittering excitement of new ideas This entertaining account of a family’s year eating only locally produced food and discoveries and the agony and displacement of war – a time not unlike our presents both serious and humorous facts and anecdotes about nutrition, own in its rhythms and dimension.* agribusiness, and food production.* Flags of Our Fathers (James Bradley, 2000) The picture of the flag-raising on Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky (The) (Ken Dornstein, 2006) Seventeen years Iwo Jima in 1945 may be the most famous photograph of the twentieth century. after his older brother, David, died in the airline bombing over Lockerbie, Its fame was immediate, and immediately hitched to the wagon of publicity. A Scotland, Dornstein turns to David’s notebooks as a resource to draw out a life riveting read that deals with every detail of the photograph – its composition, lost young and unexpectedly.* the biographies of the men, what heroism is, and the dubious blessings of fame.* Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (Dee Brown, 1970) Here’s another side of America’s western expansion: the Great Adventure (The): Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America one seen through Native American eyes.* (Albert Marrin, 2007) Marrin offers a twin portrait of American society in a time of profound change and the life of a figure so dominant in the politics and self-image of the time that he has become an enduring symbol.*

30 31 Heartless Stone (The): A Journey through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire (Tom Zoellner, 2006) The grim reality of the politically charged labor, fanciful marketing, and secretive industry established by diamond mer- chants and myths that they propagate are presented in this warts-and-all exposé…* For another powerful book on this topic, look for Greg Campbell’s Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones (2003).

In Cold Blood: A True Account of A Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (Truman Capote, 1966) This is the groundbreaking masterpiece that explores the lives and deaths of six people—a family of four savagely murdered in their home in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959 and the two convicted killers who were executed years later.

Innocent Man (The): Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (John Grisham, 2006) In a true story that reads like a novel, Grisham chronicles the arrest and conviction of Ron Williamson for a crime he did not commit and how he was sent to death row, but eventually exonerated.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (Simon Winchester, 2003) When the earth’s most dangerous volcano exploded off the coast of Java, hundred foot waves flung ships inland, a rain of hot ash made temperatures plummet, the shock wave traveled around the world seven times, and 40,000 people died. The aftermath of this disaster saw the rise of radical Islam, civil unrest and a legacy of anti-Western militancy that continues today.*

Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures (Wade Davis, 2002) Through photographs and eloquent text, the DID YOU KNOW? author unveils the diversity and unique quality of human culture around the world.* The Ong Library offers over 30 Long Road Home (The): A Story of War and Family (Martha Raddatz, 2007) Violent resistance in post-invasion Iraq kicked into high gear on April 4, 2004, online databases when American troops in Sadr City faced a massive assault that claimed eight including TERC for soldiers’ lives and wounded more than 70 others. Raddatz, an Emmy-winning SAT and AP correspondent for ABC News, clearly aims to equal the storytelling in Mark information and Bowden’s Black Hawk Down in her account of the battle, and hits the mark practice tests. with distinction.*

33 Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans (Thomas Brothers, 2006) As its title indicates, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West (Benazir Bhutto, 2008) The Brothers’ book is more about Armstrong’s context than his life, more a focused first woman to run an Islamic country, Bhutto returned to her native Pakistan in microhistory than a biography. It is motivated by the perennial question, how 2007 as a champion of moderation and progress and was assassinated. In this did Armstrong become the central figure in the most significant musical devel- book, she analyzes the history between the Middle East and the West and puts opment in American history?* forth her agenda of tolerance that calls for an end to Islamic radicalism.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (Nathaniel Philbrick, Remembering the Boys: A Collection of Letters, A Gathering of Memories 2006) Philbrick recounts the story of the Pilgrims with a good deal of narrative (Lynna Piekutowski [ed.], 2000) A poignant, touching collection of letters suspense and a deep understanding of motivations: piety, wrath, gratitude, between alumni of the Western Reserve Academy serving in WW II and its duplicity—a panorama of human character and historical portent is on display headmaster, Joel Hayden. These letters reveal the loneliness, boredom, in this skillful rendering.* hardships and dangers of military life on the frontlines and the active war effort of those left behind at the Academy. A wonderful look at a special time in WRA Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life history. (Ted Gup, 2007) Investigative reporter [and WRA alumnus] Gup examines the increasing obsession with secrecy in the U.S., its causes, and risks associated Roman Revolution (The) (Ronald Syme, 1967, 2002 rev. ed.) An with this trend [and] notes an increasing secrecy in laws and practices within unconventional look at the fall of the Roman republic and rise of the emperor the various branches of government.* Augustus by the renowned historian.

Omnivore’s Dilemma (The): A Natural History of Four Meals (Michael Seven Daughters of Eve (The): The Science that Reveals Our Genetic Pollan, 2006) Humans were clearly designed to eat all manner of meats, veg- Ancestry (Bryan Sykes, 2001) Fascinating mitochondrial DNA evidence sup- etables, fruits, and grains. But, as Pollan points out, America’s farmers have ports the idea that almost all modern Europeans are descended from just seven succeeded so wildly that today’s fundamental agricultural issue has become women.* how to deal sensibly with overproduction. Pollan also addresses issues of vege- tarianism and flesh eating, hunting for game, and foraging for mushrooms. Shame of a Nation (The): The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America Throughout, he takes care to consider all sides of issues…* (Jonathan Kozol, 2005) Respected author Kozol delivers a scathing indictment of public education and the public policy that preserves inequities along race One Planet: A Celebration of Biodiversity (Nicolas Hulot, 2006) French jour- and class lines – producing, in effect, an apartheid educational system. Drawing nalist Hulot presents an eloquent survey of the beauty, diversity, and intercon- on his experiences as a teacher in the 1960s and his 40 years spent working nectivity of earthly life illustrated with breathtaking color photographs that with children in inner-city schools, Kozol has a masterful overview of the pub- embrace the tiniest creatures to the most dramatic vistas.* lic school system.*

