Introduction and Expectations for Students

GET OUT OF THAT CHAIR! - ACTION/ADVENTURE

Little Brother (Cory Doctorow) Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus is released into what is now a police state, and decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
Downriver (Will Hobbs) 15-year-old Jessie and the other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival school team abandon their adult leader, hijack his boats, and try to run the dangerous white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Stormbreaker (Anthony Horowitz) After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, 14-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.
Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II (Robert Kurson) Two rival divers discover a treasure that is said not to exist – a sunken Nazi submarine! This story tells how the men eventually become allies in order to find the downed sub.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Aron Ralston) The true story of the avid rock-climber and outdoorsman who became trapped in a Utah mountain canyon when an 800-pound boulder pinned his right arm.
Maiden Voyage (Tania Aebi) The story of Tania Aebi, the youngest person to sail around the world by herself.
Flash Fire (Caroline Cooney) As fire sweeps through a canyon near Los Angeles, a group of children must work together to save themselves.
The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain’s Journey  (Linda Greenlaw)    The story of a grueling 30-day, sword-fishing voyage during which the fishermen face savage weather, equipment failure, and sharks.
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea  (Sebastian Junger) The incredible true account of the most extraordinary storm of the 20th Century. This is the story of a rare combination of factors deemed "perfect" and of the doomed fishing boat with her crew of six that was helpless in the midst of a force beyond comprehension.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (Jon Krakauer) The true account of the disastrous 1996 ascent of Mt. Everest. The author was one of the climbers. A heart-wrenching, breathtaking adventure about people, glory and tragedy.
Doublebind (Chris Bohjalian)

After surviving an attack while biking, Vermont college student Laurel Estabrook decides to volunteer at a homeless shelter where she meets Bobbie Cocker, a mentally ill man who claims to have been an established photographer and whose life she becomes infatuated with.

Alive (Paul Read Piers)

In 1972 an airplane crashed in the Andes wilderness. This is the true story of those who survived. Gripping!

All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) John Grady Cole is too young to be given charge of the family ranch and is cut off from the only life he has ever imagined wanting.

TELLING OUR STORIES – MEMOIR/AUTOBIOGRAPHY/BIOGRAPHY

The Year We Disappeared: a father-daughter memoir

(Cylin Busby and John Busby)

Father and daughter, Cylin and John Busby, share their memories of the challenges they faced after their family was forced to go into hiding in order to protect themselves from a killer who had already shot John, a police officer, once and was determined to finish the job.

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant (Daniel Tammet) Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant, describes how his rare condition, which gives him incredible mental powers and a compulsive need for order and routine, has influenced every aspect of his life and what challenges he has faced while trying to be independent.
The Burn Journals (Brent Runyon) When Brent Runyon was 14 years old, he set himself on fire in a suicide attempt. This is the story of his recovery and his re-entry into his old life.
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood (Jennifer Traig)

In this 1970s memoir, Traig describes how, from the age of 12 until her freshman year at Brandeis, she suffered from various forms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), including anorexia and a rarer, "hyper-religious form" of OCD called scrupulosity, in which sanctified rituals such as hand washing and daily prayer are repeated in endless loops. The daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Traig becomes obsessed with Jewish ritual, inventing her own prayers since her Jewish education is limited. Initially, Traig's family is amused; eventually, they try to help.

