J’town Summer Reading Program
Dear J’town parents and students,
With summer right around the corner, it is time to start thinking about summer
reading choices. At J’town High School we want our students to be actively engaged in
reading throughout the year. In a few months, your child will be moving on to the next grade
level, with increasingly higher expectations. It is our goal to make sure they maintain the
skills they have practiced this year and continue to select books that encourage active
reading.
We’ve asked each student to select a book from the attached list of current young adult
titles or a book of their choice that is on grade level. Parents, please take the time to help your
child make choices. Some books contain mature language and/or sensitive subject matter.
We encourage you to read and discuss books with your child.
Each student will be given an assessment related to their summer reading
when they return to school in August. Please remind them to take this assignment seriously.
Advanced students have an assignment to complete as they read over the
summer. They will need to see the prospective teachers before summer begins to pick it up.
Thank you for your continued support. We are looking forward to another great year!
J’town English Department
*Choose the grade level that you will be entering in the 2014-2015 school year.
Incoming 9th grade students are encouraged to read a minimum of one book from the
Freshman
list.
CHOOSE ONE book from attached young adult independent reading list or a book
Sophomore
of your choice that is on grade level.
Honors &
Comprehensive
Sophomores
*See Ms. Vander Meer for assignment (126B). Assignment will also be available
Advanced
on her website at www.teacherweb.com.
[email protected]
Junior Honors & CHOOSE TWO books from attached young adult independent reading list.
Comprehensive
Junior AP
BOTH REQUIRED:
(Advanced
 Mythology Edith Hamilton
Placement)
 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer
*See Ms. Greenwell for assignment (127B) or email
[email protected]
Senior Honors & CHOOSE TWO books from attached young adult independent reading list.
Comprehensive
BOTH REQUIRED:
Senior AP
(Advanced
 How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Placement)
 Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
*Assignment Required Prior to Returning in August
*See Ms. Stephanie Doepke for assignment, or email
[email protected]
Book Choices for Summer Reading
Anna and the French Kiss/Stephanie Perkins.
Dutton Books, 2010.
When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior
year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of
the fact that they both want something more.
Dirty Little Secrets/C. J. Omololu.
Walker, 2010.
When her unstable mother dies unexpectedly, sixteen-year-old Lucy must take control and find a way to keep
the long-held secret of her mother's compulsive hoarding from being revealed to friends, neighbors, and
especially the media.
Hold Me Closer Necromancer/Lish McBride.
Henry Holt, 2010.
Sam LaCroix, a Seattle fast-food worker and college dropout, discovers that he is a necromancer, part of a
world of harbingers, werewolves, satyrs, and one particular necromancer who sees Sam as a threat to his
lucrative business of raising the dead.
Incarceron/Catherine Fisher.
Dial Books, 2010.
To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, a
futuristic prison with a mind of its own, decides to help a young prisoner escape.
Leverage/Joshua Cohen.
Dutton Books, 2011.
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members
of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and
forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.
Room: A Novel/Emma Donoghue.
Little Brown, 2010.
Five-year-old Jack has spent his life living in an eleven-by-eleven foot space his mother calls Room and
while Jack uses his imagination to create wondrous fantasies to entertain himself, his mother dreads the day
her son begins to question why they must remain in Room and tries to find a way to escape.
Ship Breaker/Paolo Bacigalupi.
Little Brown, 2010.
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but
when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship
for its wealth or rescue the girl.
Sorta Like a Rock Star/Matthew Quick.
Little Brown, 2010.
Amber Appleton, living in a school bus with her mom, refuses to give in to despair and continues visiting the
elderly at a nursing home, teaching English to Korean women, and caring for a Vietnam veteran and his dog,
but a fatal tragedy may prove to be one burden too many for the seventeen-year-old girl.
Split/Swati Avasthi.
Knopf, 2010.
A teenage boy thrown out of his house by his abusive father goes to live with his older brother, who ran away
from home years earlier under similar circumstances.
You/Charles Benoit.
HarperTeen, 2010.
Fifteen-year-old Kyle discovers the shattering ramifications of the decisions he makes, and does not make,
about school, the girl he likes, and his future.
Because I am Furniture/By Thalia Chaltas.
Viking, 2009.
The youngest of three siblings, fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father
abuses her brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally
becomes angry enough to take action.
Funny How Things Change/By Melissa Wyatt.
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2009.
Remy, a talented, seventeen-year-old auto mechanic, questions his decision to join his girlfriend when she
starts college in Pennsylvania, after a visiting artist helps him realize what his family home in a dying West
Virginia mountain town means to him.
Hate List/By Jennifer Brown.
Little, Brown and Company, 2009.
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year,
struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or
a villain.
If I Grow Up/By Todd Strasser.
Simon & Schuster, 2009.
Growing up in the inner-city projects, DeShawn is reluctantly forced into the gang world by circumstances
beyond his control.
If I Stay/By Gayle Forman.
Speak, 2009.
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeenyear-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weights whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.
In the Path of Falling Objects /By Andrew Smith.
Feiwel and Friends, 2009.
In 1970, after their older brother is shipped off to Vietnam, sixteen-year-old Jonah and his younger brother
Simon leave home to find their father, who is being released from an Arizona prison, but soon find
themselves hitching a ride with a violent killer.
King of the Screwups/By K.L. Going.
Harcourt-Houghton, 2009.
