Non-Fiction Book # 1

1. Non-Fiction Book # 1 • Dear Bully - Edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones • (Lexile Unknown) • “This anthology of personal essays provides empathetic and heartfelt stories from each corner of the schoolyard: the bullied, the bystander and the bully himself are all represented. Their words will be a welcome palliative or a wise pre-emptive defense against the trials of adolescent social dynamics.” - New York Times • “You’ll love it if…You know someone (or are someone) who’s ever been involved in any type of bullying incident. There’s something in it for everyone on all sides of the spectrum. You’ll love it even more if you can find a story that inspires you to help someone else.” –Seventeen.com

2. Non-Fiction Book #2 • Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand • (Lexile950) • “A master class in narrative storytelling…Extraordinarily moving…A powerfully drawn survival epic.” – The Wall Street Journal • “Unbroken is wonderful twice over, for the tale it tells and for the way it’s told. A better book than Seabiscuit, it manages maximum velocity with no loss of subtlety. [Hillenbrand has] a jeweler’s eye for a detail that makes a story live.” – Newsweek • “A one-in-a-billion story…seems designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid. It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring. It sucked me in and swept me away. It kept me reading late into the night. I could not…(it really hurts to type this)…put it…(must find the strength to resist)…down.” –New York Magazine

3. Non-Fiction Book #3 • Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell • (Lexile1080L) • In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? • His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. • Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

4. Non-Fiction Book #4 • When the Game Was Ours – Larry Bird & Magic Johnson with Jackie MacMullin • (Lexile Unknown) • From the moment these two players took the court on opposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychological battle. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize the most compelling rivalry in the NBA. These were the basketball epics of the 1980s--Celtics vs Lakers, East vs West, physical vs finesse, Old School vs Showtime, even white vs black. Each pushed the other to greatness--together Bird and Johnson collected 8 NBA Championships, and 6 MVP awards and helped save the floundering NBA at its most critical time. When it started they were bitter rivals, but along the way they became lifelong friends. • With intimate, fly-on-the-wall detail, When the Game Was Ours transports readers to this electric era of basketball and reveals for the first time the inner workings of two players dead set on besting one another. From the heady days of trading championships to the darker days of injury and illness, we come to understand Larry's obsessive devotion to winning and how his demons drove him on the court. We hear him talk with candor about playing through chronic pain and its truly exacting toll. In Magic we see a young, invincible star struggle with the sting of defeat, not just as a player but as a team leader. We are there the moment he learns he's contracted HIV and hear in his own words how that devastating news impacted his relationships in basketball and beyond. But always, in both cases, we see them prevail. • A compelling, up-close-and-personal portrait of basketball's most inimitable duo, When the Game Was Ours is a reevaluation of three decades in counterpoint. It is also a rollicking ride through professional basketball's best times.

5. Non-Fiction Book #5 • Survival of the Sickest– Dr. Sharon Moalam • (Lexile Unknown) • AP Biology Selection • Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth. Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that are diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there. It goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives.

6. Non-Fiction Book #6 • Take Your Eye Off the Ball– Pat Kirwan • (Lexile Unknown) • Football Team Selection • An in-depth analysis of how general managers, coaches, scouts, and NFL players break down the X’s and O’s on the gridiron. Those who know what to look for take their eye off the ball! • To have coached at the highest level and then moved into the administrative and management realm and know what you're talking about in both is relatively unique. Pat can 'talk the talk' to players but still speak the language of contracts and deals. Pat boils even the most complicated nuances of football down to the base elements so that everyone can understand it. - Brad Childress –Former head coach, Minnesota Vikings. • I wish I had been coached as a player the way I've been coached by Pat as an analyst. He's expanded my knowledge and understanding of the big picture of the game. He's schooled at every position on both sides of the ball, and not just in terms of how to play the position; he also explains to you why things need to be done a certain way - Tim Ryan --Co-host, Movin' the Chains, SiriusXM NFL Radio

