9th Grade Independent Novel Suggested Reading List



9th Grade Independent Novel Suggested Reading ListLexile Level 700-790Title: As Easy as Falling off the Face of the EarthAuthor: Lynne Rae Perkins Lexile: 730A teenaged boy encounters one comedic calamity after another when his train strands him in the middle of nowhere, and everything comes down to luck. **Title: The Warrior HeirAuthor: Cinda Williams Chima Lexile: 730 After learning about his magical ancestry and his own warrior powers, sixteen-year-old Jack embarks on a training program to fight enemy wizards. **Title: Hattie Big SkyAuthor: Kirby Larson Lexile: 700 Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle's homesteading claim. **Title: A Northern LightAuthor: Jennifer Donnelly Lexile: 700 In 1906, Mattie takes a job at an inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. **Title: Catcher in the RyeAuthor: J.D. SalingerLexile: 790The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep?school?in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. *Lexile Level 800-890Title: Bless Me UltimaAuthor: Rudy AnayaLexile: 840Stories filled with wonder and the haunting beauty of his culture have helped make Rudolfo Anaya the father of Chicano literature in English, and his tales fairly shimmer with the lyric richness of his prose. Acclaimed in both Spanish and English, Anaya is perhaps best loved for his classic bestseller ... Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will test the bonds that tie him to his people, and discover himself in the pagan past, in his father's wisdom, and in his mother's Catholicism. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world-and will nurture the birth of his soul. *Title: When Legends DieAuthor: Hall BorlundLexile: 850When his father killed another brave, Thomas Black Bull and his parents sought refuge in the wilderness. There they took up life as it had been in the old days, hunting and fishing, battling for survival. But an accident claimed the father's life and the grieving mother died shortly afterward. Left alone, the young Indian boy vowed never to return to the white man's world, to the alien laws that had condemned his father. *Title: The House on Mango StreetAuthor: Sandra CisnerosLexile: 870The House on Mango Street?is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero.?Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous – it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.*Title: As I Lay DyingAuthor: William FaulknerLexile: 870As I Lay Dying?is Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn ?by each of the family members—including Addie herself—as well as others the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama,?As I Lay Dying?is a true 20th-century classic.*Title: Cry, the Beloved CountryAuthor: Alan PatonLexile: 860"Cry, the Beloved Country" is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s.The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. "Cry, the Beloved Country" is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.*?Title: Dragon and ThiefAuthor: Timothy Zahn Lexile: 800When a spaceship crashes near Jack's hiding place, with one survivor, his life is changed forever. **Title: EverlostAuthor: Neal Shusterman Lexile: 860When Nick and Allie are killed in a car crash, they end up in Everlost, or limbo for lost souls, where although Nick is satisfied, Allie will stop at nothing--even skinjacking--to break free. **Title: Toads and DiamondsAuthor: Heather Tomlinson Lexile: 820 A retelling of the Perrault fairy tale set in pre-colonial India, in which two stepsisters receive gifts from a goddess and each walks her own path to find her gift's purpose, discovering **Title: The Traitors` GateAuthor: Avi Lexile: 810 When his father is arrested as a debtor in 1849 London, fourteen-year-old John Huffam must take on unexpected responsibilities, from asking a distant relative for help to determining why people are spying on him and his family. **Title: TrashAuthor: Andy Mulligan Lexile: 860 Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country's dump. **Lexile Level 900-990Title: Old Man and the SeaAuthor: Ernest HemingwayLexile: 940The Old Man and the Sea?is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.?*Title: I am DavidAuthor: Ann HolmLexile: 980David's entire twelve-year life has been spent in a grisly prison camp in Eastern Europe. He knows nothing of the outside world. But when he is given the chance to escape, he seizes it. With his vengeful enemies hot on his heels, David struggles to cope in this strange new world, where his only resources are a compass, a few crusts of bread, his two aching feet, and some vague advice to seek refuge in Denmark. Is that enough to survive?David's extraordinary odyssey is dramatically chronicled in Anne Holm's classic about the meaning of freedom and the power of hope.*Title: The Bean TreesAuthor: Barbara KingsolverLexile: 900The Bean Trees?is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West. *Title: ObasanAuthor: Joy KogawaLexile: 990Based on the author's own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to tell the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese?ancestry?during the Second World War. *Title: PigmanAuthor: Paul ZindelLexile: 950When sophomores John and Lorraine played a practical joke a few months ago on a stranger named Angelo Pignati, they had no idea what they were starting. Virtually overnight, almost against their will, the two befriended the lonely old man; it wasn't long before they were more comfortable in his house than their own. But now Mr. Pignati is dead. And for John and Lorraine, the only way to find peace is to write down their friend's story -- the story of the Pigman. *Title: The Invisible ManAuthor: Ralph EllisonLexile: 950The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled,?moving to New York?and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.??