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Summer Holiday Reading!

NEWS / 30 May 2014

Ms. Reynolds has put together a list of books that she recommends that students from each year should read during the summer. The list is in the 2014-2015 school booklist now available in About Us/Current Listings. This is just a small selection of the recommended books. Enjoy!

Ms. Reynolds has put together a list of books that she recommends that students from each year should read during the summer. The list is in the 2014-2015 school booklist now available in About Us/Current Listings. This is just a small selection of the recommended books. Enjoy!

 

1st Year
  Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise.   Bryson’s own fascination with science began with a battered old school book he had when he was about ten or eleven years old. Bill’s storytelling skill makes the “How?” and, just as importantly, the “Who?” of scientific discovery entertaining and accessible for all ages.
2nd Year
 Running with the Kenyans Whether running is your recreation, your religion, or just a spectator sport, Adharanand Finn’s incredible journey to the elite training camps of Kenya will captivate and inspire you.   Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered.
3rd Year
 Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz Jerusalem 1947. British soldiers patrol the streets, and bullets and bombs are a nightly occurrence. Caught up in the fervour and unrest against the occupying forces, 12-year old Proffy dreams of being an underground fighter. But some of his dreams are less heroic. Temptation lurks everywhere for the youth who wants to be a man - and betrayal not far behind.  The Help Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger.
Transition Year
 A Street Cat Named Bob When James Bowen found an injured, ginger street cat curled up in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, he had no idea just how much his life was about to change. James was living hand to mouth on the streets of London and the last thing he needed was a pet.  The Perks of being a wallflower Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.
5th Year
 The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor The Gault family leads a life of privilege in early 1920s Ireland, but the threat of violence leads the parents of nine-year-old Lucy to decide to leave for England, her mother's home. Lucy cannot bear the thought of leaving Lahardane, their country house with its beautiful land and nearby beach, and a dog she has befriended. On the day before they are to leave, Lucy runs away, hoping to convince her parents to stay. Instead, she sets off a series of tragic misunderstandings that affect all of Lahardane's inhabitants for the rest of their lives.   Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm work their slow poison, and Mary's despair progresses until the fateful arrival of an enigmatic and virile black servant, Moses.
6th Year
 The Catcher in the Rye The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story.  Our Town by Thornton Wilder Our Town was first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of life in the town of Grover 's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.

 [Images and text: www.goodreads.com] 

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