Special Collections
Plymouth Public Schools High School ELA: 10th Grade
Description: Required and choice books for Plymouth Public Schools 10th Grade ELA
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Animal Farm
by George Orwell and Ann PatchettGeorge Orwell's timeless fable--a parable for would-be liberators everywhere, glimpsed through the lens of our own history. As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors. With a foreword by Ann Patchett
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray BradburyMontage never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbour, Clarissa, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montage begins to question everything he has ever known.
Frankenstein
by Mary ShelleyWhat you see on the screen was born here: the premier monster story of English literature—a tale of science pursued to horrifying extremes.Includes new illustrations by Amanda Shaffer and a new introduction by Melissa Marr An origin story nearly as famous as the book itself: One dreary summer on the shores of Lake Geneva, amid discussions of galvanism and the occult and fireside readings from a collection of German ghost stories, Lord Byron proposed a game. Each of his guests—eighteen-year-old Mary Godwin and her future husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, among them—would try their hand at writing a tale of the supernatural. Unable at first to think of a plot, Mary was visited one sleepless night by the terrible vision of a corpse, a &“hideous phantasm of a man,&” lurching to life with the application of some unknown, powerful force. The man responsible, a &“pale student of unhallowed arts,&” fled in horror from his creation, leaving it to return to the dead matter from which it had been born. But the monster did not die. It followed the man to his bedside, where it stood watching him with &“yellow, watery, but speculative eyes&”—eyes of one who thought and felt. The novel that Mary Shelley would go on to publish, the legend of Victor Frankenstein and his unholy creation, and their obsessive, murderous pursuit of each other from Switzerland to the North Pole, has been the stuff of nightmares for nearly two centuries. A masterpiece of Romantic literature, it is also one of the most enduring horror stories ever written.
The Kite Runner
by Khaled HosseiniThe #1 New York Times bestselling novel beloved by millions of readers the world over.
“A vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people [of Afghanistan] have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence—forces that continue to threaten them even today." –New York Times Book Review
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
Since its publication in 2003 Kite Runner has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic of contemporary literature, touching millions of readers, and launching the career of one of America's most treasured writers.
Lord of the Flies
by William GoldingA group of English school boys, marooned on a desert island, attempt to establish something they can call civilization, complete with leaders, rulers, and work assignments. The boys discover savagery and barbarism among themselves in this tense, horror-filled fantasy.
Macbeth: A Norton Critical Edition
by William Shakespeare“With clear and engaging explanation, Professor Miola offers a general introduction to the play, as well as commentary from well-known actors who have played its major roles from the mid-eighteenth century on and material on critical debates. Rather than take single viewpoints on such topics as witchcraft, tyrannicide, equivocation, and the union of Scotland and England, he presents each issue as a debate, open to fruitful discussion among students and colleagues.”—CYNTHIA LEWIS, Davidson College “Framing this devastating play with illuminating readings, this wonderful edition offers readers a vivid introduction to the Macbeths’ blood-steeped world.”—TANYA POLLARD, City University of New York University This Norton Critical Edition includes: The First Folio (1623) text of Macbeth, with updated and expanded footnotes and introductory materials by Robert S. Miola. Illustrations from a wide range of adaptations, including modern stage and film productions. “The Actors’ Gallery,” collecting reflections from actors and actresses about their roles in major productions of Macbeth from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. Sources and contexts highlighting early texts that influenced Shakespeare and that range in topics from witchcraft to regicide, with a brand-new category on the union of Scotland and England. Nine selections—four new to the Third Edition—of literary and theatrical criticism. A revised “Afterlives” section, featuring four examples of how Macbeth continues to be reimagined beyond the Folio. An annotated list of online and print resources.
Night
by Elie WieselBorn into a Jewish ghetto in Hungary, as a child, Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This is his account of that atrocity: the ever-increasing horrors he endured, the loss of his family and his struggle to survive in a world that stripped him of humanity, dignity and faith. Describing in simple terms the tragic murder of a people from a survivor's perspective, Night is among the most personal, intimate and poignant of all accounts of the Holocaust.
Salt to the Sea
by Ruta SepetysThe author of Between Shades of Gray returns to WWII in this epic novel that shines a light on one of the war's most devastating--yet unknown--tragedies.
In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer toward safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.
Told in alternating points of view, and perfect for fans of Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See, Erik Larson's critically acclaimed #1 New York Times bestseller Dead Wake, and Elizabeth Wein's Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, this masterful work of historical fiction is inspired by the real-life tragedy that was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff--the greatest maritime disaster in history. As she did in Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys unearths a shockingly little-known casualty of a gruesome war, and proves that humanity can prevail, even in the darkest of hours.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled HosseiniPropelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love. After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.