Summer+Reading

= = = = = = = = = = = **6th Grade** = = = toc **Contemporary Fiction**
 * Summer Reading List 2011 **

Avi. //**Crispin: The Cross of Lead**// Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

Bloor, Edward. //**Tangerine**// Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.

Cashore, Kristin. //**Graceling**// Katsa’s hyper-developed talent, or Grace, makes her feared throughout the Seven Kingdoms, but a wicked cute, super-sensitive prince helps her harness it as they solve a mysterious kidnapping together.

Choldenko, Gennifer. **//Al Capone Does My Shirts//** A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Creech, Sharon. //**Walk Two Moons**// After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. **//Elijah of Buxton//** In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

Cushman, Karen. **//Catherine, Called Birdy//** The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.

Funke, Cornelia Caroline. //**The Thief Lord**// Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with -- and the protection of -- Venice's "Thief Lord."

DiCamillo, Kate. **//The Tale of Despereaux//** The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.

DuPrau, Jeanne. //**The City of Ember**// In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

Fleischman, Sid. //**Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini**// Biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death in 1926.

Funke, Cornelia. **//Inkheart//** One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called "Inkheart," and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books.

Gantos, Jack. **//Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key//** Jack Gantos has perfect pitch in capturing the humor, the off-the-wall intensity, and the serious challenges that life presents to a kid dealing with hyper-activity and related disorders.

Gordon, Roderick & Brian Williams. //**Tunnels**// Will Burrows has little in common with his strange, dysfunctional family. In fact, the only bond he shares with his eccentric father is a passion for archaeological excavation. So when his dad mysteriously vanishes, Will unearths the unbelievable: a subterranean society that time forgot.

Gutman, Dan. **//The Homework Machine//** Four fifth-grade students--a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker--as well as their teacher and mothers, each relate events surrounding a computer programmed to complete homework assignments.

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. //**Among the Hidden**// A government decree allows each family only two children. For Luke, a third child, this has meant a lifetime of hiding. But could a stray glimpse of a child hiding in the house across the way lead to freedom?

Hale, Shannon. **//Book of a Thousand Days//** Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids.

Hannigan, Katherine. //**Ida B: --and her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (possibly) Save the World**// In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to public school.

Henkes, Kevin. //**Olive’s Ocean**// This exquisite coming-of-age story from a bestselling author is about a girl who is haunted by her deceased friend Olive and has just a hint of young romance.

Hiaasen, Carl. **//Flush//** With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

Hawking, Lucy & Stephen. //**George’s Secret Key to the Universe**// Follows the adventures of a young boy and his neighbor friend as they travel through a computer portal into outer space, where they explore such mysteries as black holes and the origins of the universe, while trying to evade an evil scientist.

Jacques, Brian. **//Redwall Series//** The peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes. Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy.

Kelly, Jacqueline. //**The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate**// Eleven-year-old Calpurnia Virginia Tate and her curmudgeony old grandfather bond over their interest in the evolution of the species on a Texas plantation at the turn of the last century.

Kinney, Jeff. //**Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Followup - Rodrick Rules)**// Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

Klages, Ellen. //**The Green Glass Sea**// In 1943, eleven-year-old Dewey Kerrigan lives with her scientist father in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as he works on a top secret government program, and befriends an aspiring artist who is a misfit just like her.

Levine, Gail Carson. //**Fairest**// In a land where beauty and singing are valued above all else, Aza eventually comes to reconcile her unconventional appearance and her magical voice, and learns to accept herself for who she truly is.

Lowry, Lois. //**Number the Stars**// In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

Martin, Ann M. //**A Corner of the Universe**// The summer that Hattie turns twelve, she meets the childlike uncle she never knew and becomes friends with a girl who works at the carnival that comes to Hattie's small town.

Mass, Wendy. //**Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life**// Just before his thirteenth birthday, Jeremy Fink receives a keyless locked box--set aside by his father before his death five years earlier--that purportedly contains the meaning of life.

Morgenstern, Susie, translated by Gill Rosner. //**A Book of Coupons**// A new teacher gives her class a book of coupons for misbehaving that could really get everyone in trouble!

Paulsen, Gary. **//Hatchet//** After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.

