Don’t lose those grade-level gains you worked so hard to make all year long! Reading over the summer prevents the traditional summer loss of reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. And it’s so easy—a virtually stress-free, fun way of learning. Just pick out a few good books and get started. I’ve put together a great list of summer books using recommendations from the best sources. I plan on reading and reviewing these books all summer long. 

Join me! As you read, feel free to make comments on any of the books by clicking the comment link on the review. All of the books I’ve picked out are available in multiple copies from the Ontario City Library at both the Colony and Ovitt branches. And don’t forget—any that you read will count toward the Ontario City Library’s summer reading program, so you can pick up some prizes as you go. If the title of the book is hyperlinked, I’ve already reviewed it, and you can make comments now. For the titles that are not—I’m reading! Check back soon!

This summer’s theme:

Compassion and Camaraderie

(Life is full of bullies—let’s understand each other)

Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak

Wintergirls

Twisted

Catalyst

(Don’t miss Anderson’s moving poem/tribute to the readers of Speak. She reads it here.)

John Green

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

An Abundance of Katherines

Paper Towns

Looking for Alaska

(He’s a video blogger, too—see him here.)

Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why

Sarah Dessen

What Happened to Goodbye?

Lock and Key

Just Listen

Gayle Forman

If I Stay

Where She Went

. . .

Genre Fiction for Fun:

Fantasy

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (sequel to Incarceron)

Fire by Kristin Cashore (This is the sequel to Graceling)

Eon and Eona by Alison Goodman

Sword Fighting and Combat

Ranger’s Apprentice Series by John Flanagan

Horror for Guys

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer

Sports

Heat by Mike Lupica

(and if you like the book, Mike Lupica has a lot of good sports books)

Historical Fiction

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Try a Classic:

Dracula

Frankenstein

Things I Just Want to Read for No Particular Reason:

Matched by Ally Condie (VOYA best Sci-Fi of the year)

Unwind by Neal Schusterman

Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender

Pride and Prejudice

For a thorough summary of this classic, you only have to grab a copy of SparkNotes, Cliff Notes or go to shmoop.com and check it out. However, these summaries tell you nothing about what a truly wonderful book it is.

I thought about this recently as I listened to an audio version of Pride and Prejudice. My sons always rib me about listening to audio books when I’ve already read the print version. (At Christmastime–”But, Mom, why are you listening to A Christmas Carol when I know you’ve read it before?” I answer, “It’s true that I’ve read it–but I haven’t heard Tim Curry read it–and he is wonderful!”)

If you are reading Pride and Prejudice for a class or as part of an assignment on literary analysis; if you are having any trouble understanding it or liking it because you feel that people don’t ‘talk like that anymore,’ I encourage you to get an audio version and add it to your reading. The professional readers are so good–their tone, inflection, and their pauses all help you to understand exactly what is happening. You’ll catch the nasty little social put downs, the snotty manners of the monied class, the idiocy of the teens who are fashion-obsessed and boy (soldier) crazy, the very pride and prejudice which must be overcome in order for young lovers to strike a good match.

And Pride and Prejudice has what students often ask for when looking for a book in our library. Lots of young adults on the lookout for romance and a mate; parents both cynical and silly; the trials of misunderstandings and the hurdles to overcome in learning who will make a suitable partner. There are a couple of good, happy marriages–and a couple of really lousy ones, too. Pride and Prejudice has it all. Enjoy listening.

As a classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray is summarized and analyzed in many places, and I have nothing to add.* However, as the new semester starts and seniors at both schools are beginning projects, I think this quick classic is a great choice for either the novel required before research at Chaffey High or, at Colony High, as one of the two works of British literature to be read and later analyzed. 

My oldest son once told me that he thought half of all witty quotes posted anywhere were by Oscar Wilde—and that if you saw a quote and had to guess who said it, naming Wilde would mean you’d be right half the time. Should you read The Picture of Dorian Gray, you’ll know why he said this. Although the character Lord Henry Wotton is a sort of Satan personified and gets Dorian started on his life of evil and debauchery, a lot of what he says contains wry witticisms that you’ll enjoy. Even when he is perfectly awful, I couldn’t help but laugh about his observations of women and romance. Whether you sympathize with Basil Hallward or with Sibyl Vane, you’ll have to agree that in love, everybody plays the fool. (Sorry if you have already been that fool who’s had your heart broken. If you aren’t, steel yourself—it’s around the corner.)

