SMA
Summer Reading
2014
Sarasota Military Academy
Dear Parents and Students:
Sarasota Military Academy will continue its literacy initiative by requiring all students entering grades 9-12 to read two
books as part of their summer reading. In an effort to improve literacy at all grade levels students entering SMA classes
will be required to read TWO texts of their choice from the list provided. Students entering an Honors, AP, or IB class
may be required to read additional texts.
Students will be asked to locate their specific titles either in public libraries or purchase them at bookstores or online. The
required reading lists have been distributed to Barnes and Nobles and all titles are available on Amazon online.
During first period class on Monday, August 25th, students will take a ten question test on each of the two books that
they read from the summer reading list. Students that score 80% or better on both tests will participate in a pizza and
ice cream party. Scores on the tests will also be counted as extra credit grades in their first period class.
Summer reading should be fun and enjoyable. The chosen texts have been highly recommended by students and
teachers from across the country. Your encouragement and support for continued reading throughout the summer will
assist in our efforts to improve literacy at all grade levels. Please monitor your student’s selection. Enough variety has
been provided with consideration for personal values.
Thank you and enjoy your summer!
Sincerely,
LTC Pamela Donehew
Director of Instruction/IB coordinator
Pamela.donehew@sarasotacountyschools.net
941-223-9692
SMA SUMMER READING LIST 2014
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Locks – by Rebecca Skloot
Henrietta Lacks, as HeLa, is known to present-day scientists for her cells from cervical cancer. She was a poor Southern tobacco
farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells were taken without her knowledge and still live decades after
her death. Cells descended from her may weigh more than 50M metric tons.
HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped
lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet
Henrietta Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave.
The journey starts in the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s, her small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia —
wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo. Today are stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells, East Baltimore
children and grandchildren live in obscurity, see no profits, and feel violated. The dark history of experimentation on African
Americans helped lead to the birth of bioethics, and legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight – by Jennifer E. Smith
Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK
airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's
never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's
sitting in her row.
A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon
arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?
Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a
twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.
Florida cowboys share their land with bears, panthers, and other endangered species, along with irreplaceable wetlands that help
sustain the states strained water resources. Complemented by twenty historical, cultural, and environmental essays from Dana Ste
Claire, Joe Akerman, Auduon of Florida, and the Seminole Tribe, among others, Ward's stunning photographs capture the grit and
raw beauty of inland Florida, its enduring cowboys, and the land they protect.
A Land Remembered – by Patrick Smith
In this best-selling novel, Patrick Smith tells the story of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family who battle the hardships
of the frontier to rise from a dirt-poor Cracker life to the wealth and standing of real estate tycoons. The story opens in 1858, when
Tobias MacIvey arrives in the Florida wilderness to start a new life with his wife and infant son, and ends two generations later in
1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that the land has been exploited far beyond human need. The sweeping story that
emerges is a rich, rugged Florida history featuring a memorable cast of crusty, indomitable Crackers battling wild animals, rustlers,
Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the swamp. But their most
formidable adversary turns out to be greed, including finally their own. Love and tenderness are here too: the hopes and passions of
each new generation, friendships with the persecuted blacks and Indians, and respect for the land and its wildlife. A Land
Remembered was winner of the Florida Historical Society's Tebeau Prize as the Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel. Now in its
14th hardcover printing, it has been in print since 1984 and is also available in trade paperback.(
Jesse – by Gary Soto
In this new edition of his first young adult novel, Gary Soto paints a moving portrait of seventeen-year-old Jesse, who has left his
parents' home to live with his older brother. These Mexican American brothers hope junior college will help them escape their
heritage of tedious physical labor. Their struggles are humorous, true to life, and deeply affecting. Young adults will sympathize
with the brothers as they come to terms with what is possible for each of them in an imperfect world.
Changes in Latitudes – by Will Hobbs
Sixteen-year-old Travis is looking for a good time. A vacation in Mexico with his mother, sister, and little brother might cramp his
style, but he's willing to take that risk for a chance to cruise the beaches.
Travis soon discovers that even with his headphones and shades, he can't completely cut himself off from his family's problems. He
begins to understand why his father didn't come with them: His mother is contemplating a divorce. Meanwhile his younger brother,
Teddy, becomes increasingly obsessed with protecting some endangered sea turtles near the resort.
In spite of himself, Travis is drawn into Teddy's efforts to save the turtles. But it takes a devastating tragedy beyond his imagining to
shake Travis out of his cynicism -- a tragedy that will change his family forever.
In the Shadow of the Blackbird - by Cat Winters
In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish
influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion.
Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she
herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life
and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her? Featuring haunting
archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.
Florida Cowboys: Keepers of the Last Frontier – by Carlton Ward, Jr.
Florida cowboys share their land with bears, panthers, and other endangered species, along with irreplaceable wetlands that help
sustain the states strained water resources. Complemented by twenty historical, cultural, and environmental essays from Dana Ste
Claire, Joe Akerman, Auduon of Florida, and the Seminole Tribe, among others, Ward's stunning photographs capture the grit and
raw beauty of inland Florida, its enduring cowboys, and the land they protect.
Sula – by Toni Morrison
This rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their close-knit childhood in a small Ohio town, through their
sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation.
Their Eyes Were Watching God – by Zora Hurston
One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century; Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern
love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely
to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the
most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.
The 5th Wave – by Rick Yancey
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the
4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human,
who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie
believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—
or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and
death. To give up or to get up.