Magnet School Summer Reading
Haynes, Thomas Jefferson, Ruppel, Patrick Taylor
2013‐14 ENGLISH I (CHOOSE ANY 3)
Students will choose three works: one fiction (F), one nonfiction (NF), and one play (Drama).
Genre
Title
Author
NF
Anne Frank
Miep Gies
Remembered
NF
Freedom Writers Diary Erin Gruwell
NF
Barrio Boy
Ernesto Galarza
Drama
Cyrano de Bergerac
Edmond Rostand
Drama
A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry
F
Heroes, Gods, and
Bernard Evslin
Monsters of Greek
Myths
F
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
F
Member of the
Carson McCullers
Wedding
F
And Then There Were
Agatha Christie
None
F
The Picture of Dorian
Oscar Wilde
Gray
ENGLISH I SUMMER READING BOOK BLURBS
Magnet Schools
Anne Frank Remembered (Nonfiction) Miep Gies
Gies recalls how, during WW II, she, her husband and some of their coworkers sheltered her boss Otto Frank, his family and several other
Jews in a secret annex of their Amsterdam office building.
Freedom Writers Diary (Nonfiction) Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell, a first‐year high school teacher in Long Beach, CA, is teaching the "unteachables" when she discovers that most of these
challenging students have never heard of the Holocaust. Shocked, she introduces them to books about tolerance, first‐person accounts by
the likes of Anne Frank. The students are inspired to start keeping diaries of their lives, showing the violence, homelessness, racism, illness,
and abuse that surrounded them.
Barrio Boy (Nonfiction) Ernesto Galarza
Barrio Boy depicts the author's experiences growing up in America as a Mexican immigrant. The nonfiction book focuses on the feelings of
the young boy and shares the challenges and victories the new Mexican American faces as he accepts his new surroundings without being
made to give up his Mexican identity.
Cyrano de Bergerac (Drama) Edmond Rostand
Rostand's masterpiece‐and the ultimate triumph of the great French romantic tradition‐is the magnificent hero‐for‐all‐seasons;
Cyrano de Bergerac tells the story of a man named Cyrano with a long nose. Cyrano is in love with a woman named Roxane.
However, Roxane loves Christian and asks Cyrano to teach Christian how to write about love. Cyrano helps Christian win Roxane.
A Raisin in the Sun (Drama) Lorraine Hansberry
A Black family surmounts many obstacles to remain whole and free in this outstanding play. The story is based upon a family's own
experiences growing up in the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood.
Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of Greek Myths (Fiction) Bernard Evslin
Readers are introduced to the wondrous and terrifying world of superhuman beings, such as Medusa and the Minotaur, and the glory of gods
like Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon‐‐brought magically to life through exciting retellings of great adventurers.
Great Expectations (Fiction) Charles Dickens
Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, a poor orphaned boy who wishes to transcend his humble upbringing. He finds himself unexpectedly
given the opportunity to live a life of wealth and respectability but learns as his life advances that his money is tainted and the girl he loves
cannot return his affections. He is forced by circumstance to learn to seek happiness in the very things he gave up in the pursuit of a place in
city life.
And Then There Were None (Fiction) Agatha Christie
During the novel, several people, who previously committed murder but escaped due to technicalities, are tricked into coming onto an island.
Even though the guests are the only people on the island, they are all mysteriously murdered in the manner of a nursery rhyme, one by one.
Member of the Wedding (Fiction) Carson McCullers
Set in a small southern town in the 1940s, the book examines a crucial turning point in adolescence. Twelve‐year‐old Frankie Addams is
utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother's wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with the family's
servant, Bernice, and her six‐year‐old cousin John Henry, Frankie takes an overly active role in the wedding, even hoping to go on the
honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be a member of something larger, more accepting than herself.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Fiction) Oscar Wilde
In this novel handsome young Victorian, Dorian Gray supernaturally retains his youthful appearance while pursuing a debauched life
of hedonistic pleasures. As the years slip by, Dorian never grows older, more wrinkled, or grey. His portrait, however, becomes
increasingly corrupted and repulsive with each of his decadent immoralities, thus giving a fresh twist to the novel.