Student Edition
Grades 9-12
2012-13
August 2, 2012
Dear Imagine Schools Parents/Guardians and Students,
We invite you to participate in the Imagine Schools National Advanced Reading Challenge (ARC). Developed in 2008,
this initiative is designed to challenge students to choose high quality literature, to read as much and as often as they are
able, and to share their love for reading with peers and adults on their Imagine campus.
From our personal experience, we believe that many students are capable of moving ahead with minimal direction and
attention from teachers. What they need is encouragement to take risks and venture out into the world of ideas and
knowledge. We also believe that the best way to get an education on your own is to read good books. Dennis’ older
brother, Ray, read and reported on over 100 books in his sophomore year in high school. While he barely got C’s in most
of his classes that year, he was on his way to being one of the most well educated persons we know. He now has a
personal library in his home that houses over 10,000 books. Similarly, when she was in the 4 th grade, Eileen received $100
from her parents for reading 100 books during the school year. This challenge fanned her love of reading and further
inspired her to have high academic aspirations.
The Advanced Reading Challenge is open to Imagine Schools’ students in grades 3-12 who are at or above grade level in
reading, and who can assume responsibility for independent work beyond their class and homework assignments. The
ARC book list is comprised of high quality “classic” books at or above grade level. We ask students not to deviate from
the attached reading lists, with the exception that students can select up to three books that are not the lists to read
towards the challenge. Books selected by students must have coordinator approval. Students may read from lists higher
than their grade level, but not below their grade level.
Grade-level book lists have been updated to provide more choices to students. As was the case in past years, by accepting
this challenge students pledge to read each book and complete a short response of their choice in order to certify their
accomplishment. We will give a $50 Barnes and Noble Gift Card to each student who reads and reports on the designated
number of books (25 for grades 3-8 and 15 for grades 9-12) in a school year, and these students will be recognized
nationally by Imagine Schools. Last year, well over 1,000 Imagine students participated in the ARC, and 368 were given
awards for completing the challenge.
We hope that by taking on this challenge, students will stretch themselves to accomplish more than they might have in an
ordinary year, enjoy some great new books, and model achievement and excellence for their friends and peers.
With gratitude,
Eileen Bakke
Co-Founder
Imagine Schools
Dennis Bakke
Co-Founder & CEO
Imagine Schools
Imagine Schools 2012-2013
Advanced Reading Challenge
Grades 9-12
Congratulations on your decision to challenge yourself through reading! We hope that by taking on
this CHALLENGE, you will stretch yourself to accomplish more than you might have in an ordinary
year, enjoy some great new books, and model achievement and excellence for your friends and peers.
Your Role as a Student:
1. Sign commitment to read the designated number of books (15 for grades 9-12) not previously
read.
a. You can choose two or three books of your choice to count towards the challenge. These books
must be appropriate, challenging and approved by your Advanced Reading Challenge Coordinator
or teacher.
b. You can also listen to 2-3 ARC books on tape or CD. Your local library should have several of your
ARC books on tape or CD.
2. Prepare a reading portfolio in which a table of contents with a list of books read and all
corresponding projects are stored/showcased (*see attached table of contents)
3. Participate in school initiated activities (i.e., after school book club to present projects, etc.) as
designated by your school of attendance.
4. Submit all materials upon completion to your school’s Advanced Reading Coordinator by
Wednesday, May 1, 2013.
Helpful Adults:
Advanced Reading Challenge Coordinator: This person will receive guidelines from the Imagine
Schools office and will help you with the expectations and materials needed to complete the reading
challenge. He/she may hold meetings to share information with you and your parents, answer
questions that you might have along the way, and will find ways to help you complete this challenge.
Teachers: Your teachers should be able to help you get started, share information with your
parent/guardian, remind you of deadlines, and help you make contact with the Advanced Reading
Challenge coordinator throughout the school year.
Parent/Guardian: Your parent or guardian should talk with you about the expectations of the
Advanced Reading Challenge and support you by:
1. Signing the reading contract
2. Helping you find books (at the public library if needed)
3. Asking you about the books you are reading and responses you are completing.
4. Participating as an audience for your book summaries, discussions, and project presentations at
school or home.
