Here is the suggested book list. It is also on your blog.
Title of Novel: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You
Author: Cameron, Peter ISBN: 9780374309893 Copyright: 2007
Recommended for Grade(s): 10,11 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
This coming-of-age tale features a protagonist named James who is nearing graduation and struggles with his trying to find and love his true self. He deals with questions around sexuality and his academic future as well as his familial relationships. James is a loner with a strong voice, much like Holden Caulfield in Catcher in they Rye.
Title of Novel: Thirteenth Tale, The
Author: Setterfield, Diane ISBN: 9780385662857 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 9,10,11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Margaret Lea is a solitary soul who spends most of her time surrounded by books. She is an aspiring biographer and works for her father in his antiquarium bookstore in London. She appears to receive the offer of a lifetime in the form of a proposal by England's most reknowned and celebrated novelist, Vida Winter. Gravely ill, Vida Winter wants Margaret to write her biography. Intrigued by the mysterious Ms. Winter, Margaret agrees to this undertaking, not realizing the emotional and psychological toll this will have on both women. Family secrets and ghosts of the past will have to be confronted and put to bed before either Margaret or Vida can have any peace again. The novel is reminiscent of the gothic genre, full of plot twists, mystery and murder.
The novel has gothic elements that remind the reader of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Its mystery is engaging and appealing, with many plot twists and surprises along the way. The rich setting and atmosphere appeal to lovers of mystery and the gothic genre.
Title of Novel: Three Cups of Tea
Author: Mortenson, Greg / Relin, David Oliver ISBN: 9780143038252 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Three Cups for Tea is the true story of Greg Mortensen who in 1993, failed to summit a mountain but ended up building schools in the most impoverished areas of Pakistan and eventually Afghanistan. Greg Mortensen, an avid American mountaineer, failed to find success on K2 but decends exhausted and lost, and finds his way to a local village in which the people welcome him and take care of him. After witnessing their poverty, he leaves promising to come back and build them a school. Over the next decade, he succeeds in building 55 schools, some especially for girls. Greg's story allows readers to witness his belief that it is through education and not war that battle with terroism is won.
The story of Greg Mortensen is the story of one man's pursuit of peace in the time of war. This book brings hope for a future for Pakistan, Afghanistan, and all other countries where education is deprived for any one of a myriad of reasons. Students will learn a great deal about tolerance, the culture of Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism, and the meaning of true aid. Through Greg's story, one comes to realize that one person can make a difference.
Title of Novel: Book of Negroes, The
Author: Hill, Lawrence ISBN: 9781554681563 Copyright: 2007
Recommended for Grade(s): 12 Estimated readability: Above Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
This novel tells the story of Aminata Diallo, a skilled midwife who is also able to read and write, and who survives kidnapping by slave traders at the age of 11. Aminata’s story spans six decades and three continents, dramatizing her tale of survival and migration. Born around 1745 in Mali, she is kidnapped as a child and sent across the Atlantic Ocean to South Carolina. She works on an indigo plantation and later as an urban slave before escaping her master in New York City. Aminata ends up serving the British as a midwife and scribe, recording in a British military ledger called the “Book of Negroes”, the names of thousands of fugitive slaves desperate to sail from New York before American patriots take control of the city. At the end of the war, Aminata sails with thousands of blacks to Nova Scotia and discovers that freedom in the British colonies is illusory and life just as dangerous as what she fled in the America. In 1792, she joins the first "back to Africa” movement and sails with 1,200 Black Loyalists to Sierra Leone. After a decade in Africa, she sails to England to advocate for the end of the slave trade and write her life story.
There are many reasons for recommending this novel:
1. This novel chronicles an important part of Canadian history, one that many students have likely not encountered.
2. The novel is beautifully crafted from and literary perspective.
3. The themes and issues are topical.
4. The characterization is powerful and diverse.
5. The narrative itself is gripping and captivating.
6. The events are portrayed realistically.
Title of Novel: Catch Me If You Can
Author: Abagnale, Frank W. ISBN: 9780767905381 Copyright: 1980
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: Below Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Catch Me If you Can is based on the true story of Frank W. Abagnale who, armed with numerous aliases, has come to be known as one of the most daring con men and escape artists in the world. Frank travels the world as a mere teenager, impersonating airline pilots, a professor, doctors, lawyer, and FBI agent in order to forge checks and con people to live a life of luxury.
