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| All Legacy students, grades 9-12, are required to read 2 books over their summer break. | ||||||
| All students grades 9-12 must read Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Additionally, each student must choose one of the books from the Summer Reading List . | ||||||
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Copies of this The Seven Habit of Highly Effective Teens have already been purchased and will be distributed to all students before the end of the 2005-06 school year. In addition to reading Covey’s book, each student will then choose to read one of the following titles listed below. The list is comprised of Legacy staff member recommendations. Staff members will meet and discuss their selection with all of the students who read their book. This will take place during two advisory periods in September. Our goal is twofold. It is our hope that our students will be given an opportunity to choose from a wide range of topics spanning all reading levels, and that each staff recommendation will model for our students the important value we as a staff place on reading for both learning and enjoyment. |
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| All Legacy Students will read: | ||||||
The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective Teens by Sean Covey |
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| Based on his father's bestselling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Sean Covey applies the same principles to teens, using a vivacious, entertaining style. To keep it fun, Covey writes, he "stuffed it full of cartoons, clever ideas, great quotes, and incredible stories about real teens from all over the world, along with a few other surprises." Did he ever! Flip open to any page and become instantly absorbed in real-life stories of teens who have overcome obstacles to succeed, and step-by-step guides to shifting paradigms, building equity in "relationship bank accounts," creating action plans, and much more. | ||||||
| All Legacy Student then chose one of the following books to read: | ||||||
| The Pact by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins & Rameck Hun | ||||||
| As teenagers from a rough part of Newark, New Jersey, Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt, and George Jenkins had nothing special going for them except loving mothers (one of whom was a drug user) and above-average intelligence. George convinced his two friends to go to college with him. They would help each other through. None of them would be allowed to drop out and be reabsorbed by the Newark streets. | ||||||
| Marley and Me by John Grogan | ||||||
| Labrador retrievers are generally considered even-tempered, calm and reliable and then there's Marley, the subject of this delightful tribute to one Lab who doesn't fit the mold. Grogan's chronicle of the adventures parents and children (eventually three) enjoyed with the overly energetic but endearing dog is delivered with great humor. Dog lovers will love this account of Grogan's much loved canine. | ||||||
| The Color of Water by James McBride | ||||||
| The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual, and, perhaps, a little more faith in us all. | ||||||
| Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison | ||||||
| Song of Solomon is a powerful, sensual, and poetic exploration of four generations of a family mistakenly named Dead. Told through the eyes of "Milkman," a rare male protagonist in Morrison's wonderful catalog of unforgettable characters, we discover a century's worth of secrets, ghosts, and troubles. | ||||||
| Copper Sun by Susan Draper | ||||||
| This action-packed, multifaceted, character-rich story describes the shocking realities of the slave trade and plantation life while portraying the perseverance, resourcefulness, and triumph of the human spirit. Amari is a 15-year-old Ashanti girl who is happily anticipating her marriage to Besa. Then, slavers arrive in her village, slaughter her family, and shatter her world. Shackled, frightened, and despondent, she is led to the Cape Coast where she is branded and forced onto a boat of death for the infamous Middle Passage to the Carolinas. | ||||||
| The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini | ||||||
| This is a story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. | ||||||
| Princess by Jean P. Sasson | ||||||
| The American-born Sasson recounts the life story of a Saudi princess she met while living in Saudi Arabia, offering a glimpse of the appalling conditions endured by even privileged women in the Middle East. | ||||||
| A Time to Kill by John Grisham | ||||||
| The story is frighteningly believable and expertly crafted around a horrible crime and the tragic consequences that follow. This is an addictive tale of a young lawyer defending a black Vietnam War hero who kills the white men who abducted his child in tiny Clanton, Mississippi. | ||||||
| Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer | ||||||
| A riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. | ||||||
| Angels and Demons by Dan Brown | ||||||
| Pitting scientific terrorists against the cardinals of Vatican City, this well-plotted if over-the-top thriller is crammed with Vatican intrigue and high-tech drama. Robert Langdon, a Harvard specialist on religious symbolism, is called in by a Swiss research lab when Dr. Vetra, the scientist who discovered antimatter, is found murdered with the cryptic word "Illuminati" branded on his chest. Though its premises strain credulity, Brown's tale is laced with twists and shocks that keep the reader wired right up to the last revelation | ||||||
| The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo | ||||||
| The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream. Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. | ||||||
| My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult | ||||||
| Anna was genetically engineered to be a perfect match for her cancer-ridden older sister. Since birth, the 13-year-old has donated platelets, blood, her umbilical cord, and bone marrow as part of her family's struggle to lengthen Kate's life. Anna is now being considered as a kidney donor in a last-ditch attempt to save her 16-year-old sister. As this compelling story opens, Anna has hired a lawyer to represent her in a medical emancipation suit to allow her to have control over her own body. The novel does not answer many questions, but it sure raises some and will have teens thinking about possible answers long after they have finished the book. | ||||||
| Countdown: 6 Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition by Steve Olson | ||||||
| Geometric figures and equations are relatively few and far between, the nonmathematically inclined may be relieved to know, in this elegant, balanced survey of competitive high school math by science writer Olson who chronicles the progress of the six-member American team that participated in the 2001 Olympiad held in Washington, D.C. | ||||||
| Joan of Arc by Mark Twain | ||||||
| Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English | ||||||
| The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold | ||||||
| Sebold has taken a grim, media-exploited subject and fashioned from it a story that is both tragic and full of light and grace. The novel begins swiftly. In the second sentence, Sebold's narrator, Susie Salmon, announces, "I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." Susie is taking a shortcut through a cornfield when a neighbor lures her to his hideaway. The description of the crime is chilling, but never vulgar, and Sebold maintains this delicate balance between homely and horrid as she depicts the progress of grief for Susie's family and friends. | ||||||
| The Hot Zone by Richard Preston | ||||||
The
dramatic and chilling story of an Ebola virus outbreak in a suburban
Washington, D.C. laboratory, with descriptions of frightening historical
epidemics of rare and lethal viruses. More hair-raising than anything
Hollywood could think of, because it's all true. |
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