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Thank-you to everyone who sent suggestions for the 9th Grade reading 
assignment.  This was an assignment for a Honors
English Class

Suggestions are as follows:

I just finished reading Chris Crutcher's book, Staying Fat for Sarah 
Byrnes, and I think it would work very well with those questions.
 We have a similar assignment in 10th grade.
A few boy-friendly titles that might fit the assignment:

Giles, Gail. /Shattering Glass./
Cummings, Patricia. /The Red Kayak.
/Woods, Ron. /The Hero./
Bunting, Eve. /Blackwater/.
Crutcher, Chris. /Stotan.
/Haddon. /Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

/

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles would be a great choice for him. Look it up
on Amazon. By the way, the title is a play on the main character's name,
Simon Glass.

My sister's keeper (Jodi Picoult)

How about The Thief and the Beanstalk , by P.W. Catanese?  It's about
what happened to Jack after he came back down the beanstalk, as told
through the eyes of a boy who is being coerced into stealing from Jack. 
Was stealing from the giant okay in the first place, just because he was
a monster?  Is it okay to steal from Jack since he himself was a thief? 

Hello - my recommendation is a book called Feed by M.T. Anderson. It's about a 
teenage boy and his friends set in the future where the Internet/TV/Music are all 
programmed into your brain. 
Is it okay to steal if you're starving?  

Feed_, by M.T. Anderson, will make the reader think. But you might want to look at 
it first, as I think it might be more appropriate for an 11th or 12th grader, 
depending on the person.


Inkheart - Cornelia Funke (fantasy edge of modernday; the new sequel ought to be 
just as good)



Hanging onto Max - author with B (realistic fiction on unexpected pregnancy from 
guy's point of view)



Tears of a Tiger - Sharon Draper (accident from drunk driving presented
through newspaper articles, friends' conversations, etc. - very
powerful)

Wish List - Eoin Colfer (not part of the Artemis Fowl series; spiritual message to 
consider)



My high schoolers devour the Lemony Snicket books (they're on the
"popcorn books" list - great fun, but not for a steady diet) - lots of
interesting titles and character names that might help students who
will be more challenged by those concepts.



Consider anything by Walter Dean Myers (one English teacher promotes these so well 
that they fly off the shelves).



For reluctant readers, look at The Bluford High series by various
authors from Townsend Press. Set in an urban high school, each slim
volume focuses on one friend and a contemporary issue facing them.
These are hi-lo books with accessible vocabulary and are $1.00 each!
The set of 10 even has a teacher's guide, if you have a 'resource
reading' class in your high school that wants more interesting stuff
than their basal readers dole out.

A great read is Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher.  My book
club kids loved it, especially the guys. Only
complaint some of them had was it has a somewhat slow
start.  It's about a group of high school "misfits"
who form a swim team, only one of them knows how to
swim.  It's great about the conflict of those who are
in the in group and those who are picked on or bullied
at school.  
Another great book is A Hole in My Life by Jack
Gantos.  It's an autobiographical account of his early
life which includes a drug smuggling adventure he had
in his late teens.  He definitely turned his life
around.  He is the author of the Joey Pigza books and
all those fun Rotten Ralph books which teach all sorts
of lessons to the littler ones.


I loved_ The Crazy Horse Electric Game_ by Chris Crutcher and_ 
Tangerine_ by Edward Bloor.  Many kids like_ Hoot_ by Carl Hiaasen.  My 
son loved_ Witch Child_ and other books by Celia Rees.

Enjoy!


Of Mice and Men, The Children's Hour (very short, but meaty), The Pearl, The 
Drowning of Stephan Jones and/or The Man Without a Face. 

Theses are somewhat older titles, but they are the first to come to mind for the 
request. Best of luck to your son. 

A Separate Peace by John Knowles


Thanks again for your suggestions.       




-- 
Nancy Stiner
<mailto:nstiner@mchsi.com>

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