The Nightingale-Bamford School: Summer Reading List
For students entering
Class VIII in
2014
The books listed below are recommendations from
members of the English department and the librarians
for summer reading. For English, students are expected
to read a minimum of five books over the summer. Any
book from this list or any book by an author on the list
may be selected as one of the English Department's five
required readings.
Do not read the following as they are part of the Class
VIII curriculum:
•
•
•
•
To Kill a Mockingbird
This Boy’s Life
Macbeth
Typical American
This list will be available on the Nightingale Library
page. http://www.nightingale.org
1
Fiction
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
This is the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian
Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled
school on the reservation to attend an all-white farm-town high school where the only
other Indian is the school mascot.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Julia Alvarez
The Garcia family arrives in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their
existence in the Dominican Republic. Papi, a doctor, has to find new patients in the Bronx.
Mami, far from everything she has ever known, must find herself. The girls are trying to
lose themselves by forgetting their Spanish and straightening their hair. For them, it is at
once liberating and excruciating being caught between the old world and the new, trying
to live up to their father’s version of honor while accommodating the expectations of their
American boyfriends.
Wintergirls
Laurie Halse Anderson
A devastating portrait of the extremes of self-deception in this brutal and poetic
deconstruction of how one girl stealthily vanishes into the depths of anorexia. Lia has been
down this road before: her competitive relationship with her best friend, Cassie, once
landed them both in the hospital, but now not even Cassie’s death can eradicate Lia’s
disgust of the “fat cows” who scrutinize her body all day long.
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
Two sisters of opposing temperaments share the pangs of tragic love. Their mutual suffering
brings a closer understanding between the two sisters, and true love finally triumphs.
Backwater
Joan Bauer
Ivy Breedlove's family is driving her crazy. Generations of Breedloves have been
prominent lawyers and her relatives expect her to follow suit. "We'll make her a lawyer
yet!" they pronounce at a family reunion. Well, not if Ivy has her say. But how do you
have your say when the voices surrounding you are so loud? Ivy's passion for the past
provides an answer. As she works on completing a history of her illustrious family, she
discovers other Breedlove women who broke the mold, including her father's sister
Josephine. No one will talk about the reclusive Aunt Jo, so when Ivy hires a wilderness
guide to find her, her family is less than thrilled.
A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)
Libba Bray
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England,
after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her
magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
This novel is about the passionate love between Jane Eyre, a young girl alone in the world,
and the rich, brilliant, domineering Rochester.
2
Ask Me No Questions
Marina Budhos
What is it like to be an illegal alien in New York now? Nadira, 14, relates how her family left
Bangladesh, came to the U. S. on a tourist visa, and stayed long after the visa expired.
(Everyone does it. You buy a fake social security number for a few hundred dollars and then
you can work. ) Their illegal status is discovered, however, following 9/11, when immigration
regulations are tightened. When the family hurriedly seeks asylum in Canada, they are turned
back, and Nadira's father, Abba, is detained because his passport is no longer valid.
Deportation seems to be the next step.
Colibri
Ann Cameron
Twelve-year-old Rosa remembers only a few things about the home she shared with her
loving parents in a Mayan village before she was kidnapped at the age of four. Since then,
she has traveled with Uncle, an abusive con artist. After being convinced by a fortuneteller that Rosa will make him rich, Uncle embarks on an obsessive treasure hunt, forcing
Rosa to join in his scams for food and money. Rosa hates Uncle's dishonesty and anger,
and she feels trapped. Then Uncle consults another fortune-teller, a kind, wise woman
who gives Rosa the courage to escape. Uncle remains a dark, mortal threat, though, and
his search for riches coincides with Rosa's search for identity.
Graceling
Kristin Cashore
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called
Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and
teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.
Driver’s Ed
Caroline Cooney
Three teenagers thoughtlessly steal a stop sign from a dangerous intersection on a dare. The
expedition goes without a hitch until they learn that a young mother has been killed in an
accident caused by the missing stop sign. The whole community is up in arms, and the
grieving widower appears on TV with his son, offering a reward for information leading to
the arrest of the vandals. The teenagers are filled with remorse and guilt as they grapple
with the consequences of their prank.
A Northern Light
Jennifer Donnelly
Sixteen-year-old Mattie works at the Glenmore Hotel on Big Moose Lake. On Thursday,
July 12, 1906, a search party discovers the drowned body of Grace Brown, a hotel guest.
Earlier that day, Grace had given to Mattie a bundle of letters to burn, her correspondence
with Gillette. As the mystery behind Grace's death unfolds, flashback chapters fill in details
of Mattie's life on her family's farm.
