Summer Reading List

Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School

2008-2009

 

į      Attached you will find the summer reading list for the 2008-2009 school year.

į      Students in grades 9-12 are allowed to choose ANY book from the list.

į      Please read the descriptions carefully, as some content lends itself to upper classmen only.

į      Students taking Honors English next year are REQUIRED to read ONE FICTION and ONE NON-FICTION novel.

į      These books are available at local bookstores and local libraries.  (Please call ahead, as some libraries have limited summer hours).

 

ASSESSMENT:

į      Students are REQUIRED to take notes as they read.  Notes must be handwritten and include detailed chapter summaries on plot development, and character analysis.

į      In English class during the first week(s) of academics, students will review literary terms and will be assigned an in class assessment connecting these terms with the novel(s) they read.

į      The required handwritten notes will be used to complete the assessment and will be included in the final evaluation (typically worth 30 points of the final grade for summer reading).

 

Alvarez, Julia

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent  A coming of age story for 4 girls exiled from the Dominican Republic in New York. (F)

Anonymous

Go Ask Alice  A painful diary of a young girl when she falls into the drug scene. (NF)

Avi

The Fighting Ground  The compelling story of a young boyÕs first encounter with war and how it changes him. (F)

Avi

Midnight Magic  A ghost is haunting the princess and only the magicianÕs servant can solve the mystery. (F)

Avi

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle  A 13-year-old girl must extricate herself from a perilous position during an 1832 transatlantic voyage. (F)

Bachman, Richard

Long Walk  Of 100 boys in a marathon walk, 99 will die, 1 will survive. (F)

Bauer, Joan

Rules of the Road  A 17 year old heads to Texas to prevent a company takeover. (F)

Bechard, Margaret

Hanging on to Max  Sam learns how to be a teen parent while going to high school. (F)

Bell, William

Forbidden City: A Novel of Modern China  A Canadian boy gets mixed up in a Chinese massacre. (F)

Block, Francesca Lia

Weetzie Bat  Punk teens search for love in a modern fairytale. (F)

Bloor, Edward

Tangerine  Paul just wants to play soccer at his new high school in Florida, despite his parentsÕ indifference and his evil brother. (F)

Boas, Jacob

We are Witnesses: The Diaries of Five Teenagers Who Die in the Holocaust  The diaries of five teenagers in the Holocaust and their tragic, courageous stories. (NF)

Brashares, Ann

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood  A sequel to the original Pants. (F)

Brooks, Polly Schoyer

Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc  A young girl in France is condemned as a witch & leads her countrymen against the English. (NF)

Brown, Dan

Angels and Demons  A centuries-old organization launches a vendetta against the Catholic Church. (F)

Brown, Dan

Deception Point  Uncovering evidence of scientific trickery, a dangerous deception. (F)

Brown, Dan

Digital Fortress  Mathematician must break a code for the National Security Agency. (F)

Caldwell, Ian

Rule of Four  Two people work to unlock a Renaissance text against a ticking clock. (F)

Card, Orson, Scott

EnderÕs Game  Ender may be the military genius Earth needs in its war against an alien enemy. (F)

Cormier, Robert

Fade  One boy in each generation inherits the power, and curse, of invisibility. (F)

Cormier, Robert

I am the Cheese  Adam searches through haunting memories that must not be revealed if he is to survive. (F)

Cox, Lynne

Swimming to Antarctica  The worldÕs most extraordinary distance swimmer writes about her emotional and spiritual need to swim and the almost mystical act of swimming itself. (NF)

Crutcher, Chris

Chinese Handcuffs  A winning triathleteÕs need to understand his older brotherÕs suicide is complicated by his memories. (F)

Crutcher, Chris

Running Loose  A boyÕs senior year of high school is interrupted by dirty football, love, and death. (F)

Crutcher, Chris

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes  Only SarahÕs best friend can help her come to terms with life when her past is revealed. (F)

Damon, Johnny

Idiot: Beating ŅThe CurseÓ and Enjoying the Game of Life  Johnny Damon on what it takes to make it in the majors, and what itÕs like once you get there. (NF)

Deuker, Carl

On the DevilÕs Court  Is one perfect basketball season worth selling your soul the devil? (F)

Dickinson, Peter

Eva  After a violent auto accident, 13 year old Eva wakes up in a hospital to find she must learn how to live as a chimpanzee. (F)

Donnelly, Jennifer

A Northern Light  MattieÕs writing ability holds the key to unraveling a story of a girlÕs death and her beauÕs mysterious disappearance. (F)

Duncan, Lois

DonÕt Look Behind You  How can April give up everything sheÕs ever known? (F)

Edelman, Bernard

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam  Soldiers reveal their daily lives in ŌNam. (NF)

Ellison, Ralph

Invisible Man  The story of a black manÕs experience in a white world. (F)

