Recommended Reading List Secondary 3, 4 and 5

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Recommended Reading List Secondary 3, 4 and 5
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Adams, Richard	Watership Down
	Fleeing the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their ancestral home, a band of rabbits encounters harrowing trials posed by predators and hostile warrens — driven only by their vision to create a perfect society in a mysterious promised land known to them as Watership Down.
Giles, Gail	Shattering Glass
	A grimly comic debut novel revisits the dark hell of high-school cliques. The ruling posse at Brazos Vale High includes the usual suspects: rich, well-connected "Young" Steward; smooth stud "the Bobster" DeMarco; dumb jock "Coop" Cooper; and the exquisitely cool and charismatic alpha male, Rob Haynes. As a demonstration of power, Rob decides to elevate the school outcast, dweeby Simon Glass, to the heights of popularity. As Simon seems all too pathetically eager for any crumb of attention, no one realizes that he has an agenda all his own.
Jenkins, A.M.	Repossessed: a novel
	Don't call me a demon. I prefer the term Fallen Angel. Everybody deserves a vacation, right? Especially if you have a pointless job like tormenting the damned. So who could blame me for blowing off my duties and taking a small, unauthorized break? Besides, I've always wanted to see what physical existence is like. That's why I "borrowed" the slightly used body of a slacker teen. Believe me, he wasn't going to be using it anymore anyway. I have never understood why humans do the things they do. Like sin-if it's so terrible, why do they keep doing it? I'm going to have a lot of fun finding out!
Koertge, Ron	The Brimstone Journals
	The Branston (a.k.a. Brimstone) High School Class of 2001 has got it all: Damon is the jock, Meredith the slut, Jennifer the good girl, David the computer game addict, Kitty the anorexic, Neesha the sistah, Rob the stud, Sheila the lesbian. Finally there is, Boyd the angry and scared neo-Nazi with an arsenal in his basement and a list of "everybody who ever blew me off, flipped me off, or pissed me off."
Strasser, Todd	Give a Boy a Gun
	High school sophomores Gary Searle and Brendan Lawlor have had enough. Day in and day out, for more than two years, they have been harassed, beaten up, and cursed out by most of the jocks at Middleton High--especially by football player Sam Flach. Armed with guns they've stolen from a neighbor's collection, Gary and Brendan storm a school dance, booby trap all the doors with homemade bombs, and prepare to turn their high school caste system upside down with a violent show of force. This novel is disturbing and at times difficult to read, but it is also a well-rounded cross section of the many viewpoints on gun control, peer bullying, and the high school social order.
Hautman, Pete.	Godless
	Atheist Jason Block, along with a group of his friends, decides to create a new religion, with a new god – the town's water tower. Bit by bit Jason watches his group of friends change as this new religion develops a life of its own. Some of these changes are deadly.
Almond, David.	Clay
	A strange new kid in town convinces altar boy Davie to steal the body and blood of Christ from church, which the boys use to create a golem that obeys their wishes. Set in a small English town, this gripping story raises issues about God, creativity, and evil.
Peet, Mal	The Keeper
	When acclaimed South American journalist Paul Faustino begins his interview with World Cup soccer star El Gato, he expects to be recording the thoughts of a goalkeeper at the height of his career. He never envisioned hearing about a young, lonely boy growing up in the middle of a rain forest, who wandered upon a mysterious soccer field and an apparition that appeared to him daily and trained him to become the greatest goalkeeper ever known. Is El Gato mad? Is he suffering from hallucinations due to the stress of the game?
Oates, Joyce Carol.	Big Mouth Ugly Girl
	Matt Donaghy's big mouth gets him a three-day suspension when "unnamed witnesses" allege that the Rocky River High School junior has threatened to bomb the school if his play isn't accepted for the Spring Arts Festival. Fortunately, his classmate Ursula Rigg, who calls herself "Ugly Girl," heard what he really said, and despite her parents' reservations, demonstrates the courage to come to his defense. An awkward friendship between the two self-styled misfits begins to develop but is threatened when Matt's parents sue the school system for slander.