Title of Novel: Cockeyed
Author: Knighton, Ryan ISBN: 9780143051855 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
When Ryan turns 18, he is diagnosed with a disease causing progressive blindness. His experiences of dating, falling in love, hiding and finally coming to terms with his disability offers insight into our culture, identity, and values.
This book deepens student's empathy of the disabled without any didactic aspects. Many students will like the fact that it's not too lengthy and that the author begins his engaging memoir as an adolescent student , concerned with such things as driving tests, dating and leaving home.
Any social considerations...
Ryan learns to drive while unseeing. He likes the mosh-pit at clubs because then he can dance and bump into people without embarrassment. His first love is a deaf woman---these tragicomical situations could be regarded by some as irreverent, but help to build his character and to give the reader insight into his issues.
Title of Novel: Five People You Meet in Heaven, The
Author: Albom, Mitch ISBN: 9781401308582 Copyright: 2003
Recommended for Grade(s): 10,11 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Eddie, an old man who works as the head maintenance man at the Ruby Pier amusement park, is killed trying to rescue a young girl from a car that comes loose from one of the rides and smashes to the ground. Eddie ascends to heaven and while there meets five different people who have, inadvertently or not, had a significant impact on his life. Through his meetings with these individuals the reader learns Eddie’s life history and Eddie learns how truly important his life on earth really was.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is an engaging novel with much potential for discussion and critical thinking activities. As the novel explores the importance and value of each person’s contribution to the world, the novel would be excellent for any student who is confronting issues of self-esteem or self-worth. The novel would be an excellent tool to teach point of view as the perspective of several different characters is explored and the novel lends itself well to extension activities such as having students explore who might be the five people they would meet in heaven and what those people might tell them.
Title of Novel: Floor of the Sky, The
Author: Joern, Pamela Carter ISBN: 9780803276314 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
This novel, written for an adult audience, tells the story of teenager Lila, who must decide what to do with her un-born child. When she is sent to stay with her grandmother Toby in Nebraska, the reader is exposed to the complicated connections and relationships in Lila’s rural family, and the secrets that lie in Toby’s past.
The novel is a character study of both strong and weak individuals who struggle to make decisions about their future as they deal with the fallout from their past. In the background are the challenges of modern and contemporary rural life: issues such as teenage pregnancy, economic uncertainty, the rise of the superstore and agribusiness, illness, crystal meth addiction, infidelity, death, the role of faith, divorce, and a dominating father-figure.
Title of Novel: Girls, The
Author: Lansens, Lori ISBN: 9780676977967 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
The novel begins with a horrific tornado. Just as one child is snatched away by this storm, craniopagus conjoined twins, Rose and Ruby are born, then abandoned. Their life would have been very different, and most likely difficult, if Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash did not adopt them. With their firm, loving guidance, Rose and Ruby grow up and experience what all girls do - the quest for acceptance, love, secrets, heartbreak, true joys and devasting losses. Throughout their journey together, Rose and Ruby are each other's greatest nemesis and ally. As their thirtieth birthday draws nearer, they realize how lucky they really are to have this incredible physical and emotional bond.
This novel addresses a number of important motifs - acceptance, alienation, love, strength, the power of secrets, fate, the concept of what is 'normal' and the importance of physical and emotional bonds. Lansens provides a wealth of topics for discussion and thought. After reading this novel, one cannot look at 'disability' in the same manner. The structure of the novel is also interesting. The alternating point of view clearly demonstrates how one event can and will be viewed differently. In addition, she creates strong images to convey setting, mood, emotional tone and character. This novel provides numerous insights into the complexity of the human condition.
