Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
CONTENT IS FOR MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY GRADE 11 and 12
Separated by respective ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America while exploring new concepts of race, while Obinze endures an undocumented status in London until the pair is reunited in their homeland 15 years later, where they face the toughest decisions of their lives. |
Dr. Selena Rathwell teaches AP English Literature, English Studies 12 and Humanities 9. She sponsors the Thrive team.
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Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva
A cast of unforgettable characters--citizens of the small industrial town of Kirovka--populate Maria Reva's ingeniously entwined tales that span the chaotic years leading up to and immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Weaving the strands of the narrative together is an unforgettable, chameleon-like young woman named Zaya: an orphan turned beauty-pageant crasher who survives the extraordinary circumstances of her childhood through a compelling combination of ferocity, intelligence, stubbornness and wit.
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Dr. Darien Allan teaches AP Calculus BC, AP Research, and Pre-Calculus 12 Accelerated and coaches Junior Field Hockey. In her free time, she likes to hike, bike, run, read, do crosswords, and spend time with family. She enjoys mystery, historical fiction, and books that help her learn about other places and cultures.
"I chose this book because it is written by one of my former students. It was positively reviewed by Margaret Atwood and other reviewers as "bitingly funny." It it a series short stories taking place in Ukraine both before and after communism. The unifying piece in the stories is an apartment building that officially does not exist. The genre, absurdist fiction, describes it well. It is an easily accessible read for all audiences and is sure to be entertaining." |
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. Nora Seed finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
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Leadership 11 teacher Ms. Laura Alonzo, is also teaching Art this year. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding, mountain biking, kayaking and gardening. Her favourite genre is historical fiction.
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Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Ruth is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? She performs CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case and insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family--especially her teenage son--as the case becomes a media sensation.
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Mr. Charly Pimentel teaches New Media 10 and 12, English 11/AP Seminar 11 and sponsors: The EDI Student Committee and AdVerum. In his free time, he enjoys the beach, patio, video games, movies, biking, and writing. In terms of his favourite genre, "Depends on my mood or the ideas occupying my mind at the time."
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What Strange Paradise: A Novel with by Omar El Akkad
More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives back in their homelands. But miraculously, someone has survived the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who is soon rescued by Vänna. Vänna is a teenage girl, who, despite being native to the island, experiences her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers, though they don’t speak a common language, Vänna is determined to do whatever it takes to save the boy.
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Mr. Ryan Alguire is a Senior Key teacher and Rugby 8-10 coach. Students enjoy when he brings, Moose, his bernedoodle to school.
Learning Centre teacher and sponsor of Homework Help/SkillsNSnacks, Ms. Fay Wheatley enjoys running, swimming, photography, spending time with her girls.
Why did they select this book: "WINNER OF THE 2021 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE, this story brings the ongoing global refugee crisis down to the level of a child's perspective. This fiction is based on very real events that continue to happen in today's world; and are suspected to increase with the ongoing climate crisis. 'It is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair--and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality, or guide us to a better one.'" |
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Nearly three centuries after their coastal community's witch trials, the women athletes of the 1989 Danvers Falcons hockey team combine individual and collective talents with 1980s iconography to storm their way to the state finals.
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Fine Arts teacher, Ms. Catherine Underwood coaches Senior Field Hockey. In her spare time she enjoys: trail running, skiing, hiking, and hanging with her kids.
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