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Mutiny on the Bounty

Posted on July 1, 2013 by webmaster

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Mutiny on the Bounty
by Charles Nordhoff

The story of the mutiny is told from the eyes of sailor Rodger Byam. He tells his story even as he is being dragged back to England to be put on trial for a crime he had no part in. Through Rodger we learn of Captain Bligh whose mission was to attempt to gather produce and trees for transplant. We learn of Bligh’s inability to lead his men and his violent tendencies. The crew spends six months in Tahiti, but once they are back on the boat Bligh’s mistreatment of them begins again. After the floggings and the cut in rations Bligh’s own first officer Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny against him. With their old captain adrift on a raft with his supporters, Christian leads the crew Back to Tahiti. But what happens when Captain Bligh shows back up?

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
1080L	High School	379	Drama	1960	016611689

Crime and Punishment

Posted on July 1, 2013 by webmaster

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Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a former student, lives in a tiny garret on the top floor of a run-down apartment building in St. Petersburg. He is sickly, dressed in rags, short on money, and talks to himself, but he is also handsome, proud, and intelligent. He is planning on committing a murder with a singular purpose – to reaffirm his belief that he is a kind of “Superman”, above mere mortals.

After he goes through with his plans, Raskolnikov feels the guilt gnawing at his psyche. Will he confess to the authorities, or will he be able to keep calm under fire?

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
850L	High School	516	Drama	1981	05532211757

Fahrenheit 451

Posted on July 1, 2013 by webmaster

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Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a fireman who lives in a time when people enjoy mindless entertainment and state authority controls the spread of knowledge. However, his job is not to put out flames but to extinguish rebellion by burning books. The government has the firemen punish suspected book carriers for fear that ideas would get out that contradict what authority tells the people to think.
After a chance meeting with young Clarisse, a starry-eyed girl who prefers reading and meaningful experiences to the cheap and violent car crash sideshows her peers enjoy, Montag begins to think that the world he grew up with is misguided. Will he stand against the governmental authority and all that he has ever known?

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Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
890L	High School	208	Science Fiction	1953	0345342968

Pearl

Posted on July 1, 2013 by webmaster

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The Pearl
by John Steinbeck

Kino is a poor Mexican fisher and diver who one day discovers a large and beautiful pearl. He thinks that it may be valuable and shares the news with his wife, Juana. Kino dreams that the pearl will bring him and his family a better life. However, his good fortune has some unplanned consequences. Will he and his family eventually find happiness, or will the pearl bring them only misfortune?

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The Pearl is a deceptively small book that teaches a very important lesson – that you should be careful what you wish for. Despite Kino’s hope that a priceless jewel can help him achieve the American Dream, he is faced with an attempt on his life, the burning of his home, and violent conflicts with his wife. It is a novella that reveals the capacity for yearning and jealousy within us all.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
1010L	High School	90	Drama	1973	04017737x

Monster

Posted on July 1, 2013 by webmaster

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Monster
by Walter Dean Myers

“Monster!”

That is what the lady prosecutor called Steve Harmon, a sixteen-year-old black teenager. Steve’s story begins when he is charged as an accomplice to murder. While in prison, Steve passes the time by writing his story like a screenplay. In it he tells of his fears, his past, and the events of his own murder trial. Is Steve a monster or was he merely in the wrong place at the wrong time? Will Steve be freed, or will his worst fear of spending the rest of his life in prison come to pass? As his lawyer Miss O’Brien tells him, “You’re young, you’re black, and you’re on trial. What else do they need to know?”

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
670L	Middle School	281	Drama	1999	0060280778

Losing Forever

Posted on July 1, 2013 by webmaster

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Losing Forever

by Gayle Friesen

Ninth-grader Jes Miner-Cooper knows that she isn’t responsible for her parents’ divorce; their marriage started to fail after her little sister, Alberta, died. What bothers her is the perception that her folks are hiding something from her. Her father spends most of his time fishing and reading Russian novels; her mother is absorbed in plans to remarry. Jes’ friends aren’t any help: one is involved in a new romance; another, Sam, wants to be more than just a friend.
Then along comes beautiful Pamela, the daughter of Jes’ mother’s intended. In short order, Pamela takes over Jes’ room, Jes’ best girlfriend, and Jes’ wannabe boyfriend. When Jes is accused of shoplifting, she’s sure her old world is gone forever.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
550L	Middle School	247	Drama	2002	01553370317

Heir Apparent

Posted on June 5, 2013 by webmaster

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Heir Apparent
by Vivian Vande Velde

Fourteen year old Giannine Bellisario receives a birthday gift certificate for the local Rasmussen Gaming Center Virtual Reality Arcade. She enters a Total Immersion Game Room and chooses to play a dangerous new virtual reality game called Heir Apparent. Suddenly, Giannine becomes Janine de St. Jehan, a sheep herder in Medieval England and heir to the dead King Cynric.

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In this virtual universe, Janine has to play to survive, which is complicated by protesters from The People from the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Children (located in the real world) who are against the game; they create a glitch in Rasmussen’s ability to return her to the real world. Due to their inability to return her, Janine must win the game in order to come back. The only problem is that every time Janine dies, she must restart the game from the first stage.

Eventually, the protesters take over the arcade, damaging equipment that controls Heir Apparent in their destructive wake. Because of this, Janine has to win the game in order to survive, all the while traveling through dangerous worlds, finding treasures, answering riddles, defeating barbarians, ghosts, and even a man eating dragon! Will Janine be able to overcome all these obstacles and make it out of the dangerous VR world of Heir Apparent alive?

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
820L	Middle School	315	Fantasy	2002	0152045600

To Kill a Mockingbird

Posted on April 16, 2013 by webmaster

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

This book takes place in small-town Depression-era Maycomb, Alabama. The story centers on the trial of Tom Robinson, a black worker who is falsely accused of rape by a young white woman. The small Southern town is bitterly divided over the racially fueled charges.

We see this ugly scenario play out through the eyes of a child. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is the young daughter of Atticus, the civil rights lawyer who takes up Tom’s defense. She is spunky and bright and believes in the basic goodness of everyone, although the trial causes her to reexamine her beliefs. By the end of the novel, Scout learns about the evils of racism and the courage of one man (her father), who stands up for what he believes is right in the face of widespread public contempt.

How to Access the Lesson:

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Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
870L	Young Adult	288	Drama	1960	0446310786

Alas Babylon

Posted on April 16, 2013 by webmaster

Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank

“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
870L	High School	323	Science Fiction	1999	0060931396

Nothing but the Truth

Posted on March 8, 2013 by webmaster

Nothing but the Truth
by Avi

Ninth-grader Philip Malloy was suspended from school for humming along to the Star-Spangled Banner in his homeroom, causing what his teacher, Margaret Narwin, called “a disturbance.” This small incident soon ignited a firestorm of debate on that national stage.

Was he standing up for his patriotic ideals, only to be squelched by the school system? Was Ms. Narwin simply trying to be a good teacher? Or could it all be just a misunderstanding? What is the truth here?

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
NA	Middle School	192	Drama	1991	0531059596

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