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As It Applies

Incoming 9th Grade

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

In this futuristic tale, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers in order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack. 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. As a candidate for the soldier-training program, Ender is 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 the unsettling fear of the alien invaders.

This story involves aliens, political discourse on the Internet, and sophisticated computer games. Yet the reason it rings true for so many is that it is foremost a tale of humanity, a tale of a boy struggling to grow up into someone he can respect while living in an environment stripped of choices.
(Amazon.com Review/Publishers Weekly)

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10th, 11th & 12th Grade, Staff & Parents


The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This tale, set in Afghanistan, follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant. In the relative calm of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable as they spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors. However, Hassan’s brutal attack inflicted by neighborhood bullies changes the nature of their relationship forever. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. It is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule.

This novel presents a perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its implications for both the U.S. and the Middle East, as it explores the culture of a nation that has become a pivot point in today’s global politics.
(Amazon.com Review/Publishers Weekly)

10th Grade Advance

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

This is a classic work of science fiction that continues to be a significant warning to our society today. “Community, Identity, Stability” is the motto of Huxley’s utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a “Feelie,” a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his relationship with a young woman has the potential to be much more than the confines of their existence allow. Although written in 1932, this story foreshadows certain practices and gadgets taken for granted in today’s world.
(Amazon.com Review/Library Journal)

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11th Grade AP

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, it vividly brings to life Faulkner’s imaginary South, one of the greatest invented landscapes in all of literature. It is filled with the poignant, impoverished, violent and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark.
(Amazon.com Review/Modern Library)

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12th Grade AP

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

"I think I could be a good woman, if I had five thousand a year,” observes beautiful and clever Becky Sharp, one of the most wicked – and most appealing – women in literature. She is just one of the many fascinating figures found in this satire of upper-middle-class life and manners in London at the beginning of the 19th century. Scorned for her lack of money and breeding, Becky must use all her wit, charm and considerable sex appeal to escape her drab destiny as a governess. From London’s ballrooms to the battlefields of Waterloo, the bewitching Becky works her wiles on a gallery of memorable characters, including her lecherous employer, Sir Pit; his rich sister, Miss Crawley; and Pitt’s dashing son, Rawdon, the first of Becky’s misguided sexual entanglements.
(Amazon.com Review)

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