9th GRADE LITERATURE
SUMMER READING LIST (Select ONE)
Mitch Albom
Tuesdays with Morrie (Lexile 830)
The author, an alumnus of Brandeis University, tells of his
meetings with a former professor suffering from Lou Gehrig's
disease and of the lessons he learned about life and death from his
college mentor.
Dorothy Allison
Bastard out of Carolina (Lexile 900)
Ruth Ann Boatwright, a South Carolina bastard, tells her life with
her family and the emotional and physical violence she
experiences.
Laurie Halse Anderson
Catalyst (Lexile 580)
Eighteen-year-old Kate, who sometimes chafes at being a
preacher's daughter, finds herself losing control in her senior year
as she faces difficult neighbors, the possibility that she may not be
accepted by the college of her choice, and an unexpected death.
Chains (Lexile 780)
After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave
named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.
Fever, 1793 (Lexile 580)
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated
from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance
when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever
epidemic.
Speak (Lexile 680)
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating
effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
Twisted (Lexile 680)
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies
and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his
tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when
life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming
himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.
Wintergirls
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death
from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
Apollo
Bourbon Island 1730 (Graphic novel)
On Bourbon Island off the coast of Madagascar, a French
ornithologist and his assistant are caught up in an adventure
involving slavery, colonialism, and the last days of the great
pirates.
H.G. Bissinger
Friday Night Lights (Lexile: 1260)
Follows the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, a high school
football team in Odessa, Texas, exploring the lives of the players
Susanna Kaysen
Girl, Interrupted (Lexile: 760)
The author describes her two-year stay at a psychiatric
hospital renowned for its famous clientele and for its
progressive methods of treatment.
Louis L’Amour
Trouble shooter (Lexile: 870)
Hopalong Cassidy rides into a mystery involving a bloody
trail and $60,000 in stolen gold when he sets out to find
the cold-blooded killers who murdered his friend Pete and
stole the dead man's ranch.
The walking drum (Lexile: 920)
Kerbouchard, daring son of a corsair, embarks on a
dangerous journey to find and rescue his father.
Patricia McCormick
Cut (Lexile: 660)
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old
Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons
behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get
better.
Sold (Lexile: 820)
A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-yearold girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.
Walter Dean Myers (We have 20+ books of his; here is
a selection)
Bad boy: A memoir (Lexile: 970)
Author Walter Dean Myers describes his childhood in
Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, discussing his loving
stepmother, his problems in school, his reasons for
leaving home, and his beginnings as a writer.
Game (Lexile:800)
Drew Lawson, counting on basketball to get him into
college and out of Harlem, struggles to keep his cool
when the coach brings in two white players and puts them
in positions that clearly threaten Drew's game.
Harlem Summer (Lexile: 910)
In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old saxophonist Mark
Purvis struggles to advance his jazz career while working
as a gopher for the new Africa-American magazine, "The
Crisis," and becoming involved with mobster Dutch
Schultz.
Monster (Lexile: 670)
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-yearold Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in
the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to
come to terms with the course his life has taken.
and the impact of the championship team on the small town.
Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine (Lexile: 880)
In a small town in 1928, a twelve year-old boy savors the magic of
childhood and the wonders of summer.
Fahrenheit 451 (Lexile: 890)
A bookburner official in a future fascist state finds out books are a
vital part of a culture he never knew. He clandestinely pursues
reading, until he is betrayed.
The Illustrated Man (Lexile: 680)
Eighteen science fiction stories, including "The Other Foot", "Zero
Hour," "The Long Rain," "Rocket Man," "The Last Night of the
World," and "The Exiles."
The Martian Chronicles (Lexile: 740)
The first Earth people to attempt the colonization of Mars try to
build their new world in the image of the civilization they have left
behind.
Jim Carroll
The Basketball Diaries
A diary of the author's early teen years in the mid-1960s, telling
how he progressed from sniffing glue to shooting heroin while
playing basketball for Trinity High School in Manhattan.
Chris Crutcher (except Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes)
Athletic shorts: Short stories (Lexile: 1010)
A collection of short stories featuring characters from earlier books
by Chris Crutcher.
Chinese handcuffs (Lexile: 1040)
Still troubled by his older brother's violent suicide, eighteen-yearold Dillon becomes deeply involved in the terrible secret of his
friend Jennifer, who feels she can tell no one what her stepfather is
doing to her.
Ironman (Lexile: 980)
While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends an
anger management group at school which leads him to examine his
relationship with his father.
Running loose (Lexile: 870)
Louie, a high school senior in a small Idaho town, learns about
sportsmanship, love, and death as he matures.
Whale talk (Lexile: 1000)
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted
teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his
high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits
some of the school's less popular students.
Ben Joravsky
Hoop dreams: a true story of hardship and triumph (Lexile: 800)
A biography of Arthur Agee and William Gates, two promising
high school basketball players in Chicago whose experiences were
captured in the documentary film "Hoop Dreams."
Sunrise over Fallujah (Lexile: 780)
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a
member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time
there profoundly changes him.
Rebbecca Ray
Pure
A fourteen-year-old English girl begins a torrid affair with
a friend of her father's while attempting to cope with
problems at home and school.
Sapphire
Push
Precious Jones, a sixteen-year-old girl who is pregnant
with her second child by her father, is pushed by her
courageous African-American teacher to learn to read,
and discovers the truth about herself and her life.
Sandra Scoppettone
This dame for hire
After her boss goes to war, secretary Faye Quick finds
herself running a detective agency in midtown Manhattan
and trying to track down a cold-blooded killer who is
stalking the city's streets.
Nicholas Sparks
The Choice
Veterinarian Travis Parker is very content with his good
job, loyal friends, and waterfront home in North Carolina,
so he is not looking for love, especially not with his testy
new neighbor Gabby Holland, but he cannot seem to keep
from trying to ingratiate himself with her, even though he
knows she has a longtime boyfriend, and it is not long
before they find themselves facing an important choice.
Dear John (Lexile: 850)
After he is released from the Army, John Tyree plans to
spend the rest of his life with University of North
Carolina student Savannah Lynn Curtis, but the events of
September 11 change everything.
The notebook (Lexile: 850)
Noah Calhoun, recently returned from World War II in
1946, buys an old plantation home in rural North
Carolina, where he contents himself with memories of his
first love, a girl he met fourteen years earlier, but then she
unexpectedly arrives at his door.
Ron Suskind
A hope in the unseen (Lexile: 1080)
Follows gifted African-American student Cedric Jennings
from his crime-infested high school in Washington D.C.
to his junior year at Brown University, discussing the
problems he encountered along the road out of the ghetto.