Lemont High School announces summer reading selections; campus visit from author Neal Shusterman to supplement “One Book, One School” selection
5/4/2012
The Lemont High School English Department has chosen its required summer reading selections, as well as its “One Book, One School” choice, for the 2012-13 school year. Every Lemont High School student is required to read the “One Book, One School” selection over the summer, and prior to next fall, students will read
Unwind, written by Neal Shusterman.
Appearing on the 2011 Abraham Lincoln High School Book list,
Unwind is a science fiction novel released in 2007 and the first in a trilogy. Set in the near future, in a post-Second Civil War America, its three protagonists are runaway teens who fight the system that would “unwind” them by salvaging them for their body parts. Bound by desperation, the unlikely companions journey across the country, their lives hanging in the balance. They cannot be harmed if they can survive until they are 18, but as they are hunted for everything from their hands to their hearts, 18 seems light years away. Shusterman challenges readers’ ideas about life: where it begins, where it ends, and what it truly means to be alive.
On Tuesday, August 28, Shusterman will pay a visit to Lemont High School to discuss the writing process with students and spark their excitement for reading and writing. His visit will come on the same day that the second book in his trilogy -
UnWholly - is set to be released.
UnWholly will be integrated into the curricula for the school’s English I Honors, Modern Fiction and Elements of Reading courses during the 2012-13 school year. A limited number of copies of the book will be available in the school’s Learning Resource Center.
On Tuesday, May 15, and Wednesday, May 16, Anderson’s Bookshops of Downers Grove will sell all of the summer reading titles on campus during lunch periods at a discounted price (in parentheses below); the discount only applies to books purchased at the school on those dates, and all checks should be made payable to Anderson’s Bookshops.
Students who not only wish to purchase
Unwind but also preorder a copy of
UnWholly from Anderson’s Bookshops on May 15-16 can take advantage of a special “bundle” on those two days and save more than 25 percent off the list price of the two books. For $20, students can purchase both
Unwind (paperback) and
UnWholly (hard cover). Purchased separately at Anderson’s Bookshops, the two books would total nearly $27 ($8.99 for
Unwind, $17.95 for
UnWholly). Every copy of
UnWholly purchased through the pre-sale will be autographed by the author and delivered the day of his visit.
In addition to
Unwind, students in Honors courses are required to read additional texts. This year, students in other levels of English courses are required only to read the “One Book, One School” selection.
Mandatory summer reading for Lemont High School students includes:
FRESHMAN (Class of 2016)
English I – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English I Academic – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English I Honors – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7),
Iliad (Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald; Oxford University Press - $11) and
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Random House/Bantam Classics - $5)
SOPHOMORE (Class of 2015)
English II Practical – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English II Academic – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English II Honors – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7),
The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros; Vintage Press - $9) and
A Long Way Gone (Ishael Beah; Farrar, Straus & Giroux - $10)
JUNIOR (Class of 2014)
English III Practical – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English III Academic – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English III Honors – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7),
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit (Daniel Quinn; Bantam - $14) and
The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway; Scribner - $12)
SENIOR (Class of 2013)
English IV Practical – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English IV Academic – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7)
English IV Honors – Unwind (Neal Shusterman; Simon & Shuster - $7),
Grendel (John Gardener; Random House - $10) and
To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf; Harvest Books - $12)
Individuals with concerns about the "One Book, One School" selection or the summer reading program should contact Director of School & Community Relations
Tony Hamilton at (630) 243-3280.