ENGLISH

English 160 (AP) Grade 12 (Click here for specific assignments related to these books.)

REQUIRED, read one:

• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde — An incredibly handsome young man in Victorian England keeps his youthful appearance over the years even as he pursues a life of decadence and corruption. His portrait, however, reflects both his age and evil soul. A look at the tension between the polished surface of high society and the life of secret vice.

OR

• Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy — Thomas Hardy broke the boundaries of the acceptable Victorian heroine with "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", Victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy, Tess is a woman whose intense vitality flares unforgettably against the bleak background of a dying rural society. Shaped by an acute sense of social injustice and by a vision of human fate cosmic in scope, her story is a singular blending of harsh realism and indelibly poignant beauty. This classic novel remains a triumph of literary art and a timeless commentary on the human condition.

And also, read one:

• The Kite Runner,  Khaled Hosseini — An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, takes readers from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, "The Kite Runner" is an unusual and powerful debut.

OR

• The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan — In 1949 four Chinese women - drawn together by the shadow of their past - begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Nearly forty years later, one of the members has died. When her daughter comes to take her place, she learns of her mother's lifelong wish, and the tragic way in which it has come true.

English 161 — Grade 12 (Honors), REQUIRED — Read ONE of the following books:

• The Kite Runner,  Khaled Hosseini — An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, takes readers from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, "The Kite Runner" is an unusual and powerful debut.
• Life of Pi, Yann Martel — This brilliant fabulist novel combines the delight of Kipling's "JustSo Stories" with the metaphysical adventure of "Jonah and the Whale, " as Pi, the son of a zookeeper, is marooned aboard a lifeboat with a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan, and a tiger.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde —An incredibly handsome young man in Victorian England keeps his youthful appearance over the years even as he pursues a life of decadence and corruption. His portrait, however, reflects both his age and evil soul. A look at the tension between the polished surface of high society and the life of secret vice.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith — The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
• Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, James L. Swanson — The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness. James L. Swanson's Manhunt is a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.

English 163 — Grade 12, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• Nothing to Lose, Alex Finn — A year has passed since Michael fled his impossible home life to join a traveling carnival. Now the 17-year-old runaway has returned to Miami to find his mother going on trial for the murder of his savagely abusive stepfather. What really happened? Only Michael knows the whole truth, but will he come forward?  An award-winning book with great reviews.
• Inexcusable, Chris Lynch — Told in flashbacks and present-day narrative, this novel from Printz Honor winner Lynch is a riveting tale of guilt, innocence, and responsibility. When his childhood friend--and love of his life--accuses him of rape, a young man is convinced he's innocent.
• The Truth About Forever, Sarah Dessen — With her sixth novel, award-winning author Sarah Dessen offers up another generous helping of finely crafted storytelling about real teens dealing with real life. In The Truth About Forever, when asked how she is coping with her father's death, invariably seventeen year old Macy Queen's answer is "fine," when nothing could be further from the truth. In actuality, she is drowning in grief while maintaining a flawless façade of good grades and unblemished behavior. Though she feels lost when her boyfriend heads to "Brain Camp" for the summer, she finds herself a job with the quirky Wish Catering crew, and meets "sa-woon"-worthy Wes, whose chaotic lifestyle is in direct opposition to her own. As the two share their stories over the summer, Macy realizes she can no longer keep her feelings on ice. Though it feels like her future endedwith her dad's death, Macy's learns that forever is all about beginnings. Dessen charts Macy's navigation of grief in such an honest way it will touch every reader who meets her.
• Catalyst, Laurie Halse Anderson — Meet Kate Malone -- straight-A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, new girlfriend (to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III), unwilling family caretaker, and emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all-or so she thinks. Then, things change as suddenly as a string of chemical reactions; first, the Malones' neighbors get burned out of their own home and move in. Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri's little brother. The days are ticking down and she's still waiting to hear from the only college she applied to: MIT. Kate feels that her life is spinning out of her control -- and then, something happens that truly blows it all apart. Set in the same community as the remarkable Speak, Catalyst is a novel that will change the way you look at the world.
• Twilight, Stephenie Meyer — Deeply sensuous and extraordinarily suspenseful, TWILIGHT captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite. Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife -- between desire and danger.
• OR any book from the Eng 161 list.