Anderson, M. T.	The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party
	Set during the war of American independence, in revolutionary Boston, the reader is introduced to a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments— and his own chilling role in them.
Thomas, Rob	Rats Saw God
	For Steve York, life was good. He had a 4.0 GPA, friends he could trust, and a girl he loved. Now he spends his days smoked out, not so much living as simply existing. But his herbal endeavors -- and personal demons -- have lead to a severe lack of motivation. Steve's flunking out, but if he writes a one-hundred-page paper, he can graduate. Steve realizes he must write what he knows. And through telling the story of how he got to where he is, he discovers exactly where he wants to be...
Green, John	An Abundance of Katherines
	Green's sharp, intelligent story, full of mathematical problems, historical references, and anagrams, introduces child prodigy Colin Singleton, who faces life after high-school graduation fearing that he'll never live up to his promise or get over being dumped by his girlfriend.
Potok, Chaim	The Chosen
	The Chosen is the story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. As the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother and a link to an unexplored world that neither has ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find peace they will never retreat from again.
Chabon, Michael	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
	In 1939 New York, a young artist who also has been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, teams up with his cousin to create a great American literary product --- the comic book. As the shadow of Hitler falls over Europe and ultimately the world, the boys end up immersed in the Golden Age of Comic Books, finding greater fame and more trouble than they could ever have imagined.
Pierre, D. B. C.	Vernon God Little
	When sixteen kids are shot on high school grounds, everyone looks for someone to blame. Meet Vernon Little, under arrest at the sheriff's office, a teenager wearing nothing but yesterday's underwear and his prized logo sneakers. Moments after, the shooter, his best buddy, turns the gun on himself, Vernon is pinned as an accomplice. Out for revenge are the townspeople, the cable news networks, and Deputy Vaine Gurie. So Vernon does what any red-blooded American teenager would do; he takes off for Mexico. Vernon God Little is a provocatively satirical, riotously funny look at violence, materialism, and the American media.
Kesey, Ken	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
	Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, this is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants --- especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome powers that keep them all imprisoned.
Irving, John	A Prayer for Owen Meany
	Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God's instrument. He is.
Sedaris, David	Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day
	Both books are laugh-out-loud funny collections of short vignettes on life, love and family
O'Connor, Flannery	Everything That Rises Must Converge
	Stories about misfits in small Southern towns force the reader to confront hypocrisy and complacency.
Hornby, Nick	A Long Way Down
	Four different people find themselves on the same roof on New Year's Eve, but they have one thing in common–they're all there to jump to their deaths. A scandal-plagued talk-show host, a single mom of a disabled young man, a troubled teen, and an aging American musician are all there to jump, until - they unite in a common cause, to find out why Jess (the teen) can't get her ex-boyfriend to return her calls.
Foer, Johnathan Safran	Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
	Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old, and he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Boyle, T.C.	Tortilla Curtain
	This novel interweaves the desperate, makeshift, lives of illegal immigrants (a young Mexican couple) with the politically correct, suburban, plan-for-the-future existence of a wealthy American couple, provoking question after question concerning immigration, unemployment, discrimination, and social responsibility.
Lamb, Vincent	Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures (short stories)
	Written by a practicing ER doctor, this collection of twelve interwoven stories follows a group of young doctors as they move from the challenges of medical school to the intense world of emergency rooms, evacuation missions, and terrifying new viruses.
MacLeod, Alistair	No Great Mischief
	A multigenerational tale of the Scottish MacDonald clan, who immigrated to Cape Breton in the late 18th century and the legacy they left behind. There is the legendary patriarch who left the Scottish Highlands in 1779 and resettled in "the land of trees," where his descendents became a separate Nova Scotia clan. There is the team of brothers and cousins, expert miners in demand around the world for their dangerous skills. And there is Alexander and his twin sister, who have left Cape Breton and prospered, yet are haunted by the past.
Palahniuk, Chuck	Fight Club
	Palahniuk's darkly funny first novel tells the story of a disenfranchised young man frustrated with his bureaucratic job and superficial relationships and disillusioned with the consumer culture's pre-packaged pleasures. Relief for him and his peers comes in the form of Tyler Durden, the intensely charismatic inventor of Fight Club. Waiters, clerks, and middlemen seek out the satisfaction of secret after-hours boxing matches in the basements of bars, thinking they have found a way to live beyond their confining and stultifying lives.