Play It Again: Baseball Experts on What Might Have Been (Jim Bresnahan Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East? (Ted Rall, 2006) [ed.], 2006) A panel of baseball experts including historians, journalists, former From 1997 to 2002, Rall trekked all over countries in Central Asia and offers a players, and broadcasters discusses some of the game’s larger “what-if” ques- vivid travelogue of his adventures while praising the beauty and nature of the tions. What if the game had been integrated prior to Jackie Robinson in 1947? region. What if Shoeless Joe Jackson hadn’t been banned for life after the 1919 Black Sox betting scandal?* You get the idea… Tell Them I Didn’t Cry: A Young Journalist’s Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq (Jackie Spinner, 2006) In this intensely personal account of her experi- ences as a rookie reporter in Iraq, including escape from a terrifying kidnapping attempt, Spinner offers a very human look at war in a nation that she openly declares she loves and admires.*

34 35 Thirty Years War (The) (C.V. Wedgwood, 1938) Detailing the war between Zookeeper’s Wife (The): A War Story (Diane Ackerman, 2007) The dramatic Catholics and Protestants and the Bourbons and Hapsburgs, this is considered story of Antonina Zabinski and her husband, Jan, director of the Warsaw Zoo the authoritative source by the expert on 17th century European history. and a member of the Polish resistance, and how they saved the lives of hun- dreds of Jews during the Nazi occupation. Also a detailed look at the war’s War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars (2001) impact on Warsaw. The Legacy Project preserves the voices of soldiers and statesmen who lived through violent times that changed the course of nations. Listen to their stories Biographies/Memoirs: in their words.* Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant War Like No Other (A): How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the (Daniel Tammet, 2007) Although Tammet is only 27, his autobiography is as Peloponnesian War (Victor Hanson, 2005) By the standards of modern mass fascinating as Benjamin Franklin’s and John Stuart Mill’s, both of which are, warfare, the Peloponnesian War, which ravaged Greece for 27 years, was a like his, about the growth of a mind. Not that Tammet is a scientist-statesman small-scale affair. The military forces were relatively small, and the weapons or philosopher. He is an autistic savant who can perform hefty arithmetical cal- seem primitive. But by the standards of the classical Greek world, this conflict culations at lightning speed and acquire speaking competency in a previously was massive and devastating. As a strictly military account, Hanson has written unknown language in mere days.* a first-rate chronicle, capturing the intensity and savagery of ancient warfare and conveying how ordinary warriors must have experienced it.* Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught Between Two Worlds (Sabine Kuegler, 2007) In her extraordinary, heart-felt memoir, Kuegler Why Marines Fight (James Brady, 2007) Ex-jarhead Brady establishes describes her tranquil youth spent among Indonesia’s Fayu tribe and then her beyond doubt that the U.S. Marines can find and bring out the warrior in any painful shock when she reentered modern civilization as a teenager.* man who has it in him, resulting in life-long bonds among Marines. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Barack Obama, Wild Trees (The): A Story of Passion and Daring (Richard Preston, 2007) 1995) The son of a black man and a white mother, Obama recounts his strug- With clarity and drama, Preston profiles three champions of the coast redwood gle to find in place growing up in America in this compelling memoir. — the world’s tallest trees — and reveals the rarely seen world of the forest canopy, 300 feet above the ground.* Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations (Georgina Howell, 2007) The fascinating story of the British explorer, adventurer, and diplomat Winning the Peace: The Marshall Plan and America’s Coming of Age as a who influenced the shape of modern-day Iraq. Superpower (Nicolaus Mills, 2008) WRA alum Mills provides a detailed look at the Marshall Plan, the plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II, and how Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo (Kenn its implementation is a useful model for repairing the ills of today’s third world Harper, 2000) Imagine the horror as Minik visits the Museum of Natural countries. History and learns the true fate of his father. The next time you visit a museum, will you wonder about the exhibits and the dark price sometimes paid to extend World is Flat (The) (Updated and Expanded): A Brief History of the Twenty-first our understanding of ourselves and our world?* Century (Thomas Friedman, 2006) Globalization is the focus here—and how the vast changes in technology and communication have changed the world. In this Hole in My Life (Jack Gantos, 2002) Jack Gantos’ riveting memoir of the 15 updated edition, Friedman adds more commentary to the original edition. months he spent as a young man in federal prison for drug smuggling is more than a harrowing, scared-straight confession: it is a beautifully realized story World Without Us (The) (Alan Weisman, 2007) Discover the ruins of about the making of a writer.* humankind on a people-free earth and nature’s response in this provocative, scrupulously researched experiment in creative thinking.*

36 37 Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope (Shirin Ebadi, 2006) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Azar Nafisi, 2003) Nafisi, a Ebadi traces her life as a dedicated human-rights advocate and winner of the former English professor at the University of Tehran, decided to hold secret, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize as she tries to maintain a traditional woman’s role in private classes at her home after the rules at the university became too restric- an Arab country while defending politically charged cases that most in the legal tive. She invited seven insightful, talented women to participate in the class. At profession refuse to touch.* first they were tentative and reserved, but gradually they bonded over discus- sions of Lolita, Pride and Prejudice, and A Thousand and One Nights. Nafisi’s Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man (Dale Peterson, 2006) determination and devotion to literature shine through, and her book is an Goodall is admired all around the world for her revolutionary work with chim- absorbing look at primarily Western classics through the eyes of women and panzees, but as Peterson reveals in this vivid and insightful biography, the men living in a very different culture.* hardships she faced and the extent of her accomplishments as a scientist and humanist are far greater than most imagine.* River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey (Candace Millard, 2003) A solid contribution to the biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Millard’s John Adams (David McCullough, 2001) He was a man of his times who tran- gripping account of Roosevelt’s adventure on the River of Doubt, a tributary of scended the time, and one of the least understood of the Founding Fathers.* the Amazon, that nearly resulted in his death is not to be missed.

