Mounties Read: Check Out These Book Selections

It's summer—the perfect time to sit down with a good book (or 12).

This year, Montclair High School Principal James Earle and Grace Grund, co-chair for the 2012/2013 MHS School Action Team, have teamed up with Watchung Booksellers and a group of parents, teachers, and administrators to create a list of books for MHS students to choose from this summer.

The Montclair High School Summer Reading Program gives participants a wide range of titles from which to choose. Each student is asked to read one book during the summer and create a project/assignment for September while staff members are asked to read the same books so that they can lead small group discussions during the first week of school.

Books will be available for purchase at both local bookstores (Watchung Booksellers and Montclair Book Center) and there is financial assistance (in the form of a voucher which will be available at the high school and can be presented at the local bookstores for a book) for students who need that help. Books will also be at the Montclair Public Library and the MHS library for borrowing. 

"I love the fact that this is more of a book group model, not a summer assignment model," said Margo Sage-El, owner of Watchung Booksellers. "There is a little work attached to, more as a measurement for the teachers, but the main purpose to is to read for the love of reading."  

Why Summer Reading at MHS?

—Create whole school community reading initiative connecting students to reading, critical thinking and discussion

—Improve academic performance while engaging students in a fun, leisure reading

—To motivate teens to read in the era of technology

—To include community authors and leaders in the facilitation of the students groups discussions

—To offer a list of books that will reach students with messages that are at times not often heard through the words of their parents/caregivers.

Students will have the option of completing one of the following tasks:

—Guided response questions

—Movie trailer poster

—Imovie

—Soundtrack/song

—Character journal

—Other approved assignments

All students will have the opportunity to present a their project/assignment individually or in groups during the first week of school.

The MHS Summer Reading Program 2012 Book Selections Are: 

• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
• Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Madonnas of Echo Park:  A Novel by Brando Skyhorse
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
• The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman
• The Confession by John Grisham
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• Imani in Young Love and Deception by Jackie Hardrick
• Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
• Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character byR ichard P. Feynman
• The Hot Zone-A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston
• Miracle of St. Anthony’s by Adrian Wojnarowski