Independent Reading Novel Two
For this round of independent reading, you have a selection of non-fiction and fiction books. Be sure to pick one that grabs your interest!
High School's Not Forever by Jane Bluestein & Eric Katz
This book provides responses for tons of high school and post-high school students about how to get through high school and the issues that go along with it: friendship, academics, drugs, depression, and more.
Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
This is the diary of a teenager who must hide from the Nazis during the Holocaust of World War II. She shares insights about the holocaust, her family, friendship, rebellion, love, and tension.
Zlata's Diary by Zlata Flipovic
Zlata is a teen growing up in Sarajevo, sharing stories about piano lessons, parties, food shortages, death of friends, and hideouts during bombings.
The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told: Seventeen Incredible Tales by Lamar Underwood
Read about the adventures of man vs. nature, including surviving a plane crash in the Andes, escaping form a Soviet labor camp in the middle of the Gobi Desert, and navigating the ocean in a lifeboat for over 800-miles.
Holes by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.
Money Hungry by Sharon Flake
Thirteen-year-old Raspberry Hill is always scheming about ways to make money. She's starved for the green stuff, and will do just about anything legal to get it-wash cars, sell rotten candy, skip lunch, and clean houses. She is obsessed with making money, having money, smelling money, and touching money. Raspberry is determined that she and her momma will never be homeless again. When they are approved for a Section 8 move to a nice house in Pecan Landings, Raspberry thinks things are looking up. But after their apartment in the projects is robbed, and protest by the rich folks in Pecan Landings force them out of their new house, Raspberry must do everything in her power to keep her world from crumbling.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present -- and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parent's divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair -- it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.
Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky
When young Betty Parris contracts a mysterious ailment that spreads to other girls in her Puritan village of Salem, Betty and her family must confront the deadly superstitions that will change their lives.
The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island.
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
A breathtaking seafaring adventure, set in 1832. Charlotte Doyle, 13, returning from school in England to join her family in Rhode Island, is deposited on a seedy ship with a ruthless, mad captain and a mutinous crew. Refusing to heed warnings about Captain Jaggery's brutality, Charlotte seeks his guidance and approval only to become his victim, a pariah to the entire crew, and a convicted felon for the murder of the first mate.
**Book descriptions come from www.amazon.com.