7. Non-Fiction Book #7 • I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced– Nujood Ali • (Lexile Unknown) • Chosen by Glamour magazine as a Woman of the Year in 2008, Nujood of Yemen has become an international hero for her astonishingly brave resistance to child marriage. Sold off by her impoverished family at the age of 10, continually raped by her husband before she even reached puberty, Nujood found the courage to run away, and with the help of an activist lawyer, sympathetic judges, and the international press, she divorced her husband and returned home. Her clear, first-person narrative, translated from the French and written with Minoui, is spellbinding: the horror of her parents’ betrayal and her mother-in-law’s connivance, the “grown-ups” who send the child from classroom and toys to nightmare abuse. She never denies the poverty that drives her parents and oppresses her brothers, even as she reveals their cruelty. Unlike her passive mother, she is an activist, thrilled to return to school, determined to save others, including her little sister. True to the child’s viewpoint, the “grown-up” cruelty is devastating. Readers will find it incredible that such unbelievable abuse and such courageous resistance are happening now. --Hazel Rochman • "A powerful new autobiography...It’s hard to imagine that there have been many younger divorcées — or braver ones — than a pint-size third grader named Nujood Ali."—Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

8. Non-Fiction Book #8 • Zoobiquity– Barbara Hatterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers • (Lexile Unknown) • Do animals overeat? Get breast cancer? Have fainting spells? • A Discover Magazine Best Book of 2012 • An O, The Oprah Magazine “Summer Reading” Pick • Finalist, 2013 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books • Inspired by an eye-opening consultation at the Los Angeles Zoo, which revealed that a monkey experienced the same symptoms of heart failure as her human patients, cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz embarked upon a project that would reshape how she practiced medicine. Beginning with the above questions, she began informally researching every affliction that she encountered in humans to learn whether it happened with animals, too. And usually, it did: dinosaurs suffered from brain cancer, koalas can catch chlamydia, reindeer seek narcotic escape in hallucinogenic mushrooms, stallions self-mutilate, and gorillas experience clinical depression. Natterson-Horowitz and science writer Kathryn Bowers have dubbed this pan-species approach to medicine zoobiquity. Here, they present a revelatory understanding of what animals can teach us about the human body and mind, exploring how animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and heal patients of all species.

9. Non-Fiction Book #9 • Last Chance In Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth– John Hubner • (Lexile Unknown) • A powerful, bracing and deeply spiritual look at intensely, troubled youth, Last Chance in Texas gives a stirring account of the way one remarkable prison rehabilitates its inmates.While reporting on the juvenile court system, journalist John Hubner kept hearing about a facility in Texas that ran the most aggressive–and one of the most successful–treatment programs for violent young offenders in America. How was it possible, he wondered, that a state like Texas, famed for its hardcore attitude toward crime and punishment, could be leading the way in the rehabilitation of violent and troubled youth? Now Hubner shares the surprising answers he found over months of unprecedented access to the Giddings State School, home to “the worst of the worst”: four hundred teenage lawbreakers convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated assault to murder. Hubner follows two of these youths–a boy and a girl–through harrowing group therapy sessions in which they, along with their fellow inmates, recount their crimes and the abuse they suffered as children. The key moment comes when the young offenders reenact these soul-shattering moments with other group members in cathartic outpourings of suffering and anger that lead, incredibly, to genuine remorse and the beginnings of true empathy . . . the first steps on the long road to redemption. • Last Chance in Texas tells a profoundly moving story about the children who grow up to inflict on others the violence that they themselves have suffered. It is a story of horror and heartbreak, yet ultimately full of hope.

10. Historical Fiction #1 • Between Shades of Gray – RutaSepetys • (Lexile490) • “Starred Review” • “Sepetys’ first novel offers a harrowing and horrifying account of the forcible relocation of countless Lithuanians in the wake of the Russian invasion of their country in 1939. In the case of 16-year old Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, this means deportation to a forced labor camp in Siberia, where conditions are all too painfully similar to those of Nazi concentration camps. Lina’s great hope is that somehow her father, who has already been arrested by the Soviet secret police, might find and rescue them. A gifted artist, she begins secretly creating pictures that can—she hopes—be surreptitiously sent to him in his own prison camp. Whether or not this will be possible, it is her art that will be her salvation, helping her to retain her identity, her dignity, and her increasingly tenuous hold on hope for the future. Many others are not so fortunate.” (Booklist) • A harrowing page-turner.” – Publishers Weekly

11. Historical Fiction #2 • Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay • (Lexile610) • “This is a remarkable historical novel, a book which brings to light a disturbing and deliberately hidden aspect of French behavior towards Jews during World War II. Like Sophie’s Choice, it’s a book that impresses itself upon one’s heart and soul forever.” (Naomi Ragen) • “Sarah’s Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book will stay on your mind long after it is back on the shelf.” (Risa Miller) • “Polly Stone’s flawless transitions alternate between English and French and the 1942 and present time setting of two stories.” (The Chapel Hill Herald)

12. Historical Fiction #3 • The Watch that Ends the Night – Allan Wolf • (LexileUnknown) • “A masterpiece. Wolf leaves no emotion unplumbed, no area of research uninvestigated, and his voices are so authentic they hurt. Everyone should read it.” (Booklist) • “Twenty-four voices of passengers, rats and even the iceberg, evoke the human tragedy of the ill-fated voyage. Wolf brings the history and, more importantly, the human scale of the event to life by giving voice to the players themselves…A lyrical, monumental work of fact and imagination that reads like an oral history revved up by the drama of the event.” (Kirkus Reviews) • “Wolf’s novel in verse gives voice, through first-person accounts, to a cross section of passengers and crew on the Titanic: how they boarded, why they’re there, and how they face the disaster…The themes of natural disaster, technology, social class, survival, and death all play out here.” (The Horn Book)

13. Historical Fiction #4 • Fallen Angels– Walter Dean Myers • (Lexile 650) • 1989 Coretta Scott King Award Winner • A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is even there at all.

14. Historical Fiction #5 • Flygirl– Sherri L. Smith • (Lexile 680) • All Ida Mae Jones wants to do is fly. Her daddy was a pilot, and years after his death she feels closest to him when she’s in the air. But as a young black woman in 1940s Louisiana, she knows the sky is off limits to her, until America enters World War II, and the Army forms the WASP Women Airforce Service Pilots. Ida has a chance to fulfill her dream if she’s willing to use her light skin to pass as a white girl. She wants to fly more than anything, but Ida soon learns that denying one’s self and family is a heavy burden, and ultimately it’s not what you do but who you are that’s most important. • This book discusses the value of friendship, bonding in times of stress, the strength of friendship, racial and gender issues, and the deep ties of family.— Jennifer Rummel - YABookNerd

15. Fiction #1 • Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe– Benjamin Saenz • (Lexile 380) • *ALA Stonewall Honor Book • When Aristotle and Dante meet, in the summer of 1987, they are 15-year-olds existing in “the universe between boys and men.” The two are opposites in most ways: Dante is sure of his place in the world, while Ari feels he may never know who he is or what he wants. But both are thoughtful about their feelings and interactions with others, and this title is primarily focused on the back-and-forth in their relationship over the course of a year. Family issues take center stage, as well as issues of Mexican identity, but the heart of the novel is Dante’s openness about his homosexuality and Ari’s suppression of his. Sáenz (Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, 2004) writes toward the end of the novel that “to be careful with people and words was a rare and beautiful thing.” And that’s exactly what Sáenz does—he treats his characters carefully, giving them space and time to find their place in the world, and to find each other. This moves at a slower pace than many YA novels, but patient readers, and those struggling with their own sexuality, may find it to be a thought-provoking read. • Sáenez writes toward the end of the novel that “to be careful with people and words was a rare and beautiful thing.” And that’s exactly what Sáenez does—he treats his characters carefully, giving them space and time to find their place in the world, and to find each other...those struggling with their own sexuality may find it to be a thought-provoking read.--Booklist

16. Fiction #2 • Now Is The Time For Running – Michael Williams • (Lexile650) • *YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults • *Kirkus Reviews – Best Teen Books of 2011 • “There is plenty of material to captivate readers: fast-paced soccer matches every bit as tough as the players; the determination of Deo and his fellow refugees to survive unthinkably harsh conditions; and raw depictions of violence…But it’s the tender relationship between Deo and Innocent, along with some heartbreaking twists of fate, that will endure in readers’ minds.” (Publishers’ Weekly) • “A harrowing tale of modern Zimbabwe…gripping, suspenseful and deeply compassionate. Williams, a renowned dramatist, gives readers compelling characters and, in simple language, delivers a complicated story rooted – sadly and upliftingly - in very real events.” (Kirkus Reviews)