Title of Novel: Glass Castle, The
Author: Walls, Jeannette ISBN: 9780743247542 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: Below Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
This powerful memoir is the story of a young woman's childhood. The narrator shares her experiences of living with an alcoholic father and a mother who likely suffered with some mental health issues. As a result of having unstable parents, the family lived in extreme poverty. Frequently, they were forced to move to varying parts of the USA.
This true story sheds light on the resiliency of the human spirit. The author's experiences show how complicated relationships truly are. Her parents, who were, by generally accepted standards, incompetent, also showed moments of unconditional love. As well, they were able to instill a love for learning in their children even though they were not always attending school and often did not have any food to eat.
While this memoir may seem bleak, it does provide the reader with hope. The narrator uses humour and her intelligence to respond to her circumstances. In the end, she, one of her sisters, and her brother, all grow into to capable adults who lead happy lives.
Title of Novel: Invisible Armies
Author: Evans, Jon ISBN: 9780002007696 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Danielle, a wealthy American studying yoga in rural India, believes she is helping out a friend when she agrees to deliver a passport to an Indian woman living near a mine. After being abducted and imprisoned Danielle manages to escape with the help of Laurent, a mercenary involved in anti-globalization activism. She becomes a member of an eco-terrorist group fighting a transnational mining company which is poisoning thousands of impoverished Indian farmers. With the help of a group of computer hackers Danielle ultimately comes to recognize she cannot trust people she has believed share her desire to make the world a better place and that both sides in the conflict are hiding secrets they will do anything to protect.
This novel is a well-written, fast paced thriller, whose multiple surprise plot twists will keep readers wanting to know what will happen next. The examination of the effects of corporate exploitation will likely appeal to students who have an awareness of global issues. The detailed explanations of high tech Internet hacking will intrigue students interested in technology.
Title of Novel: Kind of Courage, A
Author: Heffernan, Colleen ISBN: 9781551433585 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 10,11 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
The story takes place from 1910 to 1918 and is set in the Canadian Prairie and is told in two voices. The first belongs to Hattie, a farm girl, and the second belongs to David, a city boy from a well to do family. Hattie's story explores loss suffered in war. Her mother is broken when her older brother enlists. While Hattie does her best to help with farm work, it is not enough. Father seeks outside help and brings a CO to the farm. The children are disgusted. The conscientious objector is David. His story explores belief and personal integrity. In an interesting twist of fate, it was his relationship with a German immigrant organist that made him aware of the biases around him that seemed based on emotion rather than fact. As the two story tellers lives become entwined, David's story prevails and he wins Hattie over with his courage.
While this is really a story of how war shapes lives, the focus on revealing the heart and mind of a conscientious objector adds a new dimension to the stories of war so many readers and historians know. This book helps to round out the study of war by presenting a new perspective.
Title of Novel: King Leary
Author: Quarrington, Paul ISBN: 9780385666015 Copyright: 1987
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: Above Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Ninety year old Percival Leary is invited to travel to King Leary night at the Toronto Gardens to make a commercial for ginger ale. He is accompanied by his alcoholic roommate, Blue Herman, and an orderly from the Home. While this is the narrative’s vehicle, most of the story is reminiscence about the friends, family and career of Leary, the King of hockey. Leary’s memories revolve around an unlikely trio who meet accidentally and go on to careers in professional hockey. Leary recalls the dynamics among the three as he and Manny Oz become hockey players under the unlikely influence of the Bowmanville monks, and Clay Bors Clinton works his way, rather unethically, to becoming manager of the Toronto Leafs. The two stories entwine in the furtive aging mind of Percival Leary. His memories are punctuated by his and Manny’s early athletic pursuits as they skate their way to becoming legends – especially in Percival’s mind. He methodically revisits their respective romances, marriages and families and, darkly, Manny’s fall into alcoholism. The presence of Clay Bors Clinton in their lives casts a long and pervasive shadow. Eventually, Leary’s moments of nostalgia blur with his present reality and impending death, and ghosts begin to accompany his every move.
A passion for hockey infuses the story; this aspect will be most appealing to hockey lovers; however, the game’s history and the changes it has undergone are obvious directions for study. Connections can be made to hockey personalities of the past.
