CLA Greater Boston Cooperative Library Association reading list grades 9 & 10.

This reading list was prepared for the Cooperative Library Association by Sandy Horwitz, Beaver Country Day School; Martha Kennedy, Concord Academy; Susan Akie, Mt. Alvernia High School; Margaret Whittaker, Pingree School; Lynn Grilli, The Roxbury Latin School; Jane Carver, Walnut Hill School; Janet Shainheit, Worcester Academy.

GET REAL

ANGELOU, Maya. A song flung up to heaven. The sixth volume of Angelou's autobiography covers the period from 1964-1968, when she returned to America from Africa. As she begins to get involved in the Civil Rights Movement, the turbulent times affect her both personally and politically.

ANGUS, Colin. Lost in Mongolia: rafting the world's last unchallenged river. Who would expect help from Russian mobsters in the remotest corner of Siberia? Three crazy guys would as they raft their way down the 5,500-kilometer Yenisey River.

ASGEDOM, Mawi. Of beetles and angels: a boy's remarkable journey from a refugee camp to Harvard. Driven from his wartorn home in Ethiopia, Mawi and his family travel to a refugee camp in Sudan, and then on to Chicago, where they must rely on welfare. Mawi ultimately fulfills his goal by earning a full scholarship to Harvard and giving the commencement speech for his graduating class.

DUMAS, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi: a memoir of growing up Iranian in America. When Firoozeh was 14 years old, her family moved from Iran to California. Talk about culture shock!

ERDMAN, Sarah. Nine hills of Nambonkaka: two years in the heart of an Africa village. Erdman tells the story of her Peace Corps experience in the Ivory Coast with sympathy, grace, and humor. Best of all, she brings the reader along for the ride.

ESPELAND, Pamela. Life lists for teens. All kinds of lists like: three reasons to become more tolerant; four ways to avoid burnout; five steps to taming your temper; nine do's and don'ts when a friend is a crime victim; 10 tips for staying safe in relationships; 12 test-taking tips; 17 ways to manage stress; and much, much more.

GANTOS, Jack. Hole in my life. This book chronicles a dark time in the troubled life of the author, a drug smuggler who was later sent to prison. His growth and survival make for compelling reading.

HART, Mickey. Songcatchers: in search of the world's music. Former Grateful Dead drummer Hart writes a tribute to the people who loved, listened to, transcribed, and recorded music that would otherwise have been lost. His own experiences are fascinating, and the enclosed CD makes for great listening.

McDONALD, Janet. Project girl. Janet McDonald grew up in a public housing project in NYC, the middle child of seven. Her determination enables her to graduate from Vassar College and later earn advanced degrees in journalism and law. Despite her academic ability, much of her life revolves around the violence, drug abuse, and poverty of her childhood.

MEZRICH, Ben. Bringing down the house: the inside story of six M.I.T. students who took Vegas for millions. "Everybody plays, but nobody wins!" until these college students crack the casinos through strategy and subterfuge.

MORGANSTERN, Julie & Jessie Morganstern-Colon. Organizing from the inside out for teenagers: the foolproof system for organizing your room, your time & your life. Organizing is fun! Do it in small chunks. Find your own system. Written by a mother-daughter team, this book's advice is gentle, clear, and entertaining.

NIVEN, Jennifer. Ada Blackjack: a true story of survival in the Arctic. A young Inuit woman becomes a reluctant hero when an Arctic expedition goes terribly wrong. She will be haunted by the experience for the rest of her life.

PACHEN, Ani & Adelaide Donnelley. Sorrow mountain: the journey of a Tibetan warrior nun. Pachen was indeed a warrior in that she was imprisoned by the Chinese for 21 years and managed to survive while refusing to "confess to her crimes." Her only desire was to live a monastic life, but she was thrown into the thick of politics when her father, a chieftain, died.

SAMPSON, Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt. The pact: three young men make a promise and fulfill a dream. These friends grew up in a Newark, NJ neighborhood riddled with crime, drugs, and violence. Their families, their friendship, and their pact to succeed saved their lives and enabled them to realize their dreams.

SATRAPI, Marjane. Persepolis: the story of a childhood. This memoir, written as a graphic book, tells of the author's experience during Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979. Satrapi, part of a loving family, is a feisty, funny young girl. As the society becomes more fragmented and dangerous, her parents are forced to make a heart-wrenching decision.

SCHOTT, Ben. Schott's original miscellany. All sorts of weird and wonderful information you never knew you wanted to know!

SEDARIS, David. Me talk pretty one day. Open a page--any page--and David Sedaris' essays will have you laughing out loud. Part one covers childhood lisps; guitar lessons; humorous siblings; life in New York; part "deux'; and life in France with a boyfriend. Try explaining the Easter Bunny to a French class!

