Rising Form I and II Students - Landon School

GENERAL FICTION
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
In this graphic novel, three humorous and seemingly unrelated stories keep the reader's attention until they come together at the end. The
first story concerns a Chinese-American boy trying to fit in. The second is a retelling of the Chinese fable of the monkey king. The third
story involves a Chinese cousin who visits an American boy each year. It's a nice combination of a fable and contemporary stories to
convey the wonderful lesson of accepting one's culture and identity with pride.
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Luke is a shadow child, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding. One day, Luke is shocked to see
a girl's face in the window of the house next door where he knows two other children already live. Jen, a shadow child like himself, is
willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows. Does Luke dare to get involved?
As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins
Sixteen-year-old Ry is traveling by train to summer camp when he finds out its been cancelled. When he hops off the train in Montana to
figure out what to do his troubles begin—the train moves on without him (but with all his stuff), leaving him alone with a dying cell phone
(charger is on the train). He befriends a man named Del, and they set off on a cross-country road trip to get Ry back home. Along the way
a number of minor and major catastrophes happen.
Ashes by Kathryn Lasky
In 1932 Berlin, blond thirteen-year-old Gabriella looks like the Aryan purists ideal, but her strongly anti-Fascist family members are
derisively called “white Jews,” and her astrophysicist father is friends with Einstein, whose theory of relativity is termed “Jewish physics” by
the Nazis. From Gabriella’s viewpoint, Lasky tells a gripping story about Hitler’s early rise to power, including the Germans’ bitterness about
their suffering after World War I.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family
from the comfortable life they’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her
young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin’s
orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
The Big Field by Mike Lupica
Hutch has always been the star shortstop until the arrival of Darryl “D-Will” Williams. D-Will, a top shortstop prospect from Florida,
displaces Hutch in more ways than one. Second base feels like second fiddle, and when he sees his father giving fielding tips to D-Will—
the same father who can’t be bothered to show up to watch his son play—Hutch feels betrayed. With the summer league championship on
the line, just how far is Hutch willing to bend to be a good teammate?
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
Deeply involved in his cold and manipulative mother's shady business dealings in Flint, Michigan, fourteen-year-old Luther keeps a sense
of humor while running the Happy Neighbor Group Home For Men, all the while dreaming of going to college and becoming a philosopher.
Bystander by James Preller
Eric is the new kid in seventh grade. Griffin wants to be his friend. It’s hard to know who to hang out with—and who to avoid. Griffin seems
cool, confident, and popular. But something isn’t right about Griffin. As Eric gets drawn deeper into Griffin’s dark world, he begins to see
the truth about Griffin: He’s a liar, a bully, a thief. Eric wants to break away, do the right thing. But in one shocking moment, he goes from
being a bystander . . . to the bully’s next victim.
The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
Alton Richard's great-uncle Lester Trapp is rich and ill, a combo that leads Alton's parents to hatch a plan for the teen to cozy up to the old
man and carve out a chunk of inheritance. Though blind, Trapp is a brilliant, world-class bridge player and needs someone to read him his
cards and make his plays. Enter Alton, who wouldn't begin to know how to decipher questions like “One banana, pass, pass, two notrump”.
Despite constant barbs from his irascible uncle, Alton grows more intrigued by the game.
Change-up: Mystery at the World Series by John Feinstein
Teenage sportswriters Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are assigned to cover the World Series, where the underdog
Washington Nationals are meeting the Boston Red Sox. While checking out the Cinderella story of Nationals' rookie pitcher, Norbert Doyle,
the friends discover a shadowy incident in the man's past. Although Doyle, his children, and especially his agent attempt to deceive,
manipulate, and intimidate them, in the end the two reporters base their decision about running the story on the good it would do versus the
harm it would cause.
Climbing the Stairs by Padma Ventatraman
During World War II and the last days of British occupation in India, fifteen-year-old Vidya dreams of attending college. But when her
forward-thinking father is beaten senseless by the British police, she is forced to live with her grandfather's large traditional family, where
the women live apart from the men and are meant to be married off as soon as possible. Vidya's only refuge becomes her grandfather's
upstairs library, which is forbidden to women. But when Vidya's brother makes a choice the family cannot condone, Vidkya must question
all she has believed in.