Phelan, Matt. //**The Storm in the Barn**// At the stark, dry height of the 1937 Kansas dust bowl, 11-year-old Jack tries to bring back the rain when he challenges a mythical figure in this stirring graphic novel.

Philbrick, Rodman. **//The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg//** Homer, an admitted liar and teller of tales, must rescue his brother Harold after Uncle Squinton Leach sells him to the Union Army.

Rex, Adam. **//The True Meaning of Smekday//** Twelve-year-old Gratuity Tucci has a hard time writing an essay on "The True Meaning of Smekday" due to her complex life after Earth was overtaken by aliens and her mother was kidnapped and taken to Happy Mouse Kingdom in Florida.

Riordan, Rick. **//The Lightning Thief//** After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

Riordan, Rick. //**The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles)**// Carter Kane and his sister must prevent the chaos snake Apophis from breaking free in a few days' time or the world will come to an end. To have any chance of battling these Forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god Ra.

Sachar, Louis. //**Holes**// After being sent unjustly to a boys' detention center, Stanley is forced by the warden to dig holes everyday. While the warden claims it's to build character, it doesn't take Stanley long to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. Stanley decides he needs to dig up the truth about what the warden is looking for.

Scieszka, Jon. //**Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories about Growing up Scieszka**// How did Jon Scieszka get so funny, anyway? Growing up as one of six brothers was a good start, but that was just the beginning. Throw in Catholic school, lots of comic books, lazy summers at the lake with time to kill, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, jokes told at family dinner, and the result is Knucklehead. Part memoir, part scrapbook, this hilarious trip down memory lane provides a unique glimpse into the formation of a creative mind and a free spirit.

Schmidt, Gary. //**The Wednesday Wars**// During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

Schrag, Ariel. //**Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age**// An anthology of illustrated tales about the agonies and triumphs of seventh and eight grade. Seventeen artists share their stories of first love, bullying, zits, and all the things that make middle school the worst years of our lives.

Selnick, Brian. //**The Invention of Hugo Cabret**// When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.

Skelton, Matthew. //**Endymion Spring**// Having reluctantly accompanied his academic mother and pesky younger sister to Oxford, twelve-year-old Blake is at loose ends until he stumbles across an ancient and magical book, secretly brought to England in 1453 by Gutenberg's mute apprentice to save it from evil forces, and which now draws Blake into a dangerous and life-threatening quest.

Sonnenblick, Jordan. //**Zen and the Art of Faking It**// When eighth-grader San Lee moves to a new town for the umpteenth time, he doesn't try to make new friends or be a loner or play cool. He sits back and devises a plan to be totally different - a Zen Master.

Spinelli, Jerry. //**Maniac Magee**// After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

Stead, Rebecca. **//When You Reach Me//** Twelve-year-old Miranda must unravel a puzzle involving increasingly strange notes warning that someone she knows may die.

Sturtevant, Katherine. //**A True and Faithful Narrative**// In London in the 1680s, Meg--now sixteen years old--tries to decide whether to marry either of the two men who court her, taking into account both love and her writing ambitions.

Vanderpool, Clare, //**Moon Over Manifest**// Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

Weeks, Sarah. **//So B. It: a Novel//** After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.

Whelan, Gloria. //**Homeless Bird**// Kali discovers that the husband her parents have chosen for her is sickly.

**Classics**

Defoe, Daniel. **//Robinson Crusoe//** The story of a 17th century Englishman shipwrecked on a desert island and his daily struggles for survival, a steadfast adherence to his Puritan religious ethic, illness and loneliness, cultivation of the land and the creation of a home against all odds including man-eating savages, and eventually the saving and "taming" of one to be "his man Friday" -- culminating in an eventual rescue and return to England.

Gilbreth, Frank. **//Cheaper by the Dozen//** No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First there are a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert who believes a family can be run just like a factory. Finally there's Mother, his partner in everything except discipline. How they all survive such escapades as forgetting Frank Jr. in a roadside restaurant or going on a first date with Dad in the backseat or having their tonsils removed en masse will keep you in stitches. You can be sure they're not only cheaper, they're funnier by the dozen.

Lewis, C. S. **//The Chronicles of Narnia//** Four London children are sent to a professor's country home in order for protection during World War II. There they find a magic wardrobe which leads to a mystical land called Narnia, which is being ruled by an evil witch. To defeat the witch, they must join forces with Aslan, the lion God of Narnia.

