Summer Reading at Shen: 9th grade

Students entering English 9 Honors must read a total of four books from this list including at least two titles with asterisks. Students entering English 9 must select any two titles from this list. No changes or modifications can be made to these requirements.


Fiction		(* = Honors)
		Austen, Jane. Emma Emma Woodhouse finds her match-making skills sadly misdirected as she learns humility and self-knowledge at the same time as she discovers love.
		Bachman, Richard. Long Walk Stephen King, writing under his Bachman pseudonym, writes a tale set in the near future, where a young boy is selected to take the "Long Walk" -a deadly contest of endurance and determination, in which each step can be your last.
		Berg, Elizabeth. *Durable Goods* For 12-year-old Katie, home is an army base in Texas, where she and her sister try to cope with the burdens of growing up with an abusive father and no mother.
		Brooks, Terry. Magic Kingdom For Sale After finding himself transported to a magical world, lawyer Ben Holiday finds that running a kingdom isn’t all it is cracked up to be.
	*	Buck, Pearl. S. The Good Earth A depiction of life in China at a time before the vast political and social upheavals transformed an essentially agrarian country into a world power.
		Cary, Kate. *Bloodline* The journal entries of Captain Quincey Harker, Lieutenant John Shaw, Lily Shaw, and Mary Seward tell a tale of vampiric connection by shared bloodline.
	*	Cather, Willa. My Antonia Against Nebraska's panoramic landscape, Cather recreates the life of an immigrant girl who becomes, in the memories of narrator Jim Burden, the epitome of strong and dignified womanhood.
		Cormier, Robert. Fade Paul Moreaux, the thirteen-year-old son of French Canadian immigrants, inherits the ability to become invisible, but this power soon leads to death and destruction.
		Coy, John. CrackBack When Miles Manning, a successful high school football player, discovers his teammates are using steroids--and one of them is his best friend--he's faced with a tough decision: Is he willing to do what it takes to win?
	*	Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage During his service in the Civil War a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.
		Crutcher, Chris. Ironman While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends an anger management group at school which leads him to examine his relationship with his father.
		Deuker, Carl. On the Devil’s Court Joe’s sudden success at basketball, school, and in standing up to his father leaves the reader wondering what kind of bargain did Joe make--and with whom?

		Gruber, Michael. The Witch's Boy Lump, more goblin than human child, is abandoned as an infant and taken in by a witch, who does little to prepare him for his entry into the world of humans.
		Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time When Christopher Boone, an autistic 15 year old, discovers his neighbor’s dog savagely murdered, he applies his unique reasoning and view of events to solve the crime.
	*	Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms Set in World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his love for a beautiful English nurse.
	*	Homer. *The Odyssey* Details the adventures of Odysseus, king of Ithaca and hero of the Trojan War, as he struggles to return to his home and his waiting, ever-faithful wife, Penelope.
		King, Stephen. Cell Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, buys a cell phone and sets off a string of events that put him and the few desperate survivors in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.
		Lupica, Mike. Heat Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat, but his family situation must be kept quiet or he and his brother will be separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back to Cuba.
		McCormick, Patricia. My Brother's Keeper Thirteen-year-old Toby Malone, who narrates, watches in despair as his older brother, once a star athlete, travels down a path of ruin, becoming increasingly involved with drugs.
	*	McCullers, Carson. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter A novel whose central focus is John Singer, a deaf-mute in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s, and his effect on the people who confide in him.
		Myers, Walter Dean. Game Drew Lawson knows basketball is taking him places, but when Coach's new offense has made another player a star, Drew must come up with something big to save his fading college prospects.
	*	Orwell, George. *Animal Farm* A satire chronicling a revolution staged by the animals on Mr. Jones's farm.
		Picoult, Jodi. Vanishing Acts Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life, but as Delia she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall.

		Blais, Madeline. *In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle* The story of a high school girls' basketball team's championship season.
		Crutcher, Cris. *King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill Advised Autobiography.*** The popular young adult author describes incidents and telling episodes from his formative years.
		Frey, Darcy. *The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams* A year in the life of four high school seniors from the Coney Island projects who are led down the path of college scholarships and a possible career in the NBA.
		Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life Best known for his popular Joey Pigza novels, the author tells the compelling true story of his final year in high school, his brushes with crime, and his subsequent incarceration.
		Gunther, John. *Death Be Not Proud* A father’s memoir of his son Johnny Gunther, who was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor.
		Krakauer, Jon. *Into Thin Air* A personal account of an expedition to Mount Everest that goes terribly wrong.
		Lee, Bruce. **Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon** Combines color and black-and-white photographs with the words of Lee himself.
		Myers, Walter Dean. Bad Boy Myers paints a fascinating picture of his childhood growing up in Harlem in the 1940s

*
source material for some annotations drawn from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Barnes and Noble.com, Amazon.com and publisher descriptions.

		Gibson, William. The Miracle Worker Half-blind herself but blessed with fanatical dedication, Annie Sullivan began a titanic struggle to release the a young girl from the terrifying prison of eternal darkness and silence.
	*	Williams, Tennessee. *The Glass Menagerie* In St. Louis, a southern matriarch searches for a husband for her lame, fragile daughter.