Fiction

ThePoetX,byElizabethAcevedoXiomara Batista feels unheard in herHarlemneighborhood.Shehaslearnedtoletherfistsandherfiercenessdothetalking. Xiomara has plenty shewantstosay,andshepoursallherfrustrationand passion into writing, reciting thewords to herself like prayers—especiallyaftershecatchesfeelingsforaboy inherbioclassnamedAman,whoher familycannever know about. When she is invited to join herschool’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how shecouldeverattendwithouthermamifindingout.Butshestill can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.Becauseinthefaceofaworldthatmaynotwanttohearher, Xiomara refuses to be silent. [RealisticFiction/Verse]ChildrenofBlood&Bone,byTomiAdeyemi

They killed my mother. They took ourmagic.Theytriedtoburyus.Nowwerise.Zélie rememberswhen the soilofOrïshahummedwithmagic.WhenZélie’sReapermotherwouldsummonsouls.Everythingchanged the night magic disappeared.Under the orders of a ruthless king,

anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leavingZélie without a mother and her people without hope.Nowshehasachancetobringbackmagictoherpeopleand strike against the monarchy. With the help of arogueprincess, Zéliemust learn toharnessherpowersand outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent oneradicating magic for good. Tomi Adeyemi conjures astunning world of dark magic and danger in herWestAfrican-inspiredfantasydebut.[Fantasy]OneofUsisLying,byKarenM.McManusOnMondayafternoon, fivestudentsatBayview High walk into detention.Bronwyn, thebrain, isYale-boundandnever breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty,is the picture-perfect homecomingprincess.Nate, the criminal, is alreadyon probation for dealing. Cooper, theathlete, is the all-starbaseball pitcher.AndSimon,theoutcast,isthecreatorofBayviewHigh'snotoriousgossipapp.Only,Simonnevermakesitoutofthat classroom--before the end of detention, Simon'sdead.Andaccordingtoinvestigators,hisdeathwasn'tanaccident.OnTuesday,he'dplannedtopostjuicyrevealsabout all four of his high-profile classmates, whichmakes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or arethey the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on theloose?[RealisticFiction/Mystery]

Scythe,byNealShustermanAworldwithnohunger,nodisease,nowar,nomisery.

Humanityhasconqueredallthosethings,and has even conquered death. NowScythes are the only ones who can endlife—and they are commanded to do so,in order to keep the size of thepopulation under control. Citra andRowan are chosen to apprentice to aScythe—arole thatneitherwants.These

teensmustmaster the “art”of taking life, knowing thattheconsequenceoffailurecouldmeanlosingtheirown.[SpeculativeFiction]Noggin,byJohnCoreyWhaleyListen — Travis Coates was aliveonce and then he wasn’t. Now he’salive again. Simple as that. The inbetween part is still a little fuzzy,but he can tell you that, at somepoint or another, his head gotchopped off and shoved into afreezer in Denver, Colorado. Fiveyears later, it was reattached tosomeotherguy’sbody, andwell, herehe is.Despite alllogic, he’s still 16 and everything and everyone aroundhim has changed. That includes his bedroom, hisparents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybeshe’snothis girlfriendanymore?That’s abit fuzzy too.Lookslike if thenewTravisandtheoldTravisareevergoingtofindawaytoexisttogether,thentherearegoingto be a few more scars. Oh well, you only live twice.[Realistic/SpeculativeFiction]GraphicNovel

✪ Hey,Kiddo,byJarrettKrosoczkaRaised by his colorfulgrandparents, who adopted himbecause his mother was anincarcerated heroin addict,Krosoczkadidn'tknowhisfather'sname until he saw his birthcertificate when registering for aschool ski trip. Hey, Kiddo tracesKrosoczka's search for his father,his difficult interactions with hismother, his day-to-day life with his grandparents, andhispathtobecomingaprofessionalartist.[Memoir](Local interest!Thisaward-winningmemoirtakesplaceinWorcester,MA) ✪WRHSStaffBookClubpick

WACHUSETT REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER READING 2019

Nonfiction&MemoirAWalkintheWoods,byBillBryson

In order to rediscoverhis country, theunprepared andout-of-shape author sets out towalk thelength of the Appalachian Trail. He isarmed with nothing but Snickers BarsandRamenNoodles,andaccompaniedbya college roommate he has not seen inyears.Hisaccountofthatadventureisatonce hilarious, inspiring, and thought-provoking.DiscoveringWesMoore,byWesMoore

Two men. One overcame adversity.The other suffered the indignities ofpoverty.The storyof “theotherWesMoore” is one that the authorcouldn’tgetoutofhismind,notsincehe learned that anotherboywithhisname—just two years his senior—grew up in the same Baltimoreneighborhood. He wrote that boy—nowaman—aletter,notexpectingto

receiveareply.Butareplycame,andafriendshipgrew,aslettersturnedintovisitsandthetwomengottoknoweach other. Eventually, that friendship became theinspiration for this book, amoving and cautionary taleexamining the factors that contribute to success andfailure—andthechoicesthatmakeallthedifference.The57Bus,byDashkaSlater

Oneteenager inaskirt.Oneteenagerwith a lighter. One moment thatchangesbothof their lives forever. Ifit weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha andRichard neverwould havemet. Bothwere high school students fromOakland, California, one of the mostdiversecitiesinthecountry,buttheyinhabited different worlds. Sasha, awhite teen, lived in the middle-class

foothillsandattendedasmallprivateschool.Richard,ablack teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands andattended a large public one. Each day, their pathsoverlappedforamereeightminutes.Butoneafternoonon thebus ridehome fromschool, a single reckless actleft Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged withtwohatecrimesand facing life imprisonment.Thecasegarnered international attention, thrusting bothteenagersintothespotlight.

AlltheGallantMen:AnAmericanSailor'sFirsthandAccountofPearlHarbor,byDonaldStratton

At 8:06 a.m. on December 7, 1941, amillion pounds of explosives haddetonated beneath 19-year-oldSeaman First Class Donald Stratton’sbattlestationaboard theUSSArizona,barely fifteen minutes into Japan'ssurprise attack on American forces atPearl Harbor. In this extraordinary,

never-before-told eyewitness account of the PearlHarbor attack—the only memoir ever written by asurvivor of the USS Arizona—94-year-old DonaldStratton shares his unforgettable personal tale ofbravery and survival, his harrowing recovery, and hisinspiringdeterminationtoreturntothefight.

SeenOnScreen

Checkouttheexcellentbooksthatinspiredthefilms!

Simonvs.TheHomoSapiensAgenda,

byBeckyAlbertalli[FilmedasLove,Simon]

Ender’sGame,byOrsonScottCard

ReadyPlayerOne,byErnestCline

ToAlltheBoysI’veLovedBefore,

byJennyHan

FiveFeetApart,byRachaelLippincott,

MikkiDaughtry,andTobiasIaconis

TheHateUGive,byAngieThomas

TheSunisAlsoaStar,byNicolaYoon

LearnmoreaboutWRHS’sSummerReadingListat

https://wrhs.wrsd.net/

A.SternforWachusettRegionalHighSchoolHolden,MA

•Summer2019•