17. Fiction #3 • Unwind– Neal Shusterman • (Lexile 740) • In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn’t “technically” end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound. • With breath-taking suspense, this book follows three teens who all become runaway Unwinds: Connor, a rebel whose parents have ordered his unwinding; Risa, a ward of the state who is to be unwound due to cost-cutting; and Lev, his parents' tenth child whose unwinding has been planned since birth as a religious tithing. As their paths intersect and lives hang in the balance, Shusterman examines serious moral issues in a way that will keep readers turning the pages to see if Connor, Risa, and Lev avoid meeting their untimely ends. • "Gripping, brilliantly imagined futuristic thriller...The issues raised could not be more provocative--the sanctity of life, the meaning of being human--while the delivery could hardly be more engrossing or better aimed to teens."--Publishers Weekly, starred review • "A thought-provoking, well-paced read that will appeal widely."--School Library Journal, starred review • "Well-written, this draws the readers into a world that is both familiar and strangely foreign, and generates feelings of horror, disturbance, disgust and fear. As with classics such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, one can only hope that this vision of the future never becomes reality."--Kirkus Reviews

18. Fiction #4 • Perry’s Killer Playlist– Joe Schreiber • (Lexile 850) • Sequel to Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick • Just as the Bourne franchise gets better with each movie, so does this action/spy-thriller series. Things seem to be looking up for 18-year-old Perry Stormaire. He has been accepted to Columbia, and his new girlfriend works in the music industry and has convinced her boss to send Perry and his band on a European music tour. The only downside is that his family insists on tagging along. During the band's first stop in Italy, Perry is nearly killed. The beautiful assassin, Gobi, arrives just in time to save him, but not without dragging Perry on a dangerous adventure that spans several European cities. Gobi's new mission is to kill several targets. This time, she's not out for revenge, but rather working on behalf of someone else, and she's not doing it for the money, either. Gunshots, explosions, and bloody fights rev up the action, but it's Gobi's motivations that move the story. Perry may be the narrator, but her conflicted and painful past makes her a complex and sympathetic character. This sequel to Au Revoir Crazy European Chick (Houghton Harcourt, 2011) will feel somewhat familiar. Just like in Manhattan, Perry is unwilling to accompany Gobi as she tracks down her targets. When the lives of his family members are at stake, he has to put his faith in the hands of a dangerous woman. Except this time, his feelings for her are deeper and more complicated. --Kimberly GarnickGiarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library

19. Fiction #5 • Red Glass– Laura Resau • (Lexile Unknown) • One night Sophie and her parents are called to a hospital where Pedro, a six-year-old Mexican boy, is recovering from dehydration. Crossing the border into Arizona with a group of Mexicans and a coyote, or guide, Pedro and his parents faced such harsh conditions that the boy is the only survivor. Pedro comes to live with Sophie, her parents, and Sophie's Aunt Dika, a refugee of the war in Bosnia. Sophie loves Pedro—her Principito, or Little Prince. But after a year, Pedro’s surviving family in Mexico makes contact, and Sophie, Dika, Dika’s new boyfriend, and his son must travel with Pedro to his hometown so that he can make a heartwrenching decision. • An IRA Award Winner • An Américas Award Honor Book • An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults • A Colorado Book Award Winner • A Cybil Award Finalist • A School Library Journal Best Book • A Richie’s Pick

20. Suspense/Mystery #1 • Blindness – Jose Saramago • (LexileUnknown) • *Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature • Jose Saramago delivers a profound parable of loss and disorientation in Blindness. When a city is overcome by an epidemic of “white blindness,” only one woman is spared. She becomes a guide for a group of seven strangers and serves as the eyes and ears for the reader in this powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses – and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirt. • “Saramago is the most tender of writers…with a clear-eyed and compassionate acknowledgement of things as they are and a quality that can only be termed wisdom. We should be grateful when it is handed to us in such generous measures.” – NYT Book Review

21. Problems Book #1 • Last Night I Sang to the Monster – Benjamin AlireSaenz • (Lexile 490) • For Grades 9 and Up – At 18, Zach finds himself in a therapeutic residential program as both an alcoholic and a post-traumatic-stress patient. In evocative and compelling language, Saenz allows an at-first barely articulate, almost amnesiac Zach to show his progress toward remembering and integrating his past into a present with which he can cope. He is guided along the way by a sympathetic and wise therapist, a middle-aged roommate whose own recovery is on an arc ahead of the youth’s and several credible and interesting minor characters. The techniques and realities of such a facility are realistic and fully drawn: addicts who gather for cigarettes, nightmares, group sessions, breathing therapy. Saenz weaves together Zach’s past, present, and changing disposition toward his future with stylistic grace and emotional insight. This is a powerful and edifying look into both a tortured psyche and the methods by which it can be healed. (Francisco Goldsmith – Halifax Public Libraries)