Lost Executioner (The): A Journey to the Heart of the Killing Fields (Nic Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (David Starkey, 2003) How one man’s Dunlop, 2006) [Dunlop’s] visceral account of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and the matrimonial woes elevated a very disparate group of women to temporary posi- regime’s chief executioner, Comrade Duch.* tions of power changed the way a nation was ruled, and shook the foundations of the Catholic Church.* Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (Jonathan Eig, 2005) Lou Gehrig famously announced to the world at his 1938 Yankee Stadium tribute Unbowed (Wangari Maathai, 2006) Nobel Peace Prize winner Maathai tells that he was “the luckiest man in the world.” Not so. He was dying in his late the unforgettable story of her Kenya girlhood, struggles as a biologist and pro- thirties from ALS, a disease that remains incurable to this day. He was not par- fessor, and founding the Green Belt Movement to restore Kenya’s decimated ticularly colorful or quotable, especially compared with [Babe] Ruth; he was forests and provide women with work.* just a very good baseball player and a pretty nice guy, just what we would all like our heroes to be. Eig does a wonderful job of adding a third dimension – When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa (Peter Godwin, 2007) heart – to our understanding of a legendary ballplayer…* This harrowing memoir recounts a journalist’s return to his elderly parents in dictator Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, where he uncovers family secrets and Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of witnesses a country falling apart.* For another memoir set in Zimbabwe, con- Independence (John Hockenberry, 1995) Journalist Hockenberry is fearless sider reading Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe (2004) by WRA and funny as he relates the personal and professional experiences he encounters alum Andrew Meldrum. from his wheelchair.* Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (Jung Chang, 2003) This is the true Nicholas and Alexandra (Robert K. Massie, 1967) At the brink of revolution, story of how three generations of women in the author’s family fared in the the last Tsar of Russia and his family become victims of their own mismanage- political turbulence in China in the 20th century. Shocking, illuminating, and ment and personal problems.* unsettling, this book provides an insider’s look that the reader will not forget.

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Stephen Greenblatt, 2004) A Harvard scholar here sheds penetrating light on this enig- matic genius, teasing out the mystery of artistic transformation by carefully connecting the Bard’s brilliant verse to his times and circumstances.*

38 39 Collections: Short Story and Essays Harrowing the Dragon (Patricia McKillip, 2006) Fantasy writer McKillip offers a highly entertaining and clever collection of short stories that offer Black Juice (Margo Lanagan, 2006) Lanagan’s 10 fantasy short stories are set imaginative twists on familiar fantasies, folklore, and fairy tales. in cultures both familiar and unknown and are peopled with empathetic charac- ters who battle nature, individuals, and events. The stories begin slowly…but Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth (Michael Cart [ed.], 2001) Michael Cart Lanagan gradually draws readers into each brief, fresh reality.* has collected 10 stories from a stellar roundup of familiar writers for young adults who explore, with candor and heart, how passion, sex, crushes, and com- Come Hell and High Water: Extraordinary Stories of Wreck, Terror and mitment alter and influence teens’ lives.* Triumph on the Sea (Jean Hood [ed.], 2007) Hood offers 17 stories of disas- ters at sea for those interested in maritime history. Restless Dead (The): Ten Original Stories of the Supernatural (Deborah Noyes [ed.], 2007) These original short stories feature a celebrated cast of Courage to be Yourself (The): True Stories by Teens about Cliques, Conflicts, young adult authors and invite readers to question whether the dead really do and Overcoming Peer Pressure (Al Dessetta [ed.], 2005) Teens tell their per- live in peace.* sonal stories about facing some of life’s challenges. Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection (2001) Nordic epics open up a world of Every Man for Himself: Ten Short Stories About Being a Guy (Nancy wonder and power, a Viking world of heroic adventure and discovery at the Mercado [ed.], 2005) For this collection, 10 new and established male authors turn of the first millennium.* of YA fiction were asked to write a short story exploring aspects of young man- hood.* Stories that Changed America: Muckrakers of the 20th Century (Carl Jensen [ed.], 2000) This collection centers on the major muckraking stories of the Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy twentieth century, providing some biographical and background information (Sharyn November [ed.], 2006) Editor November follows Firebirds (2003) along with samples of each writer’s work. All of the included writers and their with an equally captivating collection of 16 original stories offering a rich vari- words have in some way — culturally, socially, or politically — altered the ety of selections.* course of history.

First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants (Don Gallo [ed.], 2004) The Tales (Edgar Allan Poe, 1952) One of the many compilations of tales from the contemporary teen immigrants…hail from a mix of countries – Cambodia, master of horror—mysterious, complex, sometimes horrifying, occasionally Haiti, Kazakhstan, Mexico, South Korea – reflective of current immigration psychotic, and always suspenseful. Look for Poe’s stories and poems in a vari- trends.* ety of collections of works by the author.

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders (Neil Gaiman, 2006) Thirty-one Time Capsule (Donald Gallo [ed.], 2001) Ten of today’s best YA writers con- short works by the talented author reveal yet again his gift of storytelling. tribute clever, captivating short stories that span the twentieth century and run the gamut of historical perspectives and tones. Each story, set in a different Gone to New York: Adventures in the City (Ian Frazier, 2005) [WRA alum] decade, centers on a major event and its effect on the life of one or more Frazier, a staff writer for the New Yorker, where many of the punchy yet elegant teenagers.* essays in this collection were previously published, wraps his impressions of the city he loves in prose infused with razor-sharp and self-effacing humor as Without Reserve (James Gramentine [ed.], 2005) This 52-essay compilation well as a talent for isolating the telling detail.* written by WRA alumni offers a rich history of Reserve over 50 years. From stories of infamous pranks to profiles on inspiring faculty masters, this book truly embodies the spirit of all that is Western Reserve Academy.

40 41 Something for Everyone: Informational Titles for Teenagers Tracing Your Family History: The Complete Guide to Locating Your Ancestors and Finding Out Where You Came From (Lisa Hull, 2006) Hull Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, and Why It Matters (Barbara offers an organized approach for beginning and experienced genealogists. Kellerman, 2004) Harvard lecturer Kellerman’s book argues cogently, com- pellingly, and with an amazing clarity for the identification of bad leadership What are My Rights?: 95 Questions and Answers About Teens and the Law and, then, for its removal.* (Thomas A. Jacobs, 1997) In clear, everyday language, with just a sprinkling of legal terms, Jacobs presents useful guidelines and background on a variety Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food (Eric of topically organized concerns related to teens’ rights within the family, at Schlosser and Charles Wilson, 2007) Including passages from Schlosser’s school, on the job, in the community, and within the legal system itself…* best-selling adult book Fast Food Nation (2001) and other writings, the authors dish up a somewhat-less-stomach-churning look at the fast-food industry’s Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May growth, practices, and effects on public health.* Have Forgotten) (Jon Huntsman, 2005) Self-made billionaire Huntsman argues that in order to truly succeed in life, one must follow a moral compass Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct (P.M. because it’s the right thing to do, disputing the logic that the ends justify the Forni, 2002) In a world where civility seems to be diminishing, Forni offers means. some basic rules of thoughtful, compassionate behavior and common decency. Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook (The): Life (Joshua Piven and David Gatekeepers (The): Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College Borgenicht, 2006) The latest guide in this series, check out how to handle (Jacques Steinberg, 2002) Getting in—who and what drives the college admis- life’s everyday mishaps. Look for other Survival handbooks including Travel, sions cycle? Find out in a behind the scenes look at Wesleyan University Extreme Edition, and The Worst Case Scenario Book of Survival Questions. through the eyes of an admissions officer seeking members for the class of 2004. Poetry, Anyone?

