1. Summer Reading Options
For 9th Grade CP Language Arts

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
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3. Awards: 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry
Themes: Identity and self-esteem
Racism and Discrimination
Appearances can be deceiving

4. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant
drawings that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. (Fiction)

5. Bomb by Steve Sneinkin
In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: when placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two.
That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents.

6. In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos.
This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb. (Non-Fiction)

7. Bomb 2012 National Book Awards finalist for Young People’s Literature.
2012 Washington Post Best Kids Books of the Year title.
2013 Newbery Honor book.
Themes: The danger of knowledge
The danger of power
Fear

8. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous 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.
A Separate Peace is a 1960 New York Times bestseller.
A Separate Peace is a finalist for the 1961 National Book Award.
Themes:
Friendship
Conformity versus Nonconformity (Identity)
Man’s Inhumanity to Man

9. eleanor & park by rainbow rowell
Two misfits. One extraordinary love.
Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor Park...
He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.
Set over the course of one school year, this

10. Celebrating Individuality
Set in the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen- year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
Indies Choice Young Adult Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association
Amazon's Teen Book of the Year and Top Ten Book of the Year
Goodreads Choice Award for Best Young Adult Book of the Year
Young Adult Library Services Association Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults
Audible's Best Teen Audiobook of the Year
Themes:
True Love & Loss
Celebrating Individuality
Bullying

11. Orleans by Sherri L. Smith
After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct… but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

12. Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally.
Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

13. Mother Nature vs Human Nature
2016 Louisiana Young Readers Choice Nominee
2015 Magnolia Book Awards Nominee
2014 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year list
2014 Cooperative Children’s Book Center Best Fiction for Young Adults
Themes:
Mother Nature vs Human Nature
Political Corruption
Racism

14. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
A mysterious island.
An abandoned orphanage.
A strange collection of curious photographs.
A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

15. 2012 New York Times Best Seller
As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar.
They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason.
And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
2012 New York Times Best Seller
Themes:
Identity
Courage
The Supernatural