Author: Rebecca Skloot
Publisher: 2010, Broadway Books
Lexile Measure: 1140L
Classification: Non-fiction

Summary:
This novel, a New York Times Bestseller, describes the life, death, and cellular afterlife of an African American woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951.  Her cells, taken without her knowledge, divided like none others before and became a vital medical tool still in use today.  Despite the millions of cells bought and sold since then, her family received neither monetary compensation, thanks, nor understanding of what the cells really are and how they are used.


This book tells Henrietta’s story and discusses the race relations and medical practices that shaped, and continue to shape, her family.

Author: Charles Frazier
Publisher: 1997, Grove/Atlantic
Lexile Measure: 1210L
Classification: Fiction

Summary:
Cold Mountain is a novel (later turned into a motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Renee Zelweger, and Jude Law) set in the south in 1864.  Its two main characters, Inman and Ada, were falling in love as the war started.  Inman served in the war, was injured, and deserted the army to reunite with Ada.  After leaving the military hospital through a window, he began a long walk back to North Carolina to find Ada on her farm. Ada, meanwhile, was left on the farm alone after her father died.  Ada was an educated, genteel woman from Charleston with virtually no practical skills or ability to fend for herself.  Luckily for Ada, a neighbor realized her plight and sent a local girl named Ruby to help her.  Ada and Ruby became friends and set about running the farm on their own.  As Ruby taught Ada how to care for the farm, Ada reconnected with the physical world around her.

Cold Mountain goes back and forth from Ada and Ruby’s story to that of Inman’s odyssey home.  Along the way, he meets a variety of characters (many unsavory).  These include an adulterous minister who impregnated his lover and intended to murder her, a man who invited Inman to his home, drugged him and forced Inman to marry and have sex with the man’s sister before turning him over to Federal soldiers, as well as gypsies, an old hermit, a widowed woman, a kind slave, and a cruel band of Federal soldiers who steal from, abuse, and execute those around them.

Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: 2008, HarperCollins
Lexile Measure: 850L
Classification: Fiction

Summary:
This novel, told from the viewpoint of a kind, intelligent, philosophical (and occasionally funny) dog named Enzo, describes life with his master, Denny, as Denny tries to realize his dream of becoming a professional race car driver and Enzo prepares his soul for reincarnation as a human.  Along the way, Denny falls in love, gets married, has a child, and watches his young wife die. 

After Denny’s wife dies, her parents try to take custody of Denny’s daughter using the false rape allegations of a teenage relative as ammunition.  The event in question and its fallout gives Enzo more opportunities than ever to support his master and influence human events.

Author: Jeannette Walls
Publisher: 2005, Scribner
Lexile Measure: 1010L
Classification: Non-fiction

Summary:
The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeannette Walls, an award-winning writer and journalist.  The book spent more than 200 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Jeannette describes her childhood growing up with an intelligent, charismatic, alcoholic father and a free-spirited, artistic mother, both of whom are either unwilling or unable to assume the responsibility of caring for their four children.  At first, the family lived like nomads, settling down in various towns only to flee when debtors or the law caught up with them.  Later, they settled in a dismal West Virginia mountain town where they became the poorest of the poor.   Throughout their childhoods, the children went without food, clothes, and medical care while their parents spent the little money they had on alcohol and art supplies.  Jeannette’s older sister and, later, Jeannette and her younger siblings, eventually escaped to New York City, where they finished high school, get jobs, and, in the case of the older three children, built successful careers and lives.  Jeannette’s parents followed them to New York but refused their offers of assistance preferring, instead, to live on the streets.

Although the book tells a tale of extreme poverty, alcoholism, possible mental illness, and extreme hardship and parental neglect, the story that comes through is one of understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, and resilience. 

Author: Neal Shusterman
Publisher: 2007, Simon & Schuster
Lexile Measure: HL740L
Classification: Fiction

Summary:
Unwind’s unusual premise makes it hard to summarize in an objective two paragraphs.  In short, Unwind takes place in the United States after a civil war over abortion rights. The two sides ended the war by passing a law stating that abortion is illegal and that mothers can abandon or “stork” their unwanted babies.  Later, parents can decide to “unwind” their children between the ages of thirteen and eighteen as long as all of their parts are harvested and given or sold to others.  Children scheduled for this harvesting are called “unwinds.” 

The book discusses the escape of three unwinds and their subsequent journeys as well as those of other escaped unwinds.  Frankly, I think it is hard to improve upon the reviews noted above, particularly those from childrensbooks.com, about.com and enotes.com. 

Author: David K. Shipler
Publisher: 2004, Vintage Books
Lexile Measure: n/a
Classification: Non-fiction

Summary:
In this nonfiction work by Pulitzer prize-winning author David Shipler, Shipler discusses the problem of poverty in the United States.  He does so by following the lives of numerous working poor Americans for several years.  He then presents their stories to illustrate the complexity of the problem of poverty and examines the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of our society’s attempts to address                        it.

Author: John Knowles
Publisher: Scribner 2003 (first published in 1959)
Lexile Measure: 1110L
Classification: Fiction

Summary:
A Separate Peace is an American literary classic.  It is set in an all-male boarding school in New Hampshire during World War II.  The narrator, Gene, describes his relationship with charismatic wonder-boy, Phineas (or Finny). Unfortunately, Gene becomes suspicious that Finny is trying to sabotage his academic success and, in a fit of anger, causes Finny to fall from a tree they are climbing and break his leg, crippling Finny for life.  Gene’s feelings regarding the incident and his classmate’s suspicion of his motives, eventually lead to another accident, which culminates in Finny’s death. 

Author: John Green
Publisher: 2008, Speak
Lexile Measure: 0890
Classification: Fiction

Summary:
John Green strikes again with this novel narrated by teenage prodigy Colin Singleton as he embarks on a road trip with his best friend, Hassan, the summer after they graduate from high school.  Colin is attempting to flee from both a fear of wasting his intellectual potential and a broken heart inflicted on him by his ex-girlfriend, the nineteenth Katherine in a row.  Hassan is just attempting to flee.  The friends wind up in Gunshot, Tennessee, interviewing townspeople and making friends with a local girl, Lindsey Wells, who is wrestling with her own issues.