22. Problems Book #2 • Marcelo in the Real World – Francisco X. Stork • (Lexile 700) • *Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2009 • *YALSA Top 10 Best Books for Young Adults • *2010 IRA Notable Books for a Global Society • Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old with an Asperger’s-like condition, has arranged a job caring for ponies at his special school’s therapeutic-riding stables. But he is forced to exit his comfort zone when his high-powered father steers Marcelo to work in his law firm’s mailroom (in return, Marcelo can decide whether to stay in special education, as he prefers, or be mainstreamed for his senior year). Stork introduces ethical dilemmas, the possibility of love, and other real world conflicts, all the while preserving the integrity of his characterizations and intensifying the novel’s psychological and emotional stakes. Not to be missed. (Publisher’s Weekly)

23. Problems Book #3 • Something Like Hope – Shawn Goodman • (Lexile670) • *Delacorte Press Prize – 2009 • Smart, angry, and desperate, Shaonne, 17, is in juvenile detention again, and in her present-tense, first-person narrative, she describes the heartbreaking brutality that she suffered before she was locked up, as well as the harsh treatment, and sometimes the kindness she encounters in juvie. With a mother who is a crack-addicted prostitute, and a father she never knew who died in prison, she was sent into the foster-care system as a young child. One foster mother needed money for drugs, so she forced Shavonne, 11 at the time, to go with a man who raped her. While she was locked up, Shavonne gave birth, and she is glad that her daughter is now in a kind foster home. As the title suggests, the story leaves room for something like hope. (Booklist)

24. Problems Novel #4 • Split – Swati Avasthi • (Lexile610) • Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret. • He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret. • At least so far. • Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. First-time novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again? Readers won’t be able to put this intense page-turner down.

25. Problems Book #5 • We Were Here – Matt de la Pena • (Lexile770) • The story of one boy and his journey to find himself. • When it happened, Miguel was sent to Juvi. The judge gave him a year in a group home—said he had to write in a journal so some counselor could try to figure out how he thinks. The judge had no idea that he actually did Miguel a favor. Ever since it happened, his mom can’t even look at him in the face. Any home besides his would be a better place to live. • But Miguel didn’t bet on meeting Rondell or Mong or on any of what happened after they broke out. He only thought about Mexico and getting to the border to where he could start over. Forget his mom. Forget his brother. Forget himself. • Life usually doesn’t work out how you think it will, though. And most of the time, running away is the quickest path right back to what you’re running from.

26. Problems Book #6 • How to Save a Life – Sara Zarr • (Lexile710) • Jill MacSweeny just wishes everything could go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. And when her mom decides to adopt a baby, it feels like she's somehow trying to replace a lost family member with a new one. • Mandy Kalinowski understands what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, one thing she's sure of is that she wants a better life for her baby. It's harder to be sure of herself. Will she ever find someone to care for her, too? • As their worlds change around them, Jill and Mandy must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy--or as difficult--as it seems. • Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about the many roads that can lead us home.

27. Problems Book #7 • The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson • (Lexile570) • *Bank Street – Best Children’s Book of 2009 • Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers? • This fascinating novel represents a stunning new direction for acclaimed author Mary Pearson. Set in a near future America, it takes readers on an unforgettable journey through questions of bio-medical ethics and the nature of humanity. Mary Pearson's vividly drawn characters and masterful writing soar to a new level of sophistication.

28. Classics #1 • 1984 – George Orwell • (Lexile1090) • *Common Core Exemplar Text • Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell’s narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.

29. Classics #2 • The Count of Monte Cristo– AlexandreDumas • (Lexile930) • Imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Edmond Dantès spends 14 bitter years in a dungeon. When his daring escape plan works he uses all he has learned during his incarceration to mastermind an elaborate plan of revenge that will bring punishment to those he holds responsible for his fate. No longer the naïve sailor who disappeared into the dark fortress all those years ago, he reinvents himself as the charming, mysterious, and powerful Count of Monte Cristo.