If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Best Poems of the English Language (The): From Chaucer to Frost (Harold Storytelling (Patti Bellantoni, 2005) The author presents a different way of Bloom [ed.], 2004) A massive collection of the best of 108 British and looking at movies, through the lens of color. She explains through examples American poets writing in English from Chaucer through Robert Frost… from many different movies the power of reds, the corruption of some greens, Bloom analyzes the aesthetics of poetry and what poetry does for us and and the melancholy of blues.* explains what he believes makes one poem better than another… He also pro- vides illuminating assessments of each poet.* Little Green Handbook (The): Seven Trends Shaping the Future of Our Planet (Ron Nielsen, 2006) Neilson examines the major global developments Isn’t It Romantic: 100 Love Poems by Younger American Poets (Lauer, Brett impacting the planet today and how they affect our world tomorrow. Fletcher [ed.], 2004) A fresh and much-needed collection of love poems writ- ten by 100 outstanding American poets born after 1960.* Modern Mind (The): An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (Peter Watson, 2001) Explore the thoughts of major players from Freud to Einstein Movin’: Teen Poets Take Voice (Dave Johnson [ed.], 2000) Budding poets and events from Kitty Hawk to the distant reaches of the universe.* will be inspired by this collection of poems by teenagers.*

Primal Teen (The): What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Neck of the World (F. Daniel Rzicznek, 2007) Winner of the Swenson Poetry Us About Our Kids (Barbara Strauch, 2004) Read the latest scientific studies Award, this is the latest collection of poems by the award winning poet. about the development of the teenage brain and its critical growth during ado- lescence which dispels a lot of what scientists had traditionally believed.

42 43 Poems from Homeroom: A Writer’s Place to Start (Kathi Applet, 2002) In Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, addition to offering a variety of poems about individual longing, Applet offers 2008 American Library Association. students a guide for writing poetry for beginning poets. The American Library Association is providing information and services on the Poets of World War II (American Poets Project, 2003) They have been called World Wide Web in furtherance of its non-profit and tax-exempt status. the Greatest Generation, and in their own voices they reveal the true price of Permission to use, copy and distribute documents delivered from this World their call to arms.* Wide Web server and related graphics is hereby granted for private, non-com- mercial and education purposes only, and not for resale, provided that the Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright States (Lori Carlson [ed.], 2006) Carlson follows up Cool Salsa (1994) with notice and this permission notice appear. All other rights reserved. another bilingual collection of poems that appear in both Spanish and English. Included are many well-known writers, such as Gary Soto and Luis J. Rodriguez, who appeared in the first volume, as well as emerging poets.*

Rose (Li-Young Lee, 1986) One of the best-selling books of poetry in the United States, this is the first collection by this widely acclaimed poet.

School Among the Ruins (The): Poems 2000-2004 (Adrienne Rich, 2004) Rich, a clarion poet of conscience, gets the fractured timbre of our times just right in a collection of vigorous lyric poems about cell phones and television, terror and war, commercialization and “social impotence.”*

Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls (Betty Franco [ed.], 2001) A companion to You Hear Me (2000), this collection of stories and poems by teen girls reveals the truth about boyfriends, body image, and being female.*

Trouble with Poetry (The): And Other Poems (Billy Collins, 2007) Collins is one of the most popular and most disarming of poets… Skeptical of love and scornful of pretension, Collins is breathtaking in his appreciation of the earth’s beauty and the precious daily routines that define life.*

You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems for Real Life (Mary Esselman and Elizabeth Velez [ed.], 2005) Editors Esselman and Velez showcase the phases of love, a subject that has long inspired, redeemed, frustrated, and obsessed us... Timid poetry readers should feel comfortable here, discovering poems that not only relate to what the average person experiences in love but that are expressed in accessible, lively language.*

*These annotations have been reproduced from the American Library Association’s World Wide Website and/or the ALA publication Booklist.

44 45 Looking for A Good Book? Some Websites to Help You National Book Critics Circle: Awards (http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=awards) Prestigious awards given for the Below are some web sites that offer recommended books in a number of cate- year’s best books in five categories: fiction, general nonfiction, criticism, poet- gories. While by no means all-inclusive, we hope to give you some useful sug- ry and biography/autobiography. gestions of where to start looking… Overbooked: A Resource for Readers AllReaders.com (http://www.overbooked.org/) Specializes in providing timely information (http://allreaders.com) Look for books by plot, theme, character or setting. about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. It is a non- profit volunteer Book reviews are also available. project and a by-product of the work of the Chesterfield County (Va.) Public Library’s Collection Management department. American Library Association (ALA) – Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Pulitzer Prizes (http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/yalsa.htm) A division of the American Library (http://www.pulitzer.org) Select any year to view the annual awards for distin- Association (ALA), YALSA offers a selection of booklists for people of all guished writing by The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. ages. From the menu on the left side of the page, simply click on “Booklists & Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. Book Awards” for links to several excellent lists for teenagers including Best (http://www.sfwa.org) Click on “Awards” for the Nebula Awards for excellence Books for Young Adults and Outstanding Books for the College Bound. in science fiction and fantasy writing. Bookwire: Book Awards Western Writers of America Spur Awards (http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/otherbooks/Book-Awards.html) This web (http://www.slco.lib.ut.us/spur.htm) Here are the annual awards for distin- site offers links to a wide variety of book awards. guished writing about the American West. Edgar Awards (http://www.mysterywriters.org/index.htm) Click on “Awards” to find the annu- al Edgar Allan Poe Awards given by the Mystery Writers of America for writ- ing achievement in the mystery field. Horror Writers Association (http://www.horror.org) Look under “Awards” for a variety of awards presented by the Horror Writers Association including the annual Bram Stoker Awards for achievement in horror writing. Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize (http://www.kiriyamaprize.org) Under “Winners & Finalists,” look for the annual awards given to “books that will contribute to greater understanding among peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim.” National Book Awards (http://www.nationalbook.org/index.html) Click on “Awards” to find the annual awards presented by the National Book Foundation for literary achievement in four categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and young people’s literature.