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo (Zlata Filipovic) Zlata, a 13-year-old girl living in Sarajevo, kept a diary during the war which devastated so many lives. The diary begins just before her eleventh birthday when there was still peace in her homeland and traces the devastation through Zlata’s own words.
My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story (Latifa) Latifa was a 16-year-old aspiring journalist when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Suddenly, she was confined to her apartment, unable to venture out uncovered by the hated burka.
Hole in My Life (Jack Gantos) In this autobiographical sketch of his restless final years of high school, the popular young adult novelist Gantos reveals his short-lived career as a drug smuggler and his harrowing time in prison.
Death Be Not Proud (John Gunther) This deeply moving book is a father’s memoir of his brave, intelligent, and spirited son who was 17-years-old when he died of a brain tumor.
In the Company of Men: A Woman at the Citadel (Nancy Mace) Nancy Mace chronicles the experiences she had as one of the first women allowed to attend The Citadel and discusses how the male students reacted to her presence.
Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode The Internet Out of Idaho (Jon Katz) Tells the true story of Jesse and Eric, 19-year-old roommates in the small town in Idaho, who changed their lives and built a new future for themselves with the power of the Internet.
The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Jeannette Walls) Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents. She describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family.

I Have Lived a Thousand Years (Livia E. Bitton-Jackson)

A memoir of Elli Friedmann who tells about her experiences at Auschwitz, a concentration camp where she was taken in 1944 when the Nazis invaded her native Hungary.

The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor (Ken Silverstein) The story of David Hahn who built a nuclear breeder reactor in his backyard, endangering the residents of his Michigan hometown and raising the ire of the federal government.


Autobiography of Malcolm X The Black Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells his life story to veteran writer and journalist, Alex Haley. Powerful!
Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq (Thura al-Windawi) The author, now a scholarship student at an American university, writes of her daily life in war-besieged Baghdad.
Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and other Battles (Anthony Swofford)

In 1990, Swofford, a young Marine sniper, went to Saudi Arabia with dreams of vaporizing Iraqi skulls into clouds of "pink mist." As he recounts in this aggressively uninspiring Gulf War memoir, his youthful bloodlust was never satisfied. After spending months cleaning sand out of his rifle—so feverish with murderous anticipation that he almost blows a buddy's head off after an argument—Swofford ends up merely a spectator of a lopsided battle waged with bombs, not bullets.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)

A father and his eleven-year-old son take a motorcycle trip across the country, and together, the two learn about life, love, and identity.

King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the rise of an American hero (David Remnick) Biography of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.
Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) The author chronicles his impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1930s and 1940s, describing his father's alcoholism and talent for storytelling and his early experiences in the Catholic church; he balances painful memories with humor.
A Long Way Gone (Ishmael Beah)

Ishmael Beah describes his experiences after he was driven from his home by war in Sierra Leone and picked up by the government army at the age of thirteen, serving as a soldier for three years before being removed from fighting by UNICEF and eventually moving to the United States.

Running With Scissors (Augusten Burroughs)

The author chronicles his life from age twelve to sixteen, living in the bizarre home of his mother's psychiatrist, where he was sexually abused by the doctor's thirty-three-year-old adopted son.

GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING – GRAPHIC NOVELS & MANGAS

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., Vol. 1: This Is What They Want

(Warren Ellis) The Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, or H.A.T.E. (a subsidiary of the Beyond Corporation) put Nextwave together to fight Bizarre Weapons of Mass Destruction. When Nextwave discovers that H.A.T.E. and Beyond are terrorist cells themselves, and that the BWMDs were intended to kill them, they are less than pleased. In fact, they are rather angry. So they make things explode. Lots of things.
Sloth (Gilbert Hernandez)

“The story is of young people too creative, too smart and too passionate for the constraints of suburbia. Miguel Serra wakes up from a yearlong coma, slower physically but not mentally. He is literally out of step with the rest of the world, a perfectly disaffected youth” (Publisher’s Weekly).