English 151 — Grade 11 (Honors)/English 154 — American Studies (Honors), REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold — The story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder. Susie Salmon, the teenage victim, tells the events of her rape and murder as she looks down from heaven. She views how her family and community search for the murderer and struggle with their loss. An unforgettable and very original book.
• Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway — By turns romantic and harshly realistic, Hemingway's story of a tragic romance set against the brutality and confusion of World War I cemented his fame as a stylist and as a writer of extraordinary literary power. A volunteer ambulance driver and a beautiful English nurse fall in love when he is wounded on the Italian front.
• Native Son, Richard Wright — Widely acclaimed as one of the finest books ever written on race and class divisions in America, this powerful novel reflects the forces of poverty, injustice, and hopelessness that continue to shape society.
• Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916, Michael Capuzzo — Pulitzer Prize nominee Capuzzo brilliantly recreates the summer of 1916, when a rogue great white shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.
• Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan — Charting the artist's rise, from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to status as a pop icon, the authors deliver an absorbing tale--one in which the American dream of fame and fortune is played out in all of its success and its excess.
• Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob, Kevin Weeks and Phyllis Karas — Offering the real inside scoop, Whitey Bulger's #2 man in Boston's Irish mob tells where the bodies are buried.

English 153 — Grade 11, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold — The story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder. Susie Salmon, the teenage victim, tells the events of her rape and murder as she looks down from heaven. She views how her family and community search for the murderer and struggle with their loss. An unforgettable and very original book.
• Dreamland, Sarah Dessen — After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life. Her new boyfriend, Rogerson, seems like a dream come true. However, it doesn't take long for the dream to become a nightmare when she discovers that mysterious and brillant Rogerson has an abusive and dangerous side. The latest book by an award-winning writer.
• Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares — It's been two summers since the Traveling Pants first worked their magic on four young friends, who are now facing their last summer together. The girls will be leaving to attend four different colleges in four different cities. They plan to gather to launch the Pants on their summer voyage and begin the time of their lives.
• Forged by Fire, Sharon Draper — This book is a prequel to Draper's Tears of a Tiger, which was on the list last year. As a neglected toddler of a drug-addict mother, Gerald almost burns to death in his apartment. Rescued by his loving aunt, Gerald enjoys a warm secure life for a few years until his mother and a cruel, abusive stepfather enter his life. His new goal is to protect his half-sister from becoming a victim.
• Stuck in Neutral, Terry Trueman — Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him. In this powerful first novel, the reader learns to look beyond the obvious and finds a character whose spirit is rich beyond imagining.
• Eagle Strike: An Alex Rider Adventure, Anthony Horowitz — Teen spy Alex Rider survives a bullfight, a high-speed bicycle chase through Amsterdam, and even being the target in a human video-game, only to face his most disturbing challenge yet: when the best of intentions are driven by insanity, how do you reason with a madman?
• Acceleration, Graham McNamee — It’s a hot, hot summer, and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority’s Lost and Found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging lost things and sifting through accumulated junk. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan’s just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book. It’s a diary filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. And Duncan can’t make himself stop reading. What would you do with a book like that? How far would you go to catch a madman? And what if time was running out. . . .

