Grade 10 English (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

School for Hawaiian Girls, Georgia Ka‘apuni McMillen[Amazon]*
McMillen is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, University of Hawai‘i and New York Law School, and this is her first novel: “A schoolgirl is murdered in a sugarcane field. The murderer vanishes into the early 20th century Hawaiian landscape….The initial mystery in this novel is far more interesting than whodunit or why….The mystery that Lydia’s family must solve is how to go on living after Lydia’s death. They choose silence, but that decision carries its own tragedy and high price. The reader follows the Kaluhi family as it struggles into the 20th century”

1984, George Orwell[Amazon]
If you enjoyed or were intrigued by George Orwell’s Animal Farm, 1984 is a visionary, very disturbing futuristic view of the world (including Oceania). How far will our world governments impose on the privacy of its ordinary citizens? Orwell’s book is a grim and eye-opening account of a bleak but intriguing world where individual privacy is but a nostalgic glimmer and ironic reflection of the past.

Ka‘ahumanu, Moulder of Change, Jane L. Silverman[Amazon]
This non-fiction book can be found in every state library and several copies are available at the MLC as well as from book vendors online. Silverman has effectively depicted Ka‘ahumanu as a beloved ali‘i who was controversial, strong-willed, incredibly intelligent and strong-willed. This book is especially recommended for those who enjoyed reading and performing Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl’s play The Conversion of Ka‘ahumanu.

Pouliuli, Albert Wendt[Amazon]*
This novel by a renowned Samoan novelist Albert Wendt is about sibling rivalry, favoritism, apparent madness and harsh truths that emerge in the fictional Samoan village of Malaelua controlled by the strong willed and cunning Faleasa Osovae, the 76 year old titled head of the Aiga Faleasa. Pouliuli contains one controversial scene, so please be sure that you have parental approval before choosing this recommendation. If you enjoy reading this book, then by all means keep reading more of Wendt’s novels this summer, works like Sons for the Return Home and Leaves of the Banyan Tree

Nahi‘ena‘ena, Sacred Daughter of Hawai‘i, Marjorie Sinclair. [Amazon]
Nahi‘ena‘ena is the first book length, fully documented biography of a Hawaiian woman. In 1834, in the ancient way of Hawaiian chiefs, Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli) and his sister married. Nahi‘ena‘ena, heir to the sacred kapu, was the only daughter of Kamehameha I and his highest ruling wife, Keopuolani. Nahi‘ena‘ena was quickly ensnared in the contradictions of her dual role, as pupil of missionary teachings and as sacred chiefess, and her life foreshadowed the increasing dilemma of the Hawaiian people. Nahi‘ena‘ena was heiress of a long, brilliant past in the Pacific; she was the uncertain harbinger of the future, caught up in the pain and confusion of clashing worlds.

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