Summer Reading

Following the story of Chase Ambrose, 8th grader and ultimate class bully, after he suffers amnesia as the result of a terrible accident. This novel poses an important question: Can people change or is your personality a fixed part of you?

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. This text will serve

as an introduction to the World Literature emphasis of class at CVA, as well as the

larger theme of justice that will extend throughout the year.

This historical novel follows the stories of three children from different times and places who are forced to flee their homelands.  It will serve as an introduction to a major theme of the upcoming year: the battle for human rights and freedom, particularly in the region now known as the United States.

Jon Krakauer’s harrowing first-hand account of the 1996 Everest disaster is a classic work of mountaineering literature.  We’ll use the text to explore concepts such as risk vs. reward and commercialism.   

Set on four continents, Anthony Doerr's collection of stories is about memory: the source of meaning and coherence in our lives, the fragile thread that connects us to ourselves and to others.  The stories in Memory Wall show us how we figure the world, and show Anthony Doerr to be one of the masters of the form.  Doerr won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015. 

The author “has studied athletes’ writing and its effect on training and performance. As the leader in the field, he has collaborated with the National Writing Project and co-authored athletic team notebooks and journals with Olympic gold medalists, US Olympic and National Team coaches, NCAA coaches, and academics. He works with athletic teams, coaches, athletes, schools, and colleges; he created and manages the resource website, WritingAthletes.com ” 

The author has offered to visit our class this fall

The biography tells the story of Christopher Knight, the ‘North Pond Hermit’, who lived in the Maine woods for 27 years without any human contact. The Stranger in the Woods will serve as an introduction to our first unit of study, an investigation of the conflict of Individual vs. Society in literature. Individual vs. Society is one of six conflicts, or tensions, present in every work of literature. In works that investigate the conflict of Individual vs. Society, a main character finds

their dreams, beliefs, or desires at odds with what the society they live in demands or expects from them.