Summer Reading List 2010 ~ Incoming Juniors



[pic]

Sayreville War Memorial High School

Summer Reading List 2013

Entering 11th Grade

Assignment: Students will read 2 books - at least one from this list. The 2nd book could also be from this list or one of the students’ own choosing…should be age appropriate and not the film version! Students will receive reading logs from their English teachers, which they must complete. They will also be tested in September. See below for Honors students.

Sarah’s Key – Tatiana De Rosnay: Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old Jewish girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard, promising to come back for him. Paris, May 2002: Journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this Holocaust round-up. She stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah, forcing her to retrace the girl’s ordeal.

Juliet – Anne Fortier: Julie’s journey takes her into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. 

Matched- Ally Condie: In Matched, the Society Officials have determined optimal outcomes for all aspects of daily life, thereby removing the "burden" of choice. When Cassia's best friend is identified as her ideal marriage Match it confirms her belief that Society knows best, until she plugs in her Match microchip and a different boy’s face flashes on the screen.

Through My Eyes- Tim Tebow & Nathan Whitaker: In Through My Eyes, Tebow brings readers everywhere an inspirational memoir about life as he chose to live it, revealing how his faith and family values, combined with his relentless will to succeed, have molded him into the person that he is today. As the son of Christian missionaries, Tebow has a unique story to tell—from the circumstances of his birth, to his home-schooled roots, to his record-setting collegiate football career with the Florida Gators and everything else that took place in between.

Shatter Me- Tahereh Mafi: No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Ready Player One: A Novel by Ernest Cline: It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. 

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.  

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin- Erik Larson: The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance--and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

The Pilot’s Wife – Anita Shreve: With one late-night knock on her door, Kathryn Lyons's worst fears as a pilot's wife come true: Her husband, Jack, has died in a mid-air explosion off the coast of Ireland. Later, a phone number found among Jack's papers leads Kathryn to London and the unfathomable truth about her husband's secret other life. A second wife and two young children are just the beginning of what Jack was hiding in England.

Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah: Tully is a rebellious teen, emotionally wounded by her mother’s drug addiction and neglect. She has no real friends until she meets Kate Mularkey, the awkward, shy girl across the street. Their friendship begins in the 1970’s and lasts them a lifetime, through college, careers, and family. Through many ups and downs, their friendship keeps them together, even when it seems as though their differences will tear them apart.

Ender’s Game- Orson Scott Card: In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Descent Into Dust – Jacqueline Lepore: Emma Andrews grew up in the shadow of her mother's madness, so when she arrives at Dulwich Manor in the midst of a mysterious plague and soon thereafter begins to see specters, her family fears fate has finally caught up with her. Only one believe her: Valerian Fox has hunted the vampire lord Marius through time and across continents, and he knows Emma has a remarkable destiny. She is Dhampir—a vampire hunter.

Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction – David Sheff: Before Nic Sheff became addicted, he was a charming boy, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two siblings. After meth, he lied, stole, and lived on the streets. David Sheff’s preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother- Amy Chua: An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. What Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother reveals is that the Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that. Western parents try to respect their children's individuality, encouraging them to pursue their true passions and providing a nurturing environment. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect your children is by preparing them for the future and arming them with skills, strong work habits, and inner confidence.

Paper Towns- John Green: When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

Little Brother – Cory Doctorow: When he ditches school one Friday morning, 17-year-old Marcus is hoping to get a head start on the Harajuku Fun Madness clue. But after a terrorist attack in San Francisco, he and his friends are swept up in the extralegal world of the Department of Homeland Security.

In Cold Blood- Truman Capote: On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. This is the story of the lives and deaths of these four people and the people who murdered them.

Yo! – Julia Alvarez: Growing up after her story in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Latina novelist Yolanda Garcia has managed to put herself at the center of many lives in her very public autobiographical writing. She's famous for it. Now her characters want a chance to tell their side of it. And tell it they do!

HONORS STUDENTS MUST ALSO CHOOSE ONE MORE BOOK FROM THE LIST BELOW IN ADDITION TO ONE FROM ABOVE. THEY WILL ALSO RECEIVE ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:

The Help – Kathryn Stockett (HONORS ONLY): 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town.

The Submission- Amy Waldman (HONORS ONLY): A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner’s name—and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam. Their conflicted response is only a preamble to the country’s.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet- Jamie Ford (HONORS ONLY): In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download