Penncrest High School
Required Summer Reading Program
2017
Mandatory Core Reading: Grade 9
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Beah's riveting memoir tells the tale of a childhood lost to the civil war raging in Sierra Leone. When he was twelve, Beah was “recruited’ by rebel forces attacking his village and enlisted as a boy soldier. After four years, during which he committed heinous acts and witnessed unimaginable brutality, Beah was aided by UNICEF. He eventually moved to the U.S., where he finished high school and college. The savagery of his early experiences during the war makes his ultimate survival and redemption all the more gripping and powerful.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
June Elbus had just one person in the whole world who truly understood her, and that was her brilliant, artistic, gay uncle Finn. But Finn has died of AIDS and June is in shock. To make matters more upsetting, Toby—Finn’s partner and the person June’s family blames for Finn’s death—is trying to contact June secretly. June is also worried about her sister Greta, who seems to be spiraling out of control. Against her better judgment June forges a fragile, hidden friendship with Toby, which holds unexpected joys and as well as sorrows. June discovers truths about herself and her family and about muddling through the complications of life.
Phoenix Island by John Dixon
Carl is standing in front of the judge yet again. Troubled by a tragic past, alone in the world, he bounces from foster home to foster home and gets in trouble every place he goes. Only it’s not his fault. Carl is just a guy who sticks up for what’s right–and maybe goes a little too far. The judge sentences Carl, not to jail, but to Phoenix Island, a military confinement camp, where he will have no contact with the outside world, but if he follows the rules, he can leave on his 18th birthday with a clean record and a chance for new start. Will Phoenix Island be Carl’s last hope?? Former RTM teacher, author John Dixon, sets us off on an action packed, disturbing story about survival and conspiracy and a fight against all odds.
*Warning for violence
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
Scott Hudson fumbles through his freshman year of high school. He is hilarious as he juggles altering friendships, a growing family, too much schoolwork, and an unexpected extra-curricular load. Throughout it all, Scott writes letters to his unborn baby brother about how to survive freshman year—if Scott can make it through himself!
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
When fourteen year old Sophie leaves her Dad in Miami to spend the summer at her mother’s bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she never imagines what the summer holds for her. Unwittingly, Sophie becomes the adoptive mother to an orphaned and abused baby bonobo named Otto; together they are swept up in the midst of a revolution and trapped alone in the jungle. Because of the itsgreat characters (both human and primate!), vivid descriptions, and suspenseful, action-packed plot, you will find yourself thinking about this book long after you have finished reading it!
Rank One Selection:
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
"Alas, Babylon." Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.
Mandatory Core Reading: Grade 10
The Terrorist’s Son by Zak Ebrahim
What’s it like to grow up with a terrorist for a father? Zak Ebrahim was only seven years old when, on November 5th, 1990, his father El-Sayyid Nosair shot and killed the leader of the Jewish Defense League. While in prison, Nosair helped plan the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. In this extraordinary story, Ebrahim dispels the myth that terrorism is a foregone conclusion for people trained to hate. Based on his own remarkable journey, he shows that hate is always a choice—but so is tolerance.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
With a single act of kindness Richard Mayhew finds himself catapulted out of his ordinary life into an alternate dimension--London Below, a dark and dangerous shadow city of lost people, places, and times. The only chance of getting his old life back is to accompany a young woman named Door on a dangerous mission across the London subway system to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why. Their companions are the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors, and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. Funny and creepy at once, Neverwhere is, “A fantastic story that is both the stuff of dreams and nightmares” (San Diego Urban-Tribune).
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
Cory Mackenson and his father accidentally witness a murder as a car plunges into a lake while they are working together on his father’s milk-delivery route. On their journey to discover the killer, Cory encounters monsters swimming in his hometown’s river, a woman well over 100 years old whose powers are feared and legendary, and a violent gang of moonshiners. Amidst what at times seem to be magical experiences, Cory also deals with the realities of 1960s Zephyr, Alabama—racism and the decline of old-fashioned ways of life. Reality and fantasy blend as Cory and his father struggle to work together against real and otherworldly forces of evil.
*Warning for language and violent situations
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
Have you ever thought that your parents just don’t understand you? Meet seventeen-year-old Marcelo Sandoval who, because of a developmental disability, has always attended a special school. He cannot wait for summer, because he has plans to work with the therapeutic horses in the stables at his school. But his father, who does not really understand Marcelo at all, pushes him instead to work at his law firm's mailroom to experience what it is like in "the real world.” Marcelo finds a world filled with jealousy, competition, and injustice but also friendship, compassion, and trust.