Montgomery, L.M. **//Anne of Green Gables (Series)//** This classic tells the story of Anne Shirley, an orphan who goes to Canada's Prince Edward Island to live with Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew on their farm. With her fiery red hair and irrepressible nature, Anne brings the community of Green Gables to life.

Stevenson, Robert L. **//Treasure Island//** Here be Pirates and buried gold! This is the stirring classic tale of adventure on the high seas and a hunt for buried pirate treasure. Follow young Jim Hawkins and the mysterious buccaneer map to Skeleton Island, but avoid the bloodthirsty old crew of the terrible Captain Flint and especially Long John Silver.... Somewhere out there, a treasure chest of untold riches awaits!

Verne, Jules. **//20,000 Leagues Under the Sea//** A French professor and his two companions sail above and below the world's oceans as prisoners on the fabulous electric submarine of the deranged Captain Nemo.

= **7th & 8th Grade** = = = **Contemporary Fiction**

Asher, Jay. //**Thirteen Reasons Why**// When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

Bacigalupi, Paulo. **//Ship Breaker//** In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

Bloor, Edward. //**Tangerine**// Living in surreal Tangerine County, Fla., a legally blind boy begins to uncover the ugly truth about his football-hero brother.

Bray, Libba. **//A Great and Terrible Beauty (Sequels: Rebel Angels & The Sweet Far Thing)//** After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

Bray, Libba. //**Going Bovine**// Cameron knew there was something wrong when he started seeing pillars of fire and angels, but he never imagined he had mad cow disease.

Choldenko, Gennifer. **//Al Capone Does My Shirts//** A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Condie, Alllyson. //**Matched**// All her life, Cassia has never had a choice. The Society dictates everything: when and how to play, where to work, where to live, what to eat and wear, when to die, and most importantly to Cassia as she turns 17, who to marry. When she is Matched with her best friend Xander, things couldn't be more perfect. But why did her neighbor Ky's face show up on her match disk as well?

Cirrone, Dorian. //**Dancing in Red Shoes will Kill You**// Sixteen-year-old Kayla, a ballet dancer with very large breasts, and her sister Paterson, an artist, are both helped and hindered by classmates as they confront sexism, conformity, and censorship at their high school for the arts while still managing to maintain their sense of humor.

Crutcher, Chris. **//Whale Talk//** Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school’s less popular students.

Dashner, James. //**The Maze Runner**// Sixteen-year-old Thomas finds himself emerging from a metal box into an enclave of teen males. All he really remembers about himself is his name as he negotiates life in the wall-enclosed Glade, surrounded by a maze that might lead them home --- if they can solve it and also manage to survive the deadly monsters prowling within.

Donnelly, Jennifer. **//A Northern Light//** In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiancé, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

Draper, Sharon. **//Copper Sun//** Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

Foreman, Gayle. **//If I Stay//** Seventeen-year-old Mia had everything to live for --- a loving family, a beloved boyfriend, and her brilliant cello playing (and, very possibly, an acceptance to Juilliard). But everything changes during a tragic car accident. Now Mia hovers near the hospital bed where her physical body lies in a coma, weighing her options. Should she die, or should she stay?

Gordon, Roderick & Brian Williams. **//Tunnels//** Will Burrows has little in common with his strange, dysfunctional family. In fact, the only bond he shares with his eccentric father is a passion for archaeological excavation. So when his dad mysteriously vanishes, Will unearths the unbelievable: a subterranean society that time forgot.

Gruber, Michael. **//The Witch’s Boy//** A grotesque foundling turns against the witch who sacrificed almost everything to raise him when he becomes consumed by the desire for money and revenge against those who have hurt him, but he eventually finds his true heart’s desire.

Hautman, Pete. //**Godless**// Sixteen-year-old Jason Bock, tired of the tedious "Teen Power Outreach" sessions he is forced to attend at his Catholic church, decides to create his own religion that involves worshipping the town's water tower as a god.

Herlong, M. H. //**The Great Wide Sea**// Ben, Dylan, and Gerry are still mourning their mother's death when their dad decides to buy a boat and take them on a year-long sailing trip. But one morning, the boys wake up to discover their father has disappeared—and they are lost. What happened to him? Where are they? And what will they do when a treacherous storm looms on the horizon?