46 47 Title Index Come Back to Afghanistan: A Eagle Blue: A Team, a Tribe, and a California Teenager’s Story, 12 High School Basketball Team in 1776, 30 Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Come Hell and High Water: Arctic Alaska, 12 1984, 1 Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Extraordinary Stories of Wreck, Eclipse, 3 Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Zoo, 11 Terror and Triumph of the Sea, 40 Eldest, 3 Indian (The), 1 Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Confederacy of Dunces (A), 22 Elsewhere, 3 Abundance of Katherines (An), 20 Happens, and Why It Matters, 42 Confidential Agent (The), 22 Endurance (The): Shackleton’s Age of Innocence (The), 20 Bad Monkeys, 2 Copper Sun, 22 Legendary Antarctic All Creatures Great and Small, 16 Beautiful Miscellaneous (The), 21 Corean Chronicles (The), 22 Expedition, 12 All Quiet on the Western Front, 1 Best Poems of the English Language Cotton, 22 Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs American Born Chinese, 20 (The): From Chaucer to Frost, 43 Courage to be Yourself (The): True That Changed the World, 12 American Creation: Triumphs and Birds of Prey, 2 Stories by Teens about Cliques, Everest: Summit of Achievement, 12 Tragedies at the Founding of the Birth of Venus (The), 21 Conflicts, and Overcoming Peer Every Man for Himself: Ten Short Republic, 30 Black Green Swan, 2 Pressure, 40 Stories About Being a Guy, 40 American Insurrection (An): The Black Juice, 40 Crooked River Burning, 22 Eyes of the Emperor, 3 Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, Blackstone Book of Magic & Cross-X: A Turbulent, Triumphant Fahrenheit 451, 4 1962, 11 Illusion (The), 11 Season with an Inner-City Debate Fairest, 4 American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Bless Me, Ultima, 2 Squad, 31 Far Traveler, 4 Buddhist Monks, and the Legend Blue Sky: A Novel, 2 Cry the Beloved Country, 23 Farewell to Arms (A), 23 of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in Book Thief (The), 22 Daughter of the Ganges: A Farming of Bones (The), 23 New China, 11 Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Memoir, 17 Farthing, 24 Amnesia Clinic (The), 1 Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic David Copperfield, 2 Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Amy, 21 Savant, 37 Death Be Not Proud, 2 Original Science Fiction and Anahita’s Woven Riddle, 1 Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky Deep (The): The Extraordinary Fantasy, 40 And Still We Rise: The Trials and (The), 30 Creatures of the Abyss, 12 First Crossing: Stories About Teen Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner- Brave Companions: Portraits in Demon in the Freezer (The): A Immigrants, 40 City High School Students, 11 History, 16 True Story, 12 Flags of Our Fathers, 31 Angelmonster, 21 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 30 Demon Under the Microscope (The): For Whom the Bell Tolls, 4 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year Canon (The):A Whirligig Tour of the From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Forever in Blue: The Fourth of Food Life, 30 Beautiful Basics of Science, 31 Labs, One Doctor’s Heroic Search Summer of the Sisterhood, 4 Anna Karenina, 21 Chew on This: Everything You Don’t for the World’s First Miracle Forgotten Fire, 4 Appeal (The), 21 Want to Know about Fast Drug, 31 Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Arrival (The), 1 Food, 42 Digging to America, 23 Wonders, 40 Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes Child of the Jungle, 37 Distant Mirror (A): The Calamitous Frankenstein, 4 in New England (An): A Novel, 21 Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five 14th Century, 31 Free Life (A), 24 Ask Me No Questions, 1 Rules of Considerate Conduct, 42 Dream Duet (The), 3 Gatekeepers (The): Inside the Astonishing Life of Octavian Code Talker: A Novel About the Dreamhunter, 3 Admissions Process of a Premier Nothing (The): Traitor to the Navajo Marines of World War Dreamquake, 3 College, 42 Nation, v.1: The Pox Party, 1 II, 2 Dreams from My Father: A Story of Gatsby’s Girl, 24 Color of the Sea, 22 Race and Inheritance, 37 Genghis: Birth of an Empire, 4 Columbus in the Americas, 31