GO FIGURE

ADAMS, Richard. Watership Down. Peter Rabbit meets Animal Farm in this bunny-centric take on suburban sprawl and land development in the English countryside.

AUSTER, Paul. Timbuktu. Mr. Bones, aka Cal, aka Sparky, is a dog endowed with intelligence, courage, and empathy for the human condition.

DONNELLY, Jennifer. A northern light. The year is 1910. Mattie, a gifted writer, earns a full scholarship to Barnard and a chance to escape from her upstate New York home. When a young woman's drowning turns out to be a homicide, Mattie's plans are put on hold as she weighs family obligations, the draw of her first love, and the desire to become a writer.

HARRIS, Robert. Pompeii. Just days before Mt. Vesuvius erupts, a young engineer is dispatched from Rome to see why the aqueduct is failing. While solving the problem Marcus falls in love, meets Admiral Pliny, and finds himself in the middle of a political scandal.

HILLERMAN, Tony. The sinister pig. Why is the FBI so interested in a murder on the Navaho Reservation? Lieutenant Leaphorn and Sergeant Chee join forces with the U.S. Border Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to solve this complex web of crimes.

KLEIN, Rachel. The moth diaries. Vampires at a girl's boarding school. Need we say more?

PASCOE, Judy. Our father who art in a tree. When Simone starts talking to her dead father in the Poinciana tree, her Mom believes her and joins in, until disaster strikes.

PICOULT, Jodi. Plain truth. An Amish dairy farm is the setting for this story of 18-year-old Katie Fisher, who is accused of smothering her newborn son.

VAN GULIK, Robert. The Chinese nail murders. Mystery readers take note. This one is replete with detail, puzzles, a decapitated body, an articulate investigator by the name of Judge Dee, lots of info about Chinese customs and culture, and a few too many suspects.

IMAGINE THIS

ADAMS, Douglas. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Earth is about to be destroyed. What do you do? Start hitchhiking!

BLACK, Holly. Tithe: a modern fairy tale. A 16-year-old changeling finds that her entry into the faerie world could result in death for herself and her human friends.

CAREY, Lisa. The mermaids singing. When Grace dies in America, Grainne's Irish grandmother takes her back to face the secrets of her mother's past.

FARMER, Nancy. The house of the scorpion. Matteo Alacran, a human clone, discovers his heritage and humanity in this futuristic world of opium-trading and genetic breeding.

FFORDE, Jasper. The Eyre affair. In this alternative world, the Crimean War is still raging, Dodo birds are not extinct, a mysterious corporation seems to be running England, and books are taken VERY seriously.

HAMILL, Pete. Snow in August. An Irish kid in Brooklyn and a rabbi who survived the Holocaust join forces against the destructive violence of bigotry. In doing so, they make a miracle.

HEARN, Lian. Across the nightingale floor. Takeo barely escapes annihilation when a warlord searching for him slaughters all of the people in the village. With the help of Lord Otori Shigeru, Takeo discovers that he is a member of the Tribe, a mysterious group of assassins with supernatural talents. Trickery, subterfuge, and mastery of his amazing talents are key elements of this coming-of-age story.

HOFFMAN, Alice. The probable future. The women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehoods, her daughter Jenny can see people's dreams (except of course her own), and granddaughter Stella can see into the future, which gets her and her father into big trouble.

McKILLIP, Patricia. In the forests of Serre. A prince, a princess, a witch, two wizards, and a forest filled with magic weave through this book. McKillip presents a tapestry rich in language and story.

WIBBERLEY, Leonard. The mouse that roared. What do you do when your tiny country is on the verge of going broke?. Simple: declare war on the USA, and after they win, let them finance the rebuilding of your country.

WYNDHAM, John. The day of the Triffids. The end of the world as we know it has arrived and only a few people have survived. This 1951 dystopian novel, in which plants try to take over the world, is more frighteningly relevant than ever. If you like this, check out Simon Clark's recently published sequel, The Night of the Triffids.

NATURE OF THINGS

HOLT, Laurence. Stikky night skies. Want to go stargazing, but don't know what stars are where? This book will start you on your way.

BROCKMAN, John (ed.) The greatest inventions of the past 2000 years: today's leading thinkers choose the creations that shaped our world. Over 100 contemporary scientists, philosophers, and great minds weigh in on the question, "What was the greatest invention of the past two millennia?" Their answers will surprise you!

HALPERN, Sue. Four wings and a prayer: caught in the mystery of the Monarch butterfly. Halpern observes the people for whom the Monarch has become an obsession as they probe the mystery of its migration.

KUHN, Cynthia, et al. Buzzed: the straight facts about the most used and abused drugs from alcohol to ecstacy, 2nd ed. Everything you need to know about drugs, from history, to chemical components, to current thinking for or against legalization.

