Summer Reading

1. Summer Reading Trojans, over the summer let’s continue the life long process of developing a love for reading! After you have finished reading one of the books from the recommended summer reading list please select ONE challenging activity from the following assignments.

2. Mission Statement HML Summer Read mission is to encourage our teens to become confident, competent, and joyful readers. Our goal is to expose HML students to quality literature that stimulates imagination, awakens curiosity, expands horizons, enhances verbal fluency, and fosters critical thinking and a lifelong love for reading. HML Summer Read Literacy Team Initiative Disclaimer This program is designed to entice our students to read. In order to engage their interest and to provide a spur to critical thinking, the book selections include those that involve sensitive issues. The content of some of the titles may be more mature than younger students may have encountered. Not every book selected will suit every student. In a democratic society, a variety of ideas must find voice. As a reader, teens have a choice to read the more mature titles or to close the book. Soak up a good book!

3. Required Summer Reading and Assignment forAll Trojans Per Grade Level Make a timeline of the major events in the book you read. Be sure the divisions on the timeline reflect the time period in the plot. Use drawings or magazine cutouts to illustrate the events along the timeline

4. Incoming 9th Grade Required Summer Reading Selections(Choose One)

5. Incoming 10th Grade Required Summer Reading Selections(Choose One)

6. Incoming 11th Grade Requried Summer Reading Selections(Choose One)

7. Incoming 12th Grade Required Summer Reading Selections(Choose One)

8. Additional Suggested Selections for extra credit……

9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianby Sherman Alexie Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, humorously looks back on his freshman year when he transferred from the reservation school to a nearby all-white school and dealt with racism, was viewed as a traitor to his community, lost his best friend, and coped with family deaths. • The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks: a novel by E. Lockhart • Former ugly duckling Frankie Landau-Banks returns to her elite boarding school tired of being underestimated. She infiltrates her boyfriend’s all-male secret society and begins to orchestrate their elaborate pranks. The unexpected consequences could change her life forever. • Generation Dead by Daniel Waters Goth-girl Phoebe, her best friend Margi, childhood buddy Adam, and few others face opposition when they join an Undead Study to understand the zombies or “differently biotic” students who have begun attending their school; but when Phoebe begins to date one of the living impaired, the real trouble begins.   • Gym Candy by Carl Deuker Mick Johnson lives and breathes football. But when lifting weights and taking vitamin supplements do not give him the edge he wants, he turns to steroids. Along with becoming bigger, faster and stronger, Mick must also deal with ‘roid rage, acne, and depression. When he realizes he’s cheated his way to stardom, he tries to quit but with dangerous results. • Homeboyz by Alan Sitomer (mature themes) Instead of prison, Teddy Anderson, who was arrested while trying to avenge his sister’s accidental death from a gang related drive-by shooting, is sentenced to community service where he must mentor Micah, a 12 year old gangsta wannabe. • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins In a futuristic America, a boy and a girl from each of twelve provinces are chosen lottery style each year to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised reality show where only one will emerge alive to earn wealth and extra food for their province. When 17-year-old Katniss Everdeen’s little sister is selected, Katniss volunteers to go in her place. Will she survive?

10. The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon Since his father came out and his mother left, spiky-haired skateboarder Ben Campbell has gotten into trouble. In order to put him on the right path, his two dads move the family to rural Montana where city-born Ben finds animal carcasses, trucks, a tough country grandma, a cute farm girl, a town villain, and a troubled kid. • Little Brother by Cory Doctorow While skipping school, Markus is caught near the site of a terrorist attack on San Francisco and is intensely interrogated for six days. After his release and the disappearance of his best friend, Markus vows to use his formidable technical skills to network teenagers and fight back against the government’s increasingly frightening surveillance system. • The Market by J.M. Steele Kate Winthop has always accepted her role as a smart but geeky girl with a good heart, but when she finds out she was ranked 71 out of 140 girls in the Millbank Social Stockmarket game, she enlists the help of her two best friends to transform her from “junk bond” to “blue chip” and win some money in the process. • Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham After a shark attack, promising artist 15-year-old Jane Arrowood has her arm amputated. In this free verse novel, she struggles to cope with her loss and the changes it makes on her everyday life and future. • The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan What existential difference is there between the human being's role in this (or any) garden and the bumblebees?" "Did I choose to plant these potatoes, or did the potato make me do it? With profound questions like these, Michael Pollan pollinates your mind with a new world view of our relationships with plants, one in which humans are not at the center. The book focuses on four primary examples of how plants provide benefits to humans that lead humans to benefit the plants. • Shift by Jennifer Bradbury When buddies Chris and Win go on a cross-country bike trip after graduation and only Chris returns, pressure from Win’s powerful father separately fuels the FBI’s and Chris’s private investigation into Win’s disappearance.

