Transcript SUMMER READING - Oldham County Schools

NOHS
SUMMER READING
2010
Because I Am Furniture
by Thalia Chaltas
•
•
Genre: fiction written in verse
Anke’s father is abusive. But not
to her. He attacks her brother and
sister, but she’s just an invisible
witness in a house of horrors, on
the brink of disappearing
altogether. Until she makes the
volleyball team at school. At first
just being exhausted after practice
feels good, but as Anke becomes
part of the team, her confidence
builds. When she learns to yell
“Mine!” to call a ball, she finds a
voice she didn’t know existed. For
the first time, Anke is seen and
heard. Soon, she’s imagining a
day that her voice will be loud
enough to rescue everyone at
home—including herself.
Funny How Things Change
by Melissa Wyatt
• Remy, a talented, seventeen-year-old auto mechanic,
questions his decision to join his girlfriend when she
starts college in Pennsylvania, after a visiting artist helps
him realize what his family home in a dying West Virginia
mountain town means to him.
• Genre:Fiction
Maze Runner by James Dashner
•
Sixteen year old Thomas arrives in the
Glade having no memory of who he
was or his life prior to waking up in an
elevator while on the way up to the
Glade. He finds out the Glade is the
center of an ever-changing maze
which seems to have no exit, and
which is populated by creatures known
as "Grievers". The day after he arrives,
the first and only girl ever sent to the
Glade arrives with a message that she
is the last one to be sent and that the
end is near. She then lapses into a
fitful coma. Thomas must try to figure
out why she looks familiar and if there
is a way out of the maze before
everything completely falls apart in the
Glade
•
Genre: post-apocalyptic, dystopian
fiction (Sci Fi)
Book One of a Trilogy
•
Eaarth by Bill McKibben
•
•
Eaarth is an excellent and
empowering read. McKibben
outlines where the planet is-climate-wise--currently. He tells it
like it is, no judging or haranguing.
The second half of the book is
empowering. McKibben offers
small scale, local solutions to the
problems he sees. He is not
waiting for the rest of the planet,
or even the rest of the country to
hop aboard his bandwagon. His
solutions are achievable in the
smallest of communities. Eaarth is
an inspiring and uplifting read-once you accept his premise that
the planet has irrevocably
changed for the worse.
Genre: Social Sciences
Stones for Schools
by Greg Mortenson
• Mortenson’s best-seller, Three
Cups of Tea (2009), introduced his
commitment to peace through
education.. He now continues the
story of how the Central Asia
Institute (CAI) built schools in
northern Afghanistan. Descriptions
of the harsh geography and more
than one near-death experience
impress readers as new faces join
Mortenson’s loyal “Dirty Dozen” as
they carefully plot a course of
school-building through the
Badakshan province and Wakhan
corridor
• Genre: Nonfiction
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
•
•
Set during the nascent civil rights
movement in Jackson, Miss., Eugenia
"Skeeter" Phelan is just home from
college in 1962, and, anxious to
become a writer, is advised to hone
her chops by writing "about what
disturbs you." The budding social
activist begins to collect the stories of
the black women on whom the country
club sets relies--and mistrusts-enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid
who's raised 17 children, and
Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's
found herself unemployed more than a
few times after mouthing off to her
white employers. The book Skeeter
puts together based on their stories is
scathing and shocking, bringing pride
and hope to the black community,
while giving Skeeter the courage to
break down her personal boundaries
and pursue her dreams.
Genre: Fiction
House Rules by Jodi Picoult
• Jodi Picoult, author of My
Sister’s Keeper,
• Emotionally powerful from
beginning to end, House
Rules looks at what it
means to be different in
our society, how autism
affects a family, and how
our legal system works
well for people who
communicate a certain
way--and fails those who
don't.
• Genre: Fiction
Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
• Bicycle Diaries is an intensely human
and humane book, a book that echoes
in print the sense of "My God, how did I
get here?" To an interesting person like
David, all places are interesting and he
consistently reminds us just how
interesting humans are. We are the
ones building the human world -- we
don't just travel the world, we make it.
David's work takes him out in the world,
a world he shapes with songs and
images.
• Genre: Nonfiction
Stitches by David Small
•
•
In this profound and moving memoir, Small, an
award-winning children's book illustrator, uses
his drawings to depict the consciousness of a
young boy. The story starts when the narrator
is six years old and follows him into adulthood,
with most of the story spent during his early
adolescence. The youngest member of a silent
and unhappy family, David is subjected to
repeated x-rays to monitor sinus problems.
When he develops cancer as a result of this
procedure, he is operated on without being told
what is wrong with him. The operation results
in the loss of his voice, cutting him off even
further from the world around him. Small's
black and white pen and ink drawings are
endlessly perceptive as they portray the
layering of dream and imagination onto the
real-life experiences of the young boy.
