English 1

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NOTE: ALL incoming freshmen should read during the summer. Summer reading is important in maintaining students’ fluency in reading. Plus, reading is the best way to prepare for success in high school and on standardized tests like the ACT and LEAP. The purpose of summer reading is to encourage a love of reading and to keep students involved in learning throughout the summer. Although these titles were chosen according to theme, relevance, age appropriateness, and reading level, they represent a varied range of lexile levels and some novels may contain mature content. We suggest parents review the content of these novels with their children before making selections.

Choose ONE book to read from the list below and complete the Dialectical Journal assignment to be turned in on the first week of school. The idea is to prove you read the book as opposed to watching the movie or reading summaries. Include as much detail as you think you need to prove you read. You may also be asked to take a test or complete a project on the book the first week of school. It is strongly recommended that you bring a copy of the book to class that first week.

• Though summer reading is not required for regular students, it is highly recommended and extra credit will be given to students who complete the assignment.
• Summer reading is required for all Honors students for a formative grade in the first nine weeks.
• How to use your student ID as your public library card to access ebooks and audiobooks linked below.

The Crossover, Kwame Alexander
Fiction-poetry/ verse about sports

With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood. Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results/?ln=en_US&q=the+crossover&rw=0

Kindred, Octavia E. Butler
Fiction--historical fiction with time travel

The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given...

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=kindred&te=

Tears of a Tiger, Sharon Draper
Fiction--realistic fiction, high school drama

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, Sharon M. Draper portrays an African-American teenager who feels driven to consider suicide in the wake of a devastating tragedy.

Download Ebook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=tears+of+a+tiger&te=

Foul Trouble, John Feinstein
Fiction--realistic fiction about sports

Terrell Jamerson is the #1 high school basketball player in the country. His team is poised to win State, top colleges are lining up to give him scholarships, and everyone says he could play in the NBA tomorrow. But it only takes one false step to lose everything. Danny Wilcox is Terrell’s best friend and teammate, and a top prospect himself, but these days it seems like everyone wants to get close to Terrell: the sneaker guys, the money managers, the college boosters. They show up offering fast cars, hot girls, and cold, hard cash. They say they just want to help, but their kind of help could get Terrell disqualified. Danny and Terrell better keep their eyes on the ball if they hope to last the season.

Download Ebook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=foul+trouble&te=

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines
Fiction--historical fiction

Miss Jane Pittman. She is one of the most unforgettable heroines in American fiction, a woman whose life has come to symbolize the struggle for freedom, dignity, and justice. Ernest J. Gaines’s now-classic novel—written as an autobiography—spans one hundred years of Miss Jane’s remarkable life, from her childhood as a slave on a Louisiana plantation to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. It is a story of courage and survival, history, bigotry, and hope—as seen through the eyes of a woman who lived through it all. A historical tour de force, a triumph of fiction, Miss Jane’s eloquent narrative brings to life an important story of race in America—and stands as a landmark work for our time.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=the+autobiography+of+miss+jane+pittman&te=

Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Fiction--classic dystopia

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far from reality as the hope of being rescued. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies is perhaps our most memorable novel about “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=lord+of+the+flies&te=

The Princess Bride, William Goldman
Fiction--humorous fantasy with some romance thrown in

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams? As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears. Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere. What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex. In short, it's about everything.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=the+princess+bride&te=

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Fiction--classic historical fiction

The story of a young girl confronting deep-seated prejudice, it pits a six-year-old Scout Finch and her (relatively) anti-racist family against the segregation of an American South in the grip of Jim Crow. Author Harper Lee drew on her own childhood experience for the events of To Kill a Mockingbird. More than one critic has noticed some similarities between Scout and Lee herself—and between Scout's friend Dill and Lee's own childhood friend, Truman Capote. Like Scout, Lee's father was an attorney who defended black men accused of crimes; like Scout, Lee had a brother four years older. But Lee has said that the novel wasn't intended to be an autobiography—she was just trying to write what she knew. Full of historical detail from the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, the novel may even have been influenced by the Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s, in which two poor white women accused nine young black men of rape. Makes sense: that's exactly the accusation Scout's father Atticus ends up defending.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=to+kill+a+mockingbird&te=

Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Fiction-classic historical fiction

This heartwarming story has beckoned generations of readers into the special world of Green Gables, an old-fashioned farm outside a town called Avonlea. Anne Shirley, an eleven-year-old orphan, has arrived in this verdant corner of Prince Edward Island only to discover that the Cuthberts—elderly Matthew and his stern sister, Marilla—want to adopt a boy, not a feisty redheaded girl. But before they can send her back, Anne—who simply must have more scope for her imagination and a real home—wins them over completely. A much-loved classic that explores all the vulnerability, expectations, and dreams of a child growing up, Anne of Green Gables is also a wonderful portrait of a time, a place, a family… and, most of all, love.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=anne+of+green+gables&te=

Dear Martin, Nic Stone
Fiction--contemporary realistic fiction with social justice

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=dear+martin&te=

Falling for Hamlet, Michelle Ray
Fiction--contemporary realistic fiction with romance

Meet Ophelia: a blonde, beautiful high-school senior and long-time girlfriend of Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's fame and his overbearing family, but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go. As the devastatingly handsome Hamlet spirals into madness after the mysterious death of his father, the King, Ophelia rides out his crazy roller coaster life, and lives to tell about it. In live television interviews, of course. Passion, romance, drama, humor, and tragedy intertwine in this compulsively readable debut novel, told by a strong-willed, modern-day Ophelia.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=falling+for+hamlet&te=

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Fiction--contemporary realistic fiction with social justice

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=the+hate+u+give&te=

What Happened to Lani Garver, Carol Plum-Ucci
Fiction--contemporary fiction with LGBT characters

The close-knit residents of Hackett Island have never seen anyone quite like Lani Garver. Everything about this new kid is a mystery: Where does Lani come from? How old is Lani? And most disturbing of all, is Lani a boy or a girl? Claire McKenzie isn't up to tormenting Lani with the rest of the high school elite. Instead, she befriends the intriguing outcast. But within days of Lani's arrival, tragedy strikes and Claire must deal with shattered friendships and personal demons--and the possibility that angels may exist on earth.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-Garver-Carol-Plum-Ucci/dp/0152050884

Jim Thorpe, Original All-American, Joseph Bruchac
Non-fiction--sports biography

Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived. He played professional football, Major League Baseball, and won Olympic gold medals in track & field. But his life wasn’t an easy one. Born on the Sac and Fox Reservation in 1887, he encountered much family tragedy, and was sent as a young boy to various Indian boarding schools—strict, cold institutions that didn’t allow their students to hold on to their Native American languages and traditions. Jim ran away from school many times, until he found his calling at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian School. There, the now-legendary coach Pop Warner recognized Jim’s athletic excellence and welcomed him onto the football and track teams. Focusing on Jim Thorpe’s years at Carlisle, this book brings his early athletic career—and especially his college football days—to life, while also dispelling some myths about him and movingly depicting the Native American experience at the turn of the twentieth century. This is a book for history buffs as well as sports fans—an illuminating and lively read about a truly great American.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=jim+thorpe&te=

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, Haben Girma
Non-fiction--memoir about person with a disability

Born with deaf-blindness, Girma grew up with enough vision to know when someone was in front of her and enough hearing to know when someone close to her was talking. However, she had difficulty reading facial features or distinguishing people in group conversations. Relying on her own problem-solving skills, Girma overcame roadblocks while simultaneously obtaining her undergraduate and then law degree. In the process, she developed new methods of communication and found her calling in advocating for the deaf and blind communities in more accessible communication, education, and employment opportunities. As a lawyer and advocate, Girma shares a collection of vignettes illustrating the defining points in her life. She peppers her writing with a witty sense of humor and showcases her strength in facing obstacles, along with challenging antiquated societal beliefs about people with disabilities, whether describing her experience climbing Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier or helping a drunk friend get to his dorm by using her seeing-eye dog that he adores as a lure.

Download Ebook and audiobook through Lafayette Public Library: https://lafla.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=haben&te=

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL GUIDELINES