NOHS 2008 Summer Reading “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” -Mark Twain.

NOHS 2008 Summer NOHS 2008 Summer ReadingReading

““The man who does not read good The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the books has no advantage over the

man who cannot read them.”man who cannot read them.”-Mark Twain-Mark Twain

NOHS Summer Reading NOHS Summer Reading RequirementsRequirements

• Every student will participate in the Every student will participate in the Summer Reading Program by reading Summer Reading Program by reading one book during the summer break.one book during the summer break.

• Choose from the 2008 NOHS Choose from the 2008 NOHS Favorites, independent choice, or AP Favorites, independent choice, or AP RequirementRequirement

• Complete a dialectical journalComplete a dialectical journal

Dialectical JournalingDialectical Journaling

• A dialectical journal is a conversation A dialectical journal is a conversation between you and what you are between you and what you are reading. You simply write down reading. You simply write down passagespassages that make you think or that make you think or interest you and write about interest you and write about your your thoughts.thoughts.

Dialectical JournalingDialectical Journaling

• This process is an important way to This process is an important way to understand a piece of literature. By understand a piece of literature. By writing about literature, you make writing about literature, you make your own meaning of the work in your own meaning of the work in order to truly understand it. When order to truly understand it. When you do this yourself, then the text you do this yourself, then the text belongs to you--you have made it belongs to you--you have made it yours.. yours..

Dialectical JournalingDialectical Journaling

• The passages are there for everyone The passages are there for everyone to read; however, the connections to read; however, the connections and interpretations are uniquely and interpretations are uniquely yours. You are neither right or wrong yours. You are neither right or wrong in your response. So be willing to in your response. So be willing to take risks and be honest.take risks and be honest.

Dialectical Journal TemplateDialectical Journal Template

•

Sample Journal EntriesSample Journal Entries

• ““-they carried like freight -they carried like freight trains; they carried it on trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders-their backs and shoulders-and for all the ambiguities of and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding least the single abiding certainty that they would certainty that they would never be at a loss for things never be at a loss for things to carry”.to carry”.

Page 2Page 2

• O’brien chooses to end the first O’brien chooses to end the first section of the novel with this section of the novel with this sentence. He provides excellent sentence. He provides excellent visual details of what each solider visual details of what each solider in Vietnam would carry for day-to-in Vietnam would carry for day-to-day fighting. He makes you feel day fighting. He makes you feel the physical weight of what soldiers the physical weight of what soldiers have to carry for simple survival. have to carry for simple survival. When you combine the emotional When you combine the emotional weight of loved ones at home, the weight of loved ones at home, the fear of death, and the responsibility fear of death, and the responsibility for the men you fight with, with this for the men you fight with, with this physical weight, you start to physical weight, you start to understand what soldiers in understand what soldiers in Vietnam dealt with every day. This Vietnam dealt with every day. This quote sums up the confusion that quote sums up the confusion that the men felt about the reasons the men felt about the reasons they were fighting the war, and they were fighting the war, and how they clung to the only how they clung to the only certainty - things they had to carry certainty - things they had to carry - in a confusing world where normal - in a confusing world where normal rules were suspended. rules were suspended.

Sample Journal Entries Sample Journal Entries Grapes of Grapes of

WrathWrath

• ““And the women came out of the And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men—to houses to stand beside their men—to feel whether this time the men would feel whether this time the men would break.  The women studied the men’s break.  The women studied the men’s faces secretly, for the corn could go, faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else remained.” as long as something else remained.” Page 6Page 6“…“…

• the sun was as red as ripe new blood.” the sun was as red as ripe new blood.” Page 6Page 6

• bemused—“men lost their bemused—“men lost their bemusedbemused perplexity.” perplexity.” Page 6Page 6

• ““A huge red transport truck stood in A huge red transport truck stood in front of the little roadside restaurant.  front of the little roadside restaurant.  The vertical exhaust pipe muttered The vertical exhaust pipe muttered softly, and an almost invisible haze of softly, and an almost invisible haze of steel-blue smoke hovered over its steel-blue smoke hovered over its end.  It was a new truck, shining red, end.  It was a new truck, shining red, and in twelve-inch letters on its side—and in twelve-inch letters on its side—OKLAHOMA CITY TRANSPORT OKLAHOMA CITY TRANSPORT COMPANY.” COMPANY.” Page 8Page 8

