While all selections are grade-appropriate and many are award winners, the maturity level of students can vary widely. Some may contain content, language, or violence that you may deem inappropriate for your son’s current maturity level. If you have any question about a particular book, please check with your local library or bookstore.
7th and 8th Grades
The Giver (Lois Lowry) Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. Newberry Medal.
Tears of a Tiger (Sharon Draper) A high school basketball star struggles with guilt and depression following the drunk- driving accident that killed his best friend.
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) The Earth is under attack and the survival of the human species depends on a military genius who can defeat the alien “buggers.” Recruited for military training, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battle School. First in a series. Hugo Award. Nebula Award.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne) A 19th century Sci-Fi tale of an electric submarine, its eccentric captain, and the undersea world it explores. Verne anticipated many achievements of the 20th century.
War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells) Martians invade England in the late 1800’s and create havoc.
Animal Farm (George Orwell) After realizing their desire for freedom, the animals of Manor Farm chase Mr. Jones off his property and take control. They learn many lessons as they struggle to define and create an ideal community. The novel, presented as a fable, uses animals to comment on human society and nature. Animal Farm satirizes the events of the Russian Revolution and the years following, from 1917 to 1943.
The Pearl (John Steinbeck) The story of a fisherman who finds a pearl beyond price, the Pearl of the World. With the pearl, he hopes to buy peace and happiness for himself, his wife and their little son. Instead he finds that peace and happiness can not be purchased. The pearl brings only tragedy into his life.
Dragon’s Gate (Laurence Yep) This 1994 Newbery Honor Book, a prequel to Dragonwings, tells of 14-year-old Otter's 1865 emigration from China and subsequent work on the transcontinental railroad. First of the Golden Mountain Chronicles.
The Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula LeGuin) After pride causes him to unleash a demon, Zed is compelled to chase or escape from the ever-pursuing shadow. First in the Earthsea Trilogy.
Horses Don’t Fly (Frederick Libby) Original memoir of the Old Wild West & flying in WWI.
Sing Down the Moon (Scott O’Dell) About the Long Walk of the Navajo.
A Pocket Full of Rye (Agatha Christie) A wealthy man falls dead shortly after having tea and the only clue is some rye found in his pocket. Miss Marple uses a nursery rhyme to help solve the murder.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll) The Mad Hatter, the Ugly Duchess, the Mock Turtle, the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat --characters each more eccentric than the last that could only have come from Lewis Carroll, the master of sublime nonsense.
Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe) The tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades and his struggle to survive in extraordinary circumstances.
The Man With a Load of Mischief (Martha Grimes) Two pubs in the English village of Long Piddleton are the sites of two murders. Scotland Yard's Richard Jury gets some help from Long Piddleton's own Melrose Plant to root out evil in the heart of the village. First in a series.
9th and 10th Grades
Candyfreak: a Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America (Steve Almond) Former journalist Steve Almond, admitting that he has eaten a piece of candy every day of his life, writes a memoir/report/travelogue about the history of candy in America. It's a delicious and darkly funny read-without calories or carbs. Alex Awards 2005
Death Comes For the Archbishop (Willa Cather) First published 1927. In the mid-nineteenth century, two French missionaries make their way into the harsh, unexplored, mountainous region of New Mexico hoping to revive the religion brought by Spanish priests and then left to decay in the hands of an insubordinate and materialistic clergy.
The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli) Classic and often-quoted work about how to get and keep power. This little book lays out the “rules of the game” for better or worse.
Glory Road : My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever (Don Haskins) Texas Coach Don Haskins forever changed college sports when he chose to field five black players in the formerly segregated NCAA basketball tournament.
Slam (Nick Hornby) A story about a young Londoner whose life goes unexpectedly off the rails. Sam is obsessed with skateboarding and Tony Hawk, the world’s greatest skater. Life is going well and he has a beautiful girlfriend. Then he gets “slammed”.
Dune ( Frank Herbert) First published 1965. The Atreides family is banished to the desert planet Dune where the ferocious Fremen live. Series
The Life of Pi: A Novel (Yann Martel) Sixteen-year-old Pi Patel, his family, and their zoo animals emigrate from India to North America aboard a cargo ship. The ship sinks, and Pi fmds himself sharing a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Man Booker Prize 2002
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith) Precious Ramotswe opens a business as the first female detective in Botswana. Her first cases include tracking down a missing husband and locating a boy who may have been snatched by witch doctors. Series
Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut) Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist from New York, shuttles between Dresden during WWII and a luxury zoo on the planet Tralfamadore.
Elsewhere (Gabrielle Zevin) When a taxi hits fifteen-year-old Liz Hall, she ends up in "Elsewhere," a place where you grow younger year by year, meet lost relatives, enjoy your service-oriented vocation, and are eventually re-born on earth.
