Grade Ten English 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

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman. [Amazon]
The story takes you into an exciting world you feel you almost know. (But then when was the last time you saw armored bear warriors?) Read your way into strategies and a destined quest that involves good witches, questionable and questing scholars, disappearing kids, souls you can hug in the form of animals that change their shape, and a Texan balloonist. It’s a journey that involves a girl of enormous courage who has friends worth dying for.

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.

Middle Son, Deborah Iida. [Amazon]
A middle son is raised almost as an only son because his big brother dies when he is twelve and his little brother is given to his father’s childless brother to raise. But this middle son has a heavier and lonelier road than most middle kids. The book is about growing up in a Japanese plantation community on Maui and dealing with losing your brave older brother under circumstances you are going to want to talk about, but he cannot. You first meet this good son when he is a grown-up father who travels from Oahu to Maui where his now-old mom is dying from cancer. You will be interested to hear differences between the pidgin you hear every day and what you find on the page.

My Name is Loa, Dee Buckingham [Amazon]
The book tells about life on Kalaupapa and how Damien helped people rebuild a community there, but it’s set some years afterward, at the turn of the century. It’ll make you think about the new plague of AIDS that some kids have to fight in 2000. What would you do if you learned at fifteen that you were going to die of an incurable, disfiguring disease? Would you first get angry, and want to die quickly rather than wait for the disease to slowly eat away your body and strength? Would you try to help and comfort your fellow-sufferers, and seize what love and friendship you could find? Young Loa Ka‘ai planned to be a doctor, but he’s living and dying in a time of great change for the Hawaiian nation, and has to annex a new Hawaiian family.

Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Beals. [Amazon]
An account of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Melba Beals was a schoolgirl in Little Rock who knew that Central High was the school that would best prepare her for college. She wanted to be in the first group of black teenagers to integrate the school. The narrative is uplifting because Beale survived the ordeal and went on to college and a successful career, but the tale is depressing because unremitting violence permeates every page, making a reader wonder how human beings can harbor so much hatred.

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell. [Amazon]
Set in a terrifying country where Big Brother is always watching you, the book was written to be a warning about the menaces of totalitarianism. The story’s hero longs for truth and decency, leading him and the woman he loves to rebel against the government. The author touches on what it means to be a person, the rights all should have, and depicts what it takes for individuals to give up their principles.