Required Summer Reading for Incoming Sophomores

Incoming sophomores must read ONE of the two books shown below. All students will be tested on their choice of book the first week school resumes in August.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Nerdy, fourteen-year-old Arnold Spirit lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. During his first day at high school, Arnold discovers that his geometry textbook is so old that his mother used it in school. In anger, he throws the book at his teacher and is suspended.

Recognizing Arnold's potential, his teacher suggests that Arnold transfer to a school off the reservation. There Arnold attempts to bridge Indian and white cultures-sometimes successfully and sometimes not-while at home, he faces the controversy of leaving the reservation and his own culture.

Swallowing Stones by Joyce McDonald

It begins with a free and joyful act--but from then on, Michael finds it impossible even to remember what it felt like to be free and joyful.  When he fires his new rifle into the air on his seventeenth birthday, he never imagines that the bullet will end up killing someone.  But a mile away, a man is killed by that bullet as he innocently repairs his roof.  And Michael keeps desperately silent while he watches his world crumble.

Meanwhile Jenna, the dead man's daughter, copes with desperation of her own.  Through her grief, she tries to understand why she no longer feels comfortable with her boyfriend and why a near stranger named Michael keeps appearing in her dreams.

Incoming sophomores will be tested on this book the first week school resumes in August.

Where to get it:

Lansing Public Library
Glenwood-Lynwood Public Library
Local bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble
Various online vendors, such as www.amazon.com