Grade 11 Summer Reading List
(APPLICABLE for 11A, 11H, or 11AP students)
ONLY need to choose ONE book from either FICTION, NON-FICTION, or GRAPHIC NOVELS below
Allegedly
by Tiffany D. Jackson
"Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say. Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?"
Genre: Realistic fiction
Subjects: Bullying and bullies, Confession (Law), Fifteen-year-old girls, Group homes, Guilt (Law), Juvenile delinquents, Mental illness, Mothers and daughters, Murder, Pregnant teenagers, Racism, Right and wrong, Sensationalism in mass media
|
Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
"A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer. A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That's what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That's where Will's now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother's gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he's after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck's in the elevator? Just as Will's trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck's cigarette. Will doesn't know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END...if Will gets off that elevator."
Genre: Realistic fiction ; Magical Realism; Novels in verse
Subjects: Brothers, City life, Fifteen-year-old boys, Ghosts, Grief, Loss (Psychology), Options alternatives choices, Revenge, Teenage boys, Violence and guns
|
Misery
by Stephen King
"Paul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader - she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house."
Genre: Horror; Psychological suspense
Subjects: Captives, Captivity, Fans (Persons), Fear in men, Horror story authors, Manipulation by women, Nurses, Obsession in women, Torture
|
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
"Returning to his childhood home in the English countryside for a funeral, the unnamed middle-aged narrator of this haunting, lyrical fable finds himself drawn to an ordinary-looking farmhouse that's anything but. As long-buried memories surface, he recalls events that occurred at Hempstock Farm when he was seven. When the malevolent Ursula Monkton insinuates herself into the fabric of his close-knit family, the farm's inhabitants, especially 11-year-old Lettie, offer their friendship and later their protection to the lonely, abused boy. However, their aid comes at a price, requiring a sacrifice he's unprepared to make."
Genre: Contemporary fantasy; Fantasy fiction
Subjects: Children, Farms, Funerals, Good and evil, Memories, Senior women
|
Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
"Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. Hoping to uncover more about Jun and the events that led to his death, Jay is forced to reckon with the many sides of his cousin before he can face the whole horrible truth -- and the part he played in it."
Genre: Realistic fiction; Coming-of-age stories; First person narratives
Subjects: Cousins, Drug traffic, Families, Identity (Psychology), Teenage boys, Murder
|
Pet
by Akwaeke Emezi
"Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question–How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?"
Genre: Fantasy Fiction; Allegories
Subjects: Injustice, Monster hunters, Monsters, Near future, Quests, Selective mutism, Teenage girls, Utopias
|
Sadie
by Courtney Summers
"A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him. When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late. Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page."
Genre: Thrillers and suspense; Multiple perspectives
Subjects: Investigative journalism, Missing girls, Murder investigation, Podcasts, Sisters, Small towns, Stuttering, Teenage girls
|
Scythe
Arc of a Scythe #1
by Neal Shusterman
"Thou shalt kill. A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own."
Genre: Science fiction; Multiple perspectives
Subjects: Competition, Corruption, Death, Murder, Teenage apprentices, Teenagers
|
We'll Fly Away
by Bryan Bliss
"Uniquely told through letters from death row and third-person narrative, Bryan Bliss’s hard-hitting third novel expertly unravels the string of events that landed a teenager in jail. Luke feels like he’s been looking after Toby his entire life. He patches Toby up when Toby’s father, a drunk and a petty criminal, beats on him, he gives him a place to stay, and he diffuses the situation at school when wise-cracking Toby inevitably gets into fights. Someday, Luke and Toby will leave this small town, riding the tails of Luke’s wrestling scholarship, and never look back.But during their senior year, they begin to drift apart. Luke is dealing with his unreliable mother and her new boyfriend. And Toby unwittingly begins to get drawn into his father’s world, and falls for an older woman. All their long-held dreams seem to be unraveling. Tense and emotional, this heartbreaking novel explores family, abuse, sex, love, friendship, and the lengths a person will go to protect the people they love."
Genre: Realistic fiction; Multiple perspectives
Subjects: Abusive men, Best friends, Death row prisoners, Dysfunctional families, High school seniors
|
The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century
by Sarah Miller
"Examines the Borden murders, using newspaper articles to recreate the events and the trial and acquittal of Lizzie Borden and exploring Lizzie's story to theorize on what may have happened."