If I Stay
Gail Forman
In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen year-old Mia has no memory of the
accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body
being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces- to
figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must
make. (sequel: Where She Went)
3
Perfect
Natasha Friend
Thirteen-year-old Isabelle Lee's family is reeling from the recent death of her beloved
father when little sister April (aka Ape Face) finds Isabelle purging her dinner in the
bathroom. Isabelle is sent to group therapy for her eating disorder, where she is shocked
to discover that her school's most perfect and popular girl, Ashley Barnum, is also bulimic.
Ashley is delighted to find a likeminded classmate, and she takes the previously unpopular
Isabelle under her wing, inviting her to the exclusive lunch table and to sleepovers where
they consume and then expel mountains of food.
Gone
Michael Grant
In the blink of an eye everyone disappears. Everyone is gone-- everyone except for the
young, teens, middle schoolers, and toddlers. There is not a single adult to be found -- no
teachers, no cops, no doctors, and no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and
television. There is no way to get help. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature
lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new
talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Ernest J. Gaines
A classic novel, written as an autobiography, about one of the most unforgettable heroines
in American fiction, a woman whose life has come to symbolize the struggle for freedom,
dignity, and justice. This novel spans one hundred years of Miss Jane’s remarkable life,
from her childhood as a slave on a Louisiana plantation to the Civil Rights era of the
1960s. It is a story of courage and survival, history, bigotry, and hope—as seen through
the eyes of a woman who lived through it all.
The Fault In Our Stars
John Green
At 16, Hazel Grace Lancaster, a three-year stage IV-cancer survivor, is clinically
depressed. To help her deal with this, her doctor sends her to a weekly support group
where she meets Augustus Waters, a fellow cancer survivor, and the two fall in love. Both
kids are preternaturally intelligent, and Hazel is fascinated with a novel about cancer
called An Imperial Affliction. Most particularly, she longs to know what happened to its
characters after an ambiguous ending. To find out, the enterprising Augustus makes it
possible for them to travel to Amsterdam, where Imperial's author, an expatriate
American, lives. What happens when they meet him must be left to readers to discover.
Suffice it to say, it is significant.
The Summer I Turned Pretty Jenny Han
Romantic and heartbreakingly real, this novel follows 15-year-old Belly through the most
important summer of her life. Every year, her family shares a beach house with Belly's
mother's best friend, Susannah, and her two sons. Belly has always had a crush on
Conrad, the older boy, but he has always treated her like an annoying younger sister. This
summer, everything changes.
That Was Then, This is Now
S.E. Hinton
Sixteen-year-old Mark and Bryon have been like brothers since childhood, but now, as
their involvement with girls, gangs, and drugs increases, their relationship seems to
gradually disintegrate. When Bryon discovers that Mark is a drug pusher, he is faced with
a difficult decision.
4
A Million Shades of Gray
Cynthia Kadohata
Twelve-year-old Y'Tin is brave. No one in his village denies that. It takes a great deal of
courage to deal with elephants the way that Y'Tin does. He is almost the best trainer in
the village and is certainly the youngest. Maybe he’ll even open up his own school
someday to teach other Montagnards how to train wild elephants. That was the plan
before American troops pulled out of the Vietnam War, before his village became occupied
by Viet Cong forces seeking revenge, before Y'Tin watched his life change in a million
terrible ways. His bravery is tested. He can stay in his village, held captive by the Viet
Cong or he can risk his life (and save his elephant’s) by fleeing into the jungle.
The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Kidd
The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens whose life has been shaped around
the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted
"stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they
should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her
mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who
introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who
presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and
the transforming power of love.
A Separate Peace John Knowles
Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A
Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene
is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete.
What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the
innocence of these boys and their world.
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
E.L. Konigsberg
While waiting in heaven for divine judgement to be passed on her second husband,
Eleanor of Aquitaine and three of the people who knew her well recall the events of her
life.
The Best Little Girl in the World
Steven Levenkron
At first, no one knows that something is fatally wrong with fifteen-year-old Kessa -- not
her parents, teachers, friends, or family doctor. No one knows Kessa avoids eating
whenever she can and forces herself to vomit when she does eat . . . that she has gone
from an "A" student to failing. No one knows until Kessa's weight drops from 98 pounds to
88, 81, 78 . . . and it may be too late.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
E. Lockhart
Frankie Landau-Banks attempts to take over a secret, all-male society at her exclusive prep
school, and her antics with the group soon draw some unlikely attention and have unexpected
consequences that could change her life forever.
