Eleventh Grade Summer Reading Requirements
- Non-Honors level students must choose ONE book from either level 2 or level 3 below.
Note: Honors/Academy students must select Animal Farm and one other book from level # 1.
- When they return, students will take a twenty-question, multiple-choice exam during their first, full academic week. In addition, individual teachers may require further assignments.
- This test counts for 20% of first term grade.
Level 3
Doom Stone
by Paul Zindel
from Amazon.com
"Jackson is always psyched to visit his aunt Sarah when she's working
on an anthropological dig. This time she's in England, at Stonehenge,
and Jackson can't wait to see the massive and mysterious stone formations
in person. But then he witnesses a vicious attack on a young man, and
another on his beloved aunt Sarah. A savage beast no one has ever seen
before is on the prowl. Now it's up to Jackson and his new friend,
Alma, a gravedigger's daughter, to stop the beast. All the clues lead
back to Stonehenge, where he and Alma must risk their lives to solve
the mystery of the monster stalking the countryside-before it's too
late."
Jay's Journal
by Beatrice Sparks
from Amazon.com
" They say curiosity killed the cat. This old saying is proved
true by Jay , the main character in Jay's Journal. By reading this book
you'll learn that drugs and satanism are two addictions you never want
to experience.
Jay is a lonely, depressed teenager that tried to escape his way out of problems by getting into drugs. His drug use gets him sent to a rehabilitation center, where he meets Pete, a guy that gets him into satanism. Satanism leads him into a dark tragical path and ending.
In the world of satanism Jay experiments a lot of strange and creepy things such as witchcraft , the use of the Ouija board, animal sacrifices, and contacts spirits from the after life world. Because of Jay two of his best friends got into this too and their ambition of fame and fortune make them pay a much higher price than they ever thought. They are in a situation which seems not to have a escape or way back"
Level 2
Early Autumn
by Robert B. Parker
From barnesandnoble.com
"A bitter divorce is only the beginning. First the father hires
thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother hires Spenser to get the boy
back. But as soon as Spenser senses the lay of the land, he decides to
do some kidnapping of his own.
With a contract out on his life, he heads for the Maine woods, determined to give a puny 15 year old a crash course in survival and to beat his dangerous opponents at their own brutal game."
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
by Stephen King
From Amazon.com
" On a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian
Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant bickering
between her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. But
when she wanders off by herself, and then tries to catch up by attempting
a shortcut, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror.
As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio's reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her -- protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods..."
Level 1
Animal Farm
by George Orwell
From Amazon.com
"When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human
master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist
zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for
one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment
credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal.
No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill
a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings
are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon,
however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their
intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
From amazon.com
"Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical
reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure,
survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old
Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths
for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas."
Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie
and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck,
Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat
with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound
Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color
of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but
these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized
Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker
remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested
waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination.
In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as
the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time
and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or
that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose
from that I've made none the champion." ""
Click here to purchase from Amazon.com
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
by Aron Ralston
From Amazon.com
"In a moving account of strength in the face of adversity, Ralston
presents the full story behind the 2003 event that became worldwide news:
his self-amputation of his right arm after it was caught between a boulder
and a canyon wall during what began as a routine day hike in the Utah
Canyons. An experienced climber, Ralston, 28, effectively shows he wasn't
a risk-taker, and alternates between describing how his jaunt turned into
a nightmare when a huge stone suddenly came unstuck as he used it to climb
down a ledge, and recalling early experiences that changed his novice
attitudes toward hiking, which he admits "were not intrinsically
safe." Ralston candidly renders the details of six days of entrapment,
using transcribed monologues from videotapes he made while trapped, including
his increasingly exhausted thoughts as well as poignant farewells to his
family. But his best writing details his self-amputation and his subsequent
march to safety, in which he rappelled one-armed down a hill and then
hiked six miles before someone found him."