Paisley IB Magnet School
Rising Year III
Summer Reading 2012
In your final chapter of the Middle Years Programme at Paisley IB, you will undoubtedly face conflict. Some students will effectively combat these problems while others will falter under the pressure. The following selections feature teenage protagonists who have extraordinary (and often tragic) experiences that shape their “coming of age” stories.
Choose at least one of the five titles below to enjoy for this summer’s reading:
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns*
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson*
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher*
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (available in Paisley Media Center)
*These books may be procured at local libraries, used book stores (such as Edward McKay), major retailers (such as Barnes and Noble or Amazon), and via e-books (such as Kindle or Nook).
Discussion Questions
When you return from summer break, Language Arts classes will participate in a Socratic Seminar on these topics:
- Identify and describe conflicts presented in your novel.
- Were they mostly external, internal, or both?
- How did characters resolve the conflicts they encountered?
- Analyze the author’s style/craft.
- Who was the narrator in the novel and how did he or she present the story?
- What is an advantage (and/or disadvantage) to having a first person narrator?
- Decide on at least three key themes that are illustrated through your novel.
- What are the universal truths revealed through the story’s plot?
- How do you see these themes evident in your community?
- Connect—How can you relate to the characters or problems described in the novel?
Paisley IB Magnet School
Summer Reading 2012 (Read the summaries provided to select a novel)
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
If the preacher's wife's petticoat showed, the ladies would make the talk last a week. But on July 5, 1906, things took a scandalous turn. That was the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, eloped with Miss Love Simpson--a woman half his age and, worse yet, a Yankee On that day, fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy's adventures began and an unimpeachably pious, deliciously irreverent town came to life. Not since To Kill A Mockingbird has a novel so deftly captured the subtle crosscurrents of small-town Southern life. Olive Ann Burns classic bestseller brings to vivid life an era that will never exist again, exploring timeless issues of love, death, coming of age, and the ties that bind families and generations.
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
"Monster" is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who gave the "all clear" to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? In this innovative novel by Walter Dean Myers, the reader becomes both juror and witness during the trial of Steve's life. To calm his nerves as he sits in the courtroom, aspiring filmmaker Steve chronicles the proceedings in movie script format. Interspersed throughout his screenplay are journal writings that provide insight into Steve's life before the murder and his feelings about being held in prison during the trial. "They take away your shoelaces and your belt so you can't kill yourself no matter how bad it is. I guess making you live is part of the punishment."
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate and crush - who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and learns the truth about himself-a truth he never wanted to face.
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer is an orphan who lives with his Aunt Polly on the banks of the Mississippi River more than 100 years ago - during a time when slavery still existed and people thought you could cure warts by playing with dead cats. When Tom isn't trying to show off for the cutest girl in school, Becky Thatcher, he's off with his best friend, Huck Finn, fishing, playing with frogs or pretending to be a pirate. But when the pair witness a terrible murder, Tom and Huck's adventures take a thrilling turn.