*****0R Finnie Walsh by Stephen Galloway—it may be easier to read. He is a BC author.
Title of Novel: Life of Pi
Author: Martel, Yann ISBN: 9780676973778 Copyright: 2001
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: Above Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Life of Pi is a story of survival divided into three parts. Part I establishes the background of the protagonist and his voice, that of an adult recalling an incredible experience. Pi’s formative years occur in India, where he learns that animals are conditioned creatures of habit and that true religion is based on loving God. Part II, the longest section in the novel, deals with Pi's physical ordeal at sea and his psychological survival. Initially, Pi finds himself adrift in a lifeboat accompanied by a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger. After a terrifying struggle for dominance among the animals, Pi manages to keep the 450 lb. cat content and subservient for 227 days. While the reader is drawn into the realism of Pi's relationship with the tiger, the latter events of Part II become surreal when Pi and the tiger encounter a mysterious stranger adrift at sea, and then a carnivorous island. Part III serves as the denouement, where Pi washes ashore in Mexico and is interrogated in his hospital bed by Japanese insurance investigators. They badger Pi for a plausible story, leaving all to question what actually happened during Pi's adventure at sea.
Life of Pi is a powerful novel dealing not only with a boy's coming of age and understanding of his place in the universe, but also with the promotion of tolerance and acceptance.
Title of Novel: Lullabies For Little Criminals
Author: O'Neill, Heather ISBN: 9780060875077 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: Above Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Baby, thirteen, lives with her heroin addicted father in Montreal. She becomes involved with drugs and prostitution, yet retains her spirit. In the end, she realizes that redemption must come from within.
O'Neill's novel presents a side of street life not often seen in novels. While not left with the idea that drugs and prostitution are acceptable lifestyles, the reader comes to see that they are a reality for some people. Through rich character development of Baby, we come to understand that life is complex, people can still retain their humanity in troubling situations, and that there are no simple answers in life. Ultimately, the novel provides hope. It deals with themes such as the need for love and acceptance, acceptance of a parent's inability to parent, and redemption. This novel will provide topics for many rich discussions.
Title of Novel: Million Little Pieces, A
Author: Frey, James ISBN: 9780307276902 Copyright: 2003
Recommended for Grade(s): 12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Frey’s autobiography, which he now admits to embellishing, deals with his time spent in a treatment centre after reaching his “bottom” of drug and alcohol abuse. During his time at the centre, Frey comes to terms with his past, formulates his own sense of what ‘recovery’ will look like for himself, and forms strong, healing and lasting friendships with the diverse cast of characters in his recovery unit.
Despite the very lengthy list of cautions that this novel warrants, and some particularly challenging segments, taken on the whole, at no point do any of the considerations outweigh the tremendous value of this novel. It contains rich, deep and complex characters, portrays multiple worthy themes, and is written in an extremely engaging and compelling style. This book has proven very popular with grade 11 and 12 students; it has been particularly gripping for young men, who are often hard to engage in reading. Frey handles the topic of this book with a grittiness and realism that serves to clearly represent the dark world of addiction.
Title of Novel: Namesake, The
Author: Lahiri, Jhumpa ISBN: 9780618485222 Copyright: 2003
Recommended for Grade(s): 10,11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
The Namesake begins in India and builds up narrative momentum immediately with an arranged marriage and a deadly train crash. But the story quickly shifts to 1968 Boston where the Ganguli family have moved to begin a new and promising life. Soon Ashima Ganguli is pregnant, and a son, Gogol Ganguli, becomes the beloved first addition to their family and a symbol of their new hope. But as he grows up, Gogol seemingly rejects first his name, which he perceives as foreign and foolish, and then further markers of his Bengali heritage. It is his precarious and often exhausting negotiation of old world traditions balanced against new world habits that forms the central motif of the story. Lahiri paints an intimate collection of almost mundane suburban scenes that, bound together, illustrate an expansive family landscape where bonds cannot be broken, even across oceans.
