Hum 8
Please finish who you think is the most importatn person in the Reformation and why. On the back of your chart sheet is fine. One or two sentences is fine as well. Due WEd april.7.
If you are choosing not to use one of the class novels for our next novel study,please checkwith me to verify that the novel will be suitable. I am including a list of suggestions you might want to check out. You can also come up with your own ideas as well. Enjoy the long weekend.
Title of Novel: Ask Me No Questions
Author: Budhos, Marina ISBN: 9781416949206 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
This is the story of Nadira Hossain and her family, who emigrated from Bangladesh to America, and remained in the country ilegally on a visitor's visa. The two daughters, Nadira and Aisha both attend high school in New York, and face the racism that emerges after 9/11. As U.S. paranoia grows in the wake of the terrorist attacks, Muslim men are made to register with the government and as a result, Nadira's father faces the possibility of deportation. The family seeks refuge in Canada, only to be turned back, arrested and detained by U.S. immigration. It is up to the two sisters, particularly Nadira, to try and free her father, and save the life her family has created in America.
Title of Novel: Burn My Heart
Author: Naidoo, Beverley ISBN: 9780141321240 Copyright: 2007
Recommended for Grade(s): 7,8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Two young boys, Mathew, white and privileged, and Mugo, black and poor, befriend each other during unrest in the Kenya Highlands in the 1950's. Tensions mount as the Mau Mau, a group of impatient Kikuyu intimidate their tribemates to take oaths to resist land ownership by white settlers, and to forcefully take back their native land. Mathew and Mugo's friendship is compromised by the growing tension and suspicion between blacks and whites and Mathew becomes more involved with Lance, a friend from his boarding school. Mugo becomes marginalized as Lance and his father, Inspector Smithers, influence Mathew's father's attitudes towards the black workers who provide service on their ranch. Ultimately, while exploring on his father's ranch, Mathew is goded by Lance into making a careless error that has serious implications for Mugo and his family.
Title of Novel: Code Orange
Author: Cooney, Caroline B. ISBN: 9780385732604 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Code Orange is written by an American author and it takes place in post 911 New York. It is a contemporary suspense/survival story not only about a 16 year old boy named Mitty, but also about the greater population of NYC. The story unfolds as Mitty procrastinates doing his science research project on the infectious disease smallpox. His soon to be girlfriend Olivia motivates him to begin his school work. At the beginning of his research he stubbles upon some old scabs that turn out to be 102 years old and from a smallpox victim. He believes that he has contracted smallpox and in an attempt to seek assistance from the medical world on-line, terrorists learn about his condition and kidnap him to use him in his infected state to kill the people of NY. The FBI and the CDC as well as his friends and parents franctically search for him as he tells no one about his fears of having smallpox.
Title of Novel: Does My Head Look Big In This?
Author: Abdel-Fattah, Randa ISBN: 9780439922333 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Amal, an Australian-Palestinian girl living in Melbourne makes a decision to wear the hijab full-time as a step of her Islamic faith. This decision receives the reluctant support of her parents who fear, rightfully so it seems as the novel unfolds, the issues Amal will face as a result. This decision by Amal combined with typical female teenage issues of crushes on boys, the drama of female friendships and cliques, the pressure to succeed in school, and conflicts with parents and authority figures which provide the central plot of the novel.
Title of Novel: Far North
Author: Hobbs, Will ISBN: 9780380725366 Copyright: 1996
Recommended for Grade(s): 7,8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Fifteen year old Gabe Rogers is an only child being raised by his grandparents in Texas. His mother is deceased and his father works on the diamond drilling rigs in the Northwest Territories. Gabe decides to move to a boarding school in Yellowknife to be closer to his father and to experience the "real" North that he has read much about in his father's letters. Gabe shares a room with a Dene youth named Raymond Providence. Raymond, like many Dene teens, quits school and plans to return to his remote community. The story begins when the Cessna carrying Raymond, Johnny Raven a Dene elder, and Gabe experiences engine problems. The pilot dies and the three are left in the middle of a subarctic winter. The teens learn how to survive the winter from the traditional methods of Johnny and of the Dene people.
Title of Novel: Flight or Fight (Wildlife Rescue Series)
Author: Haynes, Diane ISBN: 9781552856581 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 7,8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Jane is a quiet high school girl who is moved to a more active ecological awareness by the discovery of a bird that has been covered in canola oil from a spill in Burrard Inlet while she is training for a half marathon running around Stanley Park. As she learns more about the problem she becomes embroiled in a battle with the polluting company. When Jane escalates her attempt to make the company assume responsibility she becomes a target of violence from members of the company.
