Grade 10 HONORS (Focus on Hawaiian, Pacific and World Literature)
Summer Reading List

Students are to choose one book from the list to read. All students will be tested on their choice at the start of the school year in their English classes. Books may be borrowed from the state library system or purchased from the local bookstores. New and used paperback books may be purchased online. Two such sites are http://www.campusi.com and Amazon.com

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley[Amazon]*
Huxley’s classic science fiction novel is an equally powerful exploration of futuristic versus traditional lifestyles, and of genetic manipulation in a timeless, disturbing, pre-Matrix vision of a disconcerting, ominous yet seductive future. This book is not for the squeamish, nor for those who spurn dictionaries.

Dogside Story, Patricia Grace[Amazon]
Patricia Grace is a prolific and widely honored Maori author of numerous short stories and novels. This recent novel (2001) depicts contemporary Maori families struggling amidst poverty, joy, sadness, family relationships and engaged in day to day survival. Grace brilliantly depicts conflicts within families and society, yet always provides uplifting, unique perspectives that fill her readers with hope, inspiration and determination.

How We Became Human, New and Selected Poems: 1975-2001, Joy Harjo[Amazon]
For those students who love and perhaps aspire to write poetry, this is an opportunity to read a beautifully interwoven collection of poems produced by a renowned Native American poet (of the Muscogee Nation) who is presently living and working in Hawai‘i. Harjo’s poems are interlaced with life’s themes seen through her heart’s mind and soul. Harjo’s book includes an engaging autobiographical introduction and informative endnotes for each of her poems.

Melal, A Novel of the Pacific, Robert Barclay[Amazon]
In the 1950s, the U.S. government evacuated the people of Bikini and Rongelap atolls and detonated a total of 66 nuclear test bombs from 1946 and 1958, devastating ancestral islands in Micronesia and poisoning hundreds. This novel, which convincingly combines magic realism and fiction, is one of the most poignant stories to emerge from this region of the Pacific. This novel has received numerous awards for its powerful tale of wrenching contrasts between the native Marshallese people, their spiritual ancestors of Kwajelein and Ebeye atolls, and those from the United States who have occupied and established, in 1965, a U.S. military missile launching and testing base on Kwajelein. Read the preface that Barclay chose not to include in the novel on www.robert-barclay.com.

Sula, Toni Morrison.[Amazon]
Sula is about the lifelong friendship of two vastly different women who become estranged when one causes the other’s husband to abandon her: “All the women were the same in Medallion, Ohio. Their lithe, glowing girl-bodies had been thickened by childbearing and woman’s work. The moon gleam in their eyes had been dulled by small-town reality. A Medallion woman lived for her man. Without him — without some man — she might as well be dead. Sula was different. The women knew it. The men knew it. Sula fascinated and frightened them. She affected their lives like a lightning storm on a dusty summer day.”

The Watcher of Waipuna, Gary Pak[Amazon]*
Of Korean ancestry from Kane‘ohe, O‘ahu, Gary Pak writes vicariously in poetic and descriptive English and Hawai‘i Creole English (pidgin). His stories are locally focused, spicy (watch out!) and reflective of life, struggles, conflicts, joys and epiphanies of convincingly wrought Hawaiian, Asian and ethnically mixed characters .

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X with Alex Haley[Amazon]*
In the 9th grade, students may have been assigned a very short excerpt by Malcolm X in their textbook Elements of Literature. Now is the chance to read the entire book of X’s transformative life in which he experiences hate and racism at a very early age, only to initially embrace a dangerous and sordid lifestyle during his late teens and early 20s in New York city. Eventually imprisoned, X uses his lengthy jail sentence to educate himself thoroughly. By the time he re-enters society, he has completely rejected drugs, alcohol, casual sex, and has unequivocally embraced Islam. This work of non-fiction is recommended only to those who yearn for wider perspectives no matter how controversial the content.

*Parental Advisory – occasional profanity and/or drug-use or sexual references.