Librarian/Media Specialist: Your school librarian or media specialist can help you find books in your
school library or identify books on the reading lists that are in the public library collection.
1
Important Dates:
Your school will start whenever your coordinator is ready. Return your contract to
Start
the ARC Coordinator by the first week of October at the latest. Begin reading!
End
Wednesday, May 1, 2013: All student portfolios must be turned in to your ARC
Coordinator by Wednesday, May 1, 2013.
2
Imagine Schools 2012-2013
Advanced Reading Challenge
Creative Responses to Literature
Grades 9-12
After reading each book from the Imagine Schools Advance Reading Challenge list, create a new
entry in your Reading Portfolio Table of Contents (see attached sheet). Then choose a way to present
your understanding of the book you just finished. Include each final draft in your portfolio to share
with your class and school. If your final draft is not written, be sure to get a picture or include notes
from an oral presentation so that there is record of what you have done for each book. Keep all
finished products organized neatly in your portfolio. Remember, the goal of this challenge is to enjoy
some great new books and help your friends to enjoy them too!
Monologue
Power
of Persuasion
Author
Interview
Poster Project
Character
Correspondence
Visual
Imaging
The Press
Conference
Quotable
Quotations
Mapping
the Way
Book Club
Alternatives
PowerPoint
Presentation
Point of Decision
Current Events
Publisher’s
Promotion
Glog
Prezi
Book Blog Entry
3
Responding to Literature Descriptions
Grades 9-12
Monologue: Perform a monologue, pretending you are the main character (or another significant
character) in your book.
Poster Project: Use an art form of your choice to create a graphic way to retell the most important
parts of the novel you read.
The Press Conference: Take on the role of the main character in your book. Hold a press conference
to answer your classmates’ prepared questions.
Book Club: Participate in (or lead) a book club discussion with other students and/or teachers in
your school who are reading the same book.
Point of Decision: List important decisions made by book characters and explain what happens in
the story as a result of those decisions.
The Power of Persuasion: Write a 2 to 3-minute radio advertisement persuading the public why they
should buy and read this book.
Character Correspondence: Write and address two letters to characters in your book.
Quotable Quotations: Identify important quotations made by different book characters, and explain
why each quotation is important in the story.
Alternatives: Think of a new turn of events for the plot in your story. Rewrite the ending like the
“choose your own adventure” books.
Current Events: Create a news report that highlights your story’s main characters and events.
Author Interview: Write a letter to the author asking questions about the book and/or what it is like
to be an author.
Visual Imaging: Draw highlights from your book as you retell the story or visually sequence events
to create a timelines.
Publisher’s Promotion: As a literary agent, write a letter to the publishing company designed to
persuade them to publish this book.
Mapping the Way: Create maps or plot routes in the form of a map. Create a key to clearly show the
symbolism and significance of each route and/or landmark plotted.
4
PowerPoint Presentation: Create a PowerPoint presentation that enables you to show important
discoveries you made while reading your book. Share your completed presentation with class or
small group.
Glog: Create your own interactive blog or “glog” at www.glogster.com. Please email
emily.cusack@imagineschools.com for an example of a glog.
Prezi Presentation: Create a Prezi Presentation, which is similar to a PowerPoint Presentation, at
prezi.com. Prezi presentations are known for their their zooming animation abilities. Share your
completed presentation with your class or small group.
Book Blog Entry: Create a book blog and complete an entry about a book you’ve read towards the
ARC. Include a summary of the book and your personal reaction to the book in your entry. You can
create a free blog at www.blogger.com. Then, share your entry with friends!
5
Imagine Schools 2012-2013
Advanced Reading Challenge
Grades 9-12
Purpose: The goal of the Advanced Reading Challenge is to challenge students to
independently read 15 books during the course of one school year and complete short
responses to share new knowledge and understanding from their reading.
Student Responsibility: To challenge myself to achieve to the best of my ability, enjoy the
books I read and encourage my peers to read good literature.
Student Commitment
I, _____________________________________, accept the Advanced Reading Challenge. I
commit to trying to read 15 books from the Advanced Reading Challenge book list. I
understand that these should be books that I have not previously read. I commit to sharing
the story with my teacher, class, parent/guardian, or school group in a creative way and
documenting all books I have read through preparing an ARC Portfolio.