5
Heaven Looks a Lot Like a Mall
Wendy Mass
Sixteen-year-old Tessa suffers a shocking accident in gym class and finds herself in
heaven (or what she thinks is heaven), which happens to bear a striking resemblance to
her hometown mall. Tessa starts reliving her life up until that moment. She sees some
things she'd rather forget, learns some things about herself she'd rather not know, and
ultimately must find the answer to one burning question--if only she knew what the
question was.
The Member of the Wedding
Carson McCullers
Twelve-year-old Frankie is utterly bored until she hears about her older brother's wedding.
He returns from Alaska to his Georgia, and Frankie decides she will go, uninvited, on the
honeymoon.
Dairy Queen
Catherine Murdock
D. J.'s family members don't talk much, especially about the fact that 15-year-old D. J.
does all the heavy work on their Wisconsin dairy farm since her father broke his hip and
her two older brothers left for college. Nor do they talk about why D. J.'s mom, a teacher,
is so busy filling in for the middle-school principal that she's never home. And they never,
ever discuss the reason why her brothers haven't called home for more than six months.
So when D. J. decides to try out for the Red Bend football team, even though she's been
secretly training (and falling for) Brian Nelson, the cute quarterback from Hawley, Red
Bend's rival, she becomes the talk of the town. Suddenly, her family has quite a bit to say.
Monster
Walter Dean Myers
"Monster" is what the prosecutor called 16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in
the fatal shooting of a convenience-store owner. But was Steve really the lookout who
gave the "all clear" to the murderer, or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
In this innovative novel by Walter Dean Myers, the reader becomes both juror and witness
during the trial of Steve's life. To calm his nerves as he sits in the courtroom, aspiring
filmmaker Steve chronicles the proceedings in movie script format. Interspersed
throughout his screenplay are journal writings that provide insight into Steve's life before
the murder and his feelings about being held in prison during the trial.
Riot
Walter Dean Myers
In 1863, fifteen-year-old Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and an African father, faces
ugly truths and great danger when Irish immigrants, enraged by the Civil War and a federal
draft, lash out against African-Americans and wealthy "swells" of New York City. Rioting begins
and no one is safe – not on the streets and not at home.
Daughter of Venice
Donna Jo Napoli
Frustrated with the restrictions her gender imposes on her life, fourteen-year-old Donata,
disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late
sixteenth-century Venice and then must confront the repercussions of her actions.
6
Animal Farm
George Orwell
This is an allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their
quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. It is a satire in fable form
expressed through the animals of Manor Farm.
When My Name Was Keoko
Linda Sue Park
Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul are proud of their Korean heritage. Yet they live
their lives under Japanese occupation. All students must read and write in Japanese and
no one can fly the Korean flag. Hardest of all is when the Japanese Emperor forces all
Koreans to take Japanese names. Sun-hee and Tae-yul become Keoko and Nobuo. Korea
is torn apart by their Japanese invaders during World War II. Tae-yul is about to risk his
life to help his family, while Sun-hee stays home guarding life-and-death secrets.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
This is a collection of 14 of Poe’s classic stories, including "The Pit and the Pendulum,"
"The Tell-Tale Heart," and his only full-length novel, Narrative of A. Gordon Pym
The Chosen
Chaim Potok
In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders
together. Despite their differences the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship.
Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when
Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood.
Endangered
Eliot Schlefer
A young girl must save a group of bonobos--and herself--from a violent coup The Congo is a dangerous
place, even for people who are trying to do good. When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary
for bonobos, she's not thrilled to be there. It's her mother's passion, and Sophie would rather have
nothing to do with it. But when revolution breaks out and their sanctuary is attacked, she must rescue
the bonobos and hide in the jungle. Together, they will fight to keep safe, to eat, and to survive.
Trouble
Gary Schmidt
This is the story of an upper class New England family's privileged life colliding with violent
prejudices against immigrant Cambodians. After a tragic accident, Franklin is hit and
killed by a pickup truck driven by Chay, a Cambodian student in Franklin's prep school.
Chay is not sent to jail, and racial tensions are sparked.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
This classic is about a young Swiss student who uncovers the secret of animating lifeless
matter and, by assembling body parts, creates a monster that vows revenge on his
creator after being rejected from society.
7
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Betty Smith
This is a classic about the Nolans who lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from
1902 until 1919. Their daughter Francie and their son Neely knew more than their fair
share of the sufferings that are the lot of a big city's poor. Primarily this is Francie's book.
She is an imaginative, alert, resourceful child who grows up right before our eyes.
Peak
Roland Smith
After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two
choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or to go live with his long-lost father, who runs
a climbing company in Thailand. Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in
him has strings attached. "Big" strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach
the Everest summit and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like
Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. It is also one that could cost him his
life.