Genre: nonfiction graphic novel
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
Howards End is a classic English novel . . . superb
and wholly cherishable . . . one that admirers have
no trouble reading over and over again," concerns
itself with class, nationality, economic status, and
how each of these affects personal relationships. It
follows the intertwined fortunes of the Schlegel
sisters, Margaret and Helen, and the Wilcox family
over the course of several years.
Genre: Fiction
Father Water, Mother Woods by
Gary Paulsen
• Paulsen begins this collection of
compelling memoirs with a forward
that reflects on the genesis of his
novel Hatchet . He concludes by
poignantly expressing doubts about
the moral correctness of hunting. In
between, he pares away the layers of
his life, revealing a lost kid who sought
sanctuary in friends and the outdoors.
In half of the selections, he relates the
joys of fishing. There's one essay on
camping as comic disaster during high
summer; the rest are about hunting.
• Genre: Nonfiction
The Lost City of Z
by David Grann
• David Grann did a vast amount of
reading and research to create a
book which holds the reader's
interest from start to finish. One
feels the strong principles and
beliefs which Percy Fawcett
developed over time which would
not let up until he made his last and
most dangerous trek into the
Amazon jungle to find the lost "City
of Z" which he named the ancient
city he was seeking. The author
writes a superb biography of this
adventurer and explorer . Genre:
Nonfiction
Mockingjay
by Suzanne Collins
• Coming August 24
• 3rd in Hunger Games Trilogy
• genre: SCI FI
• Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen
has survived the Hunger Games
twice. But now that she’s made it out
of the bloody arena alive, she’s still
not safe. The Capitol is angry. The
Capitol wants revenge. Who do they
think should pay for the unrest?
Katniss. And what’s worse, President
Snow has made it clear that no one
else is safe either. Not Katniss’s
family, not her friends, not the people
of District 12.
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Veighese
•
•
Many readers will tell you that
Cutting for Stone is the epic story
of two conjoined twins fathered by
a brilliant British Surgeon and an
Indian Nun. And it technically is.
Narrated by Marion the first born
twin we are told of every influence
on his and his brother's existence.
More than the story being told
however, the novel is an accurate
portrayal of life in all it's cruelty
and wonder. Veighese mines his
own life and experiences in a
magnificent, sweeping novel that
moves from India to Ethiopia to an
inner-city hospital in New York City
over decades and generations.
Genre: Fiction
The Last Child by John Hart
• A year after 12-year-old Alyssa
Merrimon disappeared on her
way home from the library in
an unnamed rural North
Carolina town, her twin
brother, Johnny, continues to
search the town, street by
street, even visiting the homes
of known sex offenders, in this
chilling novel.
• “The Last Child" is a story of
how much a parent loves a
child, of how much friendship
means, and of how everything
seems to happen for a reason.
• Genre: Fiction
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
• Fear, obsession,
paranoia...Dennis Lehane's
"Shutter Island" is the stuff
nightmares are made of. It is
noir psychological suspense at
its finest. An isolated island, a
raging hurricane, a locked
room, secret codes, a mental
hospital, rumors of mysterious
medical experiments frame the
story.
• Read then watch. There are
two psychological scenes left
out of the movie. The
description in the book is much
scarier that the movie!
• Genre: fiction
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
• Author of the Twilight series
• In this tantalizing SF thriller,
planet-hopping parasites are
inserting their silvery centipede
selves into human brains,
curing cancer, eliminating war
and turning Earth into
paradise. But some people
want Earth back, warts and all,
especially Melanie Stryder,
who refuses to surrender, even
after being captured in
Chicago and becoming a host
for a soul called Wanderer.
• Genre: Science Fiction
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/mp
d/permalink/mB1LWKMAWNO
E5/ref=flash_player_2_preplay
20 Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink
/mWT7E49TEOVN9/ref=flash_player_2_p
replay
•
Genre Fiction
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
•
Author of Speak
•
•
Set in New York City at the beginning
of the American Revolution,
addresses the price of freedom both
for a nation and for individuals. Isabel
tells the story of her life as a slave.
She was sold with her five-year-old
sister to a cruel Loyalist family even
though the girls were to be free upon
the death of their former owner. She
has hopes of finding a way to freedom
and becomes a spy for the rebels, but
soon realizes that it is difficult to trust
anyone. She chooses to find someone
to help her no matter which side he or
she is on. With short chapters, each
beginning with a historical quote, this
fast-paced novel reveals the heartache
and struggles of a country and slave
fighting for freedom.
Genre: Historical Fiction