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Theme: Through oppression, resistance and
triumph, people persevere.
Essential Question: What qualities does our western civilization value?
PVMHS Summer Reading 2010
- Grade 12 (See
Assignments.)
 Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity
-- and My Journey to Freedom in America by Francis Bok.
Set in Sudan with
its present “civil war” and refugee camps in Darfur, Francis Bok, a Black
African Christian, tells the story of his capture as a boy by an Islamic Arab
raider who enslaves him for 10 years. At age 17, Bok escapes, finding his way
to Darfur, and tells the story of the horrifying conditions there and his
eventual rescue and emigration to the United States. Mr. Bok has been a speaker
at PVMHS. This autobiography won the Boston Freedom Award and the 2003 Books
for a Better Life/Suze Orman First Book Award.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book
 The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
A young
hero, Santiago, goes on a far-reaching journey in quest of a great treasure and
his purpose in life. This journey leads him away from all family expectations,
often endangers him and has him encounter all kinds of people as he finds
friends, enemies, mentors and the love of his life. This novel won the Best
Fiction Corinne International Award in 2002.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book |
Sound Recording
 Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Marrying rich is not all it’s cracked up to be! – just ask
the narrator. In this classic fiction, a shy young woman marries Max, a
millionaire with a questionable past. She battles the memory of her husband’s
beloved dead first wife, a sadistic housemaid, and her own insecurities. The
reading adventure begins on the high cliffs of Monte Carlo and ends in the
rolling English countryside. If you think that you can figure out the ending to
this thriller – think again!
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book |
Sound Recording
 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Seth Grahame-Smith
The Bennett sisters created by Jane Austen in her classic
society novel find themselves facing problems very different from the issue of
who to marry in this spoof of her comedy of manners book and of 20th century
“monster” novels and films. Including much of the original, this entertaining
modern read takes on the real issues of how to prepare for and survive in
society then and now with enough considered ninja kicks and successful dagger
wielding to make every action hero devotee happy.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book |
Sound Recording |
Downloadable audio book
* Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Book I Prodigal Son by
Dean Koontz and Kevin Anderson
In this first of three planned novels, Koontz and Anderson revisit the classic
Mary Shelley novel with the question what if Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster
were still alive today and living in New Orleans? The authors write an
action-based detective novel full of references to “monster” movies and
literature. His two tough detectives face solving strange serial murders and
questions of money, power, autism, cloning and what it means to be human in
today’s society. Can the monsters be tamed today? Nominated in 1995 for the
Prometheus Award for Best Novel, this book won the 2005 Amazon Breakthrough
Novel Award.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book |
Sound Recording |
Downloadable audio book
 The Guernsey
Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by
MaryAnn Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Don’t judge a book by its long title. This delightful novel, written in the
form of letters, tells a popular female writer’s story about life in London and
on the Channel Island of Guernsey during World War II and after the Nazi
occupation of that island. Follow Juliet Ashton, our British heroine, as she is
romanced by a handsome American millionaire and corresponds and meets with the
island’s unique “literary society” members. They are not what you may think.
This book is “I can’t put it down” historical fiction.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book |
Sound Recording |
Downloadable audio book
All Honors level students read three books;
all CP1 students read two; all CP2 students read one. (See
Assignments.)
Advanced Placement Students: (See Assignments or
consult with AP teachers.)
All students read both books and do the assignment.
 Christ in Concrete by Pietro DiDonato
Mixing concrete and
building communities may be the work of these Italian-American construction
workers in New York, but the book depicts the lives, the struggles and the
ethics needed to survive in a society unwelcoming to the reality of the working
class. The efforts of these characters portray what it really takes to become
American and asks what that designation really means.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book
How to Read Literature
Like a Professor
by Thomas FosterHow to
Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster
Learn how to
read between the lines! Foster guides readers through an entertaining, often
light-hearted, tour of literary elements and motifs as they would be applied to
analysis of literature from a college professor’s viewpoint. He shows why
allusions matter, how to unpack metaphors, how to dig for meaning, makes the
case for knowing the Bible and Shakespeare, and explores why simple everyday
events can take on significant meaning in a text. In this practical and
enjoyable handbook, Foster shows how to unlock the “hidden truths” of literature
and apply them to experience.
Click on the link below to see if the title is available from the Peabody
Institute Library:
Book
*This book contains
mature subject matter.
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