Coming of Age Novel Choices

1. Coming of AgeNovel Choices 6 Books. 27 Students. How many students per group?

2. Choice One: The Catcher in the Ryeby J.D. Salinger The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep. $4.19 on Amazon, + shipping

3. Choice Two: Ender’s Gameby Orson Scott Card In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut--young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers, Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is. $4.19 on Amazon, + shipping

4. Choice Three: Paper Townsby John Green When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q. $5.99 on Amazon + shipping

5. Choice Four: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianby Sherman Alexie Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. $11.49 on Amazon + shipping (Kindle version is $7.99)

6. Choice Five: Never Let Me Goby Kazuo Ishiguro From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day. $10.89 + shipping on Amazon

7. Choice Six: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closeby Jonathon SafranFoer Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey. $5.98 on Amazon + shipping

8. Sign Up! (6th Period) Choice 3: Towns 1) Rusel 2) Camden 3) Mariah 4) Ruth Choice 5: Never 1) Lexi T 2) Brittany 3) Christian 4) Katy Choice 1: Catcher 1) Ashlin 2) Kaelin 3) Lexi O. 4) Lauren Choice 4: Diary 1) Ariahna 2) Nick 3) Courtney 4) Logan Choice 4: Extremely 1) Stephanie 2) Georgia 3) Sheila 4) Haley Choice 2: Ender’s 1) Grant 2) David 3) Melanie 4) Sam

9. 7th Period Sign Up: Get the bookby Wednesday Choice 3: Towns 1) Aubrey 2) Tori 3) Destiney 4) Sarah 5) Mika Choice 1: Catcher 1) Matthew 2) Ryan C 3) Emily 4) Ryan M Choice 5: Never 1) Evan 2) Destiny 3) James 4) Dominic 5) Jonathan Choice 4: Diary 1) Allie 2) Katrinia 3) Sydnie 4) Gracie Choice 4: Extremely 1) Tamika 2) Delaney 3) Maddie 4) Mallory Choice 2: Ender’s 1) Tyler 2) Amanda 3) Conner 4) Trevor 5) Alex