Grade 9 Summer Reading List
ONLY need to choose ONE book from either FICTION, NON-FICTION, or GRAPHIC NOVELS below
All American Boys
By Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds
"When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints."
Genre: Realistic fiction; Multiple perspectives
Subjects: Race relations, High schools, Law enforcement, Racism, Schools, Adolescent interpersonal relations, Politics, Violence
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The Astonishing Color of After
by Emily X.R. Pan
"Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life. Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love."
Genre: Magical realism
Subjects: Artists, Children of people with mental illnesses, Families, Family secrets, Grandparents, Grief in teenagers, Loss (Psychology), Secrets, Self-discovery in teenagers, Suicide, Supernatural
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Bone Gap
by Laura Ruby
"Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised. After all, it wasn’t the first time that someone had slipped away and left Finn and Sean O’Sullivan on their own. Just a few years before, their mother had high-tailed it to Oregon for a brand new guy, a brand new life. That’s just how things go, the people said. Who are you going to blame? Finn knows that’s not what happened with Roza. He knows she was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember. But the searches turned up nothing, and no one believes him anymore. Not even Sean, who has more reason to find Roza than anyone, and every reason to blame Finn for letting her go. As we follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap—their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures—acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness—a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are."
Genre: Magical realism; Multiple perspectives
Subjects: Brothers, Bullying, Face perception, Interpersonal relations, Kidnapping, Love, Small towns, Teenage boys
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The Call
Call series #1
by Peadar Ó Guilín
"Imagine a world where you might disappear any minute, only to find yourself alone in a grey sickly land, with more horrors in it than you would ever wish to know about. And then you hear a horn and you know that whoever lives in this hell has got your scent and the hunt has already begun. Could you survive the Call?"
Genre: Fantasy fiction; Mythological fiction
Subjects: Fairies, Fourteen-year-old girls, Good and evil, Kidnapping, Survival
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Carry On
by Rainbow Rowell
"Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen. That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right. Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up."
Genre: Fantasy Fiction; Multiple perspectives
Subjects: Boarding schools, Magic, Monsters, Schools, Vampires, Wizards
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Everybody Sees the Antsby A.S. King
"Overburdened by his parents' bickering and a bully's attacks, fifteen-year-old Lucky Linderman begins dreaming of being with his grandfather, who went missing during the Vietnam War, but during a visit to Arizona, his aunt and uncle and their beautiful neighbor, Ginny, help him find a new perspective."
Genre: Magical realism
Subjects: Self confidence, Family life, Bullying, Dreams, Grandfathers, Missing persons, Vietnam War
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We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
"This brilliant and heartbreaking novel tells the story of a prestigious family living on a private island off the coast of Massachusetts. Full of love, lies, secrets, no shortage of family dysfunction, and a shocking twist that you won’t see coming. "
Genre: Thrillers and suspense
Subjects: Accidents, Amnesia, Families, Friendship, Islands, Rich families, Teenage romance, Wealth
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Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen
by Jazz Jennings
"Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview, aired at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable or accepting of the trans community. This groundbreaking interview was followed over the years by other high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series—I Am Jazz—making her one of the most recognizable activists for trans teens, children, and adults. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the trans community. But it hasn't all been easy. Jazz has faced many challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection, yet she perseveres as she educates others about her life as a trans teen. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don't understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence—particularly high school—complicated by the unique challenges of being a trans teen. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy—especially when you began your life in a boy's body."
Genre: Autobiographies and memoirs; Narrative nonfiction
Subjects: Teenage girls, Teenage social advocates
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Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson
"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become."
Genre: Autobiographies and memoirs; Narrative nonfiction
Subjects: Civil Rights Movement, Growing up, Authors
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Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis
by K.R. Gaddy
"Photo-illustrated nonfiction, the story of the Edelweiss Pirates, a group of working-class teens who not only survived but resisted the Nazis by whatever means they could, even when they knew it could cost them their lives. Flowers in the Gutter is told from the points of view Gertrude, Fritz, and Jean, three young people from working-class neighborhoods in Cologne, beginning with their pre-school years at the dawn of the Third Reich in the 1930s. Gaddy shows how political activism was always a part of their lives and how they witnessed first-hand the toll it took on their parents--and how they still carried the torch for justice when it was their turn. Once the war began, Gertrude, Fritz, and Jean and their friends survived and even resisted in one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany. Gaddy includes tense accounts of fights with Hitler Youth and the Gestapo, of disseminating anti-Nazi pamphlets, of helping POWs and forced laborers, and even of sabotaging Nazi factories. Ultimately, the war ended tragically for several young pirates, and Gaddy shows how post-war politics and prejudices led to these young men and women being branded criminals for decades after the war."
