Choosing Your Book

Your mission:  Listen to/read the descriptions of each book and some background information.  Rank the books in the order of your preference, #1 being the book you would most like to read.  Take your packet home and get your choices signed by a parent/guardian. HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The novel details sixteen- year-old Holden Caufield's experiences in New York City following his expulsion from an elite prep school. Not only is he expelled from his current school, but he had also been expelled from three previous ones. Holden serves as an insightful but unreliable narrator who expounds on loyalty, the "phoniness" of adulthood, and his own duplicity. prep schoolunreliable narrator

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson "Speak up for yourself - we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a lie. She’s outcast because she busted a summer party by calling the cops. Soon, she practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers solace; through a project, she’s able to face what happened at the party: She was raped by a guy who is still a threat.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros deals with a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago with Chicanos and Puerto Ricans. The story is told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous – as she invents for herself who and what she will become.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Arnold Spirit is a Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. The bright 14-year-old was born with water on the brain, is the target of bullies, and loves to draw. He expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to a rich, white school but makes friends with geeks and popular kids. He grapples with what constitutes community, identity, and tribe.

Paper Towns by John Green Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life, he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, “Q” arrives at school to discover that Margo has now become a mystery. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.