• ·         ·         Steinbeck is pointing out the Steinbeck is pointing out the family relationships here—women family relationships here—women standing beside their men as the standing beside their men as the men decide what to do about the men decide what to do about the situation.·        situation.·        

• What is the “something else” What is the “something else” that’s referred to in the quote?  that’s referred to in the quote?  Maybe Maybe determinationdetermination or or pridepride??·         ·        

• Interesting simile, especially for a Interesting simile, especially for a description of the sun.·        description of the sun.·        

• (adj.) preoccupied, stupefied ·        (adj.) preoccupied, stupefied ·        • Why does Steinbeck give such Why does Steinbeck give such

intricate details about this truck—intricate details about this truck—where it’s parked, its color, the where it’s parked, its color, the lettering?  Perhaps it’s going to lettering?  Perhaps it’s going to show a contrast to the Dust Bowl show a contrast to the Dust Bowl imagery in the first chapter.·        imagery in the first chapter.·        

• This is something new in a time This is something new in a time when many people couldn’t afford when many people couldn’t afford much that was new.much that was new.

NOHS NOHS Summer Reading SelectionsSummer Reading Selections

for 2008 for 2008

The Absolutely True Diary of a The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Part-Time Indian by by Sherman Alexie. Sherman Alexie.

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. is the school mascot. 

The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

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.

A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do

before she dies.

Buried by Robin MacCready.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones' girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam's life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically.

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr.

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

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.

Teenager Jersey Hatch must work through his extensive brain

damage to figure out why he decided to shoot himself.

Twisted Laurie Halse Anderson.

After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies

and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old 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 .

A Thousand Splendid Sunsby Khaled Hosseini 

Publishers Weekly Review: /* Starred Review *

 Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam And Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed.

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bomb

by Adrienne Mayer Review from Amazon.com

Greek Fire is an extraordinary book. To put the subject of the book plainly, it deals with biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world from myth to history. I had not given much thought to the use of chemical and biological agents in the ancient world, focusing instead on the more familiar weaponry and tactics. The majority of historians and certainly the people we know probably believe that chemical weapons were created in World War I, with the advent of mustard and other gasses. This is very far from the truth and Adrienne Mayor provides us with the missing link in the ancient world: the use of dangerous agents to cause mass destruction.

Into Thin Airby Jon Krakauer 

Review from Amazon.com

Reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion, Jon Krakauer reached the

summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996. He hadn't slept in fifty-seven

hours. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising

altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top,

unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds.... "This is the terrifying story of what really happened that fateful day at the top of the world, during what would be the deadliest season in the history of Everest. This powerful, cautionary tale of an adventure gone horribly

wrong is a must-read.

Life of Piby Yan Martel 

Pi Patel, a young man from India, tells how he was shipwrecked and stranded in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for 227 days. This outlandish story is only the core of a deceptively complex three-part novel about, ultimately, memory as a narrative and about how we choose truths. Pi, regardless of what actually happened to him, earns our trust as a narrator and a character, and makes good, in his way, on the promise in the last sentence of part one--that is, just before the tiger saga--“This story has a happy ending.” If Martel’s strange, touching novel seems a fable without quite a moral, or a parable without quite a metaphor, it still succeeds on its own terms. Oh, the promise in the entertaining “Author’s Note” that this is a “story that will make you believe in God” is perhaps excessive, but there is much in it that verifies Martel’s talent and humanist vision. (Reviewed May 15, 2002) -- Will Hickman

Smashedby Koren Zailckas

Review from Amazon.com 

Karen Zailckas recalls her years of binge drinking in college and the effects it had on her relationship and mental state.  “Smashed blows to smithereens the myth that alcohol is the ‘safe drug’ in young people’s lives. Koren Zailckas puts a personal face on the leading drug problem among our youth, and shows the side of teen drinking that won’t appear in a beer ad.” –David Jernigan, Ph.D., research director, Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, Georgetown University.

