9th Grade – Summer Reading List 2009

Bonham, Frank. Durango Street. A story of an African-American youth in a delinquent gang and the dedicated people who try to rehabilitate him.

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This haunting novel is the story of what it is like to grow up while in high school.

Clark, Mary Higgins. Where Are The Children? A mother is accused of the gruesome deaths of her children.

Cook, Robin. Mindbend. A thriller about the fight to save the soul of medicine from an overwhelming evil.

Cussler, Clive. Cyclops. A wealthy American financier disappears on a treasure hunt in an antique blimp. From Cuban waters, the blimp drifts toward Florida with a crew of dead men—Soviet cosmonauts.

Duncan, Lois. Locked in Time. In this chilling story of voodoo and evil, a young girl discovers that her new stepmother has killed her past husbands.

Hinton, S.E. Tex. A young boy grows up too fast and learns to cope with his father’s absence.

Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. The story of Alex Rider, a 14-year-old British boy who is trying to solve the mysterious murder of his uncle. Funny and mysterious.

Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. The story of a peasant family in rural India and the resignation and ingenuity with which they meet economic changes and natural disasters.

Moriarty, Jaclyn. Feeling Sorry for Celia. Through her letters, the life of a lonely teenage girl is explored.

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels. A boy just out of his Harlem high school enlists in the Army and spends a year on active duty in Vietnam.

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. An African-American teenager who is on trial for the murder of a Harlem drugstore owner becomes a pawn in the hands of the juvenile justice system.

Myers, Walter Dean. Slam. Sixteen-year-old “Slam” Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.
 
Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending. An accessible book that deals with the tragedy of mental illness—its stigma, its realities, and its effects on a family.

Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. An exploration of first love, friends, and figuring out how to make sense of the world as a teenager.

Zindel, Paul. My Darling, My Hamburger. Four high school seniors struggle with the responsibilities of growing up, particularly the problems of an intimate relationship.

Required reading for Honors English I:

Orwell, George. 1984. A dictatorship called Big Brother rules the people in a collectivist society.

Grade 9 Listen NJ

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster.
Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know.
Orwell, George. 1984.

 Listen NJ

Listen NJ is a free library service that offers downloadable audio books which are playable on computers, iPods, and MP3 players. Accessing ListenNJ is very easy: Click the link on the North Brunswick Public Library home page.
The first time you log in you will need to create an account and download OverDrive. To download OverDrive, simply click on one of the links on the right side of the ListenNJ page under Software Downloads. (If you plan to use an MP3 player, download the OverDrive MP3 Audiobook. It is a very small file but is essential for converting tracks.)
Next, create an account. Click on Audiobook Account. Select your library (which is Libraries of Middlesex Automation Consortium), type in your library card number (on the back of your library card, starts with 29302...) and your PIN (If you don't know your PIN, bring your library card to the library so we can look it up for you).
Next, simply search for a title or author for your summer reading list. Once the list is populated, select ADD TO CART. If you want more than one, click Continue Browsing. At any time, click on My Cart at the top to begin downloading.
Click Proceed to Checkout to finalize the process. Click Download. A box will open with Open with (OverDrive Media Console) select OK. The download will begin filling in your OverDrive Folder. Once it is complete, you can listen to it.