12TH GRADE NOVELS

REQUIRED & SUGGESTED

• For Mr. Spear’s ELA course, all graduating seniors must read at least four novels. Two novels will be read as a class; the other two

are of your choice. •This presentation contains a few that are suggested in the MPS

curriculum framework.

Frankenstein by Mary ShelleyA monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.

Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

This poignant story of two fifteen-year-old girls describes the shocking realities of the slave trade and plantation life of 18th century America. Amari, a slave, and Polly, an indentured servant, escape a cruel life and try to reach safety in Florida.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth Beguiled by the prophesies of the "weird sisters," and urged on by his wife, Macbeth acts on his intense political ambition, with tragic consequences.

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest GainesTwo black men--one a teacher, the other a death-row inmate--struggle to live and die with dignity.

George Orwell’s 1984Eternal warfare is the price of bleak prosperity in this satire of totalitarian barbarism.

More on 1984

1984 remains an important novel, in part for the alarm it sounds against the abusive nature of authoritarian governments, but even more so for its penetrating analysis of the psychology of power and the ways that manipulations of language and history can be used as mechanisms of control.

Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison

A black man fervently searches for his identity.

The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.

The Bean Treesby Barbara Kingsolver

Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with two goals: to avoid pregnancy and to get away. She succeeds on both counts when she buys a 1955 Volkswagen and heads west.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

This is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

Beowulf: A New Tellingby Robert Nye

This book is not a literal translation, but a retelling of the old epic that captures the spirit of the original in language accessible to young readers.

Black Boy by Richard Wright At four years of age, Richard Wright set fire to his home; at five his father deserted the family; and by six Richard was temporarily an alcoholic. Moved from home to home, from brick tenement to orphanage, he had had, by the age of twelve, only one year's formal education. It was in saloons, railroad yards and streets that he learned the facts about life under white subjection, about fear, hunger and hatred. Gradually he learned to play Jim Crow in order to survive.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

The story of Nora and her husband, Torvald, is told just as the secret Nora has been hiding for years is finally revealed. In the process, Nora discovers her importance as a person.

Summary: A Doll’s House Nora Helmer once secretly

borrowed a large sum of money so that her husband could recuperate from a serious illness. She never told him of this loan and has been secretly paying it back in small installments by saving from her household allowance.

Her husband, Torvald, thinks her careless and childlike, and often calls her his doll. When he is appointed bank director, his first act is to relieve a man who was once disgraced for having forged his signature on a document. This man, Nils Krogstad, is the person from whom Nora has borrowed her money.

It is then revealed that she forged her father's signature in order to get the money. Krogstad threatens to reveal Nora's crime and thus disgrace her and her husband unless Nora can convince her husband not to fire him. Nora tries to influence her husband, but he thinks of Nora as a simple child who cannot understand the value of money or business.

Thus, when Torvald discovers that Nora has forged her father's name, he is ready to disclaim his wife even though she had done it for him. Later when all is solved, Nora sees that her husband is not worth her love and she leaves him.