Genre: Biographies; Narrative nonfiction
Subjects: Murder, Murder investigation, Parricide, Small town life, Trials (Murder), Women murderers
|
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann
"In 1920s Oklahoma, the Osage Indian Nation possessed immense wealth because their land contained large petroleum reserves. In Killers of the Flower Moon, New Yorker staff writer David Grann portrays a series of murders on the reservation. Local authorities couldn't solve the crimes, but an investigation by the relatively new FBI (led by the young J. Edgar Hoover) identified and charged the killers, whose primary motivation was greed. In this thoroughly researched history, Grann also reveals conspiracy and corruption beyond what the FBI discovered."
Genre: History writing; True Crime
Subjects: FBI, Murder investigation, Oil wells, Osage Nation, Racism, Serial murders
|
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
by Bryan Stevenson
"A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.
Genre: Autobiographies and memoirs; Life stories; Society and culture
Subjects: Conspiracies, Intersectionality, Justice, Lawyers, Malicious accusation, Mercy, Minorities, Poverty, Redemption, Social advocates
|
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
"Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them."
Genre: Science Writing; True Crime
Subjects: Cannibalism, Dead, Forensic medicine, Human biological materials in research, Human dissection, Medical research, Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.
|
Deogratias, a Tale of Rwanda
by Jean-Philippe Stassen and Alexis Siegel
"The 2000 winner of the Goscinny Prize for outstanding graphic novel script, this is the harrowing tale of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, as seen through the eyes of a boy named Deogratias. He is an ordinary teenager, in love with a girl named Bénigne, but Deogratias is a Hutu and Bénigne is a Tutsi who dies in the genocide, and Deogratias himself plays a part in her death. As the story circles around but never depicts the terror and brutality of an entire country descending into violence, we watch Deogratias in his pursuit of Bénigne, and we see his grief and descent into madness following her death, as he comes to believe he is a dog. Told with great artistry and intelligence, this book offers a window into a dark chapter of recent human history and exposes the West's role in the tragedy. Stassen's interweaving of the aftermath of the genocide and the events leading up to it heightens the impact of the horror, giving powerful expression to the unspeakable, indescribable experience of ordinary Hutus caught up in the violence. Difficult, beautiful, honest, and heartbreaking, this is a major work by a masterful artist."
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; History books; Social issues
Subjects: Abandoned children, Brothers and sisters, Ethnic identity, Genocide, Identity (Psychology), Racism, Teenagers, War and society
|
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler
by John Hendrix
"Interweaving handwritten text and art, John Hendrix tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his fight against the oppression of the German people during World War II. Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who was shocked to watch the German church embrace Hitler's agenda of hatred. He spoke out against the Nazi party and led a breakaway church that rebelled against racist and nationalist beliefs of the Third Reich. Struggling with how his faith interacted with his ethics, Bonhoeffer eventually became convinced that Hitler and the Nazi Party needed to be stopped--and he was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to do so."
Genre: Biographical comics; Comics and Graphic novels; History books; Narrative nonfiction
Subjects: Anti-Nazi movement, Clergy, Martyrs, Pacifists, Spies, Theologians, World War II
|
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1
by Emil Ferris
"Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge."
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; Coming-of-age stories; Historical comics; Mystery comics
Subjects: Apartment dwellers, Art museums, Artists, Brothers and sisters, Girl detectives, Holocaust survivors, Imagination in girls, Monster films, Murder investigation, Pulp periodicals, Single-parent families
|
My Friend Dahmer
by Derf Backderf
"You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer — the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper — seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, “Jeff” was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides.In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche — a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget."
Genre: Biographical comics; Comics and Graphic novels; Life stories; True Crime
Subjects: Alcoholic teenagers, Growing up, High school students, High schools, Murderers, Psychoses, Psychoses in teenagers, Suburban life, Teenage boys
|
Watchmen
by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins
"Moore and Gibbons have crafted what many feel is the ultimate superhero story. In a world where Richard Nixon was never impeached, superheroes were outlawed, with the exception of Dr. Manhattan, a human atomically powered and employed by the government. When Dr. Manhattan disappears, it brings all the "normal" superheroes out of hiding, and humanity must face the ways that superpowered individuals could truly change the world as we know it"
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; Superhero comics
Subjects: Arms control, Cold War, Crime, Criminals, Murder, Political corruption, Superheroes, Vigilantes
|
Any questions about the website? Please direct all questions to the ORRHS Library email. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
|