GHS summer reading selections will be made on May 28th GHS summer reading selections will be made on May 28th! Please read carefully. The Literacy Committee is trying a different approach this year by assigning all 9th graders The Great Wide Sea. Freshman Academy teachers will create innovative activities throughout the year using the novel as their focal point. You will receive your copy during registration this summer. Literacy Day is Friday, September 4th.

Ninth Grade Selection The Great Wide Sea by M. H. Herlong. Ms. Herlong, who now lives in New Orleans, is a Saluda native. She will speak to the 9th grade class on Literacy Day.

The Great Wide Sea is told through the eyes of 15-year-old Ben, whose mother dies tragically, and whose grieving father loads him and his two brothers, Dylan and Gerry, onto a boat and heads to sea. Ben encounters his father’s grief, along with typical father/son power struggles, to awaken one morning to discover that his father has vanished and that he is alone at sea with his two younger brothers. What will he do? Can he manage to keep himself and his brothers alive? Will they ever see home again? Their father again? This book was selected for 9th graders because it is a quick read, has a dynamic plot line, and contains no profanity or graphic content.

Make Your Selection on May 28th 10-12 Graders: Please select ONE book from the following choices. You will make your selection on May 28th. You will receive your book choice during registration this summer. Literacy Day is Friday, September 4th.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 10-12 Grade Choice Number One

This unusual tale of the Holocaust, told by 9-year-old Bruno, whose father is the commandant of a concentration camp, offers a riveting tale of an unusual friendship. This is a quick and powerful read as the story of the fence unfolds. Some scenes in the book offer a disturbing, yet realistic, view of life in concentration camps under Nazi rule. This book is recommended for 10th graders by 10th grade English teachers.

Copper Sun 10-12 Choice Number Two

Set on a plantation in South Carolina, this captivating book is told in alternating chapters by two very different girls, Amari, a slave girl, and Polly, an indentured servant. Both want their freedom more than anything else in the world. Sharon Draper’s novel graphically details the African slave trade, and offers a penetrating look at the interrelationships between slaves and slave holders. This book is recommended for 11th and 12th graders because of its brutal and realistic descriptions of slavery in the Old South, especially those inflicted upon slave girls. This book is especially recommended by 11th grade history teachers.

The Sea of Monsters 10-12 Choice Number Three

This sequel to The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan finds Percy getting ready for another summer at Camp-Halfblood. Excitement starts just as the school year ends, and Percy, along with a homeless student, finds trouble awaiting him at camp. A quest to rescue Grover the satyr and to capture the Golden Fleece results in encounters with many mythological beasts. This book is an entertaining read appropriate for all grades with a review of mythology as a side benefit. Knowledge of the first book is helpful but not necessary.

Chew on This 10-12 Choice Number Four

The sub-title of Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food says it all. Schlosser and Wilson write a thought-provoking, yet often humorous, book about the history of fast food in America. Some details about slaughterhouses are both gruesome and disturbing, and statistics about fast food additives and portions are equally stunning. With obesity at epidemic proportions today, Chew on This engages the reader into thinking about the present state of health of Americans. Do you know what’s in your burger? This book is recommended not as an indictment of the fast food industry, but as a way to help readers make healthy choices.