1. Mission Statement
HGHS Summer Read
HGHS Summer Read mission is to HGHS Literacy Team Initiative
encourage our teens to read enjoyable,
quality literature that will stimulate
Disclaimer
imagination, awaken curiosity, expand
horizons, enhance verbal fluency, and This program is designed to entice our
foster critical thinking and a lifelong love students to read. In order to engage
for reading and learning. their interest and to provide a spur to
critical thinking, the book selections
include those that involve sensitive
Guidelines issues. The content of some of the titles
Books nominated for the HGHS Summer Read will may be more mature than younger
be chosen to: students may have encountered. Not
every book selected will suit every
* Engage high school students.
student. In a democratic society, a
* Reflects interests of high school
students variety of ideas must find voice. As a
reader, teens have a choice to read the
HGHS
* Represents a variety of genres, formats,
reading levels, viewpoints, and ethnic and more mature titles or to close the book.
cultural perspectives
* Include both books written for young
Summer
people and those written for adults.
* Nominations by our faculty, staff and students Please email questions to
carmenconcepcion@dadeschools.net
The copyright of the books is within the last three
years.
It is understood that all books on the list may not
appeal to all teen readers; however, books selected
READ
for the list will be of interest to a general young
audience and will deal with relevant issues and
topics of interest in the lives of teenagers.
Students will be encouraged to read all of the
books on the list of nominations, but it is
required for students to read two books over 2011-2012
the summer and complete a creative book
report on each book. hghs.dadeschools.net
Visit our reading blog for project ideas: 11700 Hialeah Gardens Blvd.
BOOK List
http://readingheadquartersathghs.blogspot.com/ Hialeah Gardens, Florida, 33018
Phone: 305-698-5000 Ext. 2167
Fax: 305-698-5001

2. Florida Teen Read – Award Winners
Maze Runner by James Dashner - $9.99 HGHS Award Winners
Borderline by Allan Stratton – February $8.99 Thomas awakes in the middle of a maze, with no memory. The
Muslim Sami doesn’t get along well with his father, and is very other boys have been searching for a way out for two years, and
upset when his father doesn’t take him on a promised trip to when the first girl to ever arrive bears a strange message, time is Breaking Night by Liza Murray $14.99
Toronto. When his father is arrested in the middle of the night for running out. Thomas realizes he may hold the answer, if he can Born to drug-addicted, mentally ill parents, Liz grew up largely
being a terrorist, Sami decides to find out the truth. ever access his memory. neglected. More than a memoir, Breaking Night is an eye-opening
Reading Level: 3.0 HL560L Reading Level: 4.7 HL770L account of the realities of poverty and drug use in our cities, what
it does to children, and how difficult it is to break the cycle, to
The Orange Houses by Paul Griffin – October $7.99 somehow overcome the lack of options that defines poverty.
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman – October $8.99
Three misunderstood teens; Tamika, half-deaf, Jimmi, an eighteen- Recommended by Mrs. Concepcion & Ms. Estrada
Twins Tennyson and Bronte alternate the story of Brewster, a huge
misfit of a student who everyone thinks is a menace. Covered in year-old veteran, and Fatima, an illegal refugee from Africa, become
scrapes and bruises, Brewster looks like the poster-child for friends and struggle to survive in their racist, violent, and anti- Breathing Under Water by Alen Flinn
abused children; but inside lurks the heart of someone who really immigrant neighborhood in the Bronx. Out of his desperate need for her came all the mean words and
cares about the people he loves. Reading Level: 3.3 HL670L the hitting. But now Caitlin’s family has procured a restraining
Reading Level: 5.2 820L order to keep Nick away, and the judge has sentenced him to
Paranormalcy by Kiesten White – July $8.99 Mario Ortega’s Family Violence class, to sit around every week
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares Sixteen-year-old Evie works for the International Paranormal with six other angry guys who hit their girlfriends.