Stuck in NeutralBy Terry Truman

Review by Booklist Review Shawn McDaniel thinks his father is considering killing him. Of

course, no one knows that Shawn is able to think at all because the 14-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, can't speak, interact, or control his movements and bodily functions. But Shawn is also a genius; he remembers everything that he hears and is even able to read. And one more thing--the seizures, which his family members find so pitiable, release his soul in a way that allows him to move about the universe and feel and see things that would be impossible to experience in his trapped body. Shawn would like to live, but he understands that his father, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, who won the award for a poem about Shawn, wants him dead for the most unselfish reasons.

This short novel packs a punch that transcends its length. Readers spend the whole book inside Shawn's head, a place that is so vivid, so unique they will be hard pressed to forget its mix of heaven and hell. Nor will they easily stop thinking about all the big issues Shawn raises--not just about life and death, but also about the meaning of freedom, and about the responsibility that comes with love. One wonders how Truman could write something so close to the bone--until the author's note reveals that he is the father of a son like Shawn. An intense reading experience. ((Reviewed July 2000)) -- Ilene Cooper

The Education of a Coachby David Halberstam Review from Amazon.com

Joan Vennochi, a political writer who rarely writes about sports said this of Bill Belichick. "Belichick, she noted, wasn't 'glib or glitzy'. At press conferences he sometime seems a little goofy and is often way too grim. But he is a leader without the swagger, selfishness, and pomposity that so many men in business, politics, and sports embrace as an entitlement of their gender and posture." This is not just a book about a man, or just about a coach, or just about a game, or just about football. This is a book about a man, who is a coach, who happens to love football, and the manner in which this man leads his life. David Halberstam, who has written his twentieth book, the last fourteen of which have been best sellers; and the last six, based on sports, has written the coach's coach book in "The Education of a Coach". He has been able to dig deep inside of this man, Bill Belichick. The man who has come to be known as the best professional football coach of our era.

Journey to the Center of the Earthby Jules Verne 

Review from Amazon.com

This is a high-adventure novel. A German scientist puts together an expedition to follow successfully in the tracks of a previous, attempt to reach the center of the Earth. In Verne's time, it was not known that the Earth had a molten core, and the nature of the core, while believed by many to be molten, was debated. The expedition encounters many unexpected creatures, land-forms, plants, and obstacles. The pace of the writing is very fast, in general, with a few digressions to explain scientific debates. The science in the novel is actually superior to the science of the film, as the dinosaurs of the book are more believable than those of the film. Definitely a fun read!

Into the Wildby Jon Krakauer 

Review from Amazon.com   John Krakauer's novel "Into the Wild" is both a chronicle of the life and time's of American college grad turned Luddite drifter Chris McCandless, and a reflection on people whose somewhat anti-society type views lead them to embrace exploring the outer limits of Nature's dangerous boundaries. Krakauer chronicles the adventure of Chris McCandless, a college graduate who for years has his eyes set on a goal of both personal and spiritual definition as well as outcasting himself from the very society he often loathes. Although the text on the front of this book already spells Chris's fate, the harrowing, chancy and sometimes exhilarating journey that took him there is not lost on this reader. As the saying goes, life is a journey not a destination, and for Chris it is the friendships he accrues as well as the things he learns within himself that make his story so memorable.

Fidget'sby Jennifer French

 What's it like to live in a young body and mind while struggling with ADD/ADHD? And how does it feel to have to live with a loved one suffering with this disorder? FIDGETS is an eye-opening novel written especially for teens. Mildred Patterson owns THE OLD HAS-BEEN ANTIQUE SHOP in Evergreen Colorado. Her daughter, Betsy, "keeps hoping a two-ton leech will swallow up her immature, older brother and regurgitate him back up, whole and well." Eventually, and after much heartache, the Patterson family unravels the mystery, finds the culprit (ADD/ADHD) and finally makes an arrest . "a rest" well-deserved by everyone involved. After many years of total chaos, fear, frustration and little hope, this family finally finds an effective treatment; an alternative to Ritalin and other invasive-type drugs. There have been hundreds of non-fiction books written about ADD/ADHD and many are written with 'ho-hum' dry facts. FIDGETS, on the other hand, is a novel that captivates, informs and inspires readers with plenty of action, humor and clear lessons for coping with this little-understood affliction. This entertaining story concludes with a 'new sign of the times' being posted at the store: THE AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE