9th Grade Summer Reading List
My Sister’s Keeper
Jodi Picoult
Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and bone marrow for her sister Kate who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the
age of two, decides to sue her parents for control of her body when her mother
wants her to donate a kidney to Kate. ISBN # 0743454537
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
Young Francie Nolan experiences the problems of growing up in a Brooklyn,
New York slum.
ISBN # 0060736267
Girl With a Pearl Earring
Tracy Chevalier
Imagines the young woman in Johannes Vermeer's mysterious painting "The
Girl With a Pearl Earring" as a sixteen-year-old Dutch girl named Griet who
sparks the interest of the artist when she becomes a maid in his turbulent household.
ISBN # 0452282152
Jurassic Park
Michael Chrichton
An account of the attempt, through a hair-raising twenty-four hours on a remote
jungle island, to avert a global emergency--a crisis triggered by today's rush to
commercialize genetic engineering. ISBN # 0345370775
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;
the challenges and tragedies his mother faced, including the loss of three children; and his early experiences in the Catholic church, and balances painful
memories with humor. ISBN # 068484267X
Rebecca
Daphne Du Maurier
For months after her death, the memory of Rebecca de Winter continues to
dominate everyone at her former home, Manderley, one of the most famous English country houses.
ISBN # 0380778556
The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck
Wang Lung, a peasant in China in the 1920s, becomes a prosperous landowner with the help of his humble wife, O'Lan, with whom he shares a devotion to duty, land, and survival. ISBN # 1416500189
Call of the Wild and White Fang
Jack London
Presents two classics by Jack London: The Call of the Wild, in which a dog
in the Klondike reverts to wilderness life and becomes the leader of a pack of
wolves; and White Fang, in which a wolf-dog trained to be a vicious fighter
struggles to live in both the world of dogs and that of the "gods," or humans.
ISBN # 1593080026
Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank
A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl who recorded her thoughts and experiences while in hiding from the Nazis for two years before being discovered
and taken to a concentration camp. ISBN # 0553577123
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens' 1859 historical novel set in Paris and London during the
French Revolution, in which a French nobleman, Charles Darnay, renounces
his position and leaves his country, then returns during the Terror to save the
life of a servant, putting himself in grave danger. ISBN # 1593081383
Revenge of the Whale
Nat Philbrick
Recounts the 1820 sinking of the whaleship "Essex" by an enraged sperm
whale and how the crew of young men survived against impossible odds
ISBN # 0142400688
A Wreath for Emmett Till
Marilyn Nelson
This illustrated poetry collection eulogizes Emmett Till, an African American teenager who was killed in a brutal, racially motivated lynching in 1955.
Read as a companion to Getting Away with Murder: the True Story of
the Emmett Till Case ISBN # 0618397523
Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case
Chris Crowe
Presents a true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till, in
Mississippi, in 1955. Read as a companion to A Wreath for Emmett Till.
ISBN # 0803728042
Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs
Presents the slave narrative of Harriet A. Jacobs, published in 1861 under the pseudonym
Linda Brent including commentary about the people and places discussed by the author, as
well as photographs and a selection of letters. ISBN-13:978-0-7434-6056-9
The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
A young man wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant beetle-like insect. He becomes an object of disgrace to his family and an alienated man. ISBN-13:978-0553-21369-0
Read as a companion to The Rime of the ancient Mariner, and Other Poems
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Other Poems
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Blake, Shelley, Keats. etc.
Contains the title work in which a sailor tells about the terrible fate that befell his ship after
he killed an albatross, and features twenty other works by the Romantic era poet including
"Kubla Khan," "Christabel," and a selection of sonnets, lyrics, and odes.
ISBN-13:978-0486-27266-5 Read as a companion to The Metamorphosis.
A Lesson Before Dying
Ernest J. Gaines
Tells the story of a young African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not
commit, and a teacher who tries to impart to him his learning and pride before the execution.
ISBN-13:978-0-375-70270-9
The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger
Uses interviews, memoirs, radio conversations, and technical research to recreate the last
days of the crew of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat that was lost in a storm off the coast of
Nova Scotia in October 1991.
ISBN-13:978-0-06-101351-5
There Are No Children Here
Alex Kotlowitz
Explores life in an inner city Chicago housing project, discussing the residents' daily encounters with neighborhood violence, drugs, and gangs.
ISBN-13:978-0-385-26556-0
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman, Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to
attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot. ISBN –13:978-0-316-01368-0