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – October $8.99 Containment Agency bagging and tagging paranormals, but secretly Reading Level: 2.7 510L
I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you she longs to be a regular girl. When shape shifter Lend infiltrates Recommended by Mr. Binder
don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please. Lily has left a red the agency, the two of them must discover why paranormals are
notebook of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for being murdered, and the truth behind who Evie really is. She Said Yes by Misty Bernall $7.99
just the right guy to come along and accept the dares. Is Dash the Reading Level: 3.2 HL580L An "intense and fascinating memoir" of an ordinary teenager
right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi - September $9.99 growing up in suburban Colorado faced with difficult choices and
dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth Nailer is trying to survive by taking apart oil tankers that have run pressures. It is only now, when the world knows Cassie Bernall as
throughout New York City at Christmas time? aground on the futuristic Gulf Coast when he discovers a clipper one of the Columbine High students killed by two rampaging
Reading Level: 5.5 860L ship stranded by a hurricane that is full of riches. Should he make schoolmates, that the choices she made offer a profound
off with his fortune, or rescue the lone survivor, a beautiful girl relevance for us all.
Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu - $8.99 who is escaping from a traitor in her family? Reading Level: 7.8 1030L
Lucy has a secret. Her mother is a hoarder and her house is Reading Level: 4.1 HL690L
Recommended by Mrs. Cancela
stuffed with garbage. When her mother dies, Lucy is scared to call
911 because then her secret will be out, but the mess is too big to Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill - $8.99
Eunice “Bug” Smoot’s grandfather sold his soul to the devil for a The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak $12.99
handle on her own. What can she do in order to return to a
1958 Cadillac Biarritz, then reneged on the deal from the afterlife. This is a story told by Death. It is set in Germany during World
“normal” life?
Now a demonic repossession agent is after the car, and Bug’s soul. War II. It is also a story of a young girl, who in spite of having a
Reading Level: 6.0 890L
Bug is about to lose her apartment and her job, wreck her car, life that no one would wish on anyone, still manages to have
deliver a pizza to a dead guy, and fall in love. Will she beat the glimpses of pleasure through many small things, including the few
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok - $15.00 books that she manages to acquire (or shall we say, steal).
When Ah-Kim (Kimberly) Chang and her mother arrive from Devil?
Reading Level: 4.3 HL720L Reading Level: 4.3 730L
Hong Kong to New York, they are forced to live in a roach
infested apartment and work at a sweatshop for hardly any pay.
Recommended by Ashley Algaze
Kim is great at school, but can she succeed without knowing the Split by Swati Avasthi - $16.99
language or culture? Jace Witherspoon is kicked out of his house after he finally hits The Devil and Miss Prym by Paolo Coelho $13.95
back the father who has been abusing the family for years. He The characters who populate the author's fictional village, are
Heist Society by Ally Carter - $8.99 shows up on the doorstep of his brother who escaped the abuse immediately thrust into the center of the timeless conflict
five years earlier by running away. They are safe, for now, but their between right and wrong when a stranger bearing 2 bars of gold
Kat Bishop swore that scamming her way into the prestigious
mother is still living with the monster that is their father. and accompanied by the devil arrives in Viscos. Will the townsfolk
Colgan School would be her last con, but she cannot escape from
her past. Her father is accused of stealing paintings from a succumb to temptation, confirming that man is inherently evil; or
powerful criminal, so Kat assembles a team of teen accomplices, Stitches (mature reader) by David Small - $15.95 will goodness triumph over evil?
travels across Europe, and plots an impossible art heist to save her In this affecting graphic memoir, David Small tells the story of his Recommended by Carlos Concepcion & Flavia
dad. horrific childhood with uncommunicative and neglectful parents, Leon
Reading Level: 5.0 800L who refused to tell him that the surgery he had when he was
fourteen that removed most of his vocal cords was because of
The Misfits by James Howe
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - $9.99 cancer.
What do a 12-year-old student who moonlights as a tie salesman,
Claudia is outside, hoping to escape an arranged marriage; Finn is a tall, outspoken girl, a gay middle schooler and a kid branded as a
inside the prison Incarceron hoping to be the first to escape The Miles Between by Mary Pearson - $8.99 hooligan have in common? Best friends for years, they’ve all been
outside. When they both discover a crystal key and realize they All Destiny wants is “one fair day,” and an unauthorized road trip the target of cruel name-calling and now that they’re in seventh
can communicate with the other, escape for both seems more offers her and three classmates from her exclusive boarding grade, they’re not about to take it anymore.
likely, but the prison Incarceron refuses to give up its mysteries. school an opportunity to have just that. Reading Level: 6.7 960L
Reading Level: 3.3 HL600L Reading Level: 3.7 HL650L Recommended by Mrs. Nadel