LHS Summer Reading

Summer Reading Options for Incoming Freshmen

2010-05-14T20:48:00.001-07:00

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My Sister's Keeper (Lexile - 840)

**************************Bonus video created by LHS students:

The Lovely Bones (Lexile - 890)
(Video by Luis Nieves - Class of 2010)

**************************Bonus video created by LHS students:

The Secret Life of Bees (Lexile - 840)

Of Mice and Men (Honors) - (Lexile - 630)
(Video by Andre McKoy - Class of 2011)

That Was Then, This is Now (Lexile - 780)
(Created by Marrisa Robertson- Class of 2011)

Hunger Games (Lexile - 810)

Incarceron (Lexile - 600)

The Boy Who Dared (Lexile - 760)

Mexican White Boy - (Lexile - 680)
(Video by Taylor Randall - Class of 2011)

Summer Reading Options for Incoming Sophomores

2010-05-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

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Dreams From My Father (Lexile - Unknown)

Having Our Say (Honors) - (Lexile - 860)
(Created by Corey Robinson)

Friday Night Lights - (Lexile - 1260)

Getting Away With Murder (Lexile - 1210)/ Mississippi Trial (Lexile - 870) (*2 Book Requirement!)

"The Emmett Till case was not the sole cause of the civil rights movement, but it was the final indignity that caused the flood of outrage to overflow the dam of racial injustice." Mainstream history has all but forgotten about this 14-year-old African American from Chicago who was murdered by two white men in Mississippi for making "ugly remarks" to one of their wives. The men were acquitted, and several months later, they were interviewed by Look magazine and publicly confessed to the crime. The event galvanized black Americans, and even many of the whites who had supported the defendants were appalled at their national confession. Four months after Till was killed, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, and the wheels of the civil rights movement were set in motion. Crowe's research is extensive and his writing is well suited to his audience." (Barnes & Noble)

"Basing his promising debut novel on historical events, Crowe adopts the point of view of a white teenager confronting racism in the 1950s South. Hiram Hillburn has resented his civil-rights-minded father ever since the age of nine, when his parents moved him from his adored grandfather's home in Greenwood, Miss., to the more liberal climate of an Arizona college town. Now that he is 16, Hiram has finally been permitted to visit Grampa Hillburn again.. Events force Hiram to question his willingness to stand up for his beliefs and to reevaluate his understanding of the animosity between his grandfather and father." (Barnes & Noble)

A Lesson Before Dying (Lexile - 990)

Wintergirls (Lexile - 730)

Outcasts United (Lexile - 780)

St. John builds on his 2007 New York Times article about the Fugees, a soccer program for boys from families of refugees from war-torn nations who have been resettled in the town of Clarkston, Ga., 13 miles east of Atlanta. Led by the founder and coach Luma Mufleh, a strong-willed, Jordanian woman who turned her back on a privileged past to stay in America after attending Smith College, the three youth teams are a conglomeration of players from Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. The challenges they face are many, including an ongoing fight against city hall for a field on which to play, and getting by with subpar equipment. Their biggest challenge, however, is the difficulty immigrants face in learning the ways of a strange land and living with the memories of tragedy (some players had lost a parent to violence or imprisonment). In spite of it all, the Fugees compete admirably with mostly white, better-funded suburban teams. St. John begins with an inspiring description of a beautifully played game and then delves into the team's formation.. (Barnes & Noble)

Bless The Beasts and Children - (Lexile - 970)
(Created by Taylor Randall- Class of 2011)

Catching Fire - (Lexile - 820)
(Book 2 of The Hunger Games Trilogy)

Summer Reading Options for Incoming Juniors

2010-05-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

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Devil in a Blue Dress - (Lexile - Unknown)
**WARNING: MATURE CONTENT**

Los Angeles, 1948: Ezekiel "Easy Rawlins" is a black war veteran just fired from his job. Now he's drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage.

That's when De Witt Albright , a quietly vicious white man in a white linen suit, walks in and offers Easy good money if he'll just do a little job for him: find Miss Daphne Monet, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.
It seems simple enough, but Easy soon discovers that Albright isn't the only one looking for the lovely Miss Monet - isn't the only one who's ready to kill anyone, including Easy, who might get in the way.

Jefferson's Children - (Lexile - 910)
"On October 31, 1998, the Associated Press broke the news that there was finally scientific proof for what many people already knew was true, but others would not believe: Thomas Jefferson had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings after the death of his wife. This DNA link was proven through the Eston Hemings line. Jefferson’s Children is the story of the Jefferson and Hemings families, and their efforts to be recognized and united as proud descendants of this great American genius. Some discovered their heritage through written family records, and others have based their beliefs on oral histories. Regardless of their sources, many descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings want the world to know that skin color isn’t what makes a family. Thomas Jefferson wrote about equality. He believed in freedom. Yet, he owned slaves. This contradiction in character raises many questions among historians and descendants as they unravel the “truth” about this complex man. Did he indeed father children with his slave, Sally Hemings? How would he view the issues of racism among his ancestors today?" (Random House)

Looking for Alaska (Lexile - 930)
**Warning: Mature Content**

Maus I and Maus II (Lexile - Graphic Novel, Unknown)

The Uglies (Lexile - 760)

Brave New World (Honors) (Lexile - 1090)

The Road (Lexile - 670)

Twisted (Lexile - 680)

Papertowns (Lexile - 850)

Blue Rage, Black Redemption (Lexile - 730)
(*Mature Content)

A gripping tale of personal revolution by a man who went from Crips co-founder to Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author, and antigang activist.

