Freshmen English

Book Selection For This Year:
(Book Summaries from Amazon.Com)

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck writes of such a trip in Of Mice and Men: the desperate longing of men for some kind of home-roots that they can believe in, land that they can care for-and the painful search for self. This beautiful, timeless novel speaks of the love that men can feel for each other-one inarticulate, dumb, sometimes violent in his need; the other clever, hopeful, and tied to a responsibility he doesn't want.
Lord of the Flies
William Golding's classic novel of primitive savagery and survival is one of the most vividly realized and riveting works in modern fiction. The tale begins after a plane wreck deposits a group of English school boys, aged six to twelve on an isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive and impose order quickly evolves from a battle against nature into a battle against their own primitive instincts. Golding's portrayal of the collapse of social order into chaos draws the fine line between innocence and savagery.

A Day No Pigs Would Die
The novel about a boyhood on a Vermont farm, the love between a father and a son, and a coming to manhood, that is the most moving book of the year...
"You'll find yourself caught up in the novel's emotion from the very opening scene which will grab and not let you go... love suffuses every page."
Fallen Angels
Richie Perry, Lobel, Johnson, Brunner, and Peewee are all in Vietnam.  They came there for different reasons, but now they share a single dream -- getting out alive.

Romeo and Juliet
Tragic tale of star-crossed lovers, feuding families and timeless passion contains some of Shakespeare's most beautiful and lyrical love poetry. This inexpensive edition includes the complete, unabridged text with explanatory footnotes. Ideal for classroom use, it is a wonderful addition to the home library of anyone wanting to savor one of literature's most sublime paeans to young love.
Black Elk Speaks
The most famous Native American book ever written, Black Elk Speaks is the acclaimed story of Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and his people during the momentous, twilight years of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading the Lakotas’ homeland, decimating buffalo herds and threatening to extinguish their way of life. Black Elk and other Lakotas fought back, a dogged resistance that resulted in a remarkable victory at the Little Bighorn and an unspeakable tragedy at Wounded Knee.

I Am the Cheese
"A horrifying tale . . . the buildup of suspense is terrific."

"AN ABSORBING, EVEN brilliant job. The book is assembled in mosaic fashion: a tiny chip here, a chip there. . . . Everything is related to something else; everything builds and builds to a fearsome climax. . . . Cormier . . . has the knack of making horror out of the ordinary, as the masters of suspense know how to do."
Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb every dropped on a city.  This book, John Hersey's journalistic masterpiece, tells what happened on that day.  Told through the memories of survivors, this timeless, powerful and compassionate document has became a classic "that stirs the conscience of humanity."

 

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