*Title: The ChosenAuthor: Chaim PotokLexile: 970It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again. *Title: Picture BrideAuthor: Yoshiko UshidaLexile: 970Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917, one of several hundred Japanese "picture brides" whose arranged marriages brought them to America in the early 1900s.Her story is intertwined with others: her husband, Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper; Kiku and her husband Henry, who reject demeaning city work to become farmers; Dr. Kaneda, a respected community leader who is destroyed by the adopted land he loves. All are caught up in the cruel turmoil of World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert detention camps. Although tragedy strikes each of them, the same strength that brought her to America enables Hana to survive. *Title: Blood Red HorseAuthor: K. M. Grant Lexile: 930Two brothers are called by King Richard to fight in the Crusades. They are bound together by a special horse and a girl they both love. **Title: Chasing Lincoln`s KillerAuthor: James L. Swanson Lexile: 980Recounts the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin, and follows the intensive twelve-day search for him and his accomplices. **Title: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted DaughterAuthor: Adeline Yen Mah Lexile: 960Yen Mah is only an infant when her father remarries after her mother's death. As the youngest of her five siblings, Wu Mei suffers the worst at the hands of her stepmother Niang. **Title: The Legend of Bass ReevesAuthor: Gary Paulsen Lexile: 950An account of the life of Bass Reeves, federal marshal. **Title: Paper Covers RockAuthor: Jenny Hubbard Lexile: 920At the beginning of his junior year at a boys' boarding school, 16-year-old Alex is devastated when he fails to save a drowning friend. **Lexile Level 1000-1090Title: I Know why the Caged Bird SingsAuthor: Maya AngelouLexile: 1070Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age–and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. *Title: Bury my Heart at Wounded KneeAuthor: Dee BrownLexile: 1080Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian became a publishing phenomenon when first published in 1970. Now in paperback, this stunningly illustrated edition showcases more than 300 images, including maps, drawings, paintings, portraits, and photographs of notable sites and sacred battlefields. Excerpts from such acclaimed books as Where?White Men Fear to Tread, along with essays by notable historians and Native American leaders like Joseph Marshall III, enhance the original text.*Title: My AntoniaAuthor: Willa CatherLexile: 1010Set on the Nebraska prairie of the 1880s,?My ?ntonia?tells the story of ?ntonia Shimerda, daughter of a Bohemian immigrant. Through the eyes of Jim Burden, her tutor and admirer, we follow ?ntonia's struggles and triumphs in the face of life's relentless hardships.*Title: The PlagueAuthor: Albert CamusLexile: 1070A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature. *Title: SiddharthaAuthor: Herman HesseLexile: 1010With parallels to the enlightenment of the Buddha, Hesse's?Siddhartha?is the story of a young Brahmin's quest for the ultimate reality. Steeped in the tenets of both psychoanalysis and Eastern mysticism, Siddhartha?presents an original view of man and culture, and the arduous process of self-discovery that leads to reconciliation, harmony, and peace. *Title: Once and Future KingAuthor: T.H. WhiteLexile: 1080T.H. White's masterful retelling of the saga of King Arthur is a fantasy classic as legendary as Excalibur and Camelot, and a poignant story of adventure, romance, and magic that has enchanted readers for generations. *Title: Farewell to ManzanarAuthor: Jeanne WakatsukiLexile: 1040Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons and a dance band called the Jive Bombers who would play any popular song except the??nation's #1 hit: "Don't Fence Me In."Farewell to Manzanar?is the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States. *Title: To the LighthouseAuthor: Virginia WoolfLexile: 1030Every summer, the Ramsays visit their summer home on the beautiful Isle of Skye, surrounded by the excitement and chatter of family and friends, mirroring Virginia Woolf’s own joyful holidays of her youth. But as time passes, and in its wake the First World War, the transience of life becomes ever more apparent through the vignette of the thoughts and observations of the novel’s disparate cast. *Title: Look Homeward, AngelAuthor: Thomas WolfeLexile: 1010Thomas Wolfe published?Look Homeward, Angel, his first novel, about a young man's burning desire to leave his small town and tumultuous family in search of a better life, in 1929. It gave the world proof of his genius and launched a powerful legacy.The novel follows the trajectory of Eugene Gant, a brilliant and restless young man whose wanderlust and passion shape his adolescent years in rural North Carolina. Wolfe said that?Look Homeward, Angel?is "a book made out of my life," and his largely autobiographical story about the quest for a greater intellectual life has resonated with and influenced generations of readers, including some of today's most important novelists. Rich with lyrical prose and vivid characterizations, this twentieth-century American classic will capture the hearts and imaginations of every reader. *Title: The Return of the NativeAuthor: Thomas HardyLexile: 1040Eustacia Vye criss-crosses the wild Egdon Heath, eager to experience life to the full in her quest for 'music, poetry, passion, war'. She marries Clym Yeobright, native of the heath, but his idealism frustrates her romantic ambitions and her discontent draws others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.*Lexile Level 1100-1190Title: Mists of AvalonAuthor: Marion Zimmer BradleyLexile: 1120Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come. *Title: The Autobiography of Malcolm XAuthor: Alex HaleyLexile: 1120From hustling,?drug addiction?and armed violence in America's black ghettos Malcolm X turned, in a dramatic prison conversion, to the puritanical fervor of the Black Muslims. As their spokesman he became identified in the white press as a terrifying teacher of race hatred; but to his direct audience, the oppressed American blacks, he brought hope and self-respect. *Title: SimarillionAuthor: J.R.R. TolkienLexile: 1150The story of the creation of the world and of the First Age, this is the ancient drama to which the characters in THE LORD OF THE RINGS look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The three Silmarils were jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Thereafter, the unsullied Light of Valinor lived on only in the Silmarils, but they were seized by Morgoth and set in his crown, which was guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. THE SILMARILLION is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his kindred against the gods, their exile from Valinor and return to Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all their heroism, against the great Enemy. *Title: Ethan FromeAuthor: Edith WhartonLexile: 1160Tragic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. A poverty-stricken New England farmer, his ailing wife and a youthful housekeeper are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle in this hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Considered by many to be Wharton's masterpiece. *Title: WinterdanceAuthor: Gary PaulsenLexile: 1140Paulsen and his team of dogs endured snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, and hallucinations in the relentless push to go on.?** Description from **Description from Weber County Library ................
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