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Katie Buckholtz English Classroom
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9th Grade
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Alfred's life is going nowhere
fast. He's a high-school dropout working at a grocery store. His
best friend is drifting behind a haze of drugs and violence, and
now some street punks are harassing him for something he didn't
do. Feeling powerless and afraid, Alfred gathers up the courage to
visit Donatelli's Gym, the neighborhood's boxing club. He wants to
be a champion--on the streets and in his own life. Alfred doesn't
quite understand when Mr. Donatelli tells him, "It's the climbing
that makes the man. Getting to the top is an extra reward." In the
end, he learns that a winner isn't necessarily the one standing
when the fight is over. |
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Since the beginning of the
school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been
getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is
always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my
parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have
some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda
to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at
school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got
everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe
it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It
notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever
jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she
knows the real reason why she's been struck mute... |
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The bright 14-year-old was born
with water on the brain, is regularly the target of bullies, and
loves to draw. He says, "I think the world is a series of broken
dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats." He
expects disaster when he transfers from the reservation school to
the rich, white school in Reardan, but soon finds himself making
friends with both geeky and popular students and starting on the
basketball team. Meeting his old classmates on the court, Junior
grapples with questions about what constitutes one's community,
identity, and tribe. The daily struggles of reservation life and
the tragic deaths of the protagonist's grandmother, dog, and older
sister would be all but unbearable without the humor and
resilience of spirit with which Junior faces the world. |
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When Rufus Henry gets out of
work camp for Grand Theft Auto, he has only one place to go— back
to Durango Street. Almost right away, he gets on the wrong side of
the Gassers, has to join the rival Moors— and starts running for
his life. |
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This lyrical tragedy of two
star-crossed lovers and their feuding families is one of the
world's most famous love stories. |
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In a world with no poverty, no
crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is
happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver
of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known
as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian
world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. |
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"I guess, if you have to,
you can get used to anything--even to violence breaking out, like
an attack of the hiccups or something, and then going away as
suddenly as it started. But, like Shatasia said, you could never
get all the way relaxed about it." Such is the life of
16-year-old Dallas now that she's been confined for six months to
a juvenile detention facility for girls. Dallas used to love
"skating" with her rebellious friends--shoplifting, hot-wiring
cars, and purse-snatching--but she never expected to be caught
with a gun. After being peer pressured into holding up a
convenience store (her pals promptly disappearing when the
authorities show up), and abandoned by her father who refuses
custody, Dallas's world changes forever. In the rehabilitation
center she must adjust to shared living quarters, structured
schedules, lectures on drugs and sex, and countless volatile
personalities. But amid all the chaos and tension and rules,
Dallas also finds nurture--perhaps more than she ever received
from her cold dad and absent mom. |
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