Horowitz, Anthony. //**Stormbreaker**// After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6. More tales of Alex Rider are in Point Blank and Skeleton Key.

Johnson, Maureen. //**13 Little Blue Envelopes**// When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.

King, A. S.**// Please ignore Vera Dietz //** When her best friend, whom she secretly loves, betrays her and then dies under mysterious circumstances, high school senior Vera Dietz struggles with secrets that could help clear his name.

PKorman, Gordan. //**No More Dead Dogs**// Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest changes that improve not only the play but his life as well.

Larbalestier, Justine. **//Magic or Madness//** From the Sydney, Australia home of a grandmother she believes is a witch, fifteen-year-old Reason Cansino is magically transported to New York City, where she discovers that friends and foes can be hard to distinguish.

LaRochelle, David. **//Absolutely, Positively Not//** Chronicles a teenage boy’s humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, “Playboy” pinup-displaying heterosexual.

Levithan, David. **//Boy Meets Boy//** When Paul falls hard for Noah, he thinks he has found his one true love, but when Noah walks out of his life, Paul has to find a way to get him back and make everything right once more.

Lockhart, E. **//Dramarama//** Spending their summer at Wildewood Academy, an elite boarding school for the performing arts, tests the bond between teens Sadye and her best friend Demi.

Lowry, Lois. //**Number the Stars**// In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

Lubar, David. //**Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie**// While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer.

Martin, Ann M. **//A Corner of the Universe//** Hattie Owen divides her 12-year-old life history into Before Adam and After Adam. Adam is her mentally disabled uncle whose existence was hidden away by Hattie’s parents and grandparents, until the summer when she turns 12. Hattie and Adam become instant pals — she is Adam’s advocate and deeply affected by his eccentric behaviors and often surprisingly insightful views of the world.

McCaughrean, Geraldine. //**The White Darkness**// A dream trip into the bleak Antarctic wilderness turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will challenge everything 14 year-old Symone knows and loves.

Meyer, Stephenie. //**Twilight (Sequels: New Moon & Eclipse)**// When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

Mikaelsen, Ben. //**Touching Spirit Bear**// After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

Myers, Walter, Dean. //**Monster**// While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

Napoli, Donna Jo. **//The King of Mulberry Street//** In 1892, Dom, a nine-year old stowaway from Naples, Italy, arrives in New York and must learn to survive the perils of street life in the big city.

Oliver, Lauren. **//Before I Fall//** After she dies in a car crash, teenage Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself.

Pearson, Mary E. //**The Adoration of Jenna Fox**// Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. //**Life as we Knew It**// Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Schrag, Ariel. //**Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age**// An anthology of illustrated tales about the agonies and triumphs of seventh and eight grade. Seventeen artists share their stories of first love, bullying, zits, and all the things that make middle school the worst years of our lives.

Shusterman, Neal. //**The Schwa Was Here**// A Brooklyn eighth-grader nicknamed Antsy befriends the Schwa, an “invisible-ish” boy who is tired of blending into his surroundings and going unnoticed by nearly everyone.

Shusterman, Neal. //**Unwind**// In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.

Sonnenblick, Jordan. **//Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie//** The life of eighth-grader Steven Alper, already complicated by his friendship with two girls and a prodigious talent for drumming, is turned upside down when his five-year-old brother Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia.

Spinelli, Jerry. //**Stargirl**// In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. //**Under the Persimmon Tree**// During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmal, a young refugee from Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her husband’s return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Stead, Rebecca. //**When You Reach Me**// Twelve-year-old Miranda must unravel a puzzle involving increasingly strange notes warning that someone she knows may die.

Steele, J. M. //**The Taker**// When popular Carly Biels, who is a shoo-in for Princeton University due to her dad's alumni status, does poorly on her SATs, she receives a mysterious message from "The Taker," who offers to take the test for her--for a price

Stork, Francisco X. **//Marcelo in the Real World//** Marcelo—a teen who exhibits Asperger-like behaviors—is forced to leave his job caring for horses to work in his father’s law firm and experience “the real world.”