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Both funny and intense, this book tells the story of Hayley as she attempts to readjust to traditional high school after years of being taught while on the road by her military veteran turned truck driver father. Unprepared for tests and the college application, Hayley treads carefully at home too, where her father is battling severe post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and reconnecting with a former girlfriend with her own demons. Hayley hates this former sort-of-stepmom and has repressed all painful memories involving her and nearly all memories about her biological mother as well. Simultaneously starting to remember and trying not to remember, Hayley has a hard time knowing where to turn, much like her father whose struggles escalate with tragic consequences that both he and Hayley must face.
Rank One Selection:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s sole novel combines elements of science fiction and romance. Doctor Frankenstein creates his famous monster, and in a unique narrative style, we learn about the consequences of manipulation in all things -- nature, science, and the human heart.
Mandatory Core Reading: Grade 11
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Junior is an underdog; he’s an amateur cartoonist, a boy born with several medical problems, a victim of bullying, and, at his core, a Native American teen searching for a brighter future. Determined to receive a good education, Junior leaves “the rez” to attend a privileged, all-white school in the neighboring town. Junior faces both serious family problems and jeers from his new and old classmates, and the story he tells, both heartbreaking and hysterical, is about finding your own way and your own strength.
*Warning for sexual references and language
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as theOASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This novel tells the stories of two teenagers coming of age on opposite sides of the conflict during World War Two: blind Marie-Laure LeBlanc, who takes part in the French Resistance, and the very Aryan-looking German orphan Werner Pfennig, whose talent at fixing radios lands him in the service of Hitler’s army. The chapters of the novel alternate between their stories until the two finally collide thrillingly in the last days of the war. The short chapters make this book easy to read, and its beautiful, lyrical writing, fully realized characters, and thrilling plot lines will resonate long after you’ve finished reading.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
This gripping novel hits close to home as a community attempts to make sense of a horrific shooting at Sterling High School. Picoult creates a compelling cast of characters who must come to terms with powerful issues of bullying, conformity, and violence and who, eventually, learn to take responsibility for allowing the worst to happen.
The Warrior's Heart: Becoming a Man of Compassion and Courage by Eric Greitens
Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a Navy Seal? Eric Greitens takes you on his journey from average high schooler to trained Navy Seal in this exciting non-fiction summer reading selection. Find out what led Greitens to the Seals and the grueling tests he endured to earn the honor of becoming part of one of the most elite military organizations in the world. Fast paced and enlightening, this terrific read won’t disappoint.
Rank One Selection:
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
This frank and intensely emotional novel is about the mental breakdown of Esther Greenwood–a brilliant, beautiful, and talented protagonist who deals with feelings of inadequacy and mental depression. This semi-autobiographical work explores Greenwood’s descent into insanity and the darkest corners of the human mind.
AP Selection:
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
When Bryan Stevenson was a 23-year-old Harvard law student, he started an internship in Georgia where his first assignment was to deliver a message to a man living on death row. This assignment transformed him and became his calling. This inspiring and powerful book is about Stevenson's fight to represent the poor, the wrongly accused, and those not receiving a fair shake from our justice system
Mandatory Core Reading: Grade 12
the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless. For a school project, he investigates the mysterious murder of a neighborhood dog and discovers family secrets along the way.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Two worlds collide in this gripping novel. The fates of three people, a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan and two vacationing British journalists, tangle one fateful day, and one of them is forced to make a terrible, life-changing choice. Two years later when they meet again, the story of forgiveness, heroism, and sacrifice unfolds.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
*Warning for language and sexual references
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
In this powerful memoir, Jeannette Walls, an underprivileged but intelligent young girl, tells of her troubled childhood and her relationship with her three siblings and her unstable parents. Walls’ journey from poverty and despair to success and acceptance is an inspiration to anyone who yearns to become more than what is expected of him. This selection contains occasional strong language.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
In this fast-paced thriller, we learn the story of Darrow, a Red, and a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. However, Darrow soon learns that the efforts of his people are in vain; Mars has been colonized for years, and the Reds are nothing more than slaves to the Golds—an elite ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow will stop at nothing to overthrow the system that has oppressed his people for generations... even if it means becoming a Gold to do so.