Castle Waiting (Linda Medley)

A long time ago in the happy kingdom of Putney, a king and a queen accidentally snub the local wicked witch. The result is the standard curse: a 100-year sleep brought on, you guessed it, when the princess pricks her finger on a needle. But what happens after the princess awakes and goes off with her charming prince? There's nothing left for a castle full of characters to do except to wait. Thus the stage is set for a surprising, quite wonderful story

True Believers: Runaways (Brian K. Vaughn) A group of six young friends, having discovered their parents are all secretly super-powered villains, run away from home and embark on a series of adventures, fueled by their desire to thwart their legacy of evil.
Death Note (Tsugumi Ohba ) Light Yagami comes across a death note dropped by a Shinigami death god and vows to use this power to rid the world of evil; but when criminals start dropping dead, the great detective is sent to track down the killer.
Laika (Nick Abadzis)

Classic dog-story themes such as loyalty serve as a backdrop for this fictionalized account of Laika, the first living creature launched into outer space. A charming and scruffy little dog, Laika survives an uncaring master and life as a stray before becoming part of the Russian space program circa 1956, just as the Soviet Union had achieved a huge victory over American competition.

The Plain Janes (Cecil Castelluci)

Jane's parents relocate to the suburbs when she's caught in a bomb attack in Metro City. Bored and lonely in her new town and school, the teen is thrilled when she meets three other girls named Jane, all of them as out of place as she is. They form a secret club, the Plain Janes, and decide to liven up the town with art. Some people like their work, but most are frightened, and the local police call the Plain Janes' work "art attacks."

Notes for a War Story (Gipi)

A bleak tale of three young drifters making their way across the war-torn landscape of an unnamed Balkan country is told from the point of view of protagonist Giuliano. The narrative traces his path as he is forced to go through the peripheral results of war as a deadening day-to-day struggle to find food and shelter while avoiding the occasional stray bullet.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller) Ten years after his retirement, a troubled Batman returns to the streets evening the score with criminals in an increasingly violent manner, which brings trouble from the police and a gang called the Mutants and a conflict with Superman.
Firestorm: Nuclear Man (Stuart Moore) Jason Rusch is an ordinary college student. Lorraine Kelly is a respected United States Senator. Merged together, they wield the atomic forces of the universe as Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. Firestorm must stop a deadly nuclear accident and a threat to his very existence.
Girl Stories (Lauren Weinstein) The author recounts her early teen years in which she was obsessively concerned with her social standing and weight, annoyed by being Jewish at Christmas, tormented by a navel piercing gone awry and perplexed by the mystery of boys and why they like her or don't.

American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang) “As alienated kids go, Jin Wang is fairly run-of-the-mill: he eats lunch by himself in a corner of the schoolyard, gets picked on by bullies and jocks and develops a sweat-inducing crush on a pretty classmate. And, oh, yes, his parents are from Taiwan.” (Publishers Weekly)

LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT – ROMANCE

Just Listen (Sarah Dessen) Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, 16-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.
Romiette and Julio (Sharon M. Draper) Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same high school after falling in love on the Internet but are harassed by a gang whose members object to their interracial dating.
How To Ruin a Summer Vacation (Simone Elkeles) When 16-year-old Amy, a spoiled American, goes to Israel for a three-month summer vacation with a father she barely knows, she is not prepared for his Jewish family and the changes they bring about in her life.
Veil of Roses (Laura Fitzgerald) Tamila Saroush, a 27-year-old Iranian woman, is in the U.S. courtesy of a 90-day visa. If she doesn’t find a husband with American citizenship in that time, she’ll be forced back under the veil of repression.
The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things (Carolyn Mackler) Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, 15-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.
Wait for Me (An Na) As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her Korean mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out.
Crazy in Love (Dandi Mackay)

High school senior Mary Jane Ettermeyer has always been the good girl, but when she falls hard for Jackson, the cutest guy in school, she finds herself questioning her desire to stay pure until marriage and wondering if she even ha a chance with Jackson.

If You Come Softly (Jacqueline Woodson) After meeting at their private school in New York, 15-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.
Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier) This riveting tale of fear, suspicion, and love opens as the unnamed narrator reminisces about her former home, the grand English estate, Manderley. She had been young and shy, a lady's companion, when she met the wealthy recent widow, Maxim de Winter, fell in love with him, and married him in a matter of weeks. They return to his home, but her new husband is strangely distant until a horrible secret is revealed that changes their lives.

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.