Bosque School
2012 Rising 9th Grade Reading list
Required:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
This novel features Arnold Spirit, known as Junior, a boy who likes to draw. Raised on a
reservation, he attends an all-white high school in a neighboring town and navigates his
new environment with his sense of humor.
And choose ONE from the following:
ATHLETES
The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World, John Carlos &
Dave Zirin
This bronze medalist at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City raised a black-gloved fist high
while he stood on the podium listening to his national anthem. This civil rights story
features a track and field athlete who later played in the NFL.
Mexican White Boy, Matt de la Peña
His private school peers think they know who Danny is because his father is from
Mexico, but Danny’s got his mother’s blonde hair, and he doesn’t even speak Spanish.
He does have as good a fastball as any pitcher around, and baseball gives him an identity
during a summer visit with his father’s family in Mexico.
High Heat, Carl Deuker
When sophomore Shane Hunter's father is arrested for money laundering at his Lexus
dealership, the star pitcher's life of affluence and private school begins to fall apart.
Dairy Queen, Catherine Gilbert Murdock
D.J. Shwenk stars on her high school’s girl’s basketball team until family troubles mean
she has to quit the team to work on the family dairy farm after school. She wishes she
could join the football team. Enter Brian Nelson, spoiled quarterback for a rival school’s
team. He needs a training partner, an athlete who can teach him about discipline.
Keeper, Mal Peet
South American journalist Paul Faustino begins his interview with World Cup Soccer star
El Gato and learns a fantastic story of a young, lonely boy growing up in the middle of a
rain forest who wandered upon a mysterious soccer field and an apparition that appeared
to him daily.
CLASSICS
Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
Antonio Marez, growing up in northeastern New Mexico in the 1940’s, must weigh his
father’s dream that he will be a vaquero and his mother’s dream that he will be a priest.
For direction, Antonio seeks the guidance of Ultima, an aging healer, or curandera.
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
Bosque School
2012 Rising 9th Grade Reading list
Ten people, strangers to one another, arrive by invitation at a mysterious host’s island
mansion. Each of them has gotten away with murder before, but which of them is trying
to kill all the others?
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock Holmes mystery about a legendary monster
that haunts the moor.
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
In Napoleon’s France, Edmond loves Mercedes, until he is wrongfully absconded,
imprisoned, and must dream of his revenge from afar.
Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
Bathsheba Everdene, a beautiful, headstrong young farmer, attracts romantic interest not
only from Gabriel Oak, but from two other suitors, as well. Like her spiritual heir,
Katniss Everdeen, this Everdene inspires allusion.
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman, battles with a great marlin in the fight of his life.
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Mocked by her peers for her dark skin, Pecola Breedlove imagines blonde hair and blue
eyes would free her from her torments.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
Teenager Francie Nolan observes her family dynamics with detail in the Brooklyn of a
century ago.
FANTASY FICTION
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Armageddon is on the horizon. The world will end next Saturday, just before dinner,
according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only
completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. A novel of angels and demons.
Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan,
Paul is in high school, but he has known he was gay since he was in kindergarten, when
his teacher told him so. Oddly, he lives in a town where everyone is gay.
The Merchant of Death (Pendragon series #1), D.J. McHale
Bobby Pendragon is a teenaged basketball player until he learns he is a Traveler, destined
to ride magical flumes through time. When he lands in medieval Denduron, he joins
forces with Loor, a teen warrior girl, and he connects with Mark, his friend from home
whose help he needs to escape death. Adventure ensues.
Eragon (Inheritance cycle #1), Christopher Paolini
Bosque School
2012 Rising 9th Grade Reading list
Eragon is a simple farmboy, until his discovery of a blue stone compels him to become a
dragon rider.
GRAPHIC BOOKS
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
A daughter’s memoir of her relationship with her emotionally distant father, a
perfectionist who teaches high school English and runs the family funeral home. After
her father’s mysterious death, the writer realizes their “fun” home has had more than just
embalming fluid in the closet.
American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang
Jin Wang is a teenager who wishes he were someone else. He just wants to fit in. Monkey
King and Danny each wishes he could change out of his skin, too. If only the three could
help one another.
