Scituate High School Summer Reading
Get your summer reading at Buttonwood!
- Students entering Grade 9 may read either: GIDEON GREEN IN BLACK AND WHITE by Katie Henry OR MESSY ROOTS: A GRAPHIC MEMOIR OF A WUHANESE AMERICAN by Laura Gao
- Students entering Grade 10 may read either: THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD by Tiffany D. Jackson OR A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING by Dan Santat
- Students entering Grade 11 may read either: I MUST BETRAY YOUby Ruta Sepetys OR EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT INDIANS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK by Anton Treuer
- Students entering Grade 12 may read either: BENEATH THE WIDE SILK SKY by Emily Inouye Huey OR AIN'T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT by Jason Reynolds
- AP Lit: BELOVED by Toni Morrison
This is option 1 for 9th grade.
**Please note that this book is currently only available in HARDCOVER. The paperback is being release on 8/1/2023.**
Gideon's short-lived run as a locally famous boy detective ended when middle school started, and everyone else ... moved on ... Now he's sixteen and officially retired. That is, until Lily shows up suddenly at Gideon's door, needing his help ... As a cover, Gideon joins Lily on the school paper. Surprisingly, he finds himself warming up to the welcoming, close-knit staff ... especially Tess, the cute, witty editor-in-chief
This is option 2 for 9th grade.
After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Marsat least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name. In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.
This is option 1 for 10th grade.
**Please note that this book is currently only available in HARDCOVER. The paperback is being release on 9/12/2023.**
When Springville residents--at least the ones still alive--are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation... Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret... one that will cost them all their lives.
This is option 2 for 10th grade.
A middle grade graphic memoir based on bestselling author and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat's awkward middle school years and the trip to Europe that changed his life. Dan's always been a good kid. The kind of kid who listens to his teachers, helps his mom with grocery shopping, and stays out of trouble. But being a good kid doesn't stop him from being bullied and feeling like he's invisible, which is why Dan has low expectations when his parents send him on a class trip to Europe. At first, he's right. He's stuck with the same girls from his middle school who love to make fun of him, and he doesn't know why his teacher insisted he come on this trip. But as he travels through France, Germany, Switzerland, and England, a series of first experiences begin to change him--first Fanta, first fondue, first time stealing a bike from German punk rockers... and first love. Funny, heartwarming, and poignant, A First Time for Everything is a feel-good coming-of-age memoir based on New York Times bestselling author and Caldecott Medal winner Dan Santat's awkward middle school years. It celebrates a time that is universally challenging for many of us, but also life-changing as well.
This is option 1 for 11th grade.
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren't free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceau÷sescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He's left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves--or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe. Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. He eagerly joins the revolution to fight for change when the time arrives. But what is the cost of freedom? Master storyteller Ruta Sepetys is back with a historical thriller that examines the little-known history of a nation defined by silence, pain, and the unwavering conviction of the human spirit.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Revised and Expanded (Paperback)
This is option 2 for 11th grade.
What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you feel like you should already know the answers—or are concerned that your questions may be offensive? For more than a decade, Anton Treuer's clear, candid, and informative book has answered questions for tens of thousands of readers. This revised edition both revisits old questions from a new perspective and expands on topics that have become increasingly relevant over the past decade, including activism and tribal enrollment; truth and reconciliation efforts; gender roles and identities in Indigenous communities; the status of Alaskan Natives and Canadian First Nations; and much more.
This is option 1 for 12th grade.
**Please note that this book is only available in HARDCOVER**
With the recent death of her mother and the possibility of her family losing their farm, Samantha Sakamoto does not have space in her life for dreams, but when faced with prejudice and violence in her Washington State community after Pearl Harbor, she is determined to use her photography to document the bigotry around her.
This is option 2 for 12th grade.
**Please note that this book is only available in HARDCOVER**
A smash-up of art and text that viscerally captures what it means to not be able to breathe, and how the people and things you love most are actually the oxygen you most need
This is the required book for AP Literature.
Morrison's magnificent Pulitzer Prize-winning novel--first published in 1987--brings the unimaginable experience of slavery into the literature of today and into the reader's comprehension.