The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson Teacher: Mrs. Hajian
(July 17-24)
Seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox awakens after more than a year in a coma to find herself in a life—and a body—that she doesn't quite recognize. Her parents tell her that she's been in an accident, but much of her past identity and current situation remain a mystery to her: Why has her family abruptly moved from Boston to California, leaving all of her personal belongings behind?
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley Teacher: Mr. Daly
(July 24-31)
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans.
Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose Teacher: Mr. McVey
(August 7-14)
The men of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, volunteered for this elite fighting force because they wanted to be the best in the army--and avoid fighting alongside unmotivated, out-of-shape draftees. The price they paid for that desire was long, arduous, and sometimes sadistic training, followed by some of the most horrific battles of World War II.
Born to Run… by Christopher Mc Dougall Teacher: Mr. Skelly
(July 17-24)
Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote Teachers: Ms. Smith
(July 24-31)
With her tousled blond hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, Holly Golightly is top notch in style and a sensation wherever she goes. Her brownstone apartment vibrates with martini-soaked parties as she plays hostess to millionaires and gangsters alike.
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier Teacher: Ms. Chapman
(August 21-28)
A Civil War soldier and a lonely woman embark on parallel journeys of danger and discovery. Environment, events, and the empathy of others transform the protagonists spiritually as well as physically.
Door in the Mountain by Jean Valentine Teacher: Mr. Russell
(August 7-14)
Jean Valentine’s works earned her a National Book Award. Her poems have been described as “taking ordinary things and showing how they are extraordinary.”
Feed by M.T. Anderson Teacher: Mr. Hajian
(July 17-24)
This ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected into people's brains when they are babies. The result is a chillingly recognizable consumer society where empty-headed kids are driven by fashion and shopping and the avid pursuit of silly entertainment--even on trips to Mars and the moon--and by customized murmurs in their brains of encouragement to buy, buy, buy.
Final Rounds by James Dodson Teacher: Mr. Ricci
(July 24-31)
The Dodsons always knew where to go to solve their problems: the golf course. For decades, father and son took refuge there together; in the game, they found connection. James Dodson’s memoir of his last golf excursion with his father, taken through England and Scotland in the months before his father's death, is alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking.
With Love and Prayers: A Headmaster Speaks to the Next Generation
by F. Washington Jarvis Teacher: Mr. Ciccone
(July 31-August 7)
This is a book of “uncommon common sense” for young people by someone who has worked with them for thirty-five years. F. Washington Jarvis is one of the nation’s most eminent educators, now in his twenty-eighth year as headmaster of Boston’s Roxbury Latin School. Jarvis’s addresses, reprinted from his school’s publications, have enjoyed something of a cult “underground” circulation among young people – and their parents and grandparents.
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls Teacher: Ms. Trissler
(July 10-18)
For the first 10 years of her life, Lily Casey Smith, the narrator of this true-life novel by her granddaughter, Walls, lived in a dirt dugout in west Texas. Jeanette Walls, whose mega-selling memoir, The Glass Castle, recalled her own upbringing, writes in what she recalls as Lily's plainspoken voice, whose recital provides plenty of drama and suspense as she ricochets from one challenge to another.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston Teacher: Ms. Martinelli
(July 10-17)
The terrifying true story of how a strain of the Ebola virus came to the United States. It details various outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers, traces them to their possible origins, and provides a basic education about viral evolution and forensics, all couched in narratives that will keep you turning page after page.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Teacher: Mr. White
(August 21-28)
A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Teacher: Mr. Carty
(August 21-28)
Jurgis Rudkus, the main character, is a Lithuanian immigrant who is at first awed by his new homeland, America. Jurgis and his family travel to Chicago and settle in Chicago's Packingtown, one of the largest meat packing cities in the United States. As Jurgis and most of his family are employed in their inhospitable jobs, their ignorance about the American Dream is agonizingly chipped away as they experience firsthand the abuses of a capitalistic, greedy, and monopolistic society.
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah Teacher: Mrs. Cerros
August 7-14)
This gripping story by a children's-rights advocate recounts his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars in recent history. Beah, a boy equally thrilled by causing mischief as by memorizing passages from Shakespeare and dance moves from hip-hop videos, was a typical precocious 12-year-old. But rebel forces destroyed his childhood innocence when they hit his village, driving him to leave his home and travel the arid deserts and jungles of Africa.
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien Teacher: Mr. Tanski
(July 17-24)
Not just revolutionary because it was groundbreaking, the Lord of the Rings is timeless because it's the product of a truly top-shelf mind. J.R.R. Tolkien was a distinguished linguist and Oxford scholar of dead languages, with strong ideas about the importance of myth and story and a deep appreciation of nature. His epic, 10 years in the making, recounts the Great War of the Ring and the closing of Middle-Earth's Third Age, a time when magic begins to fade from the world and men rise to dominance.
Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku Teacher: Mr. Lakeland
(August 21-28)
A look into the not-so-distant future that envisions what the world will look like. It should be an exciting place, with driverless cars, Internet glasses, universal translators, robot surgeons, the resurrection of extinct life forms, designer children, space tourism, and a manned mission to Mars.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Teacher: Ms. Murphy
(July 17-24)
Its publication in 1811 marked Jane Austen as a huge literary talent, and its significance reverberates even today as contemporary readers re-discover the works of this author so adept at uncovering the foibles of nineteenth century aristocracy.
Snow in August by Pete Hamill Teacher: Mr. Pare
(July 24-31)
For Michael Devlin, 1940s Brooklyn is a world still shaped by life in the Old Country, a world where informing on a fellow Irishman is the worst crime imaginable -- worse even than the violent crimes committed by some of those fellows. So Michael keeps silent, finding solace in the company of Rabbi Hirsch, a Czech refuge whom he meets by chance.