Liam Geller is one of the most popular boys in school but can't seem to do anything right in the eyes of his
father; so he goes to live with his homosexual, rocker uncle who helps him to understand that there is much
more to him than his father will ever see.
Little Brother/By Cory Doctorow.
Tor, 2008.
Interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San
Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus is released into what is now a police state, and decides to use his
expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
Liar/By Justine Larbalestier.
Bloomsbury, 2009.
Compulsive liar Micah promises to tell the truth after revealing that her boyfriend has been murdered.
Maze Runner/By James Dashner.
Delacorte, 2009.
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with
the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.
Artichoke’s Heart/By Suzanne Supplee
Peguin, 2008.
When she is almost sixteen years old, Rosemary decides she is sick of being overweight, mocked at school
and feeling out of control. As she slowly loses weight, she realizes that she is able to cope with her mother's
cancer, having a boyfriend for the first time, and discovering that other people's lives are not as perfect as
they seem from the outside.
Ghost Medicine/By Andrew Smith
Feiwal & Friends, 2008.
Still mourning the recent death of his mother, seventeen-year-old Troy Stotts relates the events of the
previous year when he and his two closest friends try to retaliate against the sheriff's son, who has been
bullying them for years.
Graceling/By Kristin Cashore
Houghton Mifflin, 2008.
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, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter
to save their land from a corrupt king.
Impossible/By Nancy Werlin
Peguin, 2008.
When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she
realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to
save them both.
No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, Teenagers on Death Row/By Susan Kuklin
Henry Holt, 2008.
In their own voices--raw and uncensored--inmates sentenced to death as teenagers talk about their lives in
prison, and share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up there.
Perfect Chemistry/By Simone Elkeles
Walker & Co., 2008.
When wealthy, seemingly perfect Brittany, and Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town,
develop a relationship after Alex discovers that Brittany is not exactly who she seems to be, they must face
the disapproval of their schoolmates--and others.
The Red Necklace/By Sally Gardner
Penguin, 2008.
In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelve-year-old daughter of a self-indulgent marquis, and Yann, a
fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan raised to perform in a magic show, face a common enemy at the start of the
French Revolution.
Shift/By Jennifer Bradbury
Simon & Schuster, 2008.
When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating and only
one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened.
Ten Mile River/By Paul Griffen
Penguin, 2008.
Having escaped from juvenile detention centers and foster care, two teenaged boys live on their own in an
abandoned shack in a New York City park, making their way by stealing, occasionally working, and trying to
keep from being arrested.
Unwind/By Neal Shusterman
Simon & Schuster, 2007.
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and
their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and,
perhaps, save their own lives.
Wintergirls/By Laurie Halse Anderson
Penguin, 2009.
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the
same disorder.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian/By Sherman Alexie
Little, Brown, 2007. ISBN: 9780316013680
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white
farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
The Arrival/By Shaun Tan
Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780439895293
In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must
build a new life for himself and his family.
Before I Die/By Jenny Downham
David Fickling Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780385751551
A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies.
Buried/By Robin MacCready
Dutton Books, 2006. ISBN 978052547724
When her alcoholic mother goes missing, seventeen-year-old Claudine begins to spin out of control, despite
her attempts to impose order on every aspect of her life.
Firestorm/By David Klass
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006. ISBN: 9780374323073
After learning that he has been sent from the future for a special purpose, eighteen-year-old Jack receives
help from an unusual dog and a shape-shifting female fighter.
First Shot/By Walter Sorrells
Dutton, 2007. ISBN: 9780525478010
As David enters his senior year of high school, a family secret emerges that could solve the mystery of why
his mother was murdered two years ago.
General Winston’s Daughter/By Sharon Shinn
Viking, 2007. ISBN: 9780670062485
Seventeen-year-old heiress Averie Winston travels with her guardian to faraway Chiarrin, a country her
father's army has occupied, and once she arrives and is reunited with her fiance, she discovers that her notions
about politics, propriety, the military, and even her intended have changed.
Gym Candy/By Carl Deuker
Houghton Mifflin, 2007. ISBN: 9780618777136
Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick
Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by
using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier/By Ishmael Beah
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007. ISBN: 9780374105235
Ishmael Beah, now 25 years old, tells how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land
rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at
heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
Red Glass/By Laura Resau
Delacorte, 2007. ISBN: 9780385734660
Sixteen-year-old Sophie has been frail and delicate since her premature birth, but discovers her true strength
during a journey through Mexico, where the six-year-old orphan her family hopes to adopt was born, and to
Guatemala, where her would-be boyfriend hopes to find his mother and plans to remain.
Slam/By Nick Hornby
Putnam, 2007. ISBN: 9780399250484
At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones's girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam's life of skateboarding and daydreaming
about Tony Hawk changes drastically.
Story of a Girl/By Sara Zarr
Little, Brown, 2007. ISBN: 9780316014540
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, sixteen-year-old
Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and
his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness.
Thirteen Reasons Why/By Jay Asher
Razorbill, 2007. ISBN: 9781595141712
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded
by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night
crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
Trigger/By Susan Vaught
Bloomsbury, 2006. ISBN: 9781582349206
Teenager Jersey Hatch must work through his extensive brain damage to figure out why he decided to shoot
himself.
Twisted/By Laurie Halse Anderson
Viking, 2007. ISBN: 9780670061013
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-yearold Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad
again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.