Shabanu
Suzanne Fisher Staples
When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of presentday Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the
family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of
defying her father's wishes.
The Running Dream
Wendelin Van Draanen
Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not comforted
by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about
walking when you live to run? It takes the support of family, friends, a coach, and her
track teammates, to convince Jessica that she may actually be able to run again – but are
they right?
Climbing the Stairs
Vineeta Venkatraman
Growing up in a progressive family in Bombay during World War II, 15-year-old Vidya
hopes that college is in her future, though her classmates are preparing for arranged
marriages. After her father is severely injured in a riot, her life suddenly changes. Vidya,
her older brother, and their parents move to Madras to join her grandfather’s traditional
household, where men and women live separately and Vidya’s powerful aunt disdains the
newcomers. Vidya’s life is made miserable by this aunt and uncle. When Vidya finds time
after chores and schoolwork, she escapes upstairs to her grandfather’s library, where she
meets a young man who seems to understand her. The library is off limits to girls of
course and being alone with a young man is unthinkable. Vidya does both.
8
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
A tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul, Dorian
Gray is a wealthy Englishman who gradually sinks into a life of dissipation and crime.
Despite his unhealthy behavior, his physical appearance remains youthful and unmarked
by dissolution. Instead, a portrait of him catalogues every evil deed by turning his once
handsome features into a hideous mask.
Virginia Euwer Wolff
Make Lemonade (1st in series)
In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, a bright, compassionate
teen, babysits for a teenage mother named Jolly. Jolly is an abused, 17-year-old single
parent who lives with her two children in squalor. Her only brief role model was a foster
parent, Gram, who died. This is an outstanding story which is part of a trilogy. All are
worth reading.
I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This
Jacqueline Woodson
In a quiet friendship story two young teenagers resist the racism in their school and the
sorrow in their families and help each other find the strength to go on.
The Queen's Own Fool
Jane Yolen
Called La Jardiniere, a resourceful and clever jester to the queen's court, Nicola was a
most unlikely person to end up "fool" and friend to Mary, Queen of Scots. But Nicola isn't
an ordinary comedian clowning before the court; her sharp tongue is rare amongst the
fawning nobles. As fate takes Mary from France to Scotland, and into confrontations with
rebellious lords and devious advisors, Nicola remains deep in the queen's inner circle. But
when the Scots start to turn on Queen Mary, Nicola struggles to find something – anything
that she, just a fool, can do to save her friend.
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
Gabrielle Zevin
After high-school junior Naomi conks her head, she can’t remember anything that
happened since sixth grade. By the time her memories return she is well into living a
second life. Which of her two lives, present or former, represents her most authentic self?
Elsewhere
Gabrielle Zevin
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both
like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."
Fantasy/Science fiction
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is
plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an
out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begins a hilarious journey through space.
The book is funny and the movie is funnier.
9
M.T. Anderson
Feed
In this futuristic world most people have computer implants in their heads to control their
environment. There is a tragic romance between Titus and Violet who become deadly ill when
her “feed” malfunctions.
Illustrated Man
Ray Bradbury
This is a classic science fiction anthology. The unnamed narrator in the introduction
watches the Illustrated Man whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos that
magically come to life. Each illustration proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The
Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge or
"Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our
atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship, or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens
have discovered a most logical ally--our own children.
Matched
Ally Condie
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read,
what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching
ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash
for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare
malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with
Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia
begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between
Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared
to follow.
The Kill Order (prequel to, The Maze Runner)
James Dashner
Mark has seen sun flares that killed millions, including his family and beloved younger
sister. Afterward, floods, food shortages, and continued devastating heat, along with
individuals bent on surviving at all costs, have made his chances pretty bleak. Against all
odds, he and a close-knit group of other survivors move inland and set up a community
together. But before long, a flying ship brings something wholly unfamiliar: a disease,
transmitted initially by darts, but soon spread person to person at an alarming rate.
Mark's friends all work together to figure out what this illness is, how it spreads, and why
it drives people mad, while trying to hold onto hope for themselves and save others.
The Maze Runner
James Dashner
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His
memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself
surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade--a large, open expanse surrounded by
stone walls. Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All
they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have
opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in
the lift. But the day after Thomas arrived, a girl is sent up--the first girl to ever arrive in the
Glade. What is going on?
10
Time and Again
Jack Finney
Did illustrator Si Morley really step out of his NYC twentieth-century apartment one night
right into the winter of 1882? The U.S. Government believed it, especially when Si
returned with a portfolio of brand-new sketches and tintype photos of a world that no
longer existed -- or did it?