HISTORICAL FICTION
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
Inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters, whose murder, in 1960, for their
part in an underground plot to overthrow the Dominican Republic’s oppressive Trujillo
dictatorship, caused them to be known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies.” Alvarez
imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their
terror when their work to depose the government is discovered.
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie King
Mary Russell, an intelligent young woman, becomes the unlikely apprentice of Sherlock
Holmes. This is the first in the Mary Russell series about the special partnership between
the orphaned teenager and the middle-aged Sherlock Holmes.
NON-FICTION
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah
Ishmael Beah describes his experiences after he was driven from his home by war in
Sierra Leone and picked up by the government army at the age of thirteen, serving as a
soldier for three years before being removed from fighting by UNICEF and eventually
moving to the United States.
Swimming to Antarctica, Lynne Cox
Distance swimmer Lynne Cox describes her emotional and spiritual need to swim and the
mythical act of swimming itself, and chronicles some of her more memorable swims.
Eating Animals, Jonathon Safran Foer
The first non-fiction book by a novelist (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and
Incredibly Close) whose entry into parenthood spurs him to recall how his Holocaustsurviving grandmother related to food, examine how he relates to food, and ponder how
he wants to feed his newborn child. Both a memoir and an examination of today’s
American food industry.
Bosque School
2012 Rising 9th Grade Reading list
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer’s suspenseful insider’s account of the 1996 Mt. Everest ascent in which
weather was but one challenge that caused several climbers’ deaths.
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Traces the history of the fast food industry and discusses how it developed in post-war
America.
The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us, Tanya
Lee Stone
Explores how Barbie has influenced generations of girls, discussing criticisms of the doll,
her role in fashion, and her surprising popularity during her first fifty years.
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, Daniel
Tammet
Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant, offers an inside look at his life, describing how his
rare condition, which gives him incredible mental powers and a compulsive need for
order and routine, has influenced every aspect of his life and what challenges he has
faced while trying to be independent.
REALISTIC FICTION
Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson
Sentenced to a summer of physical labor to make amends for graffiti he sprayed on the
school, Tyler Miller tones muscles which attract popular Bethany Millbury’s attention
and jostle him from social anonymity. Is the social whirl worth the energy?
Jump, Elisa Carbone
Two teenaged runaways meet at a climbing gym, and embark on a dangerous and
revealing journey together.
Looking for Alaska, John Green
When Miles arrives at boarding school, he falls under the spell of his roommate’s best
friend, Alaska Young, a stunning thinker and talker for whom life is not easy.
Dark Dude, Oscar Hijuelos
In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban-American teenager, abandons druginfested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to
discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be
found even in the wholesome Midwest.
Son of the Mob, Gordon Korman
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of
a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the
daughter of an FBI agent.
Bosque School
2012 Rising 9th Grade Reading list
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. Her antics with the group soon draw some unlikely attention and have
unexpected consequences that could change her life forever.
Wait for Me, An Na
As her senior year in high school approaches, Korean American Mina yearns to find her
own path in life, but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and
dealing with her mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern
California heat, until she falls in love with a young man who offers a way out.
Monster, Walter Dean Myers
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his
experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come
to terms with the course his life has taken.
Joyride, Gretchen Olson
Jeff’s summer is all about tennis until he is caught in a foolish prank. His punishment for
poor driving is to do farm work. The lessons he learns about life and love surprise him.
As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, Lynne Rae Perkins
A teenaged boy encounters one comedic calamity after another when his train strands
him in the middle of nowhere, and everything comes down to luck.
The Cardturner: A Novel About a King, a Queen, and a Joker, Louis Sachar
When his wealthy uncle, a champion bridge player who has lost his vision, asks
seventeen-year-old Alton to be a cardturner for him, Alton has no idea how much he will
ultimately learn from his eccentric relative. Includes an appendix by Syd Fox with
information about bridge.
Marcelo in the Real World, Francisco X. Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic
spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work
for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.
If You Come Softly, Jacqueline Woodson
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is
black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has
twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with peoples' reactions.
When the Black Girl Sings, Bil Wright
Adopted by white parents and sent to an exclusive Connecticut girls' school where she is
the only African-American student, fourteen-year-old Lahni Schuler feels like an outcast,
particularly when her parents separate, but after attending a local church where she hears
gospel music for the first time, she finds her voice.