11. Suck It Up by Brian Meehl When skinny, geeky, 16-year-old Morning McCobb graduates from the International Vampire League, he reluctantly becomes the spokesvamp for vampires, telling the world they really exist. But, he discovers that coming out isn’t easy as he tries to convince humans that blood-substitute-drinking vampires can peacefully co-exist with humans. • Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson When Scarlett Martin turns 15, she becomes responsible for a room in her family’s run-down hotel and its flamboyant occupant, Mrs. Ambrose, who hatches wacky schemes to save the family business, help Scarlett’s love life, and jumpstart Scarlett’s brother’s acting career. • Three Little Words: a memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter Taken from her irresponsible mother when she is 4 years old, Ashley spends the next nine years in Florida’s foster care system where she is shuffled between 13 state facilities and foster homes, some of which are horrifyingly abusive, before being adopted by a loving family. • Unwind by Neal Shusterman In the future, parents have the option of having their teenagers “unwound” or “retroactively aborted” where all their body parts and organs are transplanted into needy recipients. Connor, Risa, and Lev narrowly escape being unwound and search for a safe haven amid betrayal, political intrigue, and harrowing, non-stop flights and fights. • Life of Pi by Yann Martel A 16-year old Indian boy is adrift at sea for 227 days with only a dangerous Bengal tiger for a companion. Pi Patel's journey, and survival through the use of his wits and sheer determination, is one that grabs you and never lets go. It's a story that seems both too real and surreal at the same time. • After by Amy Efaw Devon Davenport is a straight-A student and prominent player on her school’s soccer team, but when she is linked to an abandoned baby found in the trash she is accused of attempted murder.

12. Brutal by Michael B. Harmon Forced to leave Los Angeles for life in a quiet California wine town with a father she has never known, rebellious sixteen-year-old Poe Holly rails against a high school system that allows elite students privileges and tolerates bullying of those who are different. • Candor by Pam Bachorz For a fee “model teen” Oscar Banks has been secretly- and selectively- sabotaging the subliminal messages that program the behavior of the residents of Candor, Florida, until his attraction to a rebellious new girl threatens to expose his subterfuge. • Compound by S.A. Bodeen Fifteen-year-old Eli, locked inside a radiation proof compound built by his father to keep them safe following a nuclear attack, begins to question his future, as well as his father’s grip on sanity as the family’s situation steadily disintegrates over the course of six years. • Graceling by Kristin Cashore In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king. • If I Stay by Gayle Forman While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. • King of Screwups by K.L. Going Liam Geller is one of the most popular boys in school but can't seem to do anything right in the eyes of his father; so he goes to live with his homosexual, rocker uncle who helps him to understand that there is much more to him than his father will ever see.

13. Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan High school student Charlie West awakens injured in a concrete bunker, discovers that he has lost a year of his life and has no memory of escaping from prison after being convicted of murdering his former best friend, and learns that he is being pursued by both the law and a group of terrorists trying to destroy the U.S. government. • No Choirboy by Susan Kuklin A collection of essays in which inmates at American prisons who were sentenced to death while still in their teens share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up in prison and how they feel about capital punishment. • North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley Terra, a sensitive, artistic high school senior born with a facial port-wine stain, struggles with issues of inner and outer beauty with the help of her Goth classmate Jacob. • Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali. • Reality Checkby Peter Abrahams After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search. • Secret Story of Sonia Rodgriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer Tenth-grader Sonia Rodriguez reveals secrets about her life and her Hispanic family while she studies hard so that she can be the first member of her family to successfully finish high school. • Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity. • Willowby Julia Hoban Sixteen-year-old Willow, who was driving the car that killed both of her parents, copes with the pain and guilt by cutting herself, until she meets a smart and sensitive boy who is determined to help her stop.

14. Upon completion of reading an additional suggested summer book, choose an activity that you will turn in to your Language Arts teacher for additional extra credit.

15. “Dive” into an activity! • Write a letter of advice to a character. • Design a book jacket. Include a “blurb” summarizing the book. Include information about the author. • Write a poem about one of the characters. • Create an advice column(Dear Abby) and give the characters in the story advice on how to handle their problems/dilemmas. • Complete a series of drawings about the book highlighting the most important sequences. • Write ten interview questions to ask the author of the book. • Write a one page “pitch” to a producer explaining why the story would or would not make a great movie. • Create a poster for the book. Make the viewer curious enough to read the book. Find 5 websites a character in your book would most frequently visit. Include the websites and an explanation of why your character would choose these sites. Create a Top Ten List. List 10 things you have learned from the book. Write a character diary, writing at least eight journal entries as if you are the main character in the story. Write down events that happened during the story and reflect on how they affected the character and why.

16. Summer Reading Summary Choose a book from the required summer reading list according to your incoming grade level for 2011-2012. Complete required assignment for chosen book which will be a grade in your Language Arts class. Choose an additional summer reading book from the suggested list and complete one of the challenging activities for extra credit in Language Arts. All assignments must be turned in to your Language Arts teacher by September 6, 2011.