48 49 Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, 5 Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Shaper of Nations, 37 Die: The Power of Color in Visual Killing Mr. Griffin, 5 Community, and War, 34 Ghost (The), 24 Storytelling, 42 Krakatoa: The Day the World Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on Ginger Man (The), 24 Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Exploded: August 27, 1883, 33 the Caravan of White Gold, 14 Girls (The), 4 Rome, 5 Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from Meteor Hunt (The): The First Give Me My Father’s Body: The In Code: A Mathematical the Limits of Human English Translation of Verne’s Life of Minik, the New York Journey, 17 Endurance, 13 Original Manuscript, 6 Eskimo, 37 In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Let It Be Morning, 25 Midnight at the Dragon Café, 26 Gone to New York: Adventures in Multiple Murder and Its Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, Midnight’s Children, 26 the City, 40 Consequences, 33 the Law That Changed the Future Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on Gone With the Wind, 24 In the Heart of the Sea: The of Girls in America, 14 the Mountain and My Journey Good Soldier (The): A Tale of Tragedy of the Whaleship Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster Home to My Father, 14 Passion, 24 Essex, 13 (The), 5 Mission Song (The), 26 Grab On to Me Tightly As If I Knew In War Times, 25 Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Mister Pip, 6 the Way, 24 Incantation, 5 Kid (The): A Memoir, 17 Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Grayson, 12 Indian Givers: How the Indians of Life As We Knew It, 5 Lee, 19 Great Adventure (The): Theodore the Americas Transformed the Light at the Edge of the World: A Modern Mind (The): An Intellectual Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern World, 13 Journey Through the Realm of History of the 20th Century, 42 America, 31 Inexcusable, 25 Vanishing Cultures, 33 Movin’: Teen Poets Take Voice, 43 Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self- Innocent Man (The): Murder and Little Green Handbook (The): Seven Moving Violations: War Zones, Experimenters in Science and Injustice in a Small Town, 33 Trends Shaping the Future of Our Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Medicine, 13 Inventing Modern America: From Planet, 42 Independence, 38 Gulliver’s Travels, 4 the Microwave to the Mouse, 13 Long Road Home (The): A Story of Name of the Wind (The), 6 Guns of the South, 25 Invisible Allies: Microbes that Shape War and Family, 33 Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Harrowing the Dragon, 41 Our Lives, 13 Long Way Gone (A): Memoirs of a Democracy and the American Heartless Stone (The): A Journey Invisible Cities, 25 Boy Soldier, 17 Way of Life, 34 Through the World of Diamonds, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Looking for Alaska, 6 Neck of the World, 43 Deceit, and Desire, 33 Revolution and Hope, 38 Lords of Discipline (The), 6 Nicholas and Alexandra, 38 Hole in My Life, 37 Isle of Stone (The): A Novel of Lost Executioner (The): A Journey Night Birds (The), 26 How Everything Works: Making Ancient Sparta, 25 to the Heart of the Killing Old School, 6 Physics Out of the Ordinary, 13 Isn’t It Romantic: 100 Love Poems Fields, 38 Omnivore’s Dilemma (The): A Hunger of Memory: The Education by Younger American Poets, 43 Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans, 34 Natural History of Four of Richard Rodriquez: An Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Meals, 34 Autobiography, 17 Redefined Man, 38 Truth, 41 On the Water: Discovering America Hunt for Justice (The): The True John Adams, 38 Luckiest Man: The Life and Death in a Rowboat, 14 Story of a Woman Undercover Journey Toward Freedom: The Story of Lou Gehrig, 38 On Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet Wildlife Agent, 13 of Sojourner Truth, 17 Madame Curie, 17 from the 16th Century to I, Claudius: From the Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Mary Modern, 25 Today, 14 Autobiography of Tiberius Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Maximum Ride: Saving the World One Kingdom: Our Lives with Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Apartheid South Africa, 17 and Other Extreme Sports, 6 Animals, 14 Murdered and Deified A.D. 54, 25 Keturah and Lord Death, 5

50 51 One Planet: A Celebration of Red Sea, 8 Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Terrorist, 28 Biodiversity, 34 Remembering the Boys: A Collection Sea, 15 There is No Me Without You: One Over a Thousand Hills I Walk of Letters, A Gathering of Shooting Under Fire: The World of Woman’s Odyssey to Rescue with You, 6 Memories, 35 the War Photographer, 15 Africa’s Children, 16 Pearl (The), 6 Restless Dead (The): Ten Original Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia Things I Have to Tell You: Poems Petropolis, 26 Stories of the Supernatural, 41 the New Middle East?, 35 and Writing by Teenage Girls, 44 Play It Again: Baseball Experts on Riding the Bus with My Sister: A Silver Ship and the Sea (The), 8 Thinner Than Thou, 28 What Might Have Been, 34 True Life Journey, 15 Simple Courage: A True Story of Thirteenth Tale (The), 29 Player (The): Christy Mathewson, River of Doubt: Theodore Peril on the Sea, 16 Thirty Years War (The), 36 Baseball, and the American Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, 39 Six Wives: The Queens of Henry This Boy’s Life: A Memoir, 20 Century, 19 Robinson Crusoe, 8 VIII, 39 Thousand Splendid Suns (A), 29 Plot Against America (The), 26 Roman Revolution (The), 35 Skylark Farm, 27 Three Musketeers (The), 9 Poems from Homeroom: A Writer’s Romance of Tristan and Iseult, 27 Slaughterhouse Five, 27 Thursday Next: First Among Place to Start, 44 Rose, 44 Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Sequels, 9 Poets of World War II, 44 Rubicon: The Last Years of the Holocaust, 16 Time Capsule, 41 Poison, 8 Roman Republic, 15 Snakehead: An Alex Rider Tracing Your Family History: The Primal Teen (The): What the New Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, 41 Adventure, 9 Complete Guide to Locating Your Discoveries about the Teenage Samurai Shortstop, 8 Songs of the Kings (The), 28 Ancestors and Finding Out Where Brain Tell Us About Our Kids, 42 Savage Summit: The True Stories of Spellman Files (The), 28 You Came From, 43 Promise (The), 8 the First Five Women Who Step from Heaven (A), 9 Tree of Smoke, 29 Pyongyang: A Journey in North Climbed K2, the World’s Most Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Trouble With Poetry (The): And Korea, 14 Feared Mountain, 15 Desert Jail, 20 Other Poems, 44 Rainbow’s End: A Memoir of School Among the Ruins (The): Stone Heart: A Novel of Turn of the Screw (The), 29 Childhood, War and An African Poems 2000-2004, 44 Sacajawea, 28 Uglies, 10 Farm, 19 Schulz and Peanuts: A Stories that Changed America: Ulysses, 29 Raptor Red, 8 Biography, 19 Muckrakers of the 20th Unbowed, 39 Rasputin’s Daughter, 26 Secret River (The), 27 Century, 41 Under the Black Flag: The Rats: Observations on the History Secret Servant (The), 27 Suite Francaise, 28 Romance and the Reality of Life and Habitat of the City’s Most Sense of Honor (A), 27 Swim to Me, 9 Among the Pirates, 16 Unwanted Inhabitants, 15 Sense of the World (A): How a Blind Sword Song, 28 Under the Feet of Jesus, 10 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir Man Became History’s Greatest Tales, 41 Under the Persimmon Tree, 10 in Books, 39 Traveler, 19 Talk Talk, 28 Wapshot Chronicle (The), 29 Real Time, 8 Seven Daughters of Eve (The): The Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, War Letters: Extraordinary Rebecca, 26 Science that Reveals Our Genetic Passion, and Betrayal, 9 Correspondence from American Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy Ancestry, 35 Tell Them I Didn’t Cry: A Young Wars, 36 and the West, 35 Shadow of the Wind (The), 27 Journalist’s Story of Joy, Loss, War Like No Other (A): How the Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Shame of a Nation (The): The and Survival in Iraq, 35 Athenians and Spartans Fought Being Young and Latino in the Restoration of Apartheid Terror of the Spanish Main: Sir the Peloponnesian War, 36 United States, 44 Schooling in America, 35 Henry Morgan and His Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Sharing Sam, 8 Buccaneers, 20 Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Cultural Revolution, 19 Little Rock’s Central High, 20