William Sleator
The Boxes
Before Uncle Marco goes on another of his constant trips, he leaves Annie two mysterious
boxes. Like Pandora, she must keep them safe and never open them. But curiosity gets
the better of her. Soon the unspeakable occurs. Grotesque, crablike creatures come out
with the ability to communicate to Annie telepathically.
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
The book recounts the adventures of Frodo and the Companions of the Ring as they try to
prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord and thereby foil him
in his evil purpose.
Cat’s Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut
This is an apocalyptic tale of Earth’s ultimate fate, featuring a cast of unlikely heroes. In
the year 2000, a young man discovers ice-nine, which can set off a chain reaction more
deadly than a nuclear bomb and a new prophet whose teachings sweep the world.
Extraordinary
Nancy Werlin
Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new girl at school. Soon
the two become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory’s magnetic older brother, Ryland,
appears. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe — but a dangerous hold, for
she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself. Soon
she’ll discover the shocking, fantastical truth about Ryland and Mallory, and about an ageold debt they expect Phoebe to pay. Will she be strong enough to resist? Will she be
special enough to save herself?
The Secret Hour (series: The Midnighters)
Scott Westerfeld
Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one in a
special group born at the stroke of midnight who can roam the town at a secret hour while
others sleep--and that she must fight the evil creatures who share her power. This is a very
exciting story.
So Yesterday
Scott Westerfeld
Seventeen-year-old Hunter Braque's job is finding trendsetters for the retail market. He
looks for what is as cool as he is. But when a big-money client disappears, Hunter must
use all his cool-hunting talents to find her. Along the way he's drawn into a web of brandname intrigue - a missing cargo of the coolest shoes he's ever seen, ads for products that
don't exist, and a shadowy group dedicated to the downfall of consumerism as we know it.
Cool, cool, and way cool.
11
Mysteries
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley
It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey.
Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time
tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric
great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside
her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen
burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who
can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to
her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with
their own pursuits and passions—stamp collecting, adventure novels, and boys
respectively—Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer.
The Killer’s Cousin
Nancy Werlin
After being accused and acquitted in the death of his girlfriend, seventeen-year-old David
is sent to live with his aunt, uncle, and young cousin to avoid the media frenzy. But all is
not well there. His aunt and uncle are not speaking, and twelve-year-old Lily seems intent
on making David’s life a torment. And then there’s the issue of his older cousin Kathy’s
mysterious death some years back. As things grow more and more tense, David starts to
wonder if there something else that his family is trying to hide from?
Poetry
Collected Poems Edna St. Vincent Millay
Compiled by Norma Millay, this collection contains the poet's last volume.
Selected Poems
Langston Hughes
Hughes himself selected the poems for this volume, including his most famous poems, and
some that had only previously been privately printed.
12
Biography, Memoirs, & Essays
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally
hard-won independence.
Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me
Condoleezza Rice
The former Secretary of State recounts her life, beginning with her family history and
childhood in Birmingham, AL, during the 1950s and '60s. From extremely supportive
parents she learned that she could become anything she put her mind to, despite the
rampant racism that existed in the South.
My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell
As a 10-year-old boy, Gerry left England for Corfu with "all those items that I thought
necessary to relieve the tedium of a long journey: four books on natural history, a
butterfly net, a dog, and a jam-jar full of caterpillars all in imminent danger of turning into
chrysalids." Durrell's descriptions of his family and its many eccentric hangers-on (he
stresses that "all the anecdotes about the island and the islanders are absolutely true")
are highly entertaining, as is the procession of toads, scorpions, geckos, ladybugs,
glowworms, octopuses, the puppies Widdle and Puke, and the Magenpies. This is an odd
family and a very funny book.
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
This is the diary of a Jewish Dutch girl written in Amsterdam while in hiding during the
German occupation of her country during World War II.
All Things Bright and Beautiful
James Herriot
All Things Bright and Beautiful is the sequel to Herriot's first collection, All Creatures Great
and Small. It picks up as Herriot, now newly married, journeys among the remote hillside
farms and valley towns of the Yorkshire Dales, caring for their inhabitants, both two and
four legged. Herriot's deep compassion, humor, and love of life shine out making you
laugh and cry at the portraits he creates of his varied animal patients and their equally
varied owners. You just can’t help smiling as you read.
Falling Leaves: Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter
Adeline Yen Mah
Adeline Yen Mah was the child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges
during a time of political and cultural upheaval. Wealth and position could not shield
Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel stepmother.
Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and
eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer.
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