Maximum Ride, The Angel Experiment (James Patterson) A group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers in this exciting SF thriller. First in a series.
Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott) This story has all of the elements of a great read... deceit, honor, a love triangle, prejudice, castle sieges, Robin Hood, gallant knights, and battles to the death!
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Classic gothic tale of the creation of a monster from corpses.
Days of Grace (Arthur Ashe & Arnold Rampersad) Biography of a highly respected tennis star who dies of AIDS
A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway) Classic tale of two star-crossed lovers caught in the contradictions, deceptions, and brutality of the First World War.
Ghost Soldiers (Hampton Sides) True story of a stunning rescue mission from World War II. A combined Ranger and Filipino guerrilla force penetrated far behind enemy lines, attacked Japanese forces guarding Allied prisoners at a jungle outpost called Cabanatuan, and shepherded hundreds of prisoners to safety, with an angry Japanese army in hot pursuit.
Twinkie Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats (Ettlinger, Steve) Drawing on interviews with industry professionals, Ettlinger reveals that snack cakes and other popular food products are concocted from byproducts of chlorine bleaching, gypsum mining, petroleum processing, and other non-food chemicals.
Lord of the Flies (William Golding) The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
11th and 12th Grades and Postgraduates
Roots: the Saga of an American Family (Alex Haley) Captured in Africa, Kunta Kinte, a tribal prince, becomes a slave, and eventually generations of his family survive to become free again. Haley is one of his descendants.
Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein) The story of an Earth baby raised by an existing, ancient Martian civilization who comes to Earth and broadcasts his ideas by forming his own Church. Hugo Award 1962
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy (Ishmael Beah) A twelve-year old boy first flees from attacking rebels with his friends, but later is transformed into a cold-blooded soldier. This is a heartbreaking personal memoir of a boy growing up in Sierra Leone between 1991 and 1998 and his rehabilitation. Alex Awards 2008
Go Tell It On the Mountain (James Baldwin) First published 1953. In 1935, in the tenements of Harlem, young John Grimes searches for God while struggling with his identity as the stepson of a stern evangelist preacher in a storefront church.
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (Truman Capote) First published 1965. The senseless, brutal murder of four members of the Clutter family by two psychotic young men shocked their small-town community of Holcomb, Kansas and the entire country. Edgar Award 1966
The Long Goodbye (Raymond Chandler) First published 1953. In this classic "hard-boiled" detective story, Philip Marlowe, private eye, deals with a cast of reprehensible characters in a doom-laden city. Edgar Award 1955
Murder On the Orient Express (Agatha Christie) On a three-day journey through the snowbound Balkan hills, Hercule Poirot tracks down a murderer among the passengers on the train, with a voice in the night as his only clue.
Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) The tragic story of two itinerant ranch hands on the run--one is the lifelong companion to the other, a developmentally disabled man.
Water for Elephants: A Novel (Sara Gruen) Jacob Jankowski, a penniless orphan forced to drop out of veterinary school during the Great Depression, joins a traveling circus. He forges a bond with Rosie the elephant and Marlena, the beautiful star of an equestrian act, whose husband is a handsome circus boss with a violent temper. Alex Awards 2007
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) Amir, haunted by his shocking betrayalof Hassan, the son of his father's servant and a childhood friend, returns to Kabul as an adult in an attempt to redeem himself by rescuing Hassan's son from a Taliban official.
Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman) Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god, and he never knew he had a brother. Now brother Spider is about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting and more dangerous. Alex Awards 2006
Einstein: His Life and Universe (Walter Isaacson) The life of Einstein, the man and celebrated scientist, is explored, including some of the contradictions inherent in Einstein's personal beliefs.
Gil’s All Fright Diner (A. Lee Martinez) Vampire Earl and Werewolf Duke stop at a diner in the desert town of Rockwood, Texas, where they help Loretta dispose of her zombie problem and agree to stay on to help the town with its other supernatural issues. Alex Awards 2006
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenitsyn) Although innocent of any crime, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is convicted of treason and sentenced to serve ten years in a Soviet work camp in Siberia.
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) First published 1939. Forced out of their home in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl by economic desperation, a family of Okie farmers drives west to California in search of work as migrant fruit pickers. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1940
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) Story of a futuristic society where the totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit.
The Art of War (Sun Tzu) Twenty-five hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teachings of Sun Tzu, and most civilizations have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life.
Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) A black man’s search for himself as an individual and as a member of his race and his society.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey) McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity, is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.
Students will give an ORAL REPORT on any one book from their incoming grade level list. Please see the
Oral Report Guidelines for what must be included and how the report will be graded. Oral reports will be given during the first week of class.