Welcome to the Douglas Fir Reading Circle:1  2007

During the current academic year we will be discussing the books below.

 

First Term: Your task is to create one (1) thoughtful, personalized and innovative question to one of the books that you have read from the list below, & then respond to it, using your Reading Response Journals as a guide. Both your questions and your responses should be thoughtful and demonstrate a close familiarity with the novel. The questions should challenge you to create interesting, analytical responses to the novel you are reading. Showing evidence of reflective thinking and connections to your experience in the wider world.  Second Term: tba

 

 

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Bertagna, Julie. Exodus 

 

"The waters are rising because of global warming and much of the world has sunk. The inhabitants of the island Wing are forced to escape and travel to the New World City, New Mungo. But problems arise when they get there and Mara Bell, the one who led them there has to search frantically for a way inside the vast city."

 

 

 

Blackman, Malorie. Noughts & Crosses/continued in Knife Edge & Ckeckmate. 

 

"It is about Callum and Sephy who are desperate to be together, but can't because of the upside down world they live in which is run by the crosses. However, Callum is a nought and Sephy is cross. Callum is a caring, determined nought, while Sephy is cross who doesn't understand the world they live in because she has everything unlike Callum. The heartache in the story is from Callum's mum who has to see her whole family fade away. The Liberation Militia have to be blamed for it all."

 

 

 

Buchan, John. The Thirty-Nine Steps.

 

 

Burgess, Melvin. Bloodsong.

 

"You thought you were watching my death', hissed the dragon. 'But you were watching your own'. And then he lunged. Forced into the clutches of a bloodthirsty dragon, Sigurd is fighting not only for his life, but for the survival of an apocalyptic Britain. For Sigurd is the chosen one; the golden warrior boy blessed with the courage of a hero and the strength of a lion. In a world where power and corruption is all consuming, can he fulfil his destiny and overcome the tyranny that threatens to destroy him?"

 

 

Card, Orson, Scott. Ender's Game     

 

 

"In the future, the citizen's of Earth live in constant fear of the Buggers. The Buggers are aliens who have already attempted to invade the world twice, and the second time they were barely stopped. The International Fleet, or I.F., is racing against time to build a great enough army to turn back the inevitable third invasion. However, they realize that in order to win, they need a truly brilliant commander and they have taken to breeding military geniuses in order to find the perfect commander. They believe that they may have finally found this commander in Ender Wiggin. Ender is taken away to Battle School, where children are trained to be soldiers, where he does better than any student in history. He is smart and talented enough to save the Earth. But can he stop himself from turning in to the thing he hates the most: a cold-blooded killer?"

 

 

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl with the Pearl Earring.

 

 

Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

 

 

Farmer, Nancy. The House of Scorpion

 

"A scientist brings to life one of 36 tiny cells, frozen more than 100 years ago. The result is the protagonist at the novel's center, Matt a clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord, born Matteo Alacr n to a poor family in a small village in Mexico. El Patro n is ruler of Opium, a country that lies between the United States and Aztl n, formerly Mexico; its vast poppy fields are tended by eejits, human beings who attempted to flee Aztl n, programmed by a computer chip implanted in their brains."

 

 

Haddon, Mark.  Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night

 

"Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a murder mystery of sorts--one told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers. Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested."

 

 

Hoffman, Mary. Falconer's Knot

 

"Set in Renaissance Italy. Wealthy young nobleman Silvano, 16, is infatuated with beautiful Angelica, who is married to a coarse sheep farmer named Piero. When Piero is murdered with Silvano's dagger, the teen is forced to flee, seeking sanctuary with a group of Franciscans. At the friary, two more murders cast further suspicion on him. A parallel story involves Aureliana, who has been forced by her family to marry a rich man she does not love. Her true love, Eduardo, has become a friar named Anselmo in the very friary where Silvano seeks refuge. As the stories coalesce, multiple murders, romance, betrayals, and star-crossed lovers all make for a page-turning mystery, and, in truly satisfying Shakespearean fashion, everyone ends up with the proper lover at the end. The book provides a well-realized setting rich with details of the time period, which are deftly woven into the plot."

 

 

Marsden, John. Tomorrow When the War Began    

 

"Australian teenager Ellie and six of her friends return from a winter break camping trip to find their homes burned or deserted, their families imprisoned, and their country occupied by a foreign military force in league with a band of disaffected Australians. As their shock wears off, the seven decide they must stick together if they are to survive. After a life-threatening skirmish with the occupiers, the teens retreat to their isolated campsite in the bush country and make plans to fight a guerilla war against the invaders."

 

 

Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight (Twilight Saga, Book 1) continued in New Moon & Eclipse

 

"In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire. At any moment, the intensity of their passion could drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him, and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship."

 

Michaels, Rune. Genesis Alpha

 

"Josh worships his older brother, Max. They look alike, they sound alike, and they even have the same interests, including their favourite online role playing game, Genesis Alpha. But Josh and Max have a much deeper connection. When Max was very ill with cancer, it was Josh's stem cells, harvested before he was born, that saved Max's life. Then, suddenly everything changes. Max is arrested right in the middle of a game of Genesis Alpha for the brutal murder of a young girl. As the family are flung into turmoil, Josh desperately tries to reconcile the brother he knows and loves with the monster they are talking about on television. At the same time he also struggles with an unnerving sense of guilt: if his cells had not saved Max's life, would this girl still be alive? But this is only the beginning, and before the end, Josh uncovers startling revelations - revelations that could have devastating implications not only for Max's future, but for Josh's as well."

 

Nix, Garth. Sabriel (The Abhorsen Trilogy) continued in Lirael & Abhorsen

 

"Ever since she was a child, Sabriel's lived away from the undead and the real world, sheltered by a magician father who teaches her all she needs to know, and a sheltering school which fills in any gaps. But with her father's disappearance, it's up to Sabriel to journey in a dangerous world to uncover her real destiny and to battle a growing evil.This vividly imagined fantasy pits a young necromancer against a shambling horde of deliciously gruesome minions of an unspeakably evil sorcerer."  Readers of Harry Potter will find this trilogy highly satisfying.

 

Patterson, James. Maximum Ride

 

"Max and her flock of genetically altered children are moving closer to understanding the reason for their existence--or at least for the modifications that have been made to them."

 

Paver, Michelle. Wolf Brother

 

"Set 6000 years ago, this fast-paced adventure delves into a world of spirits and mysticism not often seen in children's literature. Torak, 12, witnesses his father's brutal attack by a giant, demon-possessed bear and promises to find his way to the Mountain of the World Spirit. Before dying, his father instructs him to avoid other men and tells him that his guide will find him. Sure enough, Torak is soon adopted by a wolf cub, also recently orphaned, with whom he is able to communicate. The bear continues to terrorize the forest, but Torak is able to avoid it with Wolf's help. They are captured by the Wolf clan, who believes that Torak is the Listener, and will rid the forest of the bear when he fulfills a prophecy by delivering three lost artifacts to the mountain. He must solve an obscure riddle to find the artifacts and traverse dangerous lands, all the while evading the evil bear."

 

Satrapi, Marjan. Persepolis

 

 

"Marji tells of her life in Iran from the age of 10, when the Islamic revolution of 1979 reintroduced a religious state, through the age of 14 when the Iran-Iraq war forced her parents to send her to Europe for safety. This story, told in graphic format with simple, but expressive, black-and-white illustrations, combines the normal rebelliousness of an intelligent adolescent with the horrors of war and totalitarianism."

 

 

Townsend, Sue. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole

 

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief

 

"Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents."

 

 

Source of summaries & cover art: http://www.amazon.com