4th Quarter Literature Groups: Book Choices
Kindred, Octavia Butler: Dana, a woman living in the 1970’s, is the main character of this book. At the beginning of the book, she suddenly feels faint and is inexplicably transported from her living room to another time and place, to a riverbank where a young boy appears to be drowning. She saves the boy and gives him CPR before she is suddenly returned to her living room. As the book continues, she keeps getting taken from her life to rescue this same boy, and can’t control when it happens. She soon finds out that the boy lives on a southern plantation during the time slavery, and as a black woman, must face the reality of being in that time and place.
Note: This book has a high reading level, as it is found in the regular section of book stores, not the young adult section. It also jumps back and forth between time periods. This book contains some mature content (descriptions of violence).
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes: The main character of this book is Charlie Gordon, a man with a very low IQ who is chosen to participate in an experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. The surgery was successfully tested on a lab mouse named Algernon, and Charlie becomes the first human test subject. The story is told from Charlie’s point of view as he writes progress reports to monitor his progress throughout the experiment. The surgery works and Charlie does, in fact, become smarter. But what price does he have to pay?
Note: At first, Charlie’s progress reports are filled with spelling and grammar mistakes. As his intelligence grows, so does his vocabulary and sentence structure, leading to a high reading level. This book contains some mature content (references to sexuality).
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins: The main character of this book is Katniss, a 16-year-old girl who lives in what used to be North America. Her father died when she was 11, and she has been the head of her household ever since, supporting both her mother and her younger sister, Prim. In the society that Katniss lives in, it is tradition (and the law!) that two teenagers from each district are randomly chosen each year to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised competition where the kids fight each other for survival. The winner gets to live a life of luxury (a far cry from the life of poverty she is used to), but the losers all die. When Prim’s name is chosen for the Hunger Games in the first chapter, Katniss volunteers to take her place.
Rash, Peter Hautman: The year is 2074 and Bo Marsten, the main character, is a teenager living in the USSA (The United Safter States of America). In the name of public safety, strict laws have been passed against anything that could be deemed unsafe. No more fast food, (since it’s bad for your health), can’t own a large dog, and ‘dangerous’ sports like football no longer exist. When Bo’s temper gets him in trouble, he is sentenced to manual labor and is sent to a juvenile detention center in the tundra. What he finds there goes against everything he’s learned in the safety-centered world he’s lived in all his life.
Note: This book contains some mature content (PG-13 language).
Briar Rose, Jane Yolen: Rebecca, the main character, is a young woman who has always felt a close connection to her grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor that refused to talk about her past. What she remembers most about her childhood is her grandmother’s telling of the story of Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty). Later, while on her deathbed, her grandmother again told the story, this time insisting that she was Briar Rose. Upon her grandmother’s death, Becca promises to travel to Europe and look into her grandmother’s mysterious past.
Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O’Brien: Ann Burden, a teenager who is the main character, thinks that she is the only person left after a nuclear war has made most of the United States uninhabitable due to radioactive contamination. Ann lives in a valley that has somehow escaped contamination, and has survived for a year by cultivating the valley and continuing the family's farm. In that year, she has often wished that she would find another person who survived--a wish that suddenly comes true when she sees a man enter the valley. As she watches him come closer, however, she begins to wonder if she will encounter friend or foe.
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card: Ender Wiggin is a young teen genius living in future. He has been selected by international military forces to be the savior of humanity against a second wave of invading bug-aliens who are bent on destroying the earth. He is sent to Battle School, a floating school in space, where he is trained with virtual reality games in combat techniques. Being the new kid in the school, and fairly young, he is picked on by several of his classmates, and has to fight hard to get respect. Fortunately, he learns quickly to become the best of the best. However, at the end of book, you are left wondering if he is a hero or a monster. If you like The Matrix, or District 9, or any of the Harry Potter movies/books, you will love this one.
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: In future America, a fireman isn't what it means today. Firemen of the future are charged with setting fires - specifically to burn all books for the good of humanity. The title refers to the temperature at which paper burns. Future America itself isn't what you'd be too familiar with, either. It's a place where lawlessness and total abandonment of self-control are the norms, and being an intellectual is outlawed. Anyone caught with a book is thrown into a mental hospital, and their possessions burned to the ground. The central character, Guy Montag, after seeing some people willingly die for their books, is a little uneasy with his job as a fireman, the life he leads, or the society he is a part of. He slowly joins the "outlaws" and becomes entangled in a war.
Running Out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix: Jessie
is a teenager living in the 1840's...or so she thinks. Jessie has begun
to realize that a few things in her community seem a little askew, but
she can't quite put her finger on what it is. It almost seems like the
adults are all keeping some kind of secret. When there is an outbreak
of diphtheria among the children in the community, Jessie's mother
reveals a surprise. The year is actually 1996 and the community they
live in is a tourist site. Since the "town" began, however, the creator
has begun to instill harsh rules against any modern conveniences,
including medicine, and has forbidden anyone from leaving. Jessie's
mother has decided to send her on a dangerous mission to the "outside"
world so that she can stop the outbreak and save the children of the
town.
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer: One
of only two non-fiction choices on the list, this book tells the true
story of Chris McCandless, who set out to survive in the Alaskan
wilderness with very few supplies. In the early 1990s, when Chris
graduated from college he gave all his money to charity, abandoned
almost all his possessions, cut all ties with his upper-middle class
family, and set out on a journey across the US. He eventually
hitchhikes to Alaska, and walks out into the wilderness to try to
survive on his own. Four months later, McCandless's body is found by a
hunter after he died of starvation. Jon Krakauer investigates
McCandles's life in an attempt to piece together the of story of his
death, as well as to figure out what drove him to abandon a comfortable
life in favor of such high-risk activities. Thanks to journals
McCandless left behind and interviews with those who knew him, you hear
the story of his fight to survive and get a glimpse into his mind-set.