KIRBERGER, Kimberly. No body's perfect: stories by teens about body image, self-acceptance, and the search for identity. Short pieces (one to two pages long) on many topics of interest to teens: stay true to yourself, don't worry what others think, go beyond your comfort zone, and value yourself. Whether it is a letter entitled "Dear Bulimia" or a poem called "My Best Feature," these short snappy pieces come from an authentic place.

SHORT AND SWEET

CART, Michael (ed.). Love & sex: ten stories of truth. Truth and honesty are the hallmarks of these stories about the romantic lives of teenagers. They cover all the emotions that teens experience: joy, heartache, love, lust, anger, and confusion. These stories will ring true for everyone.

CLINTON, Catherine (ed.). A poem of her own: voices of American women yesterday and today. Don't be fooled by this book's cover! These poems are by strong-voiced women who have complex things to say, and who do so with sophisticated wit and imagery.

COLES, Robert & Randy Testa (eds.). Growing up poor: a literary anthology. America's finest writers provide readers with a look into the lives of citizens who are victims of poverty. Contributors include Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, Sherman Alexie, Dorothy Allison, and Gary Soto.

DeLINT, Charles. Waifs and strays. A short story collection of fantasy tales about teenagers and the meshing of the faerie and "real" worlds, facing problems of identity, growth, and change.

KEILLOR, Garrison (ed.). Good poems. Filled with good stuff, much of it off the beaten anthology path.

KENNEDY, Caroline (ed.). A patriot's handbook: songs, poems, stories, & speeches celebrating the land that we love. An outstanding collection! Where else can you find Susan B. Anthony, Bob Dylan, Cole Porter, Jack Kerouac, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alice Walker, Richard Nixon, and Groucho Marx all between two covers?

LEVIN, Gail (comp.). The poetry of solitude: a tribute to Edward Hopper. Hopper's paintings are matched with the poetry they inspired.

NYE, Naomi Shihab. 19 varieties of gazelle: poems of the Middle East. These poems record and cherish small details of people's lives--their suffering and laughter, their despair, and most of all, their hope.

REED, Ishmael (ed.). From totems to hip-hop: a multiculturai anthology of poetry across the Americas, 1900-2002. Reed has gathered poets who have never made it into standard anthologies and stacked them up with some of the "great ones." The result is a truly exciting, vibrant collection filled with WOW!

ROBOTHAM, Rosemarie (ed.). Mending the world: stories of fatally by contemporary black writers. This beautiful book, filled with lots of variety in style and subject matter, holds a common thread that is familiar to all of us. Tales about family, place, and social activism as told by Shay Youngblood, Jacqueline Woodson, Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danicat, Alice Walker and many others.

RAWLINGS, Jane. The Penelopeia: a novel in verse. A feminist version of the events that unfold after Odysseus returns home from the Trojan War. After 20 years, his wife Penelopeia and his grown twin daughters are ready for a few adventures of their own. Told in free verse, the story moves along speedily, artfully, and often comically.

STILLMAN, Larry. Match made in hell: the Jewish boy and the Polish outlaw who defied the Nazis. After narrowly escaping from a Nazi firing squad, a 16-year-old is rescued by a notorious criminal, who then trains him to become a gutsy resistance fighter and saboteur. Based on the testimony of Holocaust survivor Morris Goldner.

STOCKWIN, Julian. Artemis: a Kydd novel. If you enjoyed the movie Master and Commander or the books it was based on, you'll love this sea adventure.

TATE, Greg. Midnight lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the black experience. Tate's self-described "Jimi Hendrix Primer for Blackfolk" presents a side of Hendrix that most fans, both black and white, don't know.

TIFFANY, Grace. My father had a daughter. William Shakespeare's neglected daughter runs away to London to sabotage his new play. She disguises herself and joins the Globe Players, only to discover her father's life as a playwright is more complicated than she ever imagined.

UNSWORTH, Barry. The songs of the kings. A retelling of the story of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, King Agamemnon's daughter. The voices of the characters are terrifically well done and the media manipulation has parallels that are all too relevant today.

WELD, William. Stillwater. This novel about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir, the destruction of four towns which were in the way, and the political machinations involved is told through the voice of Jamison, a teenage witness to the events. Written by the former governor of Massachusetts.

THAT'S LIFE!

ANAYA, Rudolfo. Bless me, Ultima. In 1940s New Mexico, a young boy faces evil with the help of a curandera, a spiritual guide.

BROOKS, Kevin. Lucas: a story of love and hate. When Caitlin first sees Lucas heading toward her island resort village, he looks mysterious and different, but she is instantly attracted to him. Others find him scary, and when Jaime convinces them that Lucas is a rapist and a murderer, the townspeople turn into a mob bent on destroying him.

FUHRMAN, Chris. The dangerous lives of altar boys. Four parochial school boys have the souls of artists and the hormones of 13-year-old cynics. Often outrageously comic, the novel has an underlying sadness. Growing up can, indeed, be dangerous.

