1 2007 Summer Reading Program (juniors & seniors) Su

her back on him, tired of being called "nigger-lover . . . the black boy's sister," but they helpeach other through the worst with horseplay, humor, and courage. (Booklist)Southgate, Martha. The Fall of Rome Delving deeply into issues of race and class, thisnovel by the author of an award-winning young adult work (Another Way To Dance) is toldthrough the voices of three characters: classics teacher Jerome Washington and newstudent Rashid Bryson, both African American, and Jana Hansen, a white teacher newlyarrived at the predominantly white boys' school in New England. Jana's attempts to connectthe two African American men ultimately fail despite their common ground. In a painfulconclusion, Rashid confronts Washington's self-hatred and his troubling attitudes race.(Library Journal)Historical Fiction10Brooks, Geraldine. March (2006 Winner Pulitzer Prize) Brooks's luminous second novel,imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott'sLittle Women. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union chaplain and later findshimself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves, or"contraband." When a Confederate attack on the contraband farm lands March in aWashington hospital, sick with fever and guilt, the first-person narrative switches toMarmee, who describes a different version of the years past and an agonized reaction to thetruth she uncovers about her husband's life. (Publishers Weekly)Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones A Caribbean holocaust story, when nationalistmadness and ethnic hatred turn island neighbors into executioners. Amid the rumors ofterror, Annabelle and Sebastien hold on to love, to dignity—and struggle to survive.(American Library Association)Levy, Andrea. Small Island : A Novel (Winner Orange Prize, Whitbread Book of the YearAward, and National Book Critics Circle Award) Set mainly in the British Empire of 1948, thisstory of emigration, loss and love follows four characters—two Jamaicans and two Britons—as they struggle to find peace in postwar England. After serving in the RAF, Jamaican GilbertJoseph finds life in his native country has become too small for him. But in order to returnto England, he must marry Hortense Roberts—she's got enough money for his passage—andthen set up house for them in London. The pair move in with Queenie Bligh, whosehusband, Bernard, hasn't returned from his wartime post in India. But when does Bernardturn up, he is not pleased to find black immigrants living in his house. (Publishers Weekly)McEwan, Ian. Atonement: A Novel Set during the idyllic summer of 1935 at the countryestate of the Tallis family, the first section of this thought-provoking novel ambles throughone scorchingly hot day that changes the lives of almost everyone present. Overlyimaginative 13-year-old Briony accuses Robbie, her sister's childhood friend and theirhousemaid's son, of raping her cousin Lola. The young man is sent to prison and Cecilia,heartbroken, abandons her family and becomes a nursing sister in London. Finally, readersmeet Briony again, now a nursing student. She is aware that she might have been wrongthat day five years earlier and begins to seek atonement, having clearly ruined two lives.(School Library Journal)Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor was Divine Otsuka researched historical sources andher own grandparents' experiences as background for this spare yet poignant first novelabout the ordeal of a Japanese family sent to an internment camp during World War II. Itsperspective shifts among different family members as the story unfolds. We see the mothernumbly pack up the family's middle-class belongings to leave behind in their Berkeleyhome. The dehumanizing train trip to the camp, and the bleak internment in the alkalineNevada desert, as related by the young son and daughter, become mythic events. Theirfather, picked up for questioning immediately after Pearl Harbor and imprisoned throughout