Title of Novel: Heck Superhero
Author: Leavitt, Martine ISBN: 9780889953338 Copyright: 2004
Recommended for Grade(s): 7,8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Heck, the 13-year-old protagonist, is left alone and on the streets after he and his mother are separated after being evicted from their apartment. Heck's mother suffers from mental illness and Heck's only concern is finding her before she harms herself or finds herself truly lost from him forever.
Title of Novel: I Am David
Author: Holm, Anne ISBN: 9780749701369 Copyright: 1965
Recommended for Grade(s): 7,8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
David escapes from a concentration camp with the help of a man who works at the camp. The man gives David instructions to make his way to Denmark. With very little but his convictions and what he has learned while growing up in the camp, he travels over several European countries to eventually discover the man saved him and sent him to find his mother. All along his journey he fears that they will eventually catch up with him and send him back to the camp. He uses his wits, his strong sense of self, and his newly found connection to his God to make his way home.
Title of Novel: Kat's Fall
Author: Hrdlitschka, Shelley ISBN: 9781551433127 Copyright: 2004
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Darcy, a 15 year old teenage boy, attends an alternative school and lives with his younger sister and his father. Darcy is very protective of his sister as she is both deaf and epileptic. Darcy is the primary care giver for his sister as his father is a trucker who is completely out of his element in dealing with a disabled child. Darcy’s mother has been in jail for many years. She was convicted of attempting to murder his then baby sister by throwing her off a balcony. Tensions escalate when Darcy’s mother is released from jail and their father wants Darcy’s sister to go live with their mother. Darcy regularly cuts himself even though he knows this is not a healthy activity. Darcy then begins to have memory flashbacks which reveal to him that he, not his mother, had thrown his sister off the balcony. Further hardship is added to Darcy’s already stressful life when Darcy is falsely accused of sexually molesting a young deaf girl whom he babysits.
Title of Novel: Killing Sea, The
Author: Lewis, Richard ISBN: 9781416953722 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Two teens, from completely different worlds, find each other in the wake of the destruction by the most devasting tsunami ever seen. Ruslan, a native of Aceh, is searching for his father, while Sarah, an American girl, having lost both parents struggles to find medical assistance for her brother. Although from different worlds, they depend on each other's strengths. Although fictional, the novel provides a fairly accurate descrption of the tsunami that struck Indonesia in December 2004.
Title of Novel: King Of The Lost and Found
Author: Lekich, John ISBN: 9781551928029 Copyright: 2007
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Raymond Dunne is being raised by his dad who has to work two jobs to support the family. Raymond desperately wants to be popular at school, but his medical conditions (including spontaneous fainting) make him more of the school freak than anything. Raymond becomes involved with Jack, the grade 12 ex-basketball star and gets caught up in an elaborate and subversive scheme to turn the school's secret bomb shelter into a very exclusive club where select students gather to participate in activities that the school administration has banned. The story is about unlikely but productive friendship and not being limited by seemingly obvious physical and social constraints.
Title of Novel: Lightning Thief, The
Author: Riordan, James ISBN: 9780786838653 Copyright: 2005
Recommended for Grade(s): 7,8 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Percy Jackson has struggled in school due to dyslexia and self-described ADHD. Every field trip he has ever taken has resulted in some disaster. The only teacher he respects is his Latin teacher whose interest in ancient mythology peaks his interest. However on his Grade Six fieldtrip he is attacked by his Math teacher, an ancient Greek fury, and he finds out that his best friend is a satyr who is only at school to protect him. He escapes to a summer camp for halfbloods - children of mortal humans and Greek gods - and finds himself in the middle of a war between Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. His quest, which he must accept to save his mother, is to find who stole Zeus's lightning bolt and the helm of Hades and prove it wasn't his father.
of Novel: No Signature
Author: Bell, William ISBN: 9780770427061 Copyright: 1992
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
As Steven "Wick" Chandler, approaches his eighteenth birthday, he is overcome with a need to find out what happened to his father who disappeared 10 years ago. When his father first left, he sent Wick postcards regularly. They contained no message and no signature: just DAD stamped on the back. After seeing the emotional toll these postcards were taking, Wick's mother hid the subsequent postcards, causing Wick to wonder why his father all but forgot about him. When Wick discovers his mother's secret, he is compelled to find his father, but when he does, he is not prepared for what he finds. His father has been keeping a shameful secret all these years, but by revealing this secret to Wick, the two are able to rebuild their relationship. As a result, Wick is able to make peace with the conflicts he has been fighting inside himself.
Title of Novel: Pirates!
Author: Rees, Celia ISBN: 9780747564690 Copyright: 2003
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Two young women from completely diverse backgrounds find themselves in a situation that causes them to flee to the perilous life of piracy. Although their backgrounds are different, they share many parallels within their fight for their lives on the high seas.