As a novel to analyze, the many quotable lines will give you a lot of citations in your paper. As a jumping off point for historical research, the novel outlines many practices of the late 19^th century—the division between classes, the things people did as work and recreation. It also minutely details Dorian’s interests, which alter frequently. You may have a hard time with the lists of things he likes to do—his study of perfumes, tapestries, art, music, etc.–as modern novels don’t do this (and modern readers seem to have no patience for it). Still, I’ll make a prediction: when mainstream reading goes multimedia, Dorian Gray will be very popular. Imagine as these places and objects are listed that you will click on the words and have images of them. Perhaps in a bit more distant future, perhaps you’ll even smell all the perfumes that are mentioned. Very cool.

Try this one.

*Our own resources for summaries and criticism include Dorian Gray. All students can use the city library’s online database The Literature Resource Center, but you’ll need to give your library card number to view it. Chaffey students can use ProQuest Learning Literature (You need the passwords—ask us if you don’t know them.)

Anyone can use the free online guide from Shmoop.

As vampire tales are so popular lately, I decided this summer that I would read one of the original vampire novels—Dracula. The author, Bram Stoker, created the character of Dracula by pulling together lots of myths and legends. Though Vlad the Impaler, a real man who lived in the 1400’s in Romania, was one of the inspirations for Dracula’s personality, there were others. In turn, Dracula as a vampire set the criteria for many years of vampire lore—can’t behold daylight, sleeps in a coffin, turns into a bat, has no reflection in a mirror, and preys on beautiful young women. Of course, he also has lots of sex appeal—and, very recently, this is the only vampire quality that survived in teen vampire literature. So—would you like to read a book about a vampire like Dracula? About potential victims who would prefer to die than be transformed into vampires? (So unlike that whining Bella of Twilight, who finally gets her wish. Think of it—now she can whine and throw temper-tantrums through eternity!)

My sense is that you might enjoy this read although there are things about the writing and the sometimes sentimental view of perfect Victorian angel girls that won’t appeal to you—you’ll probably speed through parts.

The greater measure of the book is written as journal and diary entries as well as letters. It begins with Jonathan Harker, an up and coming attorney, making a trip from London to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula and discuss Dracula’s purchase of some real estate in London. Several days into the trip, Harker knows that something is very wrong in the castle (seeing Dracula climbing the outer walls is a big hint), and that he is a prisoner. There are female vampires in the castle who attack Harker. This is pretty horrific stuff—the details aren’t as gory as those in current novels, but Dracula does give the women a baby to eat, and then when the mother of the child stands outside the castle demanding the return of the child, Dracula has a pack of wolves eat her. Harker manages to escape.

Once home, Harker will enlist others to help him rid the world of Dracula (who moves to London—remember the real estate deal?). The plot will involve Harker’s fiance Mina and her friend Lucy who is engaged and has had two other suitors. All three are good men and risk their lives for the women, as does Harker. Poor Lucy has a pretty rough time with Dracula and needs several blood transfusions, direct form the bodies of her friends (never mind the science of blood type. . .). Professor Van Helsing, a vampire hunter, is there to conduct all this business. He knows medicine and he know vampire lore. Should all their efforts fail, the men take an oath that they will not allow Lucy to suffer the fate of being a vampire—they vow to do anything—cut off her head, drive a stake through her heart—to ensure her the peace of death. They take these vows out of love for Lucy. (How different from Twilight!) Mina, being female, is also under threat.

There is a lot of exciting action throughout the book. However, the roles of the women are a bit off-putting—as I said, they are Victorian angels, and can’t get a whole lot done by themselves, although Mina is very, very smart. Being bitten by Dracula has the same sense of sleeping around—not fair. Another thing that bothered me over the long run (and this is a long book) was Van Helsing’s too frequent and very long speeches. You wouldn’t find this kind of pontificating in a modern novel. Still for vampires that are true to legend, and for suspense, this is a good book to read. I know that Bram Stoker is on the ‘author list’ for the senior project here at COHS. He’d be a good choice.

By the way—if you need to read a biography and are looking for someone whose insanity and cruelty is riveting, you could try Vlad the Impaler, one of the models for Count Dracula.

The following reviews by COHS students are on “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexander Dumas.

Genre: Historical

Pages: 1312

Reviewer: Ron W.

