English Grade 9
Required
- Kidd, Sue Monk, Secret Life of Bees
- Read and annotate the text.
- Write a very brief summary of the main events in each chapter at the end of the chapter.
- Annotate key passages such as initial physical descriptions of people and settings, thematic statements, important events, and/or especially impressive uses of language such as figures of speech. Remember that it is not enough simply to paint chunk of the text yellow. Develop a system of your own. Perhaps you will want to mark descriptions in yellow, significant events in blue, thematic statements in green, and impressive language in pink. Even highlighted bits of text need marginal comments such as "1st descrip of Lou Ann." You may choose to do all your annotations in pencil (or pen) in the margins.
- Annotations will be checked 20 August.
Student Choice
Read at least one of the student choice novels and be prepared to challenge or defend its (their) inclusion on this list.
- Orwell, George, 1984
- Bray, Libba, A Great and Terrible Beauty
- Grisham, John, A Painted House
- Smith, Betty, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- Sparks, Nicholas, A Walk to Remember
- Barker, Clive, Abarat
- Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- Carrol, Lewis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
- Christie, Agatha, And Then There Were None
- Crichton, Michael, Andromeda Strain
- McCort, Frank, Angela's Ashes
- Peters, Ellis, Any of the mysteries in the Brother Cadfael series
- Anything by H.G. Wells
- Pratchett, Terry, Anything in the Disk World series
- Colfer, Eoin, Artemis Fowl
- Pittman, Jane, Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
- Fowler, Connie, Before Women had Wings
- Griffin, John Howard, Black Like Me
- Vonnegut, Kurt, Cat's Cradle
- Perry, Tyler, Diary of a Mad Blackwoman
- Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451
- Andrews, V.C., Flowers in the Attic
- Angelou, Maya, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- Greenberg, Joanne, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
- Lahiri, Jhumpa, Interpreter of Maladies
- Verne, Jules, Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Green, Jonathan, Looking for Alaska
- Blackmore, Richard D., Lorna Doone
- Beah, Ishmael, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- Christie, Agatha, Murder on the Orient Express
- Piecoult, Jodi, My Sister's Keeper
- Kesey, Ken, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Oz, Amos, Panther in the Basement
- Burroughs, Augusten, Running with Scissors
- Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring
- Bradbury, Ray, Something Wicked This Way Comes
- Critchon, Michael, Sphere
- Vanderud, John, Spud
- Spinelli, Jerry, Stargirl
- Twain, Mark, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
- Dunant, Sarah, The Birth of Venus
- Boulle, Pierre, The Bridge over the River Kwai
- Walker, Alice, The Color Purple
- Kendall, Carol and Bleguad, Erik, The Gammage Cup
- Puzo, Mario, The Godfather
- Pullman, Phillip, The Golden Compass
- Buck, Pearl S., The Good Earth
- Tolkein, J.R.R., The Hobbit
- Forester, C.S., The Hornblower series
- Sinclair, Upton, The Jungle
- Sebold, Alice, The Lovely Bones
- Fowles, John, The Magus
- Hemingway, Ernest, The Old Man and the Sea
- Steinbeck, John, The Pearl
- Chbosky, Stephen, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Wilde, Oscar, The Portrait of Dorian Grey
- Goldman, William, The Princess Bride
- Kidd, Sue Monk, The Secret Life of Bees
- Critchon, Michael, The Terminal Man
- Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz
- Hurston, Zora Neal, Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart
- Adams, Richard, Watership Down
- Vonnegut, Kurt, Welcome to the Monkey House
- Cohelo, Paulo, works other than The Alchemist