SUMMER ESCAPES

A book list for 8th-to-9th graders

Georgetown Day School, Summer 2008

Fiction

Barbara’s Pick:
Alexie Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
When 14 year old Arnold Spirit decides to leave his reservation school for the rich, predominately white school in town, he struggles with the true meaning of friends, family, and tribe.

Crutcher Whale Talk.
When an all-star football player bullies a student for wearing his dead brother’s Varsity Jacket, TJ hatches a plan to get a group of misfit high school students  their own letter jackets by forming a swim team at a school without a pool.

Thu’s Pick:
Donnelly A Northern Light.
Based on the 1906 murder of Grace Brown, (which also inspired Dreiser’s An American Tragedy) this novel follows 16 year old Mattie Gokey as she comes of age working at the resort where Grace’s body was found.

Farmer The House of the Scorpion.
In a futuristic country aptly named Opium, Mateo, the human clone of a 142 year old drug czar, is scorned by society. After El Patron’s death, Mateo must figure out who he really is.

Green Looking for Alaska.
Miles is happy to leave behind his unpopular, friendless self as he heads to an Alabama boarding school for his junior year. The book starts 136 days before the tragic events that leave him looking for Alaska.

Houston New Boy.
In the late 1950’s Rob is chosen to be the first student of color at a prestigious Connecticut boarding school. Meanwhile, in his Virginia hometown, his friends are organizing sit-ins. Rob is torn between pursuing his parents’ goals of higher education and the bigger goal of ending segregation.

Lockhart The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
The beginning of her sophomore year at a New England Prep school finds Frankie her first boyfriend, but soon realizes she is continuously being dismissed by his friends because of her gender. To what lengths will she go to prove them wrong?

Rosoff How I Live Now.
In a not so distant future, 15 year old Daisy is sent to the English countryside to spend the summer with her cousins. A war breaks out and Daisy will never be the same.

Yang American Born Chinese.
Three different stories seek out and then destroy ethnic stereotypes in this powerfully drawn graphic novel.

Non-Fiction

Amaechi Man in the Middle.
After six years in the NBA keeping his sexuality a secret, John Amaechi has written about coming out in the very masculine world of professional sports, his struggles with injuries, the loss of his mother and many other fascinating aspects of his life.

Murphy The Real Benedict Arnold.
“Packed with military adventure and political intrigue, this tautly written account shows the human side of an American Villain and seeks the man behind the rumors and legends.” (from Book Jacket)

Nielsen Condor: To the Brink and Back-the Life and Times of One Giant Bird.
Find out about the “Elvis Presley of endangered species.”

Satrapi Persepolis.
An autobiography of a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution told through her own illustrations. (Graphic Novel)

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