Concord-Carlisle High School Summer Reading List 2010
Welcome to the CCHS Learning Commons
The CCHS Learning Commons is happy to provide you with resources for
FUN summer reading!
Zombie Lit
World War Z: an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Max Brooks, son of actor Mel Brooks, chronicles the fictitious "zombie wars" that nearly decimated the human population, with first-hand accounts from people who have had a brush with the undead and facts and figures documenting how many undead currently roam the planet.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
An adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," in which Meryton is overrun with zombies and Elizabeth Bennet does what must be done to rid the world of the flesh-eating fiends, but she is distracted by the arrival of Mr. Darcy, a rich man who harbors an air of arrogance.
Monster Island: a zombie novel by David Wellington
A heavily-armed group of teenage survivors, accompanied by a former UN weapons inspector, set out from Africa one month following a global disaster that has turned most of humanity into zombies in an attempt to get desperately needed medical supplies from Manhattan Island.
Tales of Teens
My Most Excellent Year: a novel of love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway by Steve Park Kluger
Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.
Going Bovineby Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old diagnosed with mad cow disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.
High Interest
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
Twistedby Laurie Halse Anderson
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.
Copper Sunby Sharon Draper
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper
A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of joining what seems to be a "reputable" school club.
Nineteen Minutesby Jodi Picoult
The people of Sterling, New Hampshire, are forever changed after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead, and the judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her daughter witnessed the events and was friends with the assailant.
Fantasy / SciFi
Hunger Games (series including Catching Fire and Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.
Little Brotherby Cory Doctorow
Interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus is released into what is now a police state, and decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.
Graphic Novels
American Born Chineseby Gene Leun Yang
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture.
A People's History of American Empire: a graphic adaptionby Howard Zinn
A graphic adaptation of Howard Zinn's revisionist history of the United States, chronicling events from 1492 to the War on Terror from the perspective of African-Americans, women, Native Americans, and poor laborers of all nationalities, who have been politically and economically exploited.
Building Peace
Three Cups of Tea: one man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations one school at a time by Greg Mortenson,
Author recounts the experiences he had while trying to help impoverished villages in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya build schools for their children.
Stones into Schools:promoting peace with books, not bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistanby Greg Mortenson
Author describes his efforts to promote peace throughout the world, and details how he was able to establish over 130 schools--mostly for girls--in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan with the backing of the Central Asia Institute--a nonprofit organization.
Global Awareness
World is Flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century by Thomas Friedman
Contains an overview of the global political and economic change since the turn of the twenty-first century, discussing the rapid developments in technologies that has allowed India and China to become part of a growing supply chain of manufacturing impacting global markets.
China Road: A journey into the future of a rising power by Rob Gifford
National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford recounts the experiences he had while traveling along China's three thousand-mile Route 312, describing the people he met on his journey and the things he learned about the country and its history.
The Future
A whole new mind: moving from the information age to the conceptual age by Daniel Pink
Explores how the business world is changing in the twenty-first century, becoming more "right-brain" based and allowing people more creative and artistic than earlier generations succeed more than those with left-brain dominance.
Outliers: the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell
The author explores why some people are high achievers and others are not, citing culture, family, and upbringing as possible reasons some people are not as successful as others.
Classics
101 Books for the College Bound Reader (Brought to you by College Board, this is an excellent list of classics for the serious reader.)