BOOK TALK
Mrs. Showalter’s English 9 Honors, Mod 12
Assignment
◦ Check out at least one outside reading book for Quarter 2. (Did
you know you can check out up to 10 books at a time?)
◦ The only necessity is that the book be at least 200 pages long.
You can choose anything from nonfiction, fiction, short stories, or
a play!
◦ You will have an assignment related to this reading, so choose
your book carefully. Some popular book titles are as follows (but
if you let me know what you’re interested in, I can help you
specifically, too!)
Book Sections
◦ Plays: Section 808.2
◦ Left side of the library when facing the windows, short stacks towards the back)
◦ Playwrights like Neil Simon and Arthur Miller
◦ Shakespeare: Section 822
◦ Sports: Section 796 (same general area as plays)
◦ Volleyball, football, soccer, basketball, etc.
◦ Poetry: Section 811 (same general are as sports)
◦ Poets like Anne Sexton, Shel Silverstein, Tupac Shukur, Emily Dickinson & Sylvia Plath)
◦ Books for “Dummies” & Graphic Novels
◦ Located before entrance to Alcove
◦ All Fiction: in Alcove. New book display at circulation desk. Mustaches! 
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
◦ Nonfiction
◦ Involves science, healthcare, ethics, and
African American rights
◦ Takes place in Baltimore, with Johns
Hopkins Hospital
◦ From the publisher:
◦ Doctors took her cells without asking. Those
cells never died. They launched a medical
revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry.
More than twenty years later, her children
found out. Their lives would never be the same.
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
◦ Recently made into a movie!
◦ Funny, sad, extremely moving and popular!
◦ From the publisher:
◦ Despite the tumor-shrinking medical
miracle that has bought her a few years,
Hazel has never been anything but
terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon
diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist
named Augustus Waters suddenly
appears at Cancer Kid Support Group,
Hazel’s story is about to be completely
rewritten.
The Absolutely True Diary of a PartTime Indian, by Sherman Alexie
◦ National Book Award Winner
◦ Young Adult novel
◦ From the publisher:
◦ Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up
on the Spokane Indian reservation. Born
with a variety of medical problems, he is
picked on by everyone but his best friend.
Determined to receive a good education,
Junior leaves the rez to attend an all-white
school in the neighboring farm town where
the only other Indian is the school mascot
(like Franklin!). Despite being condemned as
a traitor his people and enduring great
tragedies, Junior attacks life with wit and
humor and discovers a strength inside of
himself that he never knew existed.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by
Stephen Chobsky
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Recently made into a movie!
Unique perspective. Told through letters.
Coming of age novel
From the publisher:
◦ The critically acclaimed debut novel from
Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant
"wallflower" Charlie as he charts a course
through the strange world between
adolescence and adulthood. First dates,
family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs,
and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Devastating loss, young love, and life on the
fringes. Caught between trying to live his life
and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn
to navigate those wild and poignant rollercoaster days known as growing up.
Blood and Chocolate
by Annette Curtis Klause
◦ Similar to Twilight, except with werewolves
(Team Jacob!)
◦ School Library Journal, Best Book of the Year
◦ From the publisher:
◦ Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the
sweet, fierce ache that carries her from
girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and
strong, and all the young wolves are on
her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead
father; her pack remains leaderless and in
disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs
of Maryland. She longs for a normal life.
But what is normal for a werewolf?
Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell
◦ Love story about two misfits
◦ Black-Eyed Susan Winner
◦ From the Publisher:
◦ Two misfits. One extraordinary love.
◦ Bono met his wife in high school, Park
says. So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor
answers. I'm not kidding, he says. You should
be, she says, we're sixteen. What about
Romeo and Juliet?Shallow, confused, then
dead. I love you, Park says. Wherefore art
thou, Eleanor answers. I'm not kidding, he
says. You should be.Set over the course of
one school year in 1986, this is the story of
two star-crossed misfits-smart enough to
know that first love almost never lasts, but
brave and desperate enough to try. When
Eleanor meets Park, you'll remember your
own first love-and just how hard it pulled you
under.
I’ll Give You the Sun, by Jandy
Nelson
◦ A New York Times Bestseller
◦ LGBTQ
◦ From Horn Book Guide:
◦ Jude (a girl) and Noah are fraternal twins;
once very close, they now hardly speak
to each other. The reasons for their
estrangement gradually come to light
over the course of the novel through the
twins' alternating voices from different
points in time (Noah at thirteen, bullied
for being gay; and sixteen-year-old artist
Jude). A compelling meditation on love,
grief, sexuality, family, and fate.
Slam, by Walter Dean Myers
◦ Coretta Scott King Award winner
◦ About a 17-year old basketball
player
◦ From the publisher:
◦ Newberry Honor author Walter
Dean Myers calls on his own
Harlem background in this raw
and gritty story of a young
basketball player coming of
age and trying to make it on
the unforgiving courts of the
city.