High School Summer
Reading Blurbs
GRADE 9
We Beat the Street, Davis, Jenkins, Hunt, & Draper
Growing up on the rough streets of Newark, New Jersey, Rameck, George, and Sampson could easily
have followed their childhood friends into drug dealing, gangs, and prison. But when a presentation at
their school made the three boys aware of the opportunities available to them in the medical and dental
professions, they made a pact among themselves that they would become doctors. The three struggle to
overcome adversity with determination and a lot of support from one another. Retold with the help of
an award-winning author, this younger adaptation of the adult hit novel The Pact is a hard-hitting,
powerful, and inspirational book that will speak to young readers everywhere.
Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers
The story is one of courage, conflict, and deep numbing confusion about a soldier's role in the Vietnam
War. Myers tells the story from Richie's point of view and spares the reader no detail of the young man's
terror, the firefights and bombing, the killings, and the deaths of his companions, who are the fallen
angels referred to in the book's title. Realistic language and settings play an important role in helping
contemporary readers relate to the environment of brutal fighting in a Southeast Asian jungle.
Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
This is a story about the causes and effects of silence. Late summer before her freshman year in high
school, young Melinda makes a frantic call to 911. This not only ends a party, but also destroys her
chance at popularity. Facing problems both at school and at home, Melinda struggles with her new
identity as a pariah.
Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy
At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school
with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid
memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and
with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to
be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn
between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we
are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect.
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Page 1
Maus I and II, Art Spiegelman
Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a memoir of Art Spiegelman listening to his father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish
Jew and Holocaust survivor, retelling his story. It alternates between descriptions of Vladek's life in
Poland before and during the Second World War and Vladek's later life in the Rego Park neighborhood
of New York City. The work is a graphic narrative in which Jews are depicted as mice, while Germans are
depicted as cats.
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, David Lubar
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie is a 2005 young adult novel by David Lubar. It is a story about the high
school experiences of a fourteen-year-old boy named Scott Hudson. The narration is peppered with lists,
journal entries and Scott's creative writing attempts. While generally light-hearted in tone, the novel
explores heavier subjects such as bullying, peer pressure and teenage suicide.
Feed, M.T. Anderson
Feed (2002) is a dystopian novel of the cyberpunk genre. The book is a dark satire about corporate
power, consumerism, information technology, and data mining in society. The characters in this novel
are attached to computers and television when they are babies, and their lives are reflections of the
impact of base consumerism and mind control. The Feed not only provides society with information on
demand but also manipulates the individual’s decision-making.
The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give a lecture, he
didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the
lecture he gave—“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”—wasn’t about dying. It was about the
importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment
(because “time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a
summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an unspecified future time in a hedonistic anti-intellectual America that
has completely abandoned self-control. This America is filled with lawlessness in the streets ranging
from teenagers crashing cars into people to firemen at a station who set their 'mechanical hound' to
hunt various animals by their scent for the simple and grotesque pleasure of watching them die. Anyone
caught reading or possessing illegal books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the
books are burned by the firemen. Illegal books mainly include famous works of literature, such as Walt
Whitman and William Faulkner, as well as the Bible and all historical texts.
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The Call of the Wild, Jack London
The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously
domesticated dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events leads to his
serving as a sled dog in the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, in which sled dogs were
bought at generous prices.
The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897.. The Invisible Man of the
title is Griffin, a scientist who theorizes that if a person's refractive index is changed to exactly that of air
and his body does not absorb or reflect light, then he will be invisible. He successfully carries out this
procedure but the effects were not something that he counted on.
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
The historical setting of this book is a fundamental element taking place in France, Italy, islands in the
Mediterranean and the Levant during the historical events of 1815-1838. The Count of Monte Cristo is a
mysterious stranger with a haunting secret and a vague past. His sole purpose is that of revenge, but the
novel develops themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness.
A Soldier’s Play, Charles Fuller
A Soldier's Play is a drama by Charles Fuller. The play uses a murder mystery to explore the complicated
feelings of anger and resentment that some African Americans have toward one another, and the ways
in which many black Americans have absorbed white racist attitudes.
The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
The Hot Zone is a best-selling 1994 non-fiction bio-thriller by Richard Preston about the origins and
incidents involving hemorrhagic fevers, particularly the Ebola and Marburg viruses. The basis of the book
was Preston's 1992 New Yorker article "Crisis in the Hot Zone".
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are well-known in literature and mythology. This book,
however, follows the lives of women who are often marginalized in Arthurian retelling; Guinevere,
Viviane, Morgause, Igraine and others. The Mists of Avalon follows the trajectory of Morgaine, a
priestess fighting to save her Celtic culture in a country where Christianity threatens to destroy the
pagan way of life.
