eBranch Blog

August 28, 2007

A Modern Twist on High School Reading

Kids around the country headed back to school this week, some having spent those last few days of glorious summer freedom finishing summer reading list selections. If the words "high school reading list" make you think only of time-honored classics like A Tale of Two Cities and The Scarlet Letter, think again. This article in the Christian Science Monitor discusses new trends to broaden high school reading lists to include new players in modern literature with the long-standing veterans.

If you want to read one of the classics or a contemporary new pick, the library has something to offer you.

Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

Yann Martel. Life of Pi: A Novel
The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional--but is it more true?

Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones
This is the tale of family, memory, love, and living told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon, who is already in heaven. Through the voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and builds out of her family's grief a hopeful and joyful story.

Barbara Kingsolver. The Bean Trees
Taylor Greer hits the road and inherits a three-year-old Cherokee girl who manages to slowly wind her way into Taylor's heart.