Farmer, Nancy

The Ear, the Eye, the Arm  In 2194 the only detective team that can so the job are mutant partners, the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. (F)

Fleischman, Paul

Whirligig  A boy must build Whirligigs in memory of a girl he killed in a car crash. (F)

Funke, Cornelia

Inkheart  MeggieÕs father discovered he could read characters out of books, but he accidentally reads her mother in , and now has to break her out. (F)

Garden, Nancy

Annie on my Mind  Two girls fall in love despite societyÕs opinions. (F)

Greenlaw, Linda

The Hungry Ocean   An account of a swordfishing trip which proves that every successful voyage is a study in narrowly averted disaster. (NF)

Griffin, John Howard

Black Like Me  A sociological experiment of a white man who transforms his skin to experience 1950Õs Southern America. (NF)

Grogan, John

Marley & Me  An account of a much loved naughty canine. (NF)

Hobbs, Will

Downriver  A gang of teens find themselves stranded in the whitewaters of the West. (F)

Hopkins, Ellen

Crank  A girlÕs life is turned upside down when she gets turned on to the drug ŅcrankÓ and becomes addicted. (F)

Hosseini, Khaled

A Thousand Splendid Suns  A story of the unconquerable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two indomitable women. (NF)

Janeczko, Paul B.

Place my Words are Looking For: What Poets Say About and Through their Work  Writers share insight into their crafts & lives of poetry. (NF)

Jenkins, A.M.

Out of Order  A baseball star learns whatÕs important in school & life. (F)

Johnson, Angela

The First Part Last  Bobby must learn to raise a child on his own. (F)

Kerouac, Jack

On the Road  Cross-country quest for self-knowledge. (F)

Kindl, Patrice

Owl in Love  A girl deals w/ issues of changing into an owl every night. (F)

King, Stephen

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon  A child gets separated from her family in the woods can canÕt fight off the moonÕs affects. (F)

Klass, David

You DonÕt Know Me  A teenage boy fights off abuse from his motherÕs boyfriend. (F)

Klause, Annette Curtis

The Silver Kiss  Zoe is put under a vampireÕs spell until he avenges a death. (F)

Koertge, Ron

The Arizona Kid  A sophomore matures one summer at the racetrack. (F)

Kurson, Robert

Shadow Divers  The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II.  (NF)

Larson, Erik

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed the World  A serial killer masquerades as a doctor in the ChicagoÕs WorldÕs Fair.(NF)

Lowry, Lois

Number the Stars  A Jewish family fights to hide from the Nazis and find freedom. (F)

Magorian, Michelle

Good Night, Mr. Tom  A battered & frightened young boy is evacuated from London during WWII. (F)

Maguire, Gregory

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister  Everyone knows about Cinderella; this is the story from the sisterÕs point of view. (F)

Maguire, Gregory

Wicked  The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. (F)

Marsden, John

Tomorrow, When the War Began  Australia has been invaded and Ellie must accept her new way of life. (F)

Martel, Yann

Life of Pi  Redemptive story of a boy and a 450lb. tiger. (F)

McCaffrey, Anne

Dragonsinger  Fire lizards help a young woman with prejudice on the planet Pern. (F)

McCall, Nathan

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A young Black Man in America  An American dream journey from working class, to prison, to the Washington Post. (NF)

McCourt, Frank

Tis: A Memoir  The riveting sequel to AngelaÕs Ashes. (NF)

McDonald, Joyce

Swallowing Stones  Desperation, guilt, and fear plague MichaelÕ s dreams after a stray bullet from his rifle kills a man. (F)

Myers, Walter Dean

Fallen Angels  A young man learns about friendship as his comrades die in Vietnam. (f)

Myers, Walter Dean

Hoops  the Harlem ghetto basketball team learn the fine art of playing. (F)

Nafisi, Azar

Reading Lolita in Tehran  The story of Iran's revolution from the unusual vantage point of an Iranian-born, American-schooled instructor of English literature, in the revolutionary year of 1979. (NF)

Naylor, Clare & Mimi Hare

The Second Assistant  A boisterous tale of a girl working up from the bottom of the Hollywood ladder. (F)

Nix, Garth

Sabriel  A girl makes a desperate quest through the Gates of Death to free her father from the spirits of the dead. (F)

Nolan, Han

If I Should Die Before I Wake  A New-Nazi in a coma is brought back to WWII into the life of a Jewish teenager. (F)

Nowlin, Bill & Dan Desrochers, ed.

The 1967 Impossible dream Red Sox  How the 1967 Boston Red Sox overcame 100 to 1 odds to go from 9th place to winning the Pennant. (NF)

OÕBrien, Robert C.

Z for Zachariah  Two survivors are brought together in an atomic holocaust. (F)

OÕ Brien, tim