52 53 Water for Elephants, 29 You Drive Me Crazy: Love Poems Author Index What Are My Rights?: 95 Questions for Real Life, 44 Ackerman, Diane, 37 Brashares, Anne, 4 Draper, Sharon, 22 and Answers About Teens and the Zookeeper’s Wife (The): A War Akbar, Said Hyder, 12 Bresnahan, Jim, 34 Du Maurier, Daphne, Law, 43 Story, 37 Alexander, Caroline, 12 Brothers, Thomas, 34 26 What is the What: The Alexander, Robert, 26 Brown, David, 13 Dumas, Alexander, 9 Autobiography of Valentino Alexie, Sherman, 1 Brown, Dee, 30 Dunant, Sarah, 21 Achak Deng, 30 American Poets Project, Bruchac, Joseph, 2 Duncan, Lois, 5 When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A 44 Bryson, Bill, 17 Dunlop, Nic, 38 Memoir of Africa, 39 Anaya, Rudolfo, 2 Budhos, Marina, 1 Ebadi, Shirin, 38 Whistling Season (The), 10 Anderson, M. T., 1 Burton, Susan, 12 Eggers, Dave, 30 White Darkness (The), 10 Andrews, Donna, 3 Calvino, Italo, 25 Eig, Jonathan, 38 White Fang, 10 Angier, Natalie, 31 Capote, Truman, 33 Ellis, Joseph, 30 White Teeth, 30 Anthony, Lawrence, 11 Carlson, Lori, 44 Esselman, Mary, 44 Applegate, Katherine, 8 Cart, Michael, 41 Evanovich, Janet, 23 Why Marines Fight, 36 Applet, Kathi, 44 Carter, Betsy, 9 Farrell, Jeanette, 13 Wild Swans: Three Daughters of Aronson, Marc, 16 Chang, Jung, 39 Fforde, Jasper, 9 China, 39 Arslan, Antonia, 27 Charles, Bryan, 24 Fitoussi, Michele, 20 Wild Trees (The): A Story of Passion Atherton, Nancy, 3 Cheever, John, 29 Flannery, Sarah, 17 and Daring, 36 Bagdasarian, Adam, 4 Clarke, Brock, 21 Ford, Ford Madox, 24 Will in the World: How Shakespeare Bakker, Robert T., 8 Collins, Billy, 44 Forni, P. M., 42 Became Shakespeare, 39 Barr, Nevada, 23 Conroy, Pat, 6 Francis, Dick, 23 Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Barron, Stephanie, 3 Cooper, Brenda, 8 Franco, Betty, 44 Values We Learned as Children Bates, Judy Fong, 26 Cordingly, David, 16 Frazier, Ian, 40 (But May Have Forgotten), 43 Beah, Ishmael, 17 Cornwell, Bernard, 28 Friedman, Thomas, 36 Winning the Peace: The Marshall Beals, Melba Pattilo, 20 Corwin, Miles, 11 Gaiman, Neil, 40 Bedier, Joseph, 27 Cox, Lynne, 12 Gallo, Donald, 40, 41 Plan and America’s Coming of Bellantoni, Patti, 42 Curie, Eve, 17 Gantos, Jack, 37 Age as a Superpower, 36 Benanav, Michael, 14 D’Orso, Michael, 12 Garfunkel, Trudy, 14 Witch Hunt: Mysteries Of the Salem Bennett, Veronica, 21 Danticat, Edwidge, 23 Gibbons, Kaye, 5 Witch Trials, 16 Bernard, Jacqueline, 17 Davidson, Diane Mott, Glancy, Diane, 28 Without Reserve, 41 Bhutto, Benazir, 35 3 Godwin, Peter, 39 Working Fire: The Making of an Blackstone, Jr., Harry, Davis, Lindsey, 23 Goonan, Kathleen Ann, Accidental Fireman, 16 11 Davis, Wade, 33 25 World is Flat (The) (Updated and Bloom, Harold, 43 DeAngelis, Camille, 25 Grafton, Sue, 23 Expanded): A Brief History of the Bloomfield, Louis A., Defoe, Daniel, 8 Gramentine, James, 41 Twenty-first Century, 36 13 Delaney, Frank, 16 Gratz, Alan M., 8 World Without Us (The), 36 Blumenthal, Karen, 14 Delisle, Guy, 14 Graves, Robert, 25 Borgenicht, David, 43 Dendy, Leslie, 13 Green, John, 6, 20 Worst Case Scenario Survival Boring, Mel, 13 Dessetta, Al, 40 Greenblatt, Stephen, 39 Handbook (The): Life, 43 Box, C. J., 3 Dickens, Charles, 2 Greene, Graham, 22 Yossel, April 19, 1943: A Story of the Boyle, T. C., 28 Doig, Ivan, 10 Greene, Melissa Fay, 16 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 11 Bradbury, Ray, 4 Donleavy, J. P., 24 Grenville, Kate, 27 You Can’t Go Home Again, 11 Bradley, James, 31 Dornstein, Ken, 30 Grisham, John, 21, 33 Brady, James, 36 Doyle, William, 11 Gruen, Sara, 29

