2010 High School Summer Reading List:
The Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Baszile.
A powerful, beautifully written memoir about coming of age as a black girl in an exclusive white suburb in “integrated,” post-Civil Rights California in the 1970s and 1980s.
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamtwamba and Bryan Mealer.
A true story of tenacity and imagination describes how an African teenager built a windmill from scraps to create electricity for his home and his village, improving life for himself and his neighbors
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Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
Following her conscience leads high school freshman Mena to clash with her parents and former friends from their conservative Christian church, but might result in better things when she stands up for a teacher who refuses to include “Intelligent Design” in lessons on evolution.
The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang
Presents three short stories in graphic novel format involving the blurred line between fantasy and reality, including an office assistant who falls for an e-mail scam, and a young knight whose life is not what it seems.
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
Stumbling upon the drowned body of Nouf, the teenage daughter of a prominent, wealthy Saudi Arabian family, Nayir, a desert guide hired by her family to search for her, feels compelled to discover what really happened to her.
Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
Football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life.
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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women–black and white, mothers and daughters–view one another.
The Hunger Games by Susan Collins
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place.
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
High school sophomore Nora has always been very cautious in her relationships, but when Patch, who has a dark side she can sense, enrolls at her school, she is mysteriously and strongly drawn to him, despite warnings from her best friend, the school counselor, and her own instincts.
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Into the Beautiful North: A Novel by Luis Alberta Urrea
“Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US when she was young. Recently, it has dawned on her that he isn’t the only man who has left town.
The Sista hood on the Mic by E-Fierce
Girls can rhyme, too, and nothing proves this more than author E-Fierce’s THE SISTA HOOD: ON THE MIC, the first in a series about four young women united through hip-hop.
You Don’t Even Know Me: Stories and Poems about Boys by Sharon Flake.
Tow-Kaye just learned that the love of his life is pregnant–and though he knows what the right thing to do is, he’s scared to death to do it. Jeffrey hates having a mom who dresses like a teenager, but when another sexy mom moves in next door–well, that’s a different kind of problem. In these and twenty-two other short stories and poems, readers plumb the inner lives of African American teenage boys.
