1. Mrs. Lapierre Tenth Grade Reading List

2. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodMargaret Atwood “I saw your mother, Moira said. Where? I said. I felt jolted, thrown off. I realized I'd been thinking of her as dead. Not in person, it was in that film they showed us, about the Colonies. There was a close-up, it was her all right. She was wrapped up in one of those gray things but I know it was her. Thank God, I said. Why, thank God? said Moira. I thought she was dead. She might as well be, said Moira. You should wish it for her.“ “The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose”

3. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest GainesErnest Gaines “ Do you know what a myth is, Jefferson?” I asked him. “A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they’re better than anyone else on earth - and that’s a myth. The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand, and think, and show that common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth. They would no longer have justification for having made us slaves and keeping us in the condition we are in. As long as none of us stand they’re safe. They’re safe with me. They’re safe with Reverend Ambrose. I don’t want them to feel safe with you anymore.”

4. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi PicoultJodi Picoult "If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?" “There's some illogical part of me that still believes if you want superman to show up, first there's got to be someone worth saving.”

5. Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck "How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him-- he has known a fear beyond every other." “I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.”

6. Joy Luck Club by Amy TanAmy Tan "I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?"

7. I Am the Messenger by Markus ZusakMarkus Zusak “Still, when she stands up, Angie Carusso thanks me. She asks my name, but I tell her it isn't important. "No," she protests, "it is." I relent. "It's Ed." "Well, thanks, Ed," she says. "Thank you." She thanks me a few times more, but the best words I hear all day come to me right when I think it's over. It's the girl, Casey. She twists herself onto Angie's hand and says, "Next week I'll give you a bite of mine, Mum." In a way, I feel sad and empty, but I also feel that I've done what was intended. Just once, an ice cream for Angie Carusso.” “So many teenage books say, 'This is in your voice, this is about you,' and that's great. We really need that. But we also need books that say, 'This is also for you, but you need to come up here, to step up to this.”