____________________________
Student Signature
________________________
Date
____________________________
School
________________________
Grade
Parent/Guardian Commitment
I, _____________________________________, commit to supporting my child with the
Advanced Reading Challenge. I will encourage my child in his/her endeavor to read the
determined number of books, complete the portfolio to highlight his/her accomplishments,
and share the books read with his/her class and school community. I will sign to confirm that
my child has read each book.
____________________________
Signature
________________________
Date
6
Imagine Schools 2012-2013
Advanced Reading Challenge
Portfolio Table of Contents Grades 9-12
Name ___________________________________
Grade____________
School Year ______________________________
Teacher____________
#
Title
Type of
Creative
Response
Date
Completed
Confirmation
Signature *
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
*Parent/guardian, teacher, or Advanced Reading Challenge Coordinator may sign to confirm upon completion.
7
Advanced Reading Challenge
Book List Grades 9-12
Title
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The White Tiger
Band of Brothers
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to
the Nation: Volume 1
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Handmaid’s Tale
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
Mansfield Park
Joy at Work
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle
to Integrate Little Rock's Central High
Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an ExtraOrdinary Man
Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They
Changed America
Electric Universe
E=mc2
Green Shadows, White Whale
Fahrenheit 451
The Illustrated Man
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Poems
The Good Earth
The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One
Nights
Parable of the Sower
The Plague
The Stranger
In Cold Blood
My Antonia
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Don Quixote
Solibo Magnificent
Early Stories
The Awakening
The Deerslayer
The Last of the Mohicans
Jurassic Park
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler
The Farming of Bones
The Mystery of Capital
Reading in the Dark
Robinson Crusoe
A Tale of Two Cities
David Copperfield
Oliver Twist
Author
Adams, Douglas
Adiga, Aravind
Ambrose, Stephen
Anderson, M.T.
Angelou, Maya
Atwood, Margaret
Austen, Jane
Austen, Jane
Austen, Jane
Bakke, Dennis
Baldwin, James
Beals, Melba Pattillo
Berra, Tim B.
Beschloss, Michael
Bodanis, David
Bodanis, David
Bradbury, Ray
Bradbury, Ray
Bradbury, Ray
Bronte, Charlotte
Bronte, Emily
Browning, Robert
Buck, Pearl
Burton, Richard
Butler, Octavia. E.
Camus, Albert
Camus, Albert
Capote, Truman
Cather, Willa
Cather, Willa
Cervantes
Chamoiseau, Patrick
Chekhov, Anton Pavolich
Chopin, Kate
Cooper, James Fenimore
Cooper, James Fenimore
Crichton, Michael
Cross Giblin, James
Danticat, Edwidge
De Soto, Hernando
Deane, Seamus
Defoe, Daniel
Dickens, Charles
Dickens, Charles
Dickens, Charles
Advanced Reading Challenge
Book List Grades 9-12
Title
Poems
Out of Africa
Lincoln
Brothers Karamazov
Crime and Punishment**
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Rebecca
The Three Musketeers
Gandhi: Fighter Without a Sword
What is the What
Zeitoun
Invisible Man
As I Lay Dying
The Great Gatsby
Madame Bovary
The Magus
Cold Mountain
A Lesson Before Dying
The Starry Messenger
Gandhi: An Autobiography: The Story of My
Experiments with Truth
Hole in My Life
Lord of the Flies
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Scarlet Letter
Beowulf
Catch 22
A Farewell to Arms
The Old Man and the Sea
The Sun Also Rises
Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey
The Toa of Pooh
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Kite Runner
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Les Mis érables
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Brave New World
Island
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The World According to Garp
Legends of Sleepy Hollow, Unabridged
Rip Van Winkle, Unabridged
The Remains of the Day
Over a Thousand Hills I Walk with You
The First Part Last
Dubliners
The Metamorphosis
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Author
Dickinson, Emily
Dinesen, Isak
Donald, David Herbert
Dostoevsky, Fyodor
Dostoevsky, Fyodor
Douglass, Frederick
Du Maurier, Daphne
Dumas, Alexandre
Eaton, Jeanette
Eggers, David
Eggers, David
Ellison, Ralph
Faulkner, William
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott
Flaubert, Gustave
Fowles, John
Frazier, Charles
Gaines, Earnest J.