Allan, Clare	Poppy Shakespeare, 2006
	Highly original and darkly funny, Clare Allan's debut novel explores the relationship between N., a patient in a mental institution, and Poppy Shakespeare, a new and disturbingly 'sane' arrival who finds herself having to feign mental illness in order to be released.
Brockmeier, Kevin	The Brief History of the Dead, 2005
	The City is inhabited by the recently departed, who reside there only as long as they remain in the memories of the living. Among the current residents of this afterlife are Luka Sims, who prints the only newspaper in the City, with news from the other side; Coleman Kinzler, a vagrant who speaks the cautionary words of God; and Marion and Phillip Byrd, who find themselves falling in love again after decades of marriage. On Earth, Laura Byrd is trapped by extreme weather in an Antarctic research station. She's alone and unable to contact the outside world: her radio is down and the power is failing. She's running out of supplies as quickly as she's running out of time. Kevin Brockmeier interweaves these two stories in a spellbinding tale of human connections across boundaries of all kinds.
Charles, Bryan	Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way, 2006
	The story traces Vim's stumble toward adulthood as he comes to terms with his parents, balances friendships and infatuation with varying levels of success, and accepts that the things he thought would last forever probably won't. Generous in spirit and laugh-out-loud funny, here is a novel that introduces a tremendous new talent and deftly captures the alternately amusing and harrowing process of holding on until you find your way.
Connolly, John	The Book of Lost Things, 2006
	New York Times bestselling author John Connolly's unique imagination takes readers through the end of innocence into adulthood and beyond in this dark and triumphantly creative novel of grief and loss, loyalty and love, and the redemptive power of stories.
Currie, Ron Jr	God Is Dead, 2007
	When God descends to Earth as a Dinka woman from Sudan and subsequently dies in the Darfur desert, the result is a world both bizarrely new yet eerily familiar. In Ron Currie's provocative, wise, and emotionally resonant novel we meet God himself; the Dinka woman whose mortality He must suffer when He inhabits her body; people all over the world coping with the devastating news of God's demise; a group of young men who, fearing the end of the world, take fate into their own hands; mental patients who insist that a god still exists; armies taking up the eternal war between fate and free will; and parents who, in the absence of a deity and the "lack of anything to do on Sundays," worship their children. On the surface, this is a world utterly transformed—yet certain things remain unchanged: protective parents clash with willful, idealistic teenagers; idols are exalted; small-town rumor mills run unabated; and children often don't realize how to forgive their parents until it's too late.
Donahue, Keith	The Stolen Child, 2006
	The Stolen Child is a classic tale of leaving childhood and the search for identity. With just the right mix of fantasy and realism, Keith Donohue has created a bedtime story for adults and a literary fable of remarkable depth and strange delights.
Doctorow, Cory	Little Brother
	Marcus, a.k.a "w1n5t0n," is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works-and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school's intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they're mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Alexie, Sherman	Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
	Arnold Spirit Jr. is the geekiest Indian on the Spokane Reservation. When he goes outside he gets teased and beaten, so he spends a lot of time in his room drawing cartoons. Determined to receive a good education, Junior leaves the rez to attend an all-White school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies, Junior attacks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that he never knew existed
Penney, Stef	The Tenderness of Wolves, 2007
	A skillful blend of literary thriller, wilderness adventure, and historical romance, Stef Penney's panoramic novel traces the impact of a brutal murder on the lives of several settlers in Canada's Northern Territories in the winter of 1869. Mysteries surround the victim, a Frenchman named Laurent Jammett who once worked for the Hudson Bay Company. But in this lonely outpost on the edge of the world, everyone harbors a secret -- including Jammett's neighbor Mrs. Ross, her teenage son, Francis, and William Parker, the enigmatic half-breed trapper who sets out with her in search of the truth.
Adiga, Aravind	White Tiger
	Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

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Recommended Reading List Secondary 3, 4 and 5