Summer Reading: G06 - Reading Ideas for Unit 1

Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn't kidding about the "Forever" part . . . Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who's been dead for a century. Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse.

In graphic novel format, Thi Bui describes her family's experiences as they immigrate to the United States from their war-torn home in Vietnam.

As full of excitement and the unexpected as his world-famous, best-selling books, Roald Dahl's tales of his own childhood are completely fascinating and fiendishly funny. Did you know that Roald Dahl nearly lost his nose in a car accident? Or that he was once a chocolate candy tester for Cadbury's? Have you heard about his involvement in the Great Mouse Plot of 1924? If not, you don't yet know all there is to know about Roald Dahl.

Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance, and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.

This powerful memoir about a girl growing up in a wealthy but dysfunctional Chinese family during the 1940s evokes the classic fairy tale, Cinderella.

In her own words, Simone takes you through the events, challenges, and trials that carried her from an early childhood in foster care to a coveted spot on the 2016 Olympic team. Along the way, Simone shares the details of her inspiring personal story--one filled with the kinds of daily acts of courage that led her, and can lead you, to even the most unlikely of dreams.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has become a world classic--a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

Ma Yan's diary chronicles her struggle to escape the desperate poverty in rural China through education. But, with so little money to pay the fees, she must be persistent and resourceful.

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

"In this poetic memoir, Margarita Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War."--Amazon

A graphic memoir of discovery, recovery, and everyday life in New York as the author describes how the lives of his family changed after an accident left his wife paralyzed from the waist down.

Adolf Hitler's Nazi party is gaining strength and becoming more menacing every day. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor upset by the complacency of the German church toward the suffering around it, forms a breakaway church to speak out against the established political and religious authorities. When the Nazis outlaw the church, he escapes as a fugitive.

A memoir of Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner, two young people from very different cultures who joined forces to build a life together, and run a school in Kibera, Kenya for girls.

In graphic novel form, Raina Telgemeier relates her struggles with stress and anxiety as a child.

"In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along"--

The author details his difficult experiences as a young Jewish child living in Nazi-occupied France during the 1940s.

An abridgement for young readers of the memoir of Corrie Ten Boom, a leader of the Dutch underground who hid scores of Jews from the Nazis during World War II.

Malala Yousafzai's describes her fight for education for girls under Taliban rule, the support she received from her parents to pursue an education, and how the Taliban retaliated against her by trying to kill her.

Dr. Steven Hatch first came to Liberia in November 2013, to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians Dr. Hatch had mentored and served with were dead or barely clinging to life, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Hundreds of victims perished each week; whole families were destroyed in a matter of days; so many died so quickly that the culturally taboo practice of cremation had to be instituted to dispose of the bodies.

This Italian-American Newbery Medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood and youth in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

An English translation of the diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a doctor who volunteered to serve in a Viet Cong battlefield hospital in the Quang Ngai Province during the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970, when she was killed by American forces. Includes notes, photographs, and an introduction by Frances FitzGerald.

Gulwali Passarlay recounts his twelve month long journey from Afghanistan to the West when, to protect her son, his mother sent him away after his father was killed.

Presents a graphic novel memoir of Ramsey Beyer following her transformation from a eighteen-year-old teenager from a small town to an independent college art student living in the city.

Saroo Brierley discusses his life as an adopted boy living in Tasmania and his time spent finding his birth family in India.

A graphic novel memoir depicting the author's experiences with teenage depression and how a search for her missing cat becomes a search for herself.

The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation.

Presents in graphic novel format events from the life of Georgia congressman John Lewis, focusing on his youth in rural Alabama, his meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., and the birth of the Nashville Student Movement.

A graphic novel account of some pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement.

Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.

Ffunny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.

In the summer of 1988, twelve-year-old Chuck Bell is sent to stay with his grandparents, where he discovers jazz and basketball and learns more about his family's past.

Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists' Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed "bourgeois," and people of laughter.

"Eleven-year-old Alex Petroski, along with his dog, Carl Sagan, make big discoveries about his family on a road trip and he records it all on a golden iPod he intends to launch into space"--Provided by publisher.

Raina can't wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren't quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she's also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture and later, something doesn't seem right between their parents, they realize they must figure out how to get along.

Delsie loves tracking the weather, living with her grandmother, and the support of friends and neighbors, but misses having a "regular family," especially after her best friend outgrows her.

A graphic novel that chronicles the life of American author and illustrator David Small, detailing his sickly childhood and teenage years, his relationship with his parents, his cancer, and more.

This riveting, beautifully produced graphic memoir tells the story of the early years of the Vietnam war as seen by a young boy named Marco, the son of a Vietnamese diplomat and his French wife. Visually powerful and emotionally potent, Such A Lovely Little War is both a large-scale and intimate study of the Vietnam war as seen through the eyes of the Vietnamese: a turbulent national history intertwined with an equally traumatic familial one.

A memoir in which the author describes her childhood as a Palestinian refugee, discussing her family's experiences during and after the Six-Day War, and the freedom she felt at learning to read and write.

Eschewing female stereotypes throughout her early years and failing to gain acceptance on the boys' baseball team, Liz learns to embrace her own views on gender as she comes of age in this anecdotal graphic novel memoir.

From Paralympic ski racer and YouTube star, Josh Sundquist, comes an always-funny (and sometimes-awkward) memoir about teenage misadventures. When I was twenty-five years old, it came to my attention that I had never had a girlfriend. At the time, I was actually under the impression that I was in a relationship, so this bit of news came as something of a shock. Why was Josh still single?

"When the Syrian war reaches Amina's village she is forced to escape, and during her perilous journey she thinks of the brave warrior Zenobia to remind her to stay strong"--Provided by publisher.