Summer reading assignments for students

At Carrabassett Valley Academy, student-athletes spend the summer preparing for the year ahead, creating balance by challenging their fitness with dryland training, and challenging their minds with reading.

Summer reading assignments were sent via email in June from the Director of Academics, Karen Lanoue-Egan, which include instructions and contact information for the CVA English Teacher. Students will read, annotate, and reflect on their assigned novel, and then bring their completed work to the first day of class on August 29th. 

📚The books on the CVA summer reading list this year include:
📖Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt.  “The two-time Newbery Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt delivers the shattering story of Joseph, a father at thirteen, who has never seen his daughter, Jupiter. After spending time in a juvenile facility, he’s placed with a foster family on a farm in rural Maine. Here Joseph, damaged and withdrawn, meets twelve-year-old Jack, who narrates the account of the troubled, passionate teen who wants to find his baby at any cost. In this riveting novel, two boys discover the true meaning of family and the sacrifices it requires.”
📖Refugee by Alan Gratz, a New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction. This historical novel follows the stories of three children from different times and places who are forced to flee their homelands: Josef, a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl fleeing Castro’s regime; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy seeking safety from his country’s current civil war. In this exciting tale, the characters battle against various kinds of conflict and danger in their search for refuge. While they are decades and continents apart, their stories ultimately intertwine by the end of the book.
📖Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen: Volume I. “Barefoot Gen is the powerful, tragic, autobiographical story of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath, seen through the eyes of the artist as a young boy growing up in Japan. The honest portrayal of emotions and experiences speaks to children and adults everywhere. Nakazawa's manga illustrates the true impact of nuclear weapons when used against a civilian population. It is vital reading for people of all ages, and especially for today's youth. By keeping this tragedy in our collective consciousness, we can strive to never repeat it and guide humanity towards a course of peace.”
📖Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr.  “Set on four continents, Anthony Doerr's new stories are about memory, the source of meaning and coherence in our lives, the fragile thread that connects us to ourselves and to others. Every hour, says Doerr, all over the globe, an infinite number of memories disappear. Yet at the same time children, surveying territory that is entirely new to them, push back the darkness, form fresh memories, and remake the world.”
📖Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer’s harrowing first-hand account of the 1996 Everest disaster. This is a classic work of mountaineering literature and has inspired several film adaptations, including 2015’s Everest.
📖Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah. Born during Apartheid to a white Swiss father and black Xhosa mother, Noah is the product of what was deemed a criminal act (interracial sex), hence the title of his book. Utilizing humor even amidst difficult and tragic events, his narrative outlines the complexity and repercussions of racial classification in South Africa and the many challenges he faced growing up.

📸 Cameron Arner '22 on the Murfey Hall patio
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