This is the class recommended reading list for literature reading for enjoyment and enrichment. Please read four books off this list this semester to earn up to 5 extra credit points. You will read the book and type a two page book summary focusing on theme, plot, characters, setting and conclusion.
If there are any books on this list that your parents may not approve of, select another book please!
You may also present me with a book idea if you would like to pick one book to read off this list.
www.goodreads.com Read the book summary and about the author online.
Reading List~
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. The tragic story of the complex bond between two migrant laborers in Central California. They are George Milton and Lennie Small, itinerant ranch hands who dream of one day owning a small farm. George acts as a father figure to Lennie, who is a very large, simple-minded man, calming him and helping to rein in his immense physical strength.
Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Weisel, Eli. NIGHT. Night A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Sparks, Beatrice. Go Ask Alice. It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence.
Knowles, John. A Seperate Peace. Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys.
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Written over forty years ago, S. E. Hinton's classic story of the struggle between the Socs and the Greasers remains as powerful today as it was the day it was written, and it is taught in schools nationwide.
Golding,William. Lord of the Flies. William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death.
McCormick, Patricia. SOLD. Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.