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READING LIST

 

 

     I.  The Bluest Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Toni Morrison The Breedlove move from the rural south to urban Lorain, Ohio, and the displacement contributes to the family's dysfunction, the Breedloves' misery and Pecola's obsessive desire to have "the bluest eyes."
    II. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mark Twain Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, travel down the Mississippi in search of freedom.

  III. Charlotte’s Webb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E.B White

 Story is about a young girl and her pig named Wilber. Wilber was the runt and was kept inside as a pet for a while.

    IV. The House on Mango Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sandra Cisneros

 The story takes place in a poor, Latino neighborhood in Chicago. Esperanza dreams of the house she will someday have, her own house, not on Mango Street

      V. Native Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Richard Wright

 Reflects the poverty and hopelessness of life in the inner city and what it means to be black in America.

    VI. The Color of My Words. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lynn Joseph

 This story captures many elements of the culture in the Dominican Republic: dancing the merengue, sitting up in a gri gri tree and writing dreams, eating huge plates of arroz con dulce (rice pudding), shopping at the colmado. Joseph paints a life that is lush and brightly colored in spite of serious economic deprivation.

  VII. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mildred D. Taylor

 The development of the Civil Rights Movement and, the discrimination and prejudice African Americans faced during the 1930's, events in Cassie Logan's life and other African Americans who lived in the 1930's shaped that movement.

VIII. Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .P. McKissak

 Nzingha, though not yet Queen, was the most ablest and uncompromising. In 1623, after the death of her brother, Nzingha became the Queen of Ndongo.

   IX. The Light In The Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Conrad Ritcher

 The story of The Light in the Forest is based on an actual event that occurred in the fall of 1764, during the treacherous white westerly expansion into the Indian territory of Ohio. Colonel Bouquet, who is an historic figure in addition to being a character in the book, marched into Ohio with 1,500 soldiers and ordered that the Indians return the white prisoners they had captured.

     X. Black Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Richard Wright

 Richard Wright's memoir of his life from early childhood to the launching of his career as a writer. His father abandoned the family soon after they moved to Memphis, leaving Wright, his mother and brother in dire straits. Schooling throughout his childhood was erratic and often interrupted; he eventually completed the ninth grade. Domestic violence, neglect and hunger plagued him throughout his youth.

    XI. White Lilacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Carolyn Meyer

 A moving story focuses on prejudice, injustice and everyday bravery. When the city council of Dillon, Tex., unveils its plans to raze Freedomtown--an all-black enclave in the town's center--and replace it with a park, the proposal unleashes a tumult of rage and defiance in the black community.

  XII. Eragon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Christopher Paolinni

 Story about a farm boy who finds a dazzling sapphire-blue stone which, as it is revealed later, is in fact an egg that hatches a blue-scaled dragon. The dragon, Saphira, establishes an unbreakable bond with the young man who learns that he is the only dragon-rider to have come into existence in many years.
XIII. Things Fall Apart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chinua Achebe Africa at the turn of the century provides the setting for this novel which pits traditional African society against the changes wrought by the colonization and the influences of Christianity.

  XIV. Ulysses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .James Joyce

 A master work of modernist literature, Ulysses used the structure of the Homeric Odyssey as a contrast to the lives of the Dublin working class. The entire 732-page work takes place during Dublin's "dailiest day possible," Thursday, 16 June 1904. The bleak lives of the Dublin working class formed a stark contrast to the heroic Odyssey.
    XV. Krit Krat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Edwidge Dandicat A young girl escapes the war stricken city that she’s originally from without her family’s knowledge on a raft in search for freedom and peace in a new land.

XVI. The Lives of Strangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

 A young American woman joins a pilgrimage of women in Kashmir and, in the land of her ancestors, comes to view herself and her family in a new light.
XVII. Seven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Edwidge Dandicat The reunion of a Haitian couple in New York after seven years. The story alternates between their pleasures of being together and the powerful sense of things unspoken and unspeakable between them. Silence and time stand between them as a physical barrier.

XVIII. Invisible Man. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ralph Ellis

 A black man's search for himself as an individual and as a member of his race and his society.

XIX. A Tale of two Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charles Dickens

 A historical novel of morality, strongly concerned with themes of guilt, shame and retribution.

XX. The Three Musketeers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alexander Dumas

 A gallant young nobleman who journeys to Paris in 1625 hoping to join the ranks of musketeers guarding Louis XIII. He soon finds himself fighting alongside three heroic comrades—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—who seek to uphold the honor of the king by foiling the wicked plots of Cardinal Richelieu and the beautiful spy "Milady.

XXI. Seize the Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Saul Bellow  

 A son grapples with his love and hate for an unworthy father.

XXII. Their Eyes Were Watching God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Zora Neale Hurston

Janie, the main character, a mulatto woman repudiates many roles in her quest for self-fulfillment

XXIII. To Kill a Mockingbird. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harper Lee

At great peril to himself and his children, lawyer Atticus Finch defends an African-American man accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town.

XXIV. Uncle Tom's Cabin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harriet Beecher Stowe

 The classic tale that awakened a nation about the slave system.

XXV. A Passage to India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .E.M. Forster

 A young English woman in British-ruled India accuses an Indian doctor of sexual assault.

 

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