Souljah, Sistah. The Coldest Winter EverWinter’s life and perspective is turned upside down when her hustler father goes to prison and she falls in love with more than the city.

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Tech High School Summer Reading

List

Non-Fiction

"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery." — Malcolm X , Autobiography of Malcolm X

Non-FictionLiving in America

Griffin, John Howard, Black Like MeWhite author dyes his skin black and learns what it is like to be black in the American South of the 1940s

Haley, Alex, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X's story from street hustler to religious leader.

Polly, Matthew, American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China

A self professed 98lb. weakling, Matthew drops out of his Ivy League School to study Kung Fu at the Shaolin Temple.

Best, Joel. Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists.

Confused by all the contradicting statistical data being bantered around by the media? Best explains how these statistics are created and their implications, which will help you distinguish truth from hype.

“You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers – the monsters, the enemies. When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options.”

-Bella Swan, Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

Reader’s Choice 2011

Stories from Real Life (City Drama)

"The dream took place in the courtroom. I was trying to ask questions and nobody could hear me. I was shouting and shouting but everyone went about their business as if I wasn't there. I hope I didn't shout out in my sleep. That would look weak to everybody. It's not good to be weak in here.

- Chapter 3, pp. 63-64, Monster

“Myers, Walter Dean. Monster16-year-old Steve Harmon tells a his story from jail as he awaits trial for his role as a lookout in a robbery turned murder.

McKayhan, Monica. Indigo SummerEverything is going Indigo’s way. She’s the apple of the star linebacker’s eye, she makes the dance squad and gets a date for homecoming, but with her head in the clouds can she remain grounded?

Fiction

In Theatres (or NetFlix)

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger GamesKatniss Everdeen is living America, but it’s not the America we know. When she’s chosen in a lottery to fight to the death in a national reality show she learns about rebellion, survival and what family really means.

Hurston, Zora Neal . Their Eyes Were Watching GodJanie Crawford is living what everyone else thinks is the good life in 1930’s Eaton, Florida, but when Tea Cake strolls into town she lets the good townsfolk know just who she really is.

Meyer, Stephanie. The Twilight SeriesWhen Bella moves to Forks she doesn’t expect much from her small Washington town with its tiny school and plainness, but she ends up with much more excitement than she bargained for when she meets Edward and the Cullen Clan, forever young vampires.

Also, Try:Tolkien, R.R. The Lord of the RingsWalker, Alice. The Color Purple

Not of This World

Swanwick, Michael. The Dragons of BabelIn an alternate universe that is part Camelot part turn-of-the-century Chicago, Will Le Fey, a half-mortal, is forced to do the bidding of a fearsome mechanical dragon. Too bad the villagers aren’t so keen on Dragons or Will.

Also Try:Priest, Cherie. Boneshaker

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Buckhanon, Kalisha. UpstateTold through letters from one to the other, Upstate follows Natasha and Antonio from the time he gets

sent to prison for supposedly murdering his father to more than ten years later. Does love conquer all? Is it just a teenage crush?

Flinn, Alex. BeastlyKyle Kingsbury is living the teenage dream, perfectly handsome, proud, rich and positively insufferable. When he offends a young witch she curses him with a horrible affliction. Fortunately, there is one way he can break the curse.

Leavitt, Martine. Keturah and Lord DeathKeturah, a poor peasant girl, is a little different from the other villagers. She has a special gift that fascinates and terrifies, but is it her fortune or misfortune that this gift makes her the perfect companion for Death himself?

Also Try:Stiefvater, Maggie. ShiverGarcia, Cami. Beautiful CreaturesBronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights

Out of This World

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s GameElementary school-aged “Ender” is a Third, an extra child that wasn’t really wanted and is tortured by his big brother and classmates. Still he may be special. He may just hold the key to saving Earth, but will he crack under the pressure?

Westerfield, Scott. UgliesIn a post-apocalyptic “perfect” America teens are kept isolated from the adults until their 18th birthday when they can finally get the surgeries to make them “Pretty”, perfect and acceptable in the new society, but are the surgeries just about looks or does it do something else.

Westerfield, Scott. PeepsWhat if vampirism was a virus? In Peeps, that’s just the case, but not everyone is affected the same way. Some are immune, like Cal, who because of his fortune (or misfortune) is now made into a detective/vampire catcher who trolls the streets looking for the infected.

Adams, Scott. God’s Debris: a Thought Experiment. 2004. Andrews McMeel Publishing. Take a metaphysical journey into man’s first science, the search for meaning, as you try to deliver a package to the smartest man in the world who won’t

take it until you understand.

Ahmad, Dohra, ed. Rotten English: A Literary Anthology. 2007. W.W. Norton. Language is power and for the dizzying array of writers collected here, displaying an authentic voice is a means to reclaim what has been stolen, oppressed, or colonized. Rotten Englishcollects the poetry, essays, short stories, and novels of the best in global vernacular writing from Mark Twain to Junot Diaz.

Alexie , Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 2007. Little, Brown. Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, was born an outsider with water on his brain, lopsided eyes, and an IQ oppressed by extreme poverty and a mediocre reservation education. After switching to an all-white high school he realizes that though he'll never easily fit in, self-determination and a solid personal identity will give him the chance to both succeed and transcend.

Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. 1998. Penguin. Barely a postscript in official Japanese history, the horrific torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of

Chinese citizens took place over the course of just seven weeks.

Diamant , Anita. The Red Tent: A Novel. 1998. Picador. This novel recreates the biblical life of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, from her birth in Mesopotamia through her death in Egypt.

Engle, Margarita. The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano. 2006. Henry Holt. Written in verse, this is a Pura Belpre Award winning portrait of Juan Francisco Manzano, the poet who was born a slave in Cuba in 1797.

-From the American Library Association

Books for the College Bound