Galilei, Galileo
Gandhi, Mahatma
Gantos, Jack
Golding, William
Haddon, Mark
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Heaney, Seamus
Heller, Joseph
Hemingway, Ernest
Hemingway, Ernest
Hemingway, Ernest
Highwater, Jamake
Hoff, Benjamin
Homer
Homer
Hosseini, Khaled
Hugo, Victor
Hugo, Victor
Hurston, Zora Neale
Huxley, Aldous
Huxley, Aldous
Irving, John
Irving, John
Irving, Washington
Irving, Washington
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Jansen, Hanna
Johnson, Angela
Joyce, James
Kafka, Franz
Kesey, Ken
Advanced Reading Challenge
Book List Grades 9-12
Title
The Secret Life of Bees
Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among
Ghosts
A Separate Peace
Into the Wild
Into Thin Air
Tales from Shakespeare
The Left Hand of Darkenss
To Be a Slave
Of Civil Government
Kaffir Boy
Truman
1776
Moby Dick
Gone with the Wind
Beloved
Song of Solomon
Three Cups of Tea
Monster
Sunrise Over Fallujah
1984
Cry The Beloved Country
A Collection of Stories
The Fountainhead
The Qur'an Translation**
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Catcher in the Rye
Franny and Zooey
The Canterbury Tales
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Hamlet
Othello
Frankenstein
Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of WWII's
Most Dramatic Mission
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Antigone
The City of God
East of Eden
Cannery Row
Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice and Men
Treasure Island
The Joy Luck Club
Vanity Fair
Civil Disobedience
Walden
The Fellowship of the Ring
Author
Kidd, Sue Monk
Kingston, Maxine Hong
Knowles, John
Krakaurer, Jon
Krakaurer, Jon
Lamb, Charles and Mary
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lester, Julius
Locke, John
Mathabane, Mark
McCullough, David
McCullough, David
Melville, Herman
Mitchell, Margaret
Morrison, Toni
Morrison, Toni
Mortenson, Greg
Myers, Walter Dean
Myers, Walter Dean
Orwell, George
Paton, Alan
Poe, Edgar Allan
Rand, Ayn
Razwy, Sayed A. A. & Abdullah
Yusuf Ali
Remarque, Erich Maria
Salinger, J. D.
Salinger, J. D.
Saucer, Geoffrey
Shakespeare, William
Shakespeare, William
Shakespeare, William
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Sides, Hampton
Smith, Betty
Sophocles
St. Augustine
Steinbeck, John
Steinbeck, John
Steinbeck, John
Steinbeck, John
Stevenson, Louis Robert
Tan, Amy
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Thoreau, Henry David
Thoreau, Henry David
Tolkien, J.R.R.
Advanced Reading Challenge
Book List Grades 9-12
Title
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
Anna Karenina**
War and Peace**
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Cat’s Cradle
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Color Purple
All the King’s Men
The War of the Worlds
Night
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Importance of Being Earnest
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Native Son
The New Testament (Bible)**
The Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy,
Author
Tolkien, J.R.R.
Tolkien, J.R.R.
Tolstoy, Leo
Tolstoy, Leo
Twain, Mark
Verne, Jules
Vonnegut, Kurt
Vonnegut, Kurt
Walker, Alice
Warren, Robert Penn
Wells, H.G.
Wiesel, Elie
Wilde, Oscar
Wilde, Oscar
Williams, Tennessee
Wright, Richard
Joshua, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, & Ecclesiastes**
Books that are followed by two asterisks (**) count as two books towards the Advanced Reading Challenge.
*AR Readability (ATOS formula): Measures the textual difficulty of a whole book, not just a single passage.
*Interest Level: LG=Lower Grades (K-3), MG=Middle Grades (4-8), UG=Upper Grades (9-12): Maturity
level of a book's content, ideas, and themes based on publisher's recommendations about the content.
All classic books should be read in an unabridged form unless otherwise noted.
Books that are highlighted have been added to the ARC list during the 2012 calendar year.