A.  Non-Fiction

Appel, Willa  Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise. Analysis of how cults succeed in American society today.

Bedoukian, Kerop  Some of Us Survived. The story of the Armenian genocide of 1915-23 told through the eyes of a nine-year-old child.

Bernard, Jacqueline  Journey Toward Freedom: Sojourner Truth. Biography of the ex-slave and her campaign for abolition and women’s rights.

Bird, Larry  Drive. Autobiography of the former basketball star.

Bontemps, Arna  Free at Last: Frederick Douglass. Biography of the famous African-American.

Chow, Ching Lie  Journey in Tears: Memory of a girlhood in China.

Cronkite, Kathy  On the Edge of the Spotlight. Celebrities’ children speak out about their successes and struggles.

David, Joy, et al.  The Black Soldier. Stories of African-American soldiers from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam.

Dolan, Edward F.  Matthew Henson: Black Explorer. Autobiography of a man who conquered the top of the world with Admiral Robert E. Peary.

Frommer, Harvey  Rickey and Robinson: Men Who Broke Baseball's Color Barrier. Biographies of some of the first African-Americans in baseball.

Goldstone, Robert C.  Next Year in Jerusalem. Short History of Zionism.

Herrot, James  All Creatures Great and Small. Memoirs of a Yorkshire country veterinarian with a genuine love of life and a storyteller’s gift.

Hovey, Tamara  A Mind of Her Own: George Sand. Biography of the great French novelist.

Huggins, Nathan  Black Odyssey. A provocative account of the enslavement of Africans and their experiences as slaves in America.

Kahn, Roger  Boys of Summer. Story of the old Brooklyn Dodgers.

Koehn, Ilse  Mischling Second Degree: My Childhood in Nazi Germany. Child’s narration of the insanity and horror of Germany under Hitler.

Landin, Margaret  Anna and the King of Siam. Story of an Englishwoman summoned to Siam to tutor the children of its King.

Laure, Jason, et al.  South Africa. Coming-of-age narrative under apartheid.

Lofts, Norah  Anne Boleyn. Biography of the life of Henry VIII’s ill fated second wife.

Meltzer, Milton  Taking Root: Jewish Immigrants. History of Jews in America.

Moody, Anne  Coming of Age in Mississippi. Unforgettable personal story.

Nabokov, Peter  Native American Testimony. A chronicle of Indian-white relations from 1492 to 1992.

Strawberry, Darryl  Darryl. Autobiography of the legendary baseball player.

Uchida, Yoshiko  Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family. Autobiographical account of the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942.

Van Devanter, Lynda  Home Before Morning. The coming of age of an army nurse in Vietnam.

B.   Fiction

Bellamy, Edward  Looking Backward. A young Boston gentleman is mysteriously transported from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

Choi, Sook-Nyul  Gathering of Pearls. Sookan, a Korean girl, comes to college in the U.S. and struggles to adjust to the American culture.

Craven, Margaret  I Heard the Owl Call My Name. The culture of a remote Pacific Northwest village is replaced by modern housing and alcoholism.

Ferber, Edna  So Big. A gambler’s daughter marries a farmer, and after his death, turns his debt-ridden farm into a success; another capable woman succeeds.

Harris, Mark  Bang the Drum Slowly. This funny, evocative, and deceptively simple story captures more than the strong baseball atmosphere of the 1950s.

Kern, M.E.  Gentlehands. Through the efforts of an insightful old man, love is sparked between two people on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

McCullers, Carson  Member of the Wedding. Twelve-year-old Frankie Adams longs at once for escape and belonging when her older brother marries.

Myers, Walter Dean  Fallen Angels. Richard Perry, struggling with a lack of opportunity in Harlem and uncertainty about his future, enlists in the army.

Orwell, George  Animal Farm. In this satire of Communist Russia under Stalin’s totalitarian dictatorship, farm animals tire of working for humans and take over the farm.

Plath, Sylvia  The Bell Jar. Esther Greenwood, a gifted young woman, experiences a mental breakdown during a summer internship at a magazine company in New York.

Renault, Mary  The King Must Die. Theseus rules the Bull Jumpers of Crete.

Rinaldi, Ann  Fifth of March: A Story of the Boston Massacre. A nursemaid, who works for John Adams, questions whether she is a British subject or a new "American."

Saberhagen, Fred  The First Book of Swords. In this fantasy the gods influence the human world through a game played with twelve magical swords.

Shelley, Mary  Frankenstein. The story of the doctor’s revolting creation teaches lessons about life that will be of interest to those studying humanities.

Sillitoe, Alan  The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. An English juvenile delinquent struggles against social disadvantages In a 1940’s reform school.

Smith, Betty  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Francie Nolan lives with her family and friends in the slum section of Brooklyn in the early years of the twentieth century.

Smith, Betty Joy in the Morning. A young woman from Brooklyn and her law student husband experience difficulty in their first year of marriage.

Stewart, Mary  The Crystal Cave. In his youth, the legendary Merlin gains his arcane knowledge of magical powers.

Temple, Frances  The Ramsay Scallop. Young Elenor journeys to Santiago de Campostela with her husband in 1299, experiencing both spiritual and personal satisfaction.

Townsend, I.R. The Summer People. With WW II about to begin, two childhood friends from England spend their days at the beach with someone less "suitable."

Voigt, Cynthia  On Fortune's Wheel. Fourteen-year-old Birl follows Orien on a perilous journey to a sinister place where warriors rule and captives become slaves.

Washington, Mary  Black-Eyed Susan. This critically acclaimed short story collection by and about black women features the work of today’s most celebrated writers.

C.  Drama

Chekhov, Anton  The Seagull. Symbolic Russian play concerning love, death and life’s meaning.

Gibson, William  The Miracle Worker. Story of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan.

Luce, William  The Belle of Amherst. Dramatization of the life of poet Emily Dickinson.

Pomerance, Bernard  The Elephant Man. Play based on the life of Robert Merrick who suffered from physical deformity.

Shakespeare, William  Antony and Cleopatra. Play about the romance between the Roman leader and Cleopatra.

Thomas, Dylan  Under Milkwood. Charming play about ordinary people in a Welsh town.

NOTES ON SUMMER READING

Use this format for recording your notes on each of the five books you read this summer.

Title:

Author:

Setting (both time and place):

Major Characters (names and most salient traits): 

Plot Summary (limited to three well-written sentences):

Theme (a generalization about life or human nature stated in a single declarative sentence): 

Personal Reaction/Evaluation: