The 2002 Summer Reading List
From the BHS Library

Compiled by Jayne B. Johnsen-Seeberger, Librarian 4/26/02

Family/ Coming To Terms		Mystery		Other Cultures		Science Fiction & Fantasy
	Historical Fiction		Non-Fiction		Poetry		Short Stories

Family & Coming to Terms

Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville (ALA Best Books for Young Adults)
Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain, where they try to decide what they themselves believe.

Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinonez
Chino, a young Puerto Rican man with a bright future, looks to Willie Bodega, the New York City drug pusher who rules Spanish Harlem, for a favor and becomes ensconced in a world of betrayal and violence.

Counting Coup by G.D. Gearino
Ted Beckman, a bored and cynical journalist, quits his job after a battered woman who has asked for his help is murdered by her abusive husband. Traveling around the country looking for love and fulfillment, Ted finds himself in Georgia where he comes face-to-face with some unpleasant truths about his family.

Diamond Dogs by Alan Watt
Seventeen-year-old Neil Garvin blames his abusive father for driving his mother away years earlier, and plans on leaving his small hometown after graduating high school, but when he accidentally commits a terrible crime, which his father, unasked, covers up, he finds himself unwillingly indebted to his father.

 How All This Started by Pete Fromm
Austin has always relied on his sister, Abilene, for comfort and amusement, but when Abilene's dreams for Austin's future take a darker turn, Austin begins to doubt Abilene's sanity.

 Flight #116 Is Down! by Caroline B. Cooney
Teenager Heidi Landseth helps rescue people from a plane crash on her family's property, and the experience changes her life forever.

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (NYT, Wilson's Fiction)
For most of his life Dominick Birdsey has been living in the shadow of his schizophrenic identical twin, Thomas, but when Thomas commits a violent act that affects both their lives, Dominick decides to leave his home and search for his true identity.

The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood
J.J. Smith, the Keeper of the Records for "The Book of Records" has witnessed many extraordinary things in the course of his job, but he has never witnessed true love, until he meets a man who is attempting to eat an entire Boeing 747 to prove his love for a woman.

Meely LaBauve: A Novel by Ken Wells
Fifteen-year-old Meely LaBauve spends his time along the Catahoula Bayou trying to help his father avoid the local police.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher (VOYA, ALA Notable Best Books, Book Report Starred)
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (NYT, ALA Notable Best Books)
Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal, friends since serving together in World War II, deal with the problems of love, lust, and the other challenges of raising their families in 1970s London.
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Historical Fiction

Dawn by Elie Wiesel ; translated from the French by Frances Frenaye
An eighteen-year-old terrorist spends a night waiting to kill an English officer in Palestine as a reprisal for Britain's execution of a Jewish prisoner.

Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian
The story of how Vahan Kenderian survived the Turkish massacre of the Armenians in 1915.

The Sand-reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw
Tells the early life of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes from his education at Ptolemy's Museum in Alexandria to his home in Syracuse, as he gains fame and fortune as a royal engineer.

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (2002 Newbery Award)
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
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Humor

Reflecting the Sky by S. J. Rozan (2002 Edgar Nominee)
Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin and her professional partner Bill Smith travel to Hong Kong on a job delivering an heirloom and walk into more intrigue than they expected when the young recipient is kidnapped.
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Non-Fiction

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers
Presents an account of the Marines who came together during the battle of Iwo Jima to raise the American flag in a moment that has been immortalized in one of the most famous photographs of World War II.

The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw (NYT, School Library Journal)
Sea captain Linda Greenlaw tells the story of a grueling thirty-day swordfishing voyage during which she and her five-man crew encountered savage weather, equipment failure, and sharks, along with the routine work of operating a fishing boat; and discusses other aspects of her unusual career.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (ALA Notable Best Books)
The author relates his experience of climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense.

Jefferson's Children: The Story of One American Family by Shannon Lanier & Jane Feldman
Shannon Lanier traces his family's relationship to Thomas Jefferson and discusses how his African-American ancestors learned they were related to Jefferson.

