HAISLN Recommended Reading List 2003
Grade 9 and Grade 10
Any available unabridged edition of a title is acceptable.
Alexander, Caroline. The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic
Expedition. Knopf, 1998. Men and crew of the doomed ship Endurance
battle to survive brutal Antarctic conditions during their twenty months on
drifting ice.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1999. A traumatic
event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s
freshman year in high school.
Armstrong, Lance. It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. Berkley,
2001. A teenage misfit who finds his niche in cycling calls on the same
personal characteristics that made him a cycling champion to survive
cancer, win the Tour de France and find real joy.
Bissinger, H. G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream.
HarperCollins, 1991. The author penetrates the culture of high school
football as it is lived in Odessa, Texas.
Bragg, Rick. All Over But the Shoutin’. Vintage, 1998. Pulitzer-prize winning
reporter Rick Bragg remembers his years of growing up in poverty-stricken
Alabama and how football became the vehicle for his success.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. First published 1847. Jane finds terror and
romance when she becomes governess in a mysterious mansion.
Brooks, Geraldine. Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague. Viking, 2001.
Young heroine reacts with courage in her struggle to survive when half the
population of a small village dies of plague in 1666.
Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Shadow. Tor, 1999. Bean begins life as an illegal
experiment and ends up a disciple and safety net for Ender Wiggins in the
battle to save Earth from the Buggers. Also consider reading Ender’s
Game, by the same author.
Carter, Jimmy. An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood.
Simon & Schuster, 2001. Former President Jimmy Carter re-creates his
Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm, before the civil rights
movement that changed it and the country.
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. First published 1918. Antonia, a Bohemian girl,
comes to the prairie of Nebraska, visits the city and returns to find peace
in her roots.
Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with a Pearl Earring. Dutton, 1999. Sixteen-year-old
Griet is hired to work as a maid in the home of the renowned painter
Johannes Vermeer in 17th-century Delft.
Cormier, Robert. Tenderness: A Novel. Delacorte, 1997. Two teenagers, one
a psychopathic serial killer and the other a sexually precocious runaway,
both seeking tenderness, meet with unpredictably disastrous results in this
psychological thriller from the master of realistic fiction.
Delany, Sarah and Elizabeth A. Delany. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters'
First 100 Years. Kodansha, 1993. Two African-American sisters recount
their battles against racism and sexism.
Denenberg, Barry. Voices from Vietnam. Scholastic, 1995. Personal
narratives, letters, and other quotations tell the story of Americans’
struggle to make sense of the war years.
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. First published 1844. This
French 19th century adventure story includes unjust imprisonment, escape,
and a new life.
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca. First published 1938. The timid new mistress of
Manderley is haunted by her predecessor. A suspense story.
Earley, Tony. Jim the Boy: a Novel. Little, Brown, 2000. A young man turns
from a family-based childhood to the future in a Depression-era North
Carolina town.
Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2002. A compelling
personal memoir of a poor boy’s dream to be a writer and his
entanglements with drugs, prison, then ultimate success.
Giaman, Neil. Neverwhere. Avon, 1997. Richard Mayhew helps an injured girl
and finds his life changed when he leaves the reality of present-day
London and enters the city’s underground world of sewers and abandoned
subway stations.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. First published 1959. English schoolboys
stranded on a desert island set up their own society.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables. First published 1851.
Hepzibah tries to shelter her brother from the evil of Judge Pyncheon in
19th century Massachusetts.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. First published 1929. A British nurse
and an American ambulance driver fall in love during World War I.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. First published 1965. The Atreides family is banished to
planet Dune, where the ferocious Fremen live.
Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Random House, 2001.
The true story of jockeys, horses, and trainers who create a
Depression-era thoroughbred racing champion that captures the
imagination of an entire nation.
Jenkins, A. M. Damage. HarperCollins, 2001. Even though senior Austin Reed
has everything—good looks, athletic ability, a beautiful girlfriend, and a
great mom—he feels detached and barely alive. A powerful, unflinching
depiction of teenage depression.
Jordan, Robert. Eye of the World. Tor, 1990. During the Third Age, the Age of
Prophecy, the world and time hang in the balance, in peril of falling under
the Shadow. (Book 1 of The Wheel of Time series)
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Viking, 2002. Lily leaves her
abusive father in search of her connection to her dead mother and finds
shelter with a family of black sisters.
Klass, David. You Don’t Know Me. Frances Foster Books, 2001.
Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries
to deal with his mother’s abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful but
shallow classmate, and other problems at school.
Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. First published 1959. Life, rivalry, and a
tragic accident occur in a private boys' school during World War II.
Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella. Delacorte, 1999. The author describes
how she suffered cruelty from her stepmother and callous indifference
from her well-to-do father while growing up in China at the end of World
War II.
Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. First published 1955. A realistic novel
about a life of terrible hardships and disasters lived out in India with
unflagging optimism and courage by a peasant woman and her family.
Marti, Jose. Versos Sencillos/Simple Verses. Arte Público, 1997. Heartfelt
poems in Spanish/English reflect life experiences of Cuba's 19th century
literary leader and patriot.
McCullers, Carson. The Member of the Wedding. First published 1946. A
lonely young girl decides to accompany her brother and his wife on their
honeymoon.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind. First published 1936. After her
genteel, romantic lifestyle is swept away by the Civil War, Scarlett O’Hara
summons strength to salvage her plantation home.
Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels. Scholastic, 1988. Young American
soldiers are soon disillusioned and challenged by the realities of the war in
Vietnam. Coretta Scott King Award 1989.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East.
HarperCollins, 2002. In response to September 11, 2001, Nye has written
profound poems about the Middle East and being an Arab American living
in the United States.
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. First published 1948. A black minister
in South Africa tries to save his son, who has been accused of murder.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea. Viking, 2000. The whaling ship,
Essex, is rammed and sunk by a whale, leaving its crew to navigate the
Pacific in three small boats.
Pont, Sally. Finding Their Stride. Harcourt Brace, 1999. Members of a track
team from a small, private Pennsylvania school, although typically
outnumbered and defeated as a team, find success as individuals.
Rice, David. Crazy Loco. Dial Books, 2001. Nine stories tell of growing up
Mexican American in the Rio Grande Valley.
Rosenberg, Liz. Light-Gathering Poems. Henry Holt, 2000. Using light as a
metaphor, this collection of poems brings images of light and hope into
focus.
Salinger, J. D. Catcher in the Rye. First published 1951. Holden Caulfield
runs away from boarding school to New York City.
Sandburg, Carl. Selected Poems. Harcourt, 1996. Outstanding previously
uncollected or unpublished poems by the great American author are
thematically grouped.
Siegel, Jan. Prospero’s Children. Ballantine, 2000. Fern, a 16-year-old British
girl who discovers she has special powers, obtains a magical key that will
open the door to fabled Atlantis.
Sumner, Melanie. The School of Beauty and Charm. Algonquin Books, 2001.
Louise Pepper is on a downward spiral after the accidental death of her
brother Roderick.
Taylor, William. The Blue Lawn. Alyson Publications, 1999. A fifteen-year-old
boy acknowledges his attraction to an older rugby teammate, as he also
begins to break out of the preconceived notions his family and others have
about him.
Tsukiyama, Gail. Women of the Silk. St. Martin’s, 1991. In 1926, a group of
Chinese women toiling from dawn to dusk in a vast silk factory forge a
sisterhood and lead the first strike against their employers.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. First published 1969. After surviving the
bombing of Dresden in World War II, Billy Pilgrim spends time on the
planet Trafalmador.
Weintraub, Stanley. Silent Night: The Remarkable 1914 Christmas Truce.
Free Press, 2001. From an acclaimed historian and National Book Award
finalist comes the poignant story of the 1914 Christmas truce of World War
I―the spontaneous and tantalizingly brief moment when mortal enemies
came together as friends to celebrate the holiday.
Werlin, Nancy. The Killer’s Cousin. Delacorte, 1998. Seventeen-year-old
David, recently acquitted of murder, must face his past as he learns more
about his strange cousin Lily.
White, T. H. The Once and Future King. First published 1958. The chivalry
and romance of medieval England are transported to the modern world.
Wilson, August. Fences. Samuel French, 1985. Troy Maxson, a strong, hard
man who has learned how to be Black and proud in the 1950s, finds the
changing spirit of the 1960s hard to deal with. Pulitzer Prize (Drama).
Wong, Janet S. Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving. Margaret K.
McElderry Books, 1999. Thirty-six poems use aspects of driving as
metaphors for life, including passing the written driver’s test, being pulled
over by a cop, and having an accident.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy (American Hunger): A Record of Childhood and
Youth. First published 1945. This classic autobiography gives the
moving and harrowing account of growing up in the racist pre-World War II
South.
Compiled by: Anne Paget (Chair), Episcopal High School;
Jane Chesney, The John Cooper School; Jenni Elliott, Episcopal High School;
Marilyn McEvoy, St. Pius X High School; Deborah Mosichuk, St. Pius X High
School;
Peg Patrick, St. John’s School; Dorian Myers, The Kinkaid School;
Barbara Weathers, Duchesne Academy
