Summer Reading

Class of 2020

Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Classic novel of consuming passions, played out against the lonely moors of northern England, recounts the turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff. A masterpiece of imaginative fiction, the story remains as poignant and compelling today as it was when first published in 1847. Amazon. AR BL 11.3 Fiction

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. Based on the true story of a prosperous and respected Kansas farmer who, along with his wife and children, is murdered by two mindless ex-convicts. Summary for Request. AR BL 7.1 Nonfiction

Danforth, Emily, M. The Miseducation of Cameron Post. In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center. Destiny. AR BL 6.6 Fiction

Ebrahim, Zak. The Terrorist’s Son: a story of choice. The author discusses his life as the son of a terrorist and how he came to reject his father's ideology and embrace the path of nonviolence. Provided by the publisher. AR BL 6.5 Fiction

Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared; it was Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor. Zamperini had a troubled youth, yet honed his athletic skills and made it all the way to the 1934 Olympics in Berlin. However, what lay before him was a physical gauntlet unlike anything he had encountered before: thousands of miles of open ocean, a small raft, and no food or water. He spent forty-seven days adrift in the ocean before being rescued by the Japanese Navy, and was held as a prisoner until the end of the war. Summary from Request. AR BL 7.7 Nonfiction

Hopkins, Ellen. Rumble. Eighteen-year-old Matt's atheism is tested when, after a horrific accident of his own making that plunges him into a dark, quiet place, he hears a voice that calls everything he has ever disbelieved into question. Provided by the publisher.AR BL 4.9 Fiction

King, Steven. 11/22/1963: a novel. Dallas, 11/22/63: Three shots ring out. President John F. Kennedy is dead. Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in a Maine town. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away . . . but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke. . . . Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten . . . and become heart-stopping suspenseful. Amazon. AR BL 5.4 Fiction

Levitt, Steven D. Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. The author offers his view of how the economy really works, examining issues from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing, offering a very different view on what drives the economy. Destiny. AR BL 9.2 Nonfiction

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. An eleven-year-old African-American girl in Ohio, in the early 1940s, prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be beautiful. Destiny. AR BL 5.7 Fiction

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents-including a long-lost account written by the ship's cabin boy-and penetrating details about whaling and the Nantucket community to reveal the chilling events surrounding this epic maritime disaster. An intense and mesmerizing read, In the Heart of the Sea is a monumental work of history forever placing the Essex tragedy in the American historical canon. Amazon. AR BL 8.8 Nonfiction

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. The people of Sterling, New Hampshire, are forever changed after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead, and the judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her daughter witnessed the events and was friends with the assailant. AR BL 6.0 Fiction

Saenz, Benjamin Alire. Last Night I Sang to the Monster. Eighteen-year-old Zach does not remember how he came to be in a treatment center for alcoholics, but through therapy and caring friends, his amnesia fades and he learns to face his past while working toward a better future. Destiny. AR BL 3.4 Fiction

Schroff, Laura. An Invisible Thread: the True Story of an 11-year-old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny. When Schroff first met Maurice on a New York City street corner, she had no idea that an incredible and unlikely friendship that would inevitably change both their lives. As one lunch with Maurice turns into two, then into a weekly occurrence, she learns details about Maurice's horrific childhood. Destiny. AR BL 6.0 Nonfiction

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and distant mother and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home. Destiny. AR BL 5.9 Nonfiction

Yousafzai, Malala with Christine Lamb. I am Malala: the Girl Who Stood up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban. When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. This story will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world. -- Publisher's description. Amazon. AR BL 7.1 Nonfiction