English Summer Reading - James Madison High School

JAMES MADISON H.S. JOSEPH A. GOGLIORMELLA

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT MICHAEL N. EDELMAN

SUMMER READING PROGRAM, 2013 All James Madison High School students are required to participate in the English Department's Summer Reading Program. Students must read one of the books listed below for their grade level*. They will complete a project over the summer and hand in a written assignment due Tuesday, October 1, 2013. 8th graders going into 9th grade must read ONE of the following books. The Pact – Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt - Three young black students who grew up in the street of Newark, make an agreement, or pact, among themselves fulfill their ambitions to become doctors – and to help each other succeed. This book is the story of how, by helping each other, they overcame obstacles and made their dream come true. Today, all three men are still friends and all three are doctors. About a Boy – Nick Hornby - Will Lightman is a Peter Pan for the 1990s. At 36, the terminally hip North Londoner is unmarried, hyper-concerned with his coolness quotient, and blithely living off his father's novelty-song royalties. Will sees himself as entirely lacking in hidden depths while his friends are succumbing to responsibilities and children, and he's increasingly left out in the cold. A brief encounter with a single mother sets Will off on his new career as a "serial nice guy" and her son slides into his life. Sold – Patricia McCormick - 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. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt—then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words—Simply to endure is to triumph—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision—will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life? Willow – Julia Hoban – If she let herself, she would drown in a world of pain. Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, Willow's parents drank too much at dinner and asked her to drive them home. But they never made it – Willow lost control of the car, and both of her parents were killed. Now the only way she knows how to survive and control the pain is by secretly cutting herself. But when Willow meets Guy, a boy as sensitive and complicated as she is, she finds it hard to keep the secret that's written all over her body. A Child Called It – Dave Pelzer - One of the worst child abuse cases in California's history came to an end on March 5, 1973 when Dave Pelzer entered foster care. Dave begins his incredible story as an abused child with his rescue in part one of a series, A Child Called "It". Calling this book a "page turner" doesn't give it justice. Easy to read, but difficult to comprehend how any mother could treat her child this way.



SUMMER READING PROGRAM, 2013 All James Madison High School students are required to participate in the English Department's Summer Reading Program. Students must read one of the books listed below for their grade level*. They will complete a project over the summer and hand in a written assignment due Tuesday, October 1, 2013. 9th graders going into 10th grade must read ONE of the following books: Ender's Game – Orson Scott Card - Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games at the Battle School; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate: a struggle to save the earth and all of humanity. The Secret Life of Bees – Kidd - 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their Georgia peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. Burned – Ellen Hopkins – "I felt angry, frustrated, I felt I didn't belong, not in my church, not in my home, not in my skin." Raised in a religious – yet abusive – family, Pattyn Von Stratten starts asking questions – about God, a woman's role, sex, love. She experiences the first stirrings of passion, but when her father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control. Pattyn is sent to live with an aunt in the wilds of Nevada to find salvation and redemption. What she finds instead is love and acceptance – until she realizes that her old demons will not let her go. My Sister's Keeper – Jodi Picoult – Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate – a life and a role that she has never challenged…until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she really is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister – and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. Swallowing Stones – Joyce McDonald – It begins with a free and joyful act – but from then on, Michael finds it impossible even to remember what it felt like to be free and joyful. When he fires his new rifle in the air on his 17th birthday, he never imagines that the bullet will end up killing someone a mile away. Michael keeps silent while his world crumbles, and Jenna, the dead man's daughter goes through grief trying to understand why she suddenly feels uncomfortable wither boyfriend and why a stranger named Michael keeps appearing in her dreams. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins - Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see. Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

* Honors students must read two.



SUMMER READING PROGRAM, 2013 All James Madison High School students are required to participate in the English Department's Summer Reading Program. Students must read one of the books listed below for their grade level*. They will complete a project over the summer and hand in a written assignment due Tuesday, October 1, 2013. 10th graders going into 11th grade must read ONE of the following books: Killer Angels – Michael Sharra – This novel reveals more about the battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned non-fiction on the same subject. This is an account of the three most important days of the Civil War. The Lovely Bones – Sebold: On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. Into Thin Air – A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster – Jon Krakauer -A riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins – The second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss and Peeta are heroes and their lives would appear to be set – except that Katniss is torn between Peeta and Gale, President Snow considers her a threat and she is being recruited into the underground organization that wants to overthrow Panem. A Bend in the Road – Nicholas Sparks –Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. As deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, he not only grieves for her and worries about their young son Jonah, but longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews, Jonah's second grade teacher. A young woman recovering from a difficult divorce, Sarah moved to New Bern hoping to start over. Tentatively, Miles and Sarah reach out to each other… soon they are falling in love. But what neither realizes is that they are also bound together by a shocking secret, one that will force them to re-examine everything they believe in – including their love. Bodega Dreams – Ernesto Quiñonez - The word is out in Spanish Harlem: Willy Bodega is king. Need college tuition for your daughter? Start-up funds for your fruit stand? Bodega can help. He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty--and a steady income from the drugs he pushes. Lyric, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor. Chino is drawn to Bodega's street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder.

* Honors students must read two.



SUMMER READING PROGRAM, 2013 All James Madison High School students are required to participate in the English Department's Summer Reading Program. Students must read one of the books listed below for their grade level*. They will complete a project over the summer and hand in a written assignment due Tuesday, October 1, 2012. 11th graders going into 12th grade must read ONE of the following books: Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris - Far more than just the funniest collection of autobiographical essays – it quite well registers as a manifesto about language itself. Wherever there is a straight line, you can be sure that Sedaris lurks beneath the text, making it jagged with laughter, and just where the fault lines fall, he sits mischievously perched at the epicenter of it all. No medium available to mankind is spared his cultural vision; no family member (even the dynasties of family pets) is forgotten in these pages of sardonic memories of Sedaris's numerous incarnations in North Carolina, Chicago, New York and France. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath: This extraordinary work chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful – but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert – A true story. In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want – husband, country home, successful career – but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and love on the Indonesian island of Bali. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom – Did you know that when you die you meet five people in heaven who shaped your life, maybe without your even knowing it, and as they relive critical scenes from your life with you, they have something to tell you about yourself? That is the premise of this novel: Eddie dies in an accident while trying to save a little girl's life and his spirit is full of questions – Did he save her? Why did he live the way he did? Can he be forgiven? Can he still be loved? Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich - Millions of Americans work full time, year

round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job — any job — can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity — a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Read it for the smoldering clarity of Ehrenreich's perspective and for a rare view of how "prosperity" looks from the bottom. You will never see anything — from a motel bathroom to a restaurant meal — in quite the same way again. * Honors students must read two.