Rising 9th
Directions: Choose one of the texts below to read. NOTE!!! Please note that it is imperative that you read the book summaries, and select the novel that best aligns with your family’s values and beliefs. The summer reading assignment will be due within the first 3 weeks of the 2018-19 school year. There will also be a separate formative assessment over your novel of choice.
SCHS 2018 Summer Reading (9th Freshmen).pdfHer story begins on a train.
The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, they host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The prize? An audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball in Tokyo.
Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female racer, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele's twin brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move.
But as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and stay true to her mission?
From the author of The Walled City comes a fast-paced and innovative novel that will leave you breathless.
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Genre: Historical (alternate history), Fantasy
Lexile: HL670
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
Genre: Fantasy
Lexile: 630
The only way to get her family back is to travel to a land in between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland...
Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation...and she hates magic.
At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she's not sure she can trust, but who may be Alex's only chance at saving her family.
For fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell comes this powerful novel with the most fearless heroine—self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson—from Julie Murphy, the acclaimed author of Side Effects May Vary.
With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.
Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.
Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does.
Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.
PARENTS, click here to find determine if this book is right for your child.
Ready, Player One by Ernest Cline
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Lexile: 990
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
In addition to reading one of the three texts below, create and maintain a dialectical journal reader’s responding and reflecting on the events of the novel you chose. Think of your dialectical journal as a series of conversations with the texts we read during this course. The process is meant to help you develop a better understanding of the texts we read. Use your journal to incorporate your personal responses to the texts, your ideas about the themes we cover and our class discussions. You will find that it is a useful way to process what you’re reading. You should make an entry into your dialectical journal every 20 pages. Examples of the dialectical journal and further explanation are also provided.
Parents, click here to determine if this book is right for your child.
When the Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six―a secret unit made up of the finest soldiers in the country, if not the world. I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior is the dramatic tale of how Howard Wasdin overcame a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and dangerous world of U.S. Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers.
His training began with his selection for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S)―the toughest and longest military training in the world. After graduating, Wasdin saw combat in Operation Desert Storm as a member of SEAL Team Two. But he was driven to be the best of the best―he wanted to join the legendary SEAL Team Six, and at long last he reached his goal and became one of the best snipers on the planet. Soon he was fighting for his life in The Battle of Mogadishu. This is Howard Wasdin's story of overcoming abuse and beating the odds to become an elite American warrior.
Parents, click here to determine if this book is right for your child.
I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen
Genre: Memoir
Lexile: 930L
This is the true story of Solomon Northup, who was born and raised as a freeman in New York. He lived the American dream, with a house and a loving family - a wife and two kids. Then one day he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the deep south. These are the true accounts of his twelve hard years as a slave - many believe this memoir is even more graphic and disturbing than the film. His extraordinary journey proves the resiliency of hope and the human spirit despite the most grueling and formidable of circumstances.
Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup
Genre: Memoir
Lexile: 630L
Parents, click here to determine if this book is right for your child.
Nancy Wake is one of the true heroines of World War II. Born in New Zealand, she was living in Marseille and was married to Frenchman Henri Fiocca when the Germans invaded. Nancy immediately became active in the Resistance movement, smuggling messages and food to underground groups in Southern France and helping refugees flee to Spain. By 1943 she was on the Gestapo most-wanted list. Their nickname for her, due to her elusiveness, was the "White Mouse." It was time for Nancy to leave France.
Nancy Wake: SOE's Greatest Heroine, by Russell Braddon
Genre: Biography
Lexile: N/A
9th Accelerated Assignment
Curriculum Standards:
· ELAGSE9-10RL10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
· ELAGSE9-10L4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9–10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. a. Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
· ELAGSE9-10SL1a: Come to discussions prepared having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.