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) is a science fiction
novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier called
Billy Pilgrim.
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Grade 10
Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
This novel tells the true story of retired sociology professor Morrie Schwartz and his relationship with his
students. On his graduation, Mitch Albom, the narrator, tells his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz,
that he will keep in touch. However, Mitch hears nothing of his old professor until one night on T.V.
when he sees Morrie being interviewed. Mitch begins to visit his professor and soon realizes that,
though he has grown remarkably, he still has a lot to learn from Morrie.
The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
Set in Nazi Germany, it describes a young girl's (named Liesel Meminger) relationship with her foster
parents, Hans and Rosa, the other residents of their neighborhood, and a Jewish fist-fighter who hides in
her home during the escalation of World War II.
Bleachers, John Grisham
Neely Crenshaw returns to his home town awaiting the death of his critically ill high school football
coach in a town where football is everything. Former players gather on the bleachers to reflect on past
games and the coach they all loved and hated.
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of 14 year-old Lily Owens, who is in
search of her mother's past. She lives in a house with a neglectful and abusive father, T-Ray. T-Ray and
Lily have a black maid, Rosaleen, who acts as a surrogate mother for Lily.
Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin
This book is an epic story of survival and self-discovery that speaks to the power of new beginnings and,
most importantly, of hope. Young Gav can remember the page of a book after seeing it once, and,
inexplicably, he sometimes "remembers" things that are going to happen in the future. As a loyal slave,
he must keep these powers secret, but when a terrible tragedy occurs, Gav, blinded by grief, flees the
only world he has ever known. And in what becomes a treacherous journey for freedom, Gav's greatest
test of all is facing his powers so that he can come to understand himself and finally find a true home.
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from Heaven as her family
and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death.
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Way Past Cool, Jess Mowry
Way Past Cool may be the bluntest, most straightforward novel about inner-city teenage gangs—
especially junior high school gangs—ever published, delving deeper and more harshly into the lives of
inner city street life. The almost hopeless lives that Way Past Cool's youngsters endure and the way they
accept brutality as an everyday part of their lives is very intense.
The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time takes place in the year 1998 in and around the town of
Swindon, England. The fifteen-year-old narrator of the story, Christopher John Francis Boone, discovers
the slain body of his neighbor’s poodle, Wellington, on the neighbor’s front lawn one evening and sets
out to uncover the murderer. His investigation is at times aided, and at other times hampered, by the
mild form of autism he lives with.
Anthem, Ayn Rand
Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, first published in 1937 in England. It takes place at
some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age as a result of the evils of
irrationality and collectivism and the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological
advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of
individuality has been eliminated (for example, the word "I" has disappeared from the language).
Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
In search of missing family members, Zulu priest Stephen Kumalo leaves his South African village to
traverse the deep and perplexing city of Johannesburg in the 1940s. With his sister turned prostitute, his
brother turned labor protestor and his son, Absalom, arrested for the murder of a white man, Kumalo
must grapple with how to bring his family back from the brink of destruction as the racial tension
throughout Johannesburg hampers his attempts to protect his family.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
A young man, Holden Caulfield, is in a mental institution where he is recovering from a recent mental
breakdown. The entire novel is a flashback of the events that had led up to his emotional destruction.
The flashback begins with Holden leaving the boarding school he had been sent to by his parents
because of lackluster grades.
Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!' Set before and during the French Revolution in the
cities of Paris and London, A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of Dr. Manette's release from
imprisonment in the Bastille and his reunion with daughter, Lucie. A French aristocrat Darnay and
English lawyer Carton compete in their love for Lucie and the ensuing tale plays out against the
menacing backdrop of the French Revolution and the shadow of the guillotine.
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The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The novel centers upon Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in
the Gulf Stream. The Old Man and The Sea focuses on the internal and external conflicts that exist
through Man’s relationship with the power of Nature.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
The first in a six-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and
a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. The book chronicles the early life of young
Maya and her older brother who are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother. The
novel details Maya’s transformation from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a selfpossessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.
Black Boy, Richard Wright
Black Boy (1945) is an autobiography by Richard Wright. The author explores his childhood and race
relations in the South. Wright eventually moves to Chicago, where he establishes his writing career and
becomes involved with the Communist Party.
The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans a historical novel set during the French and Indian War when France and Great
Britain battled for control of the North American colonies. During this war, the French called on allied
Native American tribes to fight against the more numerous British colonists. This is the classic tale of
Hawkeye-Natty Bumppo-the frontier scout who turned his back on "civilization," and his friendship with
a Mohican warrior as they escort two sisters through the dangerous wilderness of Indian country in
frontier America.
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Grade 11
Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck
Above the town of Monterey on the California coast lies the shabby district of Tortilla Flat, inhabited by
a loose gang of jobless locals of Mexican-Indian-Spanish-Caucasian descent (who typically claim pure
Spanish blood). The central character Danny inherits two houses from his grandfather where he and his
friends go to live.