HADDON, Mark. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. As an autistic boy searches for the murderer of the dog next door, he uncovers deeply buried family secrets and discovers his own gifts in the process.

SPORTING LIFE

CONNELLY, Nell. St. Michael's scales. Haunted by the voice of his dead twin brother, Keegan Flannery pays penance for past wrongs when he becomes the 98 lb. man on the Our Lady of Perpetual Help High School wrestling team.

GRAHAM, Robin Lee. Dove. In 1965, a 16-year-old began a solo voyage around the world in a 24-foot sloop. Five years later, he arrives home with a wife and a fascinating story about his adventures.

HALBERSTAM, David. The teammates: a portrait of friendship. Four very different men, each a Red Sox legend, are bound by an affection that goes way beyond the ball field. Ted Williams, Dora DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr are the kind of friends we'd all like to have.

HILLENBRAND, Laura. Seabiscuit: an American legend. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, a novice horse owner, an antisocial cowboy trainer, a too tall, half-blind jockey, and an undersized, ornery racehorse combined to create a champion. Seabiscut became an inspiration and a promise of hope in a desperate time.

KLASS, David. Home of the Braves. It's Joe Brickman's senior year at his small town high school. He is the best player and captain of a not very good soccer team in a football sort of town. His life takes a turn for the worse when the "Phenom" transfers from Brazil and makes the team a contender.

LEAVY, Jane. Sandy Koufax: a lefty's legacy. Baseball legend Koufax distinguished himself both on and off the field. He was an outstanding pitcher and challenger of stereotypes, who always remained true to his roots and principles.

RUCKER, Mark. The Boston Red Sox from Cy to The Kid. This fascinating snapshot of Red Sox history progresses from the early league days of Cy Young and Babe Ruth, and finishes with great images of "the Kid," Ted Williams.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (ed.). 50 years of great writing. What every sports fan needs--a composite volume of the best sports stories crafted by writers at the top of their game.

THAT WAS THEN

HOLTHE, Tess Uriza. When elephants dance. Papa explains the war like this: "When elephants dance, the chickens must be careful." So begins this novel, part history, part supernatural tale, part love story.

HOSSEINI, Khaled. The kite runner. Before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant form an inseparable bond, despite differences in their social standing. As the Taliban rises to power, their loyalty to each other is tested through time and distance.

LARSEN, Deborah. The white, In 1758, an orphan, Mary Jemison, is adopted by a Seneca Indian family in exchange for a son of theirs who was killed. Mary spends the rest of her life with the Seneca, taking two husbands and bearing several children, despite many opportunities to leave and go back to the "white" people.

HARTINGER, Brent. Geography club. Navigating the turbulent waters of high school is tough enough, but for gay students, revealing one's true self can mean social suicide. Fortunately, a determined group of kids form the "Geography Club" and create a space where they can safely be themselves.

HIDIER, Tanuja Desai. Born confused. What is it like to be ABCD (American-Born, Confused Desi)? Dimple Lala must sort out her conflicting desires to be a normal American teenager and follow her heart and customs.

MARSDEN, John. Checkers. A rich Australian girl's life falls apart and she ends up in a hospital psych ward. As she tries to remember the series of events leading to her breakdown, the mystery and horror of it is gradually revealed.

McCORMICK, Patricia. Cut. When her parents discover that she has stopped eating and is also "cutting" herself, 15-year-old Callie is admitted to a residential treatment facility, where she tries to discover why her life is spiraling downward.

McNEIL, Tom & Laura. Crooked. Clara's parents seem to be splitting up, Amos' father is ill, the town bullies have mastered the juvenile justice system, and one of them becomes fixated on Clara.

TSUKIYAMA, Gall. Dreaming water. Cate is caring for her 34-year-old daughter Hana, who is suffering from Werner's syndrome, a disease in which the person ages prematurely. A story of courage beautifully told.

WEAVER, Will. Claws. Jed Berg's perfect life comes to a screeching halt when a strange pink-haired girl tells him that his father is having an affair with her mother.

WEISBERG, Joseph. 10th grade. Jeremy has high hopes for his sophomore year--does he dare to dream of Renee Shopmaker? His journal tells all.

WITTLINGER, Ellen. Zigzag. Robin's boyfriend Chris is off to Rome. so she reluctantly takes off on a wild cross-country drive with her widowed aunt and her cousins from Hell. The trip turns into a true voyage of discovery.

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CLA Ordering Information

To order one or more copies of the CLA Reading List, please contact Mary Pettus at the St. Marks School, 25 Marlborough Road, Southborough, MA 01772; or e-mail her at [e-mail]. Copies of the list are $1.00 each for non-CLA members, 50 cents each for CLA members. A new 7/8 list is also available. Copies of last year's 5/6 and 11/12 lists are still available. [C]2004 CLA