2008 Senior Reading Olympics

Author

Title

Description

Steve

Almond

Candyfreak : A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America

Examines the modern candy industry, investigating the influence of corporate power on what sorts of chocolate bars survive and why many "quirky" ones perish

M.T.

Anderson

Feed

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

Maya

Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The author tells of her painful childhood and adolescence, and how she grew out of a childhood fantasy that she was an enchanted white girl to self-acceptance today.

James

Baldwin

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Describes a day in the life of several members of a Harlem fundamentalist church. The saga of three generations of people is related through flashbacks.

Holly

Black

Valiant : A Modern Tale of Faerie

Seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City and befriends a group of very unusual characters who live in the city's subway tunnels and soon finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus.

Ray

Bradbury

Dandelion Wine

In a small town in 1928, a twelve year-old boy savors the magic of childhood and the wonders of summer.

 Pang-Mei

Chang

Bound Feet & Western Dress

Tells the story of the author's great-aunt Chang Yu-i, a woman who challenged Chinese tradition by refusing to have her feet bound, marrying and divorcing preeminent poet Hsu Chih-mo, and running the Shanghai Women's Savings Bank during the 1930s.

 Max Allan

Collins

Road to Perdition

A graphic novel about an adolescent boy in 1930s Chicago whose curiosity about his father's work--enforcement for the Irish crime syndicate--leads to tragedy and a quest for revenge and redemption.

 Susan

Cooper

Dark is Rising

On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.

Coy, John

Crackback

Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.

Crichton, Michael

Andromeda Strain

For five days, scientists struggle to identify and control a deadly new virus threatening the United States.

Crutcher, Chris

Whale Talk

Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students

Deuker, Carl

Runner

When a new job falls his way, Chance jumps at the opportunity, becoming a runner who picks up strange packages on a daily route and delivers them to a shady man at the marina.

D'Orso, Michael

Eagle Blue A Team, A Tribe, and a High School Basketball Season in Artic Alaska

Follows the Fort Yukon Eagles high school basketball team from its 2004 preseason to the 2005 Alaskan state championship, exploring the lives of its players and coach and examining the six-hundred-person village's Gwich'in Athabascan heritage.

Draper, Sharon, M.

Copper Sun

When pale strangers enter fifteen-year-old Amari's village, her entire tribe celebrates. But these strangers are here to capture the strongest, healthiest villagers; they are slave traders.

Ferguson, Alane

The Christopher Killer: A Forensic Mystery

When the Cameryn, the teenage daughter of Pat Mahoney, the county coroner,  asks if she can be his assistant—as preparation for a career in forensic pathology—he figures it’s a safe bet. But neither of them imagines that their first case will involve someone Cameryn knows . . the fourth victim of a serial killer.

Gaines, Ernest J.

A Lesson Before Dying

Tells the story of a young African-American man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, and a teacher who tries to impart to him his learning and pride before the execution.

Geras, Adele

Troy

The last weeks of the Trojan War find the women sick of tending the wounded, men tired of fighting, and bored gods and goddesses trying to find ways to stir things up.

Grogan, John

Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

The author presents a tender story of his family's love for their golden retriever, Marley, and recalls how he grew from a mischievous puppy into a nearly impossible adult that no amount of obedience school training could correct, and of the love they felt for him.

Haruf, Kent

Plainsong

Guthrie, a high school teacher left alone to raise his two young sons, becomes involved in the lives of Victoria, a homeless, pregnant teenager, and two elderly bachelors.

Hayden, Torey

One Child

A case study of a young emotionally disturbed child.

Heifer, Ralph

Modoc

Presents the true story of Modoc and Bram Gunterstein, an elephant and boy--born on the same day in 1896--following their adventures from Germany, to India, to the United States, and telling of the extraordinary relationship shared by the man and animal for over seventy years.

Heller, Joseph

Catch-22

The story of a bombardier in World War II who is frantic and angry because thousands of people he does not know are trying to kill him.

Huxley, Aldous

Brave New World

A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.

Kidd, Sue Monk

Secret of Life of Bees

Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared from Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August.

Lindskold, Jane M.

Through Wolf's Eyes

Firekeeper, a young woman raised by royal wolves with their own spoken language, returns to the world of humans to fulfill the wishes of her late mother and learns that she may be the daughter of Prince Barden, who left Hawk Haven years earlier to start a colony and was never heard from again

Martinez, Victor

Parrot in the Oven

Manny relates his coming of age experiences as a member of a poor Mexican American family in which the alcoholic father only adds to everyone's struggle.

McBride, James

Color of Water

An African-American male tells of his mother, a white woman, who refused to admit her true identity.

McCaffrey, Anne

Dragonflight

Exciting adventure as Lessa of Pern wages a single-handed secret battle against her sworn enemies--the dragonmen!

McCormick, Patricia

Sold

A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.

Meyer, Stephenie

Twilight

When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert

Dairy Queen: a Novel

After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.

Napoli, Donna

Zel

Based on the fairy tale Rapunzel, the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her mother, and the prince, and delves into the psychological motivations of the characters.

Nix, Garth

Shade's Children

In a savage future world, four young fugitives attempt to overthrow the bloodthirsty rule of the Overlords with the help of Shade, their mysterious mentor.

Pelzer, Dave

Child Called "It"

David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story of how he survived his mother's brutality and triumphed over his past.

Plath, Sylvia

Bell Jar

Chronicles the mental breakdown of Esther Greenwood--a brilliant, beautiful, talented, and successful young woman.

Plum-Ucci, Carol

The Body of Christopher Creed

Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.

Preston, Richard

Cobra Event

When U.S. civilians begin to experience quick and violent deaths, the U.S. Center for Disease Control uncovers a terrorist operation using biological weapons, and it may be too late to stop what they have started.

Shaw, George Bernard

Pygmalion

A play about Eliza Doolittle, an untutored flower girl who is transformed into a "duchess" with the help of Henry Higgins.

Stratton, Allan

Chanda's Secrets

Chandra Kabelo, a sixteen-year-old in a small South African town, faces down shame and stigma in her efforts to help friends and family members who are dying of AIDS.

Volponi, Paul.

Black and White

Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

Vonnegut,

 Kurt

Slaughterhouse Five

A fourth-generation German-American is tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944 which he witnessed while a prisoner of war.

Thorton

Wilder

Our Town

A play in three acts portraying life in Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, in the early 1900's through the routine daily events and the major moments in the lives of George Gibbs, Emily Webb, and their families; and how their lives, although mundane, are touched by the universal forces of love, despair, apathy, nature, and death.

 Virginia

Euwer Wolff

True Believer

Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.

Yolen, Jane

Briar Rose

In this retelling of "Sleeping Beauty," a young woman learns that her grandmother had a secret past tied to the Holocaust.