Genre: Biographies; History books; Narrative nonfiction
Subjects: Anti-Nazi movement, Defiance, Edelweiss Pirates, Nonconformity, Resistance to government, Sabotage, Teenage boys, World War II
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Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
by Steve Sheinkin
"Before these men became legends, they met in 1907 at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where they forged one of the winningest teams in the history of America’s favorite sport. Called “the team that invented football,” Carlisle’s innovative squad challenged the greatest, most elite teams—Harvard, Yale, Army—audaciously vowing to take their place among the nation’s football powers.This is an astonishing underdog sports story—and more. It’s an unflinching look at the U.S. government’s violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. It’s the story of a group of young men who came together at that school, the overwhelming obstacles they faced both on and off the field, and their absolute refusal to accept defeat."
Genre: Biographies; Narrative nonfiction; Sports and recreation
Subjects: Football, Football players, Native American athletes, Racism, United States Indian School
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We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World
by Malala Yousafzai
"Nobel Peace Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author Malala Yousafzai introduces some of the people behind the statistics and news stories we read or hear every day about the millions of people displaced worldwide. Malala's experiences visiting refugee camps caused her to reconsider her own displacement - first as an Internally Displaced Person when she was a young child in Pakistan, and then as an international activist who could travel anywhere in the world except to the home she loved. In We Are Displaced, which is part memoir, part communal storytelling, Malala not only explores her own story, but she also shares the personal stories of some of the incredible girls she has met on her journeys - girls who have lost their community, relatives, and often the only world they've ever known. In a time of immigration crises, war, and border conflicts, We Are Displaced is an important reminder from one of the world's most prominent young activists that every single one of the 68.5 million currently displaced is a person - often a young person - with hopes and dreams."
Genre: Biographies; Life stories; Narrative nonfiction; Social issues; Society and culture
Subjects: Child refugees, Forced relocations, Immigration policy, Political refugees, Political violence, Refugee camps
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Anya's Ghost
by Vera Brosgol
"Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century. Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse. She's embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she's pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs."
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; Paranormal comics
Subjects: Belonging, Ghosts, Immigrant families, Interpersonal relations, Schools, Self-esteem, Teenage girls and ghosts, Wells
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Banned Book Club
by Kim Hyun Sook, Ko Hyung-Ju, and Ryan Estrada
"When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family’s restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined.This was during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in."
Genre: Autobiographical comics; Autobiographies and memoirs; Biographies; Comics and Graphic novels; History books
Subjects: Banned books, Book clubs, Censorship, Literature, Subversive activities, Totalitarianism
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Hey, Kiddo
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
"In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along. Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father."
Genre: Autobiographical comics; Comics and graphic novels; Family and Relationships; Life stories
Subjects: Coping, Drawing, Family relationships, Grandparents, Growing up, Nontraditional families, Parent-separated boys, Resilience (Personal quality), Children of drug abusers
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Nimona
by Noelle Stevenson
"Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from Noelle Stevenson. Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are. But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit."
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; Fantasy comics
Subjects: Good and evil, Quests, Shapeshifters, Supervillains
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Speak: The Graphic Novel
by Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carroll
"From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless--an outcast--because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through her work on an art project, she is finally able to face what really happened that night: She was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her."
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; Realistic fiction
Subjects: High school students, Misfits (Persons), Emotional issues, Sexual Assault, Teacher-student relationships, Teenage relationships, Teenage girls
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Superman Smashes the Klan
by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru
"When Dr. Lee moves his family to Metropolis, his son, Tommy, adjusts to the new neighborhood while daughter, Roberta, feels out of place, so when the evil Klan of the Fiery Cross begins a string of terrorist attacks on the city, Superman fights them, and Roberta and Superman soon learn to embrace their own unique features that set them apart."
Genre: Comics and Graphic novels; Superhero comics
Subjects: Brothers and sisters, Hate crimes, Identity (Psychology), Justice, Ku Klux Klan, Metropolis, Moving to a new city, Superheroes, Superman, Teenagers
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