English 141 — Grade 10 (Honors), REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• The Blessing Way,Tony Hillerman — When Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police discovers a corpse with a mouth full of sand at a crime scene, he is ready to suspect a supernatural killer since there are seemingly no tracks or clues. He must soon stalk a supernatural killer known as the “Wolf-Witch” along a chilling trail of mysticism and murder.
• The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd — Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, father, teenager Lily Owens lives with the haunting memory of the afternoon when Lily was four and her mother was killed. Fleeing her father’s brutality, Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, meet an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters. Lily enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna. A compelling story of loss, betrayal, guilt, and forgiveness.
• The Color of Water, James McBride — Around the narrative of Ruth McBride Jordan, a.k.a. Rachel Deborah Shilsky, the daughter of an angry, failed Orthodox Jewish rabbi in the South, her son James writes of the inner confusions he felt as a black child of a white mother and of the love and faith with which his mother surrounded their large family. The result is a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother.
• The Natural, Bernard Malamud — The Natural, Bernard Malamud’s first novel, published in 1952, is also the first—and some would say still the best—novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material—the story of a superbly gifted “natural” at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era—and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin’s comment still holds true: “Malamud has done something which—now that he has done it!—looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology.”
• My Sister's Keeper, Jodi  Picoult — Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.

English 143 — Grade 10, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky — Tenth-grader Charlie writes letters that shows the difficulties of high school and growing up. He is aught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie’s letters are both hilarious and devastating, revealing the world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends as well as the complex world of sex, drugs, and suicide. An unforgettable and powerful coming-of-age story.
• The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd — Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, father, teenager Lily Owens lives with the haunting memory of the afternoon when Lily was four and her mother was killed. Fleeing her father’s brutality, Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, meet an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters. Lily enters their mesmerizing secret world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna. A compelling story of loss, betrayal, guilt, and forgiveness.
• Whaletalk, Chris Crutcher — There’s bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don’t have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway. A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant), the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T.J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket—exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T.J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High—will also be an effective tool. He’s right. He’s also wrong. Still, it’s always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets soon becomes the space where they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to grow. Together they’ll fight for dignity in a world where tragedy and comedy dance side by side, where a moment’s inattention can bring lifelong heartache, and where true acceptance is the only prescription for what ails us.
• Tears of a Tiger, Sharon M. Draper — After a car accident kills Robert, Andy’s best friend and teammate on the Hazelwood High Tigers, Andy doesn’t know if he can go on. He’s consumed with guilt for driving the night of the accident after a long evening of drinking and partying. With perceptiveness and compassion, Draper portrays a teenager who must deal with a devastating tragedy.
• Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz — Fourteen-year-old Alex doubts his uncle died in an accident after finding bullet holes in the windshield of his uncle's car. He discovers his uncle was killed while on a top-secret mission for the British government. Alex then finds himself in the middle of terrorists. Now he must outsmart the people who want him dead or every child in England will be murdered.
• Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, Joyce Carol Oates — Matt Donaghy's big mouth gets him a three-day suspension when "unnamed witnesses" allege that the Rocky River High School junior has threatened to bomb the school if his play isn't accepted for the Spring Arts Festival. Fortunately, his classmate Ursula Rigg, who calls herself "Ugly Girl," heard what he really said, and despite her parents' reservations, demonstrates the courage to come to his defense. An awkward friendship between the two self-styled misfits begins to develop but is threatened when Matt's parents sue the school system for slander. Distinguished novelist Oates' first young adult novel is a thought-provoking, character-driven drama about the climate of hysteria created by school violence in America, and how two teenagers find the courage to fight it and to find themselves in the process.

Humanities — Grade 9 (Honors English/Social Studies) — See Mr. Stiles and Mrs. Stefanakos's Memo