Thompson, Kate. **//The New Policeman//** Hoping to buy a bit of time for his mother’s birthday, J.J. discovers that time is leaking from his world into the land of fairies. Through music and his own wits, he navigates both worlds to try to correct the imbalance.

Voigt, Cynthia. **//Homecoming//** Abandoned by their mother, four children begin to search for a home and an identity.

Volponi, Paul. **//Black and White//** Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

Westerfeld, Scott. **//Leviathan//** A hunted young Prince Aleksander Ferdinand and a girl disguised as a boy must form an unlikely alliance to survive in this steampunk version of WWI.

Wizner, Jake. //**Spanking Shakespeare**// Shakespeare Shapiro navigates a senior year fraught with feelings of insecurity while writing the memoir of his embarrassing life, worrying about his younger brother being cooler than he is, and having no prospects of ever getting a girlfriend.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. **//True Believer//** Verna LaVaughn, 15-year-old inner-city school girl strives to better herself to “get out” of her neighborhood and the life which is constantly in poverty and in danger of violence. She is visited by Jody, a boy she knew as a child who comes back to the housing project where she lives. Jody behaves as if he's in love with her, but Jody is wrestling with questions of his own identity. Sequel to Make Lemonade.

Yang, Gene Luen. **//American Born Chinese//** Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.

Zusak, Mark. **//The Book Thief//** Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

**Non Fiction**

Freedman, Russell. **//Who Was First? Discovering the Americas//** A treasure hunt backwards in time reveals the multiplicity of cultures and people who lived in and contributed to America long before the fateful trip of Columbus.

Giblin, James Cross. **//Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth//** Biography of two brothers, Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth, both famous actors, and the tragedy of John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Gore, Al. **//An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming//** Gore’s movie-tie-in book, rewritten for a younger audience, uses the original’s argument and most of the illustrations to introduce the issue, show symptoms, describe effects, and suggest things to do about the most important issue of our time.

Murphy, Jim. **//An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793//** Recreates the devastation rendered to the city of Philadelphia in 1793 by an incurable disease known as yellow fever, detailing the major social and political events as well as the time’s medical beliefs and practices.

Satrapi, Marjane. **//Persepolis//** Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

**Classics**

Alcott, Louisa May. **//Little Women//** Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in nineteenth-century New England.

Crane, Stephen. **//The Red Badge of Courage//** A young soldier comes of age under the stress of Civil War combat.

Dickens, Charles. **//Great Expectations//** Pip’s life is changed by a strange circumstance. He grows to adulthood expecting a great inheritance and marriage with his childhood sweetheart — but neither expectation is fulfilled.

Gilbreth, Frank. **//Cheaper by the Dozen//** No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First there are a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert who believes a family can be run just like a factory. Finally there's Mother, his partner in everything except discipline. How they all survive such escapades as forgetting Frank Jr. in a roadside restaurant or going on a first date with Dad in the backseat or having their tonsils removed en masse will keep you in stitches. You can be sure they're not only cheaper, they're funnier by the dozen.

Lewis, C. S. **//The Chronicles of Narnia//** Four London children are sent to a professor's country home in order for protection during World War II. There they find a magic wardrobe which leads to a mystical land called Narnia, which is being ruled by an evil witch. To defeat the witch, they must join forces with Aslan, the lion God of Narnia.

Paterson, Katherine. **//Jacob Have I Loved//** Feeling deprived all her life of schooling, friends, mother, and even her name by her twin sister, Louise finally begins to find her identity.

Smith, Betty. **//A Tree Grows in Brooklyn//** A young girl in a shabby neighborhood lives with dreams in an innocent time before the war.

Stevenson, Robert L. **//Treasure Island//** Here be Pirates and buried gold! This is the stirring classic tale of adventure on the high seas and a hunt for buried pirate treasure. Follow young Jim Hawkins and the mysterious buccaneer map to Skeleton Island, but avoid the bloodthirsty old crew of the terrible Captain Flint and especially Long John Silver.... Somewhere out there, a treasure chest of untold riches awaits!

Swift, Jonathan. **//Gulliver’s Travels//** Swift's scathingly satirical look at humanity, this masterpiece tells the incredible tale of Lemuel Gulliver, an English ship's surgeon who is shipwrecked upon the shores of Lilliput, where the residents are only six inches tall. Additional journeys take him to a land populated by giants, a floating island in the sky, and a land where horses have intelligence and man lives as a beast.