The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury
Explores the thrill of deep-sea diving and explains how one father-son diving team's obsession with diving cost them their lives. A sorrowful education in diving history and technique, in the psychology of the adventurer, and in the dominion of death.
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Other Cultures

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Six-year-old Antonio embarks upon a spiritual journey under the watchful guidance of Ultima, a healing woman, that leads him to question his faith and beliefs in family, religion, and other aspects of his Chicano culture.

The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta
The love story of Aku-nna, a young Ibo girl, and Chike, the son of a prosperous former slave. Nigerian social life, marriage rites and customs are intertwined with relationships between men and women.

House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The epic story covering three generations of the passionate Trueba family begins at the turn of the century in South America.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Wilson's Sr. High Recommended)
Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Congo in 1959, and the experiences they have while living in Africa affect each member of the family in a different way.

A Step from Heaven by An Na (Michael L. Printz Award Winner for 2002)
The parents of Young Ju, a young Korean girl, don't want her to become too American, and she is ashamed of them. It's the classic immigrant child conflict, told here with the immediacy of Young Yu’s present tense voice, from the time she's a toddler in a small Korean village wondering why the adults talk about America as "heaven," her bewilderment as a first-grader in the U.S. trying to learn the rules, through her teenage years until she's an A-student ready to leave for college. A beautiful first novel.
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Poetry

Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century Art. Jan Greenberg, ed. (L. Printz Award Honor for 2002)
A compilation of poems by Americans writing about American art in the twentieth century, including such writers as Nancy Willard, Jane Yolen, and X. J. Kennedy.

Soldier: A Poet's Childhood by June Jordan
June Jordan, an African American poet, chronicles the first twelve years of her life and discusses how her experiences during those years influenced her writing.
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Science Fiction & Fantasy

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (2000 Hugo Award Best Novel)
As the Qeng Ho trading fleet waits for the awakening of a distant planet's dormant population, they find themselves under attack by a distant group of rivals, and it is up to Pham Nuwen to stop the war before the planet's entire population is wiped out.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling (2001 Hugo Award Best Novel)
Harry Potter, a fourth-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, longs to escape his hateful relatives, the Dursleys, and live as a normal fourteen-year-old wizard, but what Harry does not yet realize is that he is not a normal wizard, and in his case, different can be deadly.

To Say Nothing of the Dog (1999 Hugo Award Best Novel)
Time-travel researcher Ned Henry shuttles back and forth between the 21st century and the 1940s in order to correct an incongruity brought forward from the past.

The Ropemaker by Peter Dickenson (L. Printz Award Honor for 2002)
When the magic that protects their Valley starts to fail, Tilja and her companions journey into the evil Empire to find the ancient magician Faheel, who originally cast those spells.
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Short Stories

Best American Mystery Stories edited by Tony Hillerman
A collection of forty-six mystery stories written during the twentieth century, arranged chronologically from O'Henry's 1903 "A Retrieved Reformation," to Dennis Lehane's 1999 "Running Out of Dog."

Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
Everything that rises must converge -- Greenleaf -- A view of the woods -- The enduring chill -- The comforts of home -- The lame shall enter first -- Revelation -- Parker's back -- Judgement Day. A collection of nine stories set in the South, written just before the author's death at age thirty-nine.

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro (Kirkus Starred)
Munroe writes about insular country folk living simply and earnestly in small towns in Ontario or outside Vancouver with wit. In her pristine and enrapturing stories, the details hold magic. The stories work not only because her characters are so utterly human in their mixed feelings but also because she lavishes keen attention on every article of clothing, body feature, setting, and carefully dealt line of dialogue.

The Hill Batchelors by William Trevor (NYT, Library Journal and Booklist Starred)
With this collection of twelve short stories about missed opportunities, Trevor continues to be one of the finest practitioners of the short story in English. Many of the stories deal with the major disappointments and small rewards that life brings, particularly within the arena of love.

Magic Terror by Peter Straub (NYT, Booklist Starred)
Contains seven short fiction stories of brutality, heartbreak, despair, wonder, and unexpected humor.

Skin Folks by Nalo Hopkinson (VOYA, NYT)
Hopkinson has already captured readers with her unique combination of Caribbean folklore, sensual characters, and rhythmic prose. These stories from a Web designer who discovers an unusual ability to alter the pixels of real people to a young girl struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where the very air and water are suffused with ground glass.
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