• REQUIRED — Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, Edith Hamilton — (selections noted on handout)
• REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:
  • Of Nightingales That Weep, Katherine Paterson — The daughter of a samurai never weeps, but Takiko, whose father was killed in battle, finds this a hard rule. When her beauty and voice captivate a young warrior at the imperial Japanese court, Takiko finds she cannot run away from her samurai honor.
  • The Chosen, Chaim Potok — In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.
  • 1984, George Orwell — Novel by George Orwell, published in 1949 as a warning about the menaces of totalitarianism. The novel is set in an imaginary future world that is dominated by three perpetually warring totalitarian police states. The book's hero, Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary in one of these states. His longing for truth and decency leads him to secretly rebel against the government. Smith has a love affair with a like-minded woman, but they are both arrested by the Thought Police. The ensuing imprisonment, torture, and reeducation of Smith are intended not merely to break him physically or make him submit but to root out his independent mental existence and his spiritual dignity. Orwell's warning of the dangers of totalitarianism made a deep impression on his contemporaries and upon subsequent readers, and the book's title and many of its coinages, such as NEWSPEAK, became bywords for modern political abuses.
  • Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind, Suzanne Fisher Staples — Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor—or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?

English 133 — Grade 9, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• Of Nightingales That Weep, Katherine Paterson — The daughter of a samurai never weeps, but Takiko, whose father was killed in battle, finds this a hard rule. When her beauty and voice captivate a young warrior at the imperial Japanese court, Takiko finds she cannot run away from her samurai honor.
• The Chosen, Chaim Potok — In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.
• 1984, George Orwell — Novel by George Orwell, published in 1949 as a warning about the menaces of totalitarianism. The novel is set in an imaginary future world that is dominated by three perpetually warring totalitarian police states. The book's hero, Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary in one of these states. His longing for truth and decency leads him to secretly rebel against the government. Smith has a love affair with a like-minded woman, but they are both arrested by the Thought Police. The ensuing imprisonment, torture, and reeducation of Smith are intended not merely to break him physically or make him submit but to root out his independent mental existence and his spiritual dignity. Orwell's warning of the dangers of totalitarianism made a deep impression on his contemporaries and upon subsequent readers, and the book's title and many of its coinages, such as NEWSPEAK, became bywords for modern political abuses.
• Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind, Suzanne Fisher Staples — Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor—or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?

Practical English/Foundations in Reading — Grade 9, REQUIRED — ONE of the following books:

• Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson — Through his own poetry, 11-year-old Lonnie Collins shares his heartbreak over his late parents and his love for his younger sister Lili, separated from him when they were placed in foster care. A 2003 National Book Award Finalist and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book.
• Pictures of Hollis Woods, Patricia Reilly Giff — Hollis Woods has run away from almost every foster home she's ever been placed in. When she is sent to live with Josie, a quirky but elderly artist, Hollis wants to stay. But Josie grows more forgetful, and Hollis fears Social Services may take her away and move Josie to a home. Hollis won't let anyone separate them--she's escaped the system before; this time, she'll take Josie with her.
• Whirligig, Paul Fleischman — In this acclaimed novel, a dejected boy tries to kill himself in a car crash and ends up killing an innocent teen. The victim's mother asks that the boy create four whirligigs from a picture of the girl and set them up at the four corners of the United States to keep her spirit alive.
• Heaven, Angela Johnson — Marley Carroll's life turns upside-down the day a letter arrives requesting her baptismal record from a pastor in Alabama whose church has burned. For the first time Marley realizes that the people who have raised her are really her aunt and uncle and her father is Uncle Jack. Anger is the first emotion she feels: anger that no one ever told her about her real mother and father, anger that she's been deluded all these years. Gradually reason returns and she begins to sort out what and who make a family. As she looks around her neighborhood, the pluses pile up from her best friend Shoogy to the owner of the general store, and finally to her aunt and uncle and the wonderful parenting job they've done along with the love they have for her. Maybe it really is heaven to live in Heaven.
• Loch, Paul Zindel — Fifteen-year-old Loch and his younger sister join their father on a scientific expedition searching for prehistoric creatures sighted in a Vermont lake, but soon discover that the expedition's leaders aren't interested in preserving the creatures.
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien — When mouse widow Mrs. Frisby needs advice on how to move her children safely, she consults the rats who live under the rosebush. Not only do they help her, they tell her of their escape from a laboratory where experimentation had made them literate, and of the brave death of her husband.
• OR any book from English 131, 133

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