The story begins when the main character Edmond Dantes and Fernand Mondego land on the island of Elba to get medical help for there captain. Dantes meets Napoleon Bonaparte and is given a letter which is to be given to a friend back at port, but the friend will find him to get the letter. Mondego who is jealous of Dantes and his fiancés Mercedes relationship turns him in to the police. After Dantes explains himself to the head prosecutor Gerard Villefort who decides to send Dantes the life imprisonment in the Château d’If. After befriending the priest the priest teaches Dantes to read and write. They start to dig a tunnel out of the prison but the priest is caught in a cave in and dies Dantes then escapes by pretending to be the priests dead body. After escaping he befriends a group of buccaneers and sails back the his home port. After he and another man by a boat they sail to Monte Cristo a small island and find the hidden treasure. When they return home Dantes starts calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo. While he is doing this he is slowly ruining all of the people who hurt hims lifes. Until all of them are in jail and Mondego is dead.

My opinion of the Count of Monte Cristo is that it was a very adventurous and suspenseful book. The storyline was odd but all together the long read was worth the effort. If I had to recommend a book it would be this one.

1. The author wrote this book I alive so that you can learn that you can’t trust all your friends even the close ones.

2. The theme is you can’t judge a book by its cover even if you have already read it.

3the author supports the thesis by using a lot of good quotes and a really suspenseful storyline.

4. The issue is Dantes going to jail for carrying a letter to a friend of napoleons and it is resolved when dantes pays every one back for their deeds.

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 588 of the story, and 626 pages including explanatory notes.

Reviewer: Christian I.

The Man in the iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas is an excellent novel. It is about King Louis, and he is making France fall apart from his poor ruling as king. Three retired musketeers want to get rid of the king, after he put one of the musketeer’s sons on the front line of war. D’Artagnan, the musketeer captain, thinks otherwise, and is trying to defend the king. The other three find another heir to the throne, and that is the man in the iron mask. The man in the iron mask is King Louis’s twin brother, Phillipe. The musketeers then train Phillipe to fight, just in case if he needs to defend himself. King Louis then hosts a party, and the musketeers make the switch. Although, a loyal friend of the King breaks him out of jail, and  Louis resumes being king. Parthos and Arimas the escape to Belle-Isle, where the King sends an attack. D’Artagnan resigns from the military, and helps his friends. Parthos dies during the battle of Belle-Isle, and D’Artagnan died a few years later from a war with Holland. At the end, the only original musketeer alive is Aramis.

As I said in  the summary, I think The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas is excellent. It has an action filled story with a hint of mystery. This novel is considered a world classic, and is a French novel. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good book to read.

1. The author wrote The Man in the Iron Mask to show how two brothers can be different and what they will do for their country.

2. The theme of the book is right versus wrong. The king is a tyrant, and his twin brother (the man in the iron mask) knows what is right for France.

3. The author supports the thesis in many ways. In the book, three musketeers have to do a wrong action, to save France from the tyrant. They also did what was right by not killing the tyrant. D’Artagnan conflicts whether or not to help his friends or the king. The author uses many other examples to support this thesis.

4. The main issue is that the king, Louis, is a tyrant. Three of the original 4 musketeers had enough of the king’s tyranny. They discover that there is another heir to the throne, and they secretly switch the two, making France have a fair and kind king.

Genre:  Wild frontiers and exotic lands/ European historical fiction

Pages: 271

Reviewer: Andrea Z.

In the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, the reader is introduced to the main character named Lemuel Gulliver who goes on extraordinary adventures. The first location he goes to is the island of Lilliput. There he meets people that are about six inches tall. He learns their customs, and becomes friends with the king, but he eventually departs from this strange land. Once he returns home he again sets sail and becomes stranded on the land Brobdingnag. He soon discovers that this land is inhabited by giants. He becomes friends with a farmer and he starts making a profit out of Gulliver. He is soon sold to the queen and is taken care of by the farmer’s daughter. After about two years of living there an eagle captures him and drops him in the ocean where he is rescued by his own kind. One again he ventures off inot the world and goes to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan. Laputa is a flying island and the people there are devoted to music and mathematics. Then he basically goes to the other places just to  get back home which he eventually does. Despite his past mishaps he once again goes out to sea and lands on Houyhnhnms, a land where horses are the rulers. He eventually leaves this land  by force and once he arrives back home he is unable to live a normal life.

I really enjoyed reading this novel. The author uses a lot of detail in describing the places Gulliver went. I still wonder why Swift capitalizes random words but it was a great new experience for me. The adventures the main character  went on were very strange but life changing at the same time. What I learned from this novel is to accept people for who they are. I also learned that everyone is different. I highly recommend this book to others.

1.The author’s purpose in writing this book was to inform the readers on how different people are and how people in other lands have customs we are not used to.
2. The theme of this novel is the limits of human understanding and the thesis of the novel is understanding different customs.
3. The author supports the thesis by learning the ways of other people. “Learned men appointed to teach the author their language” (30)
4. The only issue in this book is trying to fit in and the author solves this by learning the inhabitants’ ways.

“Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen

Genre: Romance novel/ satire

Pages: 235

Reviewer: Hanni S.

Catherine Morland, a low classed frivolous minded girl, goes on a trip to Bath and becomes aware of the social gaps in life and is quite shocked when horrible tragedies become to her. She gains knowledge and character from her trip. She encounters infatuations, back-stabbing friends, true love, heart break, adventure, and friendship. Everything is thrown out of proportion until it is sorted out and becomes satisfactory.

My opinion of Northanger Abbey was that it was quite interesting and dramatically funny. It had a great twist to it. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about social clashes.

1. The author’s purpose of writing the novel was to show the different life styles and typical gender roles in that time period.

2. The theme was true love is hard to keep because of social status. The thesis was trying to overcome social issues and to just go with the heart and still keep a strong mental state of mind.

3.. Catherine Morland began a state of loving Henry Tilney, but was rudely kicked out of the Tilney estate because the father found out the true social status of her life. She was able to keep calm until she was out of site from the abbey. Yet still, Henry Tilney came back for her and they were engaged. It took a while for General Tilney to consent, but he eventually did.

4. The main issue it raises is that of social status and being in the circle or out of the circle or money in other words. Its stance is that of: it doesn’t matter too much about those material things. The solution was to either pester someone for consenting in giving them money through marriage or breaking the engagements by going after someone richer.

Genre: Novel/ romance

Pages: 370 (depending on edition)

Reviewer: Andria R.

Emma is an upper class lady that thinks of herself a great matchmaker to the people she knows. She sees nothing wrong in it.  Even though she is told it is wrong she still insists that she is being helpful.  Later on she learns that she was wrong and decides to stop.  In this book there are romances between the characters in which you never learn if there ever going to work out.  In the high upper society there are conflicts which Emma is always involved in.

In my opinion I really enjoyed reading Emma because it was different from the books I usually read.  It showed me a look at how they used to behave back then. The different conflicts that might of happened.

1.  Jane Austen’s purpose was to show the different romances in a high class society and how they can go wrong. It also showed many conflicts within that society.

2. The themes are marriage and social status. The thesis is the events that happen when marriage can be ruined when social status can come into the picture.

3.  Jane Austen makes the development of marriage when everything goes wrong within the upper class society.

4. What main issue does the book raise and what stance does it take in addressing and solving the issue?The main issue is when Emma keeps on trying to be matchmaker and keeps her friend from being with the one she has interest in.  In solving the issue Emma decides to stop being matchmaker.

The following reviews by COHS students are on “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Genre: Children’s Novel

Pages: 234

Reviewer: Kevin A.

Mary Lennox had to move to her Uncle’s mansion after Cholera breaks out. After exploring the mansion she hears a strange noise coming from somewhere, before she investigates the maid interrupts her.  That night she hears that noise again this time it leads her to a very angry and sick looking boy. When the meet the soon become friends. Since Colin did not spend time with Mary because he was too frail. Mary found this secret garden with the help of her robin bird friend. She sprouts the idea that Colin might be sick because he is inside the mansion all the time. She thinks that if he is outside and sees the beautiful garden that he might not hate the world. Mary shows Colin the garden, they begin to tend to the garden and help Colin walk. Over time Colin and Mary make the garden more beautiful than before. Colin is finally enjoys life and can walk.

This novel I think is a good book for life lessons. I guess that is why it is a children’s novel. It was a good read and I adored the descriptions of the gardens, the mansion, and the country. I loved Colin’s character, he had the struggle that many people have when the feel like they don’t belong because of some imperfection.  With hope they felt better and made progress to better themselves.

1. State the author’s purpose in writing the book: To show that unlikely friendships can create hope and heal wounds of the heart and of the body.

2. State the theme and the thesis of the book. The theme is Life heals with the right nutrient like friendship.

3. Explain the method of development-the way the author supports the thesis. Illustrate your remarks with specific references and quotations. He shows this, when at the end Colin can walk and is healthier than before and his father is finally smiling.

4. What main issue does the book raise and what stance does it take in addressing and solving the issue?

The main issue is that a girl is practically alone in her Uncle’s mansion but finds a bitter and sick boy who hates life and everyone in it. Mary finds this secret garden with the help of her robin bird friend. She sprouts the idea that Colin might be sick because he is inside the mansion all the time. She thinks that if he is outside and sees the beautiful garden that he might not hate the world. Mary shows Colin the garden, they begin to tend to the garden and help Colin walk. Over time Colin and Mary make the garden more beautiful than before. Colin is finally enjoys life and can walk.