WALTHAM HIGH SCHOOL
2010 Summer Reading entering Grade 9
Printable version of the Waltham High School 2010 Summer Reading list for entering grade 9 students: 
| Honors – 4 books total |
| Read 1 Required Classic: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells |
| Read 1 Required All Levels Read: Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer |
| Read 2 Choice Books: Choose two from following list: |
| C1 and C2 – 3 books total |
| Read 1 Required All Levels Read: Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer |
| Read 2 Choice Books: Choose two from following list: |
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
- If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan
- Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
- Black and White by David MacAulay
- Rough and Tumble by Mark Barvaro
- Ironman by Chris Crutcher
- Feed by M. T. Anderson
- Slam by Walter Dean Myers
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Required Non-Fiction for all levels: Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer
In May 1996, Mark Pfetzer at age 16 was the youngest climber on Mount Everest to reach 26,000 feet, and his gripping autobiography focuses exclusively on his mountain climbing achievements. Recounted in diary format, Pfetzer's dense but taut story opens during the 1996 Everest expedition, then jumps back to a 1992 advanced camping trip, when his passion for climbing first ignited. An advertisement for a mountaineering trip in Nepal sparks his imagination and determination (he must raise $5000 for the excursion), and the experience starts Pfetzer off to the farthest (and highest) reaches of the globe, on to Peru, Ecuador, Tanzania and finally to Mount Everest.
Required Classic for English 9 Honors: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
A dinner party is set in an uproar, when the host, a brilliant inventor, unveils his latest invention, a time machine. The next week's party is even more upset when the inventor stumbles in, dirty and damaged, telling the story of a trip some 800,800 years into the future. There he met a world inhabited by the childlike Eloi and the hideous underground Morlocks
Choice Books - All levels select two:
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez This sensitive story of four sisters who must adjust to life in America after having to flee from the Dominican Republic is told through a series of episodes beginning in adulthood, when their lives have been shaped by U. S. mores, and moving backwards to their wealthy childhood on the island.
If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan Nolan's first novel is ambitious indeed: she frames the story of teenage Chana's survival in the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz with a second story, about a young neo-Nazi who--after a motorcycle accident from which her vicious boyfriend escapes unscathed--is in the intensive care unit where Chana is dying half a century later.
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir--a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true.
Rough and Tumble by Mark Bavaro A former New York Giants tight end and two-time Pro Bowler, Bavaro turns in a gritty, behind-the-scenes look at life in the NFL for his debut novel. Dominic Fucillo (tight end for the Giants, natch) is having a bad week. The commissioner is fining him $50,000 for attacking a referee, his estranged girlfriend won't talk to him and the team doctor tells him that he has a hole in his knee that will need career-ending surgery after the season.
Black and White by David MacAulay At first glance, this is a collection of four unrelated stories, each occupying a quarter of every two-page spread, and each a slight enough tale to seem barely worth a book--a boy on a train, parents in a funny mood, a convict's escape and a late commuter train. The magic of Black and White comes not from each story, however, but from the mysterious interactions between them that creates a fifth story. Several motifs linking the tales are immediately apparent, such as trains--real and toy—and newspapers. Eventually, the stories begin to merge into a surrealistic tale spanning several levels of reality, e.g.: Are characters in one story traveling on the toy train in another?
Ironman by Chris Crutcher Bo Brewster lets his anger get the best of him. He finds himself in Mr. Nak's Anger Management class filled with people who are bullies, future American Gladiators, and people who have problems at home. Bo is training like crazy throughout the school year for Yukon Jack's triathlon. Will Bo crack under the pressure of the race or will he rise to the occasion?
Feed by M.T. Anderson This brilliantly ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies. The result is a chillingly recognizable consumer society where empty-headed kids are driven by fashion and shopping and the avid pursuit of silly entertainment--even on trips to Mars and the moon--and by constant customized murmurs in their brains of encouragement to buy, buy, buy.
Slam by Walter Dean Myers Seventeen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball court. He's seen ballplayers come and go, and he knows he could be one of the lucky ones. Maybe he'll make it to the top. Or maybe he'll stumble along the way. Slam's grades aren't that hot. And when his teachers jam his troubles in his face, he blows up. Slam never doubted himself on the court until he found himself going one-on-one with his own future, and he didn't have the ball.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit black community there.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?
| Resources for Books |
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| Bookstores in Waltham |
| Amazon |
| Barnes and Noble – 170 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill 617-965-7621 617-965-7621 617-965-7621 617-965-7621 617-965-7621 |
| Barnes and Noble – 98 Middlesex Parkway (Rte 95), Burlington 781-273-3871 781-273-3871 781-273-3871 781-273-3871 781-273-3871 |
| Borders Books – The Atrium Mall, 300 Boylston Street (Rte 9), Newton 617-630-1120 617-630-1120 617-630-1120 617-630-1120 617-630-1120 |
| New England Mobile Book Fair – 82 Needham Avenue, Newton 617-527-5817 617-527-5817 617-527-5817 617-527-5817 617-527-5817 |
We hope you have a restful and enjoyable summer.
| Waltham High School English Department |
| Thomas O'Toole, Director of English |
| Kendall Boninti, Waltham High School Library Teacher |
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