When his L.A. neighborhood was threatened by gangbangers, Stanley Tookie Williams and a friend formed the Crips, but what began as protection became worse than the original gangs. From deadly street fights with their rivals to drive-by shootings and stealing cars, the Crips' influence — and Tookie's reputation — began to spread across L.A. Soon he was regularly under police surveillance, and, as a result, was arrested often, though always released because the charges did not stick. But in 1981, Tookie was convicted of murdering four people and was sent to death row at San Quentin in Marin County, California.Tookie maintained his innocence and began to work in earnest to prevent others from following his path. Whether he was creating nationwide peace protocols, discouraging adolescents from joining gangs, or writing books, Tookie worked tirelessly for the rest of his life to end gang violence. Even after his death, his legacy continues, supported by such individuals as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Snoop Dogg, Jesse Jackson, and many more.By turns frightening and enlightening, Blue Rage, Black Redemption is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and an invaluable lesson in how rage can be turned into redemption.

Mockingjay (Lexile - 800)

(Book 3 of The Hunger Games Trilogy)

Summer Reading Options for Incoming Seniors

2010-05-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

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Blood and Chocolate (Lexile - 720)

The Book Thief (Lexile - 730)

Fences (Lexile - 550)

"Troy Maxson is an angry man. He is an embittered ex-con who has built inner fences around his emotions that no one—neither his son Gory, his wife, Rosa Lee, nor his best friend, Jim—can cross. A proud and bitter man who was prevented by racism from playing major league baseball, Maxson is at fifty- three years of age a garbage collector. While his job allows him to successfully provide for his family, handling garbage represents for him a grim metaphor of his life. As he did during a bit in prison, he once again feels confined, and those who love him most, who depend on him most, suffer most for it." (Barnes & Noble)

Speak (Lexile - 680)

Metamorphoses (AP) (Lexile - Unknown)

"Ovid’s sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation—often as a result of love or lust—where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy. Erudite but light-hearted, dramatic and yet playful, the Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists throughout the centuries from Shakespeare and Titian to Picasso and Ted Hughes." (Amazon)

Go Ask Alice (Lexile - 1010)
(Trailer Created by Taylor Randall - Class of 2011)
**Warning: Mature Content**

A Saint on Death Row (Lexile - 690)

"On October 26, 2004, Dominique Green, thirty, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. Arrested at the age of eighteen in the fatal shooting of a man during a robbery outside a Houston convenience store, Green may have taken part in the robbery but always insisted that he did not pull the trigger. The jury, which had no African Americans on it, sentenced him to death. Despite obvious errors in the legal procedures and the protests of the victim’s family, he spent the last twelve years of his life on Death Row.When Cahill found himself in Texas in December 2003, he visited Dominique at the request of Judge Sheila Murphy, who was working on the appeal of the case. In Dominique, he encountered a level of goodness, peace, and enlightenment that few human beings ever attain. Cahill joined the fierce fight for Dominique’s life, even enlisting Dominique’s hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to make an historic visit to Dominique and to plead publicly for mercy. Cahill was so profoundly moved by Dominique’s extraordinary life that he was compelled to tell the tragic story of his unjust death at the hands of the state. A Saint on Death Row will introduce you to a young man whose history, innate goodness, and final days you will never forget. It also shines a necessary light on America’s legal system. A Saint on Death Row is an absorbing, sobering, and deeply spiritual story that illuminates the moral imperatives too often ignored in the headlong quest for justice." (Barnes & Noble)

A Thousand Splendid Suns (Lexile - 930)

Someday This Pain will be Useful to You (Lexile - 1010)

In Peter Cameron's eighth work of fiction, the narrator is a disaffected teenage product of divorced, self-involved, and privileged parents. He is thus so emblematic of a typical upper-middle-class experience today that there is from the outset the potential for cliché, suggesting that Cameron has set himself an admirably difficult task. James Sveck, a Manhattanite, smacks of an updated Holden Caulfield, believing as he does that nearly everyone is a fraud, apart from a young man who runs his mother's art gallery and, touchingly, his grandmother. But Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You -- a work unfairly categorized as "young adult" -- is a keenly observed and elegantly drawn novel that skirts the problems typical of the post-Salinger teenage angst story.

The Kite Runner (AP) - (Lexile - 840)

Siddhartha (AP) - (Lexile - 600)