Title of Novel: Step from Heaven, A
Author: An Na ISBN: 9780142500279 Copyright: 2001
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
This story is very well-written. It is about an immigrant family struggling to find their place in a new country. The abusive father provides a foil for the characters' own struggle and success in America. The novel is not a conventional narrative. It is written as a series of episodes connected chronologically. At the beginning the students might find it difficult to follow because of the structure and the point of view of the young protagonist who lives in Korea and doesn't speak any English.
Title of Novel: Stitches
Author: Huser, Glen ISBN: 9780888995780 Copyright: 2003
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Travis, a grade 9 student, and his friend Chantelle are consumed with their puppet production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Travis' talent makes him a target of bullying which becomes increasingly threatening when his friend Amber breaks up with her boyfriend, the bully. Travis' home life is turbulent; his mother works on the road and he lives in a trailer with his aunt, uncle and cousins. The aunt and uncle have a dysfunctional marriage. Travis' living conditions cause him some embarrassment, but his friends from more affluent backgrounds accept him anyway. Travis and Chantelle have a particularly close relationship; they call themselves "the changelings" because neither of them see themselves as "normal" - Chantelle is physically disabled, while Travis' interest in sewing puppets sets him apart from most teenage boys.
Title of Novel: Tweaked
Author: Holubitsky, Katherine ISBN: 9781551438511 Copyright: 2008
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Sixteen year-old Gordie Jessup watches in horror as his older brother relentlessly spirals down into a grim world of crystal methamphetamine addiction. His horror turns to rage as he feels helpless to stop the impending ruin of his once-happy family. No one is immune to the devastating effects of crystal meth in this story that leaves the reader believing this nightmare could happen to anyone.
Title of Novel: Vertical Limits
Author: Withers, Pam ISBN: 9781552857830 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Two fifteen-year-old protagonists, Jake and Peter, and an older friend decide to assist Jake on a solo climb of a 3000 foot cliff face. Peter intends to produce a documentary of the adventure. They pick up a hitch-hiker named Katja, a fifteen-year-old girl, who is on the run from goverment authorities for personal tragic reasons. Katja also happens to be an expert, avid climber. The oldest of the group needs to go on a "search and rescue" mission to help find a lost seven-year-old boy. Instead of waiting for Gecko's return, Jake decides to begin his solo ascent. After the first day, a storm sets in and Jake endures many difficulties in survival. He discovers a partially mummified human corpse. Meanwhile, Peter and Katja attemt a rescue of Jake, and after some heroics by all three teens, they unite and safely descend. The adventure becomes even more successful when they find the lost boy. Katja's personal problems are resolved and Peter creates a well received documentary that includes much more than originally intended.
Title of Novel: Victory
Author: Cooper, Susan ISBN: 9781416914785 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: Below Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Susan Cooper dispenses a family saga in which two children cross an ocean 200 hundred years apart: Sam in 1803 and Molly in 2005. Separate, yet together, Sam and Molly struggle through fear and hope to a final ordeal that terrifyingly tests their valour. Alternating chapters follow the mystifying connection between a homesick English girl living in present-day America and an eleven-year-old boy serving in the British Royal Navy, aboard the H.M.S. Victory, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Title of Novel: Waking
Author: Harvey-Fitzhenry, Alyxandra ISBN: 9781551434896 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
Since her mother's death, Beauty's dreams have been haunted by the Shadow Lady. At school she tries to be invisible to avoid the questions and innuendo that now follow her. But when Luna, a new student who is not afraid to dress and act outside the norms of peer pressure, arrives, things begin to change. As Beauty gains self-confidence through her friendship with Luna, her lucid dreams darken and are filled with images of blood and death. It becomes clear to the reader, and eventually, to Beauty, that the Shadow Lady of her dreams is her mother and the little girl, herself. Through the dreams, Beauty understands and comes to terms with her own response to her mother's suicide.
Title of Novel: Whistling Season, The
Author: Doig, Ivan ISBN: 9780151012374 Copyright: 2006
Recommended for Grade(s): 8,9,10 Estimated readability: At Grade
Plot / Reasons for Recommendation
After his life is touched by two unexpected visitors, Paul realizes how life is full of surprises and is never quite what you expect. Set during the early 1900s in the wild Montana prairie lands, the protagonist, thirteen year-old Paul Milliron, is still trying to cope with his mother's death and help his father raise his two younger brothers. In response to an ad that Paul's father took out in the newspaper for a housekeeper, the Milliron family welcomes Rose Llewellyn and her brother Morris Morgan to Marias Coulee and into their lives. Their presence has an enormous effect not only on the entire family but on the small community as well. Paul soon takes on the burden of being the keeper of a series of large and small secrets and discovers how the truth does not always set you free.