**Social Studies**

All the books on this list have a strong narrative quality; some are fiction, some non. They have been chosen as books that will entertain; they are not books you have to slog through. They are perfect summer in-a-treehouse, on-the-beach, tucked- away-in-a- grove-of-birches-with-a-pitcher-of-lemonade kinds of books ….

Dickens, Charles. **//Hard Times//** The Industrial Revolution and the philosophy of pragmatism affect all the characters living in Coketown. Read one chapter and you’ll be hooked.

Gilbreth, Frank. **//Cheaper by the Dozen//** STOP: Do not see the movie - read this book and this family will be part of your life forever.

Gogol, Nicolai. **//Dead Souls//** Comic masterpiece – a great plan for getting rich (buying up dead souls) goes just a bit awry …

Graves, Robert. **//I, Claudius//** The great writer lets the stuttering emperor speak for himself. Fiction, but draws on historic facts.

Fraser, Antonia. **//Mary Queen of Scots//** The almost too amazing to be true story of the most passionate and most improvident princess who ever lived.

Lewis, W.H. **//The Splendid Century//** The France that existed under the Sun King, vivid descriptions of manners, everyday life, clothes and the arts.

Mitford, Nancy. **//The Sun King//** The life and loves of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

Pasternak, Boris. **//Dr. Zhivago//** The great love story of the Russian revolution. Made into a film with Julie Christie and Omar Sharif, the book takes you there completely. Have tissues handy.

Shirer, William. **//The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich//** Hands down the best book on Hitler’s rise to power and the destruction of Germany. Don’t be frightened by its length—you’ll wish it were longer.

Smith, Betty. **//A Tree Grows in Brooklyn//** I remember when she discovers the library and starts to read every book in it—alphabetically. No New York child should grow up without reading this book.

Smith, Dodie. **//I Capture the Castle//** 17 year old Cassandra and her family live in genteel poverty in a ramshackle castle … not to be missed.

Sobel, Dava. **//Longitude//** The true story of the lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of this time – and won a fortune doing it!

Spry, Johanna. **//Heidi//** A children’s book? I don’t think so! Visit the Alps and sleep in the little attic bed of straw with a window to the stars.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. **//Uncle Tom’s Cabin//** Eliza and George, make a desperate bid to escape to Canada, while 'Uncle Tom' is sold to two successive and very different owners, in this intensively dramatic and moving novel.

Tuchman, Barbara. **//A Distant Mirror//** Knights in shining armor and ladies in gowns of silk: why does Tuchman see that world as a mirror of our own? Find out in this rich and richly told tale of the medieval world in the 13th century.

Tuchman, Barbara. **//The Guns of August//** The world of upstairs-downstairs comes to an abrupt end with the beginning of the Great War.

Turgenev, Ivan. **//Fathers and Sons//** A great storyteller describes the world of pre-revolutionary Russia through the prism of the family – a must for any student planning to act in Chekov plays.

Weir, Alison. **//Life of Elizabeth I//** Reads like historical fiction, a real page-turner of a biography.

= **9th Grade** = = = **English Department Recommendations**

Bloom, Harold (Ed.). //**Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages.**// A collection of classics by the likes of Tolstoy, O. Henry, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, William Shakespeare, and dozens more.

Gordon, Karen. **//The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed.//** Playful and practical, this is the style book you can't wait to use, a guide that addresses classic questions of English usage with wit and the blackest of humor.

Guest, Judith. //**Ordinary People**// 17-year-old Conrad Jarrett, just returned from 8 months in a mental institution after a suicide attempt, tries to pick up his life at home and at school.

Tolkien, J. R. R. //**The Hobbit**// Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

**PCS Library Recommendations**

Alexie, Sherman. //**The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian**// Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. **//Speak//** A traumatic event in the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year of high school.

Cameron, Peter. //**Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You**// Eighteen-year-old James living in New York City with his older sister and divorced mother struggles to find a direction for his life.

Chbosky, Stephen. **//Perks of Being a Wallflower//** A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie.