The Namesake is a sensitive portrayal of the difficulties many first-generation young people face when struggling to balance the pull of their parents' old world values and the new world values of their birthplace. Students of recent immigrant families will likely recognize and sympathize with some of Gogol's dilemmas as he tries to fit in, beginning with changing what he perceives is his awkward first (pet) name. Not understanding the import and tradition behind his name becomes a central metaphor for the novel. Lahiri is able to render Gogol's frustration and anger in realistic ways, while maintaining the reader's sympathy for the struggles of Gogol's parents as they do their best to negotiate a world whose rules often bemuse and confuse them. Rich and multi-layered character portraits avoid cliches and maintain student interest as the teen protagonist moves from childish naivete, through embarrassment and shame, to pride and maturity.
Title of Novel: Never Let Me Go
Author: Ishiguro, Kazuo ISBN: 9780676977110 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 11 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
As children, Kathy, - the rather naive narrator - Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules. Eventually, the characters understand that they have actually been cloned so that their organs can be harvested, if need be, for the person from whom they have been cloned. The plot moves from the students' youth to their young adulthood as organ donors or "carers" and their "completions", once their bodies are no longer able to function with multiple missing organs.
Students are likely to relate to the portrayal of a naive narrator who questions her own growing sexuality; who describes her dilemmas with cliques and friendships that thrive or disintegrate because of petty squabbles; and who displays stereotypical attitudes toward the institution of school and teachers who appear to be either old and fusty or young and heroic.
Title of Novel: Ordinary Man, An
Author: Rusesabagina, Paul ISBN: 9780143038603 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of the upscale Hotel Milles Collines, manages to save not only his immediate family, but more than 1200 other Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees. Using only his verbal skills (and a few well chosen bottles of alcohol), he keeps everyone safe in the hotel for seventy-six days. The story of this remarkable feat is coupled with his personal history, as well as the history of a country that rose at a slow boil to a horrific conclusion while the rest of the world watched.
For students who have heard so often of the Holocaust, this may be a more immediate reminder of the horrors of war and the consequences of our actions and inaction. This engaging and short auto-biography reminds readers that genocide can and did happen again.
Title of Novel: Radiance
Author: Lambert, Shaena ISBN: 9780679313793 Copyright: 2007
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Keiko is a survivor of the nuclear attack at Hiroshima in World War II. She is chosen to represent the anti-nuclear cause in the United States and flown there. She is taken in by a couple in a home-stay situation. She becomes quite close with her home-stay family. The anti-nuclear project forces her to turn on her home-stay family in order to preserve the original purpose of her trip in a story of hope and betrayal. There is continual reference to the Cold War era.
This novel would appeal to a smaller percentage of students who may be interested in Cold War history and popular culture of the 1950s. The novel may be able to interest female students in Cold War history.
Title of Novel: Rooster
Author: Trembath, Don ISBN: 9781551432618 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 10,11 Estimated readability: Below Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Rooster, an underachieving high school student, has no direction in life until he is given an ultimatum – work with an adult special needs bowling team or don’t graduate from high school. Rooster chooses to work with adults and through his participation with the team, he not only develops dedication to, and appreciation for, the special group of adults, but also gains respect for himself.
Title of Novel: Smashed
Author: Zailckas, Koren ISBN: 9780143036470 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Koren Zailckas, 24, examines her own alcohol abuse as a young teenager. She experiences out of control parties, blackouts, a trip to the hospital and the depression of the problems that impact her life until she is finally able to tackle her problems and right herself.
The author accurately points out that alcohol is a dominant force in our culture;
further, it is widely accepted and destructive to many young people. This subject is explored in an honest, personal manner which leaves many opportunities for important discussions. Without being overly didactic, the author finds solutions
and constructive ways to deal with her problems.
Title of Novel: Sold
Author: McCormick, Patricia ISBN: 9780786851720 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 11,12 Estimated readability: Below Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy family in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt – then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so she can never leave. Lakshmi becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words – "Simply to endure is to triumph" – and gradually she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision – will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life? Written in spare and evocative prose, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.
