Summer 2008 Required Reading

English 1R students:

Prospective ninth-grade students are required to read two works of literature in preparation for high school study. ALL students are expected to read The Pearl by John Steinbeck, as well as one work of non-fiction from the list that follows. Students should read actively and be prepared for both an objective examination and a writing assignment to be administered upon their entrance to the high school.

FICTION

All students must read:

Steinbeck, John - The Pearl A Mexican pearl-fisher finds a pearl of great value--far more than what he needs to pay the doctor to save his child's life. But the pearl brings only evil and tragedy.

NON-FICTION

Select one:

	Aaron, Henry - I Had a Hammer    The legendary major league star discusses his family life and friendships, the difficulties of being an African-American, his teammates--including Clemente, Campanella, Mays, Musial, and Robinson--and his shattering of Babe Ruth's home run record.
	Anonymous  -  Go Ask Alice    A fifteen-year-old drug user chronicles her daily struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.
	Bartoletti, Susan Campbell - Black Potatoes The book depicts how the disastrous blight in Ireland caused starvation, death and disease for one million people.
	Crowe, Chris - Getting Away with Murder The book examines the importance of this case and its influence on Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's.
	Filipovic, Zlata - Zlata's Diary    Zlata's diary is about a child's life in Sarajevo, before and during the war.
	Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki - Farewell to Manzanar    The true story of  a Japanese American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention, and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.
	Jiang, Ji-li - Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution The autobiography details the author's experiences as a teenager during the Cultural Revolution in China.
	Jones, Ron - The Acorn People    The true story of five handicapped boys at summer camp who defy everyone's notion of what handicapped children "ought" to do.
	Kheridian, David - The Road from Home The biography, based on the author's mother, concentrates on the deportation of the Turkish people.
	Mathabane, Mark - Kaffir Boy A memoir of growing up in South Afica under apartheid.
	Myers, Walter Dean - Bad Boy: A Memoir In a memoir that is gripping, funny, and ultimately unforgettable, Walter Dean Myers travels back to his roots in the magical world of Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s.
	Paulsen, Gary - Guts The author reveals the true events that inspired him to write his books.
	Rappaport, Doreen - The Flight of Red Bird The author recreates the story of a Native-American woman whose life spanned over the 19th and 20th centuries.
	Zoya - Zoya's Story A courageous, young woman reveals how she fought against the Taliban and helped oppressed women in Afghanistan.