54 55 Guene, Faiza, 5 Knox, Elizabeth, 3 November, Sharyn, 40 Schroeder, Lucinda Velez, Elizabeth, 44 Gunther, John, 2 Kozol, Jonathan, 35 Noyes, Deborah, 14, 41 Delaney, 13 Verne, Jules, 6 Gup, Ted, 34 Kubert, Joe, 11 Obama, Barack, 37 Scudamore, James, 1 Viramontes, Helena Hager, Thomas, 31 Kuegler, Sabine, 37 Orwell, George, 1 Seib, Philip M., 19 Maria, 10 Hamamura, John, 22 Lanagan, Margo, 40 Oufkir, Malika, 20 Setterfield, Diane, 29 Vonnegut, Jr., Kurt, 27 Hanson, Victor, 36 Lansens, Lori, 4 Paolini, Christopher, 3 Shelley, Mary, 4 Walton, Jo, 24 Harper, Kenn, 37 Lauer, Brett Fletcher, Parker, Robert B., 23 Shields, Charles, 19 Watson, Peter, 42 Harris, Charlaine, 23 43 Parrado, Nando, 14 Silva, Daniel, 27 Weatherford, Jack, 13 Harris, Robert, 5, 24 Le Carre, John, 26 Paton, Alan, 23 Simon, Rachel, 15 Webb, James A., 27 Heat-Moon, William Leavitt, Martine, 5 Patterson, James, 6 Smith, Dominic, 21 Wedgwood, C. V., 36 Least, 31 Lee, Li-Young, 44 Peet, Mal, 9 Smith, Wilbur, 2 Weisman, Alan, 36 Hemingway, Ernest, 4, Levine, Gail Carson, 4 Peters, Elizabeth, 3 Smith, Zadie, 30 Westerfeld, Scott, 10 23 London, Jack, 10 Peters, Ellis, 3 Spence, Graham, 11 Wharton, Edith, 20 Herriot, James, 16 Lutz, Lisa, 28 Peterson, Dale, 38 Spinner, Jacqueline, 35 Wilson, Charles, 42 Hockenberry, John, 38 Lynch, Chris, 25 Pfeffer, Susan Beth, 5 St. John, Lauren, 19 Wilson, Christopher, 22 Hoffman, Alice, 5 Maathai, Wangari, 39 Philbrick, Nathaniel, Staples, Suzanne Fisher, Winchester, Simon, 33 Holland, Tom, 15 Maltman, Thomas, 26 13, 34 10 Winegardner, Mark, 22 Hood, Jean, 40 Mankell, Henning, 23 Piekutowski, Lynna, 35 Stark, Peter, 13 Wolfe, Thomas, 11 Hooper, Mary, 21 Marrin, Albert, 20, 31 Piven, Joshua, 43 Starkey, David, 39 Wolff, Tobias, 6, 20 Horowitz, Anthony, 9 Marston, Edward, 3 Poe, Edgar Allan, 41 Steinbeck, John, 6 Womack, Steve, 23 Horvitz, Leslie, 12 Massie, Robert K., 38 Pollan, Michael, 34 Steinberg, Jacques, 42 Wooding, Chris, 8 Hosseini, Khaled, 29 Mathabane, Mark, 17 Polly, Matthew, 11 Stone, Nathaniel, 14 Yang, Gene Luen, 20 Howe, Peter, 15 McCall Smith, Potok, Chaim, 8 Strauch, Barbara, 42 Zafon, Carlos Ruiz, 27 Howell, Georgina, 37 Alexander, 3 Preston, Carolyn, 24 Sullivan, Robert, 15 Zevin, Gabrielle, 3 Hull, Lisa, 43 McCaughrean, Preston, Richard, 12, 36 Swift, Jonathan, 4 Zoellner, Tom, 33 Hulot, Nicolas, 34 Geraldine, 10 Raddatz, Martha, 33 Sykes, Brian, 35 Zusak, Marcus, 22 Huntsman, Jon, 43 McCullough, David, 16, Rall, Ted, 35 Syme, Ronald, 35 Iggulden, Conn, 4 30, 38 Rause, Vince, 14 Tammet, Daniel, 37 Jacobs, Thomas A., 43 McKillip, Patricia, 41 Reed, Kit, 28 Tan, Shaun, 1 James, Henry, 29 Mercado, Nancy, 40 Remarque, Erich Maria, Thomas, Will, 23 Jansen, Hanna, 6 Meyer, Stephanie, 3 1 Tingle, Rebecca, 4 Jensen, Carl, 41 Michaelis, David, 19 Rich, Adrienne, 44 Tolstoy, Leo, 21 Jiang, Ji-Li, 19 Millard, Candice, 39 Roberts, Jason, 19 Toole, John Kennedy, Jin, Ha, 24 Miller, Joe, 31 Roberts, Les, 3 22 Johnson, Dave, 43 Mills, Nicolaus, 36 Rodriguez, Richard, 17 Tschinag, Galsan, 2 Johnson, Denis, 29 Miro, Asha, 17 Rogasky, Barbara, 16 Tuchman, Barbara, 31 Jones, Lloyd, 6 Mitchell, David, 2 Roth, Philip, 26 Tullson, Diane, 8 Jordan, Jennifer, 15 Mitchell, Margaret, 24 Rothfuss, Patrick, 6 Turner, Megan Whalen, Joyce, James, 29 Modesitt, Jr., L.E., 22 Royal Geographical 1 Kashua, Sayed, 25 Na, An, 9 Society (The), 12 Turtledove, Harry, 25 Kass, Prina Moed, 8 Nafisi, Azar, 39 Ruff, Matt, 2 Tyler, Anne, 23 Kellerman, Barbara, 42 Nemirovsky, Irene, 28 Rushdie, Salman, 26 Ulinich, Anna, 26 Kinder, Gary, 15 Nicastro, Nicholas, 25 Rzicznek, F. Daniel, 43 Unger, Zac, 16 King, Laurie R., 3 Nielsen, Ron, 42 Salisbury, Philip, 3 Unsworth, Barry, 28 Kingsolver, Barbara, 30 Nouvian, Claire, 12 Schlosser, Eric, 42 Updike, John, 28

56 57 Notes

Compiled by: Jacque Miller & Holly Bunt, John D. Ong Library Design: Thomas Moore, Communications Office, Western Reserve Academy Printing: Duke Printing & Mailing

The Summer Reading Program is printed on Cougar Smooth Cover and Plainfield Opaque Text, both Forest Stewardship Council approved papers.

58 John D. Ong Library 115 College Street Hudson, Ohio 44236 330.650.9730 www.wra.net