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families in San Francisco, California who
start a club known as "the Joy Luck Club," playing the Chinese game of mahjong for money while
feasting on a variety of foods. The book is structured somewhat like a mahjong game, with four parts
divided into four sections to create sixteen chapters. The three mothers and four daughters (one
mother, Suyuan Woo, dies before the novel opens) share stories about their lives in the form of
vignettes. Each part is preceded by a parable relating to the game.
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Set in Earth's future, the novel presents imperiled humankind who has barely survived two conflicts with
the Formics (an insectoid alien race also known as the "Buggers"). In preparation for an anticipated third
invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders. The
world's most talented children, including the novel's protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are taken at a very
young age to a training center known as the Battle School where they are trained in the arts of war
through increasingly difficult games .
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a look into a family at once
deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father
captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly.
But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the
idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.
The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy
Yamacraw is a poor, run-down island which has no bridges and little infrastructure. The book details
Conroy's efforts to communicate with the islanders, who are nearly all directly descended from slaves
and who have had little contact with the mainland or its people. He struggles to find ways to reach his
students, ages ten to thirteen, some of whom are illiterate or innumerate, and none of whom know
anything about the world beyond Yamacraw. Conroy battles with the principal, Mrs. Brown, over his
unconventional teaching methods and with the administrators of the school district, whom he accuses
of ignoring the problems at the Yamacraw School.
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Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
This novel tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end
of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story
shares several similarities with Homer's The Odyssey. The novel alternates chapter-by-chapter between
Inman's and Ada's stories.
Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington
Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his slow and steady rise
from a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education
at the new Hampton University. In this memoir, Washington describes his efforts to instill manners,
breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students.
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the
Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in
American social culture.
1984, George Orwell
1984 is a dystopian novel written by George Orwell, about a world of perpetual war, pervasive
government surveillance, and incessant public mind control. The individual is always subordinated to the
state, and it is in part this philosophy which allows the Party to manipulate and control humanity.
Protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant who begins to question the propaganda and distortion of the
governmental leviathan known as Big Brother.
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
Farewell to Arms is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Ernest Hemingway concerning events
during the Italian campaigns during the First World War. A Farewell to Arms works on two literary levels.
Firstly it is a story concerning the drama and passion of a doomed romance between Henry and British
nurse, Catherine Barkley. But secondly, it also skillfully contrasts the meaning of personal tragedy
against the impersonal destruction wrought by the Great War.
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi
countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members—
including Addie herself—the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos.
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Native Son, Richard Wright
Native Son is a novel by American author Richard Wright. The novel tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger
Thomas, an African American living in utter poverty in Chicago's South Side ghetto in the 1930s. Bigger
was always getting into trouble as a youth, but upon receiving a job at the home of the Daltons, a rich,
white family, he experienced a realization of his identity. His world begins to collapse when he believes
that he killed a white woman, accidentally.
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Awakening is a novella by Kate Chopin. Set in New Orleans and the Southern Louisiana coast at the
end of the nineteenth century, the plot centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her
increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the
turn-of-the-century South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues
without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism.
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
In Cold Blood is a book by American author Truman Capote detailing the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert
Clutter, a wealthy farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife and their two children. When Capote learned
of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write
about the crime. The famous book details the killing from multiple perspectives including the
motivations and lives of the two killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith who were captured
while Capote was researching the book .
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
The Jungle is a novel written by muckraking journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to portray
the life of the immigrant in America, but readers were more concerned with the large portion pertaining
to the corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early-20th century, and the book is
now often interpreted and taught as only an exposure of the industry of meatpacking. The novel depicts
in harsh tones poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant living and working conditions, and
hopelessness prevalent among the working class, which is contrasted with the deeply-rooted corruption
on the part of those in power.
Long Day’s Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill
The action covers a fateful, heart-rending day from around 8:30 am to midnight, in August 1912 at the
seaside Connecticut home of the Tyrones - the semi-autobiographical representations of O'Neill himself,
his older brother, and their parents at their home, Monte Cristo Cottage. One theme of the play is
addiction and the resulting dysfunction of the family. All three males are alcoholics and Mary is addicted
to morphine. They all constantly conceal, blame, resent, regret, accuse and deny in an escalating cycle of
conflict with occasional desperate and half-sincere attempts at affection, encouragement and
consolation.
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Grade 12
Catch -22, Joseph Heller
Catch-22 is a satirical, historical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. The novel, set during the
later stages of World War II from 1944 onwards, is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of
the twentieth century. It has a distinctive non-chronological style where events are described from
different characters' points of view and out of sequence so that the time line develops along with the
plot. The novel follows Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and a number of other
characters. Most events occur while the Airmen of the fictional 256th squadron are based on the island
of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea west of Italy.