Collins, Suzanne. **//The Hunger Games//** In a science-fiction cliffhanger, Katniss takes her younger sister’s place as one of twenty-four youths who are turned over to the Capitol in a deadly annual reality game in which only one can survive.

Crutcher, Chris. **//Whale Talk//** The Cutter All Night Mermen, a group of seven misfits who are members of a makeshift swim team, come together to challenge their high school's sports culture and fight for dignity in a world where a moment's inattention can bring lifelong heartache.

Donnelly, Jennifer. //**A Northern Light**// In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

Green, John. //**Looking for Alaska**// Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Grover, Lorie Ann. //**On Pointe**// In this introspective novel told in free verse, Clare poignantly describes her struggles to reach her dream of becoming one of 16 dancers chosen for the City Ballet Company.

Haddon, Mark. **//The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time//** In this acclaimed and engaging debut, Christopher, an autistic math wiz, takes his life too literally and can’t relate to others. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, he investigates the death of his neighbor’s dog and unravels secrets closer to home.

Harriet Beecher Stowe. **//Uncle Tom’s Cabin//** The heart-wrenching story of Eliza Harris and Uncle Tom, published in 1852, exposed the horrors of slavery and helped bring about the Civil War.

Hornby, Nick. //**Slam**// At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones’s girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam’s life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically.

Irving, John. **//A Prayer for Owen Meany//** In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after 1953 is extraordinary and terrifying. He is Irving's most heartbreaking hero.

Ishiguro, Kazuo. //**Never Let Me Go**// Subtly reimagines our world and time in a moving and haunting tale of otherness.

Jackson, Shirey. **//We Have Always Lived in the Castle//** Alone since four members of the family died of arsenic poisoning, Merricat, Constance and Julian Blackwood spend their days in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears.

Krakauer, Jon. **//Into the Wild//** In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhikes to Alaska and walks alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body is found by a moose hunter. How Chris McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of "Into the Wild."

Lahiri, Jhumpa. **//Unaccustomed Earth: Stories//** In this collection from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, eight dazzling stories take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as each explores the secrets at the heart of family life.

Meyer, Stephenie. **//Twilight (sequels New Moon & Eclipse)//** 17-year-old Isabella moves to a small town in Washington State and gets more excitement than she bargained for when she falls for an enigmatic classmate -- who happens to be a vampire.

Mitchell, Margaret. **//Gone with the Wind//** Considered by many to be not only the greatest love story ever written, but also the greatest Civil War saga.

Mortenson, Greg and David Oliver Relin.//**Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to FightTerrorism and Build Nations--One School at a Time**// In 1993 Greg Mortenson was an American mountain-climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan’s Karakoram. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of a Pakistani village, he promised to return one day to build them a school.

Pratchett, Terry. //**Nation**// After a tsunami, island native, Mau, and shipwreck survivor, Daphne, construct a nation that blends each other’s customs, science, and faith in a multi-leveled novel of survival and politics.

Picoult, Jodi. **//My Sister’s Keeper//** Thirteen-year-old Anna knows that she was conceived in order to provide organs and other life support for her critically ill sister. After enduring multiple surgeries, she sues her parents for the rights to her own body.

Plum-Ucci, Carol. //**The Body of Christopher Creed**// Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.

Rosoff, Meg. **//How I Live Now//** To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy goes to England to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds, but soon war breaks out and rips apart the family while devastating the land.

Satrapi, Marjane. //**Persepolis**// Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

Sinclair, Upton. //**The Jungle**// Upton Sinclair's unflinching chronicle of crushing poverty and oppression set in Chicago in the early 1900s.

Smith, Dodie. **//I Capture the Castle//** The story of 17-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Over three turbulent months, she fills three diaries with funny yet poignant entries and manages to find herself hopelessly in love.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. //**Uncle Tom's Cabin**// Eliza and George, make a desperate bid to escape to Canada, while 'Uncle Tom' is sold to two successive and very different owners, in this intensively dramatic and moving novel.

Tan, Amy. **//The Joy Luck Club//** In 1949 four Chinese women - drawn together by the shadow of their past - begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Nearly forty years later, one of the members has died. When her daughter comes to take her place, she learns of her mother's lifelong wish, and the tragic way in which it has come true.

Walker, Alice. **//The Color Purple//** Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.