Hello, incoming  9th-grade students!

First read the summer reading welcome letter, and then check out some of the recommendations below. 

 

Titles connected to 9th grade themes 

​

​Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq, Mark Alan Stamaty (Graphic Novel)**

The inspiring story of an Iraqi librarian's courageous fight to save books from the Basra Central Library before it was destroyed in the war.

​

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz*

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. 

​

The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein ***

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it.

​

The Body of Christopher Creed, Carol Plum-Ucci **

 When Christopher Creed, the class freak and whipping boy, suddenly disappears without a trace, everyone speculates on what could have happened to him. Soon fingers begin pointing, and several lives are changed forever.

​

Bone, Vol. 1: Out from Boneville (Graphic Novel), Jeff Smith*

After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert.

 

The Contender, Robert Lipsyte*

This is a sports fiction novel that tells a story of Alfred Brooks, a seventeen-year-old high school drop-out, living in Harlem, finding his way in the world and in boxing.

​

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, Mark Haddon***

When a neighbor's dog is killed, fifteen year-old Christopher, an autistic boy gifted with a superbly logical brain, sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes.

​

Divergent, Veronica Roth**

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue. On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

​

Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

​

A Fault in Our Stars, John Green**

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

​

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins**

In a post-apocalyptic North America, when 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative for an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place.

​

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith**

The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident.

 

When I was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago*

In this triumphant coming-of-age memoir, Santiago writes lyrically of her childhood on her native island and of her bewildering years of transition in New York City.

 

* easier                                                  **moderate                                        ***challenging