Fences, August Wilson
The focus of Wilson's attention in Fences is Troy, a fifty-something head of household who struggles
with providing for his family and with his obsession of cheating death. Troy was a great baseball player
in his youth, but this was before the color barrier was broken in MLB. Thus, he was unable to make good
money then or to save money for the future. He now lives a menial life along with his wife, Rose, plus
two sons named Lyons (from a previous marriage who does not live in his house) and Cory (who still
lives in the house at the play's opening). Bono is his best friend and Gabriel is his insane brother.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic
of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets
whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read.
However, once a month she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant,
because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are
viable.
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
Chris McCandless grew up in suburban Annandale, Virginia. After graduating in 1990 with high grades
from Emory University, McCandless ceased communicating with his family, gave away his college fund of
$24,000 and began traveling, later abandoning his car. In April 1992, McCandless hitchhiked to the
Stampede Trail in Alaska. There, McCandless headed down the snow-covered trail to begin an odyssey
with only 10 pounds of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, several boxes of rifle rounds, a camera, and a small
selection of reading material — including a field guide to the region's edible plants, Tana'ina Plantlore.
This memoir details Chris’ experience in “The Wild.”
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who
befriends Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of
tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the mass
exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.
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The Road, Cormac McCarthy
The Road follows an unnamed father and son journeying together across a grim post-apocalyptic
landscape, some years after a great, unexplained cataclysm has destroyed most civilization and most life
on Earth. Realizing that they will not survive another winter in their unspecified original location, the
father leads the boy south, through a desolate American landscape along a vacant highway, towards the
sea, sustained only by the vague hope of finding warmth and more "good guys" like them, and carrying
with them only what is on their backs and what will fit into a damaged supermarket cart.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
In East of Eden, John Steinbeck outlines the story of the warmhearted inventor and farmer Samuel
Hamilton and his wife Liza, immigrants from Ireland. He describes how they raise their nine children on a
rough, infertile piece of land. As the Hamilton children begin to grow up and leave the nest, a wealthy
stranger, Adam Trask, purchases the best ranch in the Valley.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The plot of the novel is driven by a particular situation of the Bennet family: The Longbourn estate
where they reside is entailed to one of Mr Bennet's collateral relatives—male only in this case—by the
legal terms of fee tail. Mr and Mrs Bennet have no sons: this means that, if Mr Bennet dies soon, his
wife and five daughters will be left without home or income. Mrs Bennet worries about this
predicament and wishes to find husbands for her five daughters quickly.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
The story, narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Native American inmate "Chief" Bromden focuses on
the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve out his sentence in
the hospital. With little medical oversight, the hospital ward is run by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, her
three black day-shift orderlies, and her assistant doctors.
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Divided into five chapters, each of which is more or less self-contained, Maxine Hong Kingston's The
Woman Warrior explores the many forms of adversity that women face. Kingston uses women's stories
to explore her own cultural history. As a first-generation Chinese American, she struggles to reconcile
her Chinese cultural heritage with her emerging sense of herself as an American.
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The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Esther, an A-student from Boston who has won a guest editorship on a national magazine, finds a
bewildering new world at her feet. Her New York life is crowded with possibilities, so that the choice of
future is overwhelming, but she can no longer retreat into the safety of her past. Deciding she wants to
be a writer above all else, Esther is also struggling with the perennial problems of morality, behavior and
identity. In this compelling autobiographical novel, a milestone in contemporary literature, Sylvia Plath
chronicles her teenage years - her disappointments, anger, depression and eventual breakdown and
treatment - with stunning wit and devastating honesty.
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal
behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and
Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo
ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a
lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound
Bengal tiger.
Senioritis, Tate Thompson
A group of high school teenagers have to attend a 3-5 p.m. program to make up credits, or to correct
inappropriate behavior before they can graduate. And a very compassionate mentor encourages them
to correct their failings as they vent their anger against teachers in their journals.
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The book follows the story of Sethe and her daughter Denver as they try to rebuild their lives after
having escaped from slavery. 124 Bluestone, the house they inhabit, is haunted by a ghost which visits
with an alarming regularity. Because of this, Sethe's youngest daughter, Denver, has no friends and is
extremely shy. The ghost’s torments lead to the destruction of the family.
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the
house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her
household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention. Though different in upbringing, education
and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things. Vermeer slowly draws her into the
world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings.
The Salt Eaters, Toni Cade Bambara
The novel is set in a small, Southern town named Claybourne. This is the story of a community of black
faith healers who, searching for the healing properties of salt, witness an event that will change their
lives forever.
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