101 Rebel Reading Circles
Create Rebel Reading Circles and Earn Pins for your stole!
How to Participate:
- Pick any book from the College Board's "101 great Book List." Visit the school library to check them out or read the eBook version!
- Get at least 1 - 2 friends to read the same book with you to form your Circle.
- Complete the form below to let Ms. Marks know that you have formed a circle or if you would like help in finding a circle to join.
- Identify the Teacher, Staff member, or Administrator (anyone who works on campus) who has read the book and is willing to do a 30-minute lunch-time or after-school "101 Book Talk" with you. See below for some of the books and teachers/staff/administrators who you can talk to. Visit the library to find the complete list of which teachers/staff to talk to.
- Schedule a time to meet with this teacher/staff/administrator member. You and your friends are responsible for preparing for and leading the book discussion. See this resource and this one too for preparing strong discussion questions. Make sure you come prepared; these are student led discussions - the teacher/staff/administrator is there to listen and participate NOT to lead.
- If you do a good job of discussing the book at the scheduled Book Talk, the teacher/staff/administrator sends your name to Ms. Scruggs and you get a Reading Award Pin to put on your stole!
- Questions: Go visit Ms. Marks in the library!
Beowulf
Old English epic which follows the adventures of the Norse hero Beowulf, slayer of the monster Grendel.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Makker, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane, a plain and penniless orphan in nineteenth-century England, accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall and soon finds herself in love with her melancholy employer, Mr. Edward Rochester, a man with a terrible secret.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Krist, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers,
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Forced by a storm to spend the night at the home of the somber Heathcliff, Mr. Lockwood uncovers a tale of terror and hatred on the Yorkshire moors.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Edna Pontellier, a Victorian-era wife and mother, is awakened to the full force of her desire for love and freedom when she becomes enamored with Robert LeBrun, a young man she meets while on vacation.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
This story set in colonial Africa reveals man's vulnerability to, as well as ultimate triumph over, the forces of greed and temptation.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Mr. McVay, Ms. Steers.
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
A Mohican brave struggles to protect two English girls from an evil Huron during the French and Indian War in upstate New York.
Talk to Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung.
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
During his service in the Civil War, a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Mr. McVay, Ms. Steers
Dante's Inferno
A translation of Dante's "Inferno", which recounts the story of a man's way through the torments of hell in his search for paradise.
Talk to Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Makker, Ms. Rutter.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
A middle-aged Spanish gentleman, obsessed with the chivalrous ideals found in romantic books, sets out to defend the helpless, destroy the wicked, and win the heart of his beloved Dulcinea.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens' classic novel in which a young Englishman gives his life during the French Revolution to save the husband of the woman he loves.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Steers.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Describes the resultant physical and mental depletion after a student in St. Petersburg murders an old woman, a money lender, and her sister.
Talk to Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Steers.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
An autobiographical account by the runaway slave Frederick Douglass that chronicles his experiences with his owners and overseers and discusses how slavery affected both slaves and slaveholders.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
In the course of his wanderings from a Southern college to New York's Harlem, an African-American man becomes involved in a series of adventures.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs,
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The tragic story of the wealthy Jay Gatsby and his attempt to win back the love of Daisy Buchanan.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Daly, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Stranded on an island while an atomic war destroys the rest of the world, a group of young boys revert to savagery as they struggle to survive.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Giang, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Mr. McVay, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hester Prynne, condemned by Puritan law to wear the scarlet letter "A" for adulteress, endures her ostracism with dignity, while her lover is tormented by the burden of an unexposed sin.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
A bombardier, based in Italy during World War II, repeatedly tries to avoid flying bombing missions while his colonel tries to get him killed by demanding that he fly more and more missions.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Marks, Ms. Steers
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
An American ambulance driver serving on the Austro-Italian front becomes entangled with an English nurse and deserts to join her after the retreat of Caparetto.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Scruggs Ms. Steers
The Odyssey by Homer
The epic poem recounting the experiences of Odysseus during his return from the Trojan War.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
A Black woman searches for a fulfilling relationship through two loveless marriages and finally finds it in the person of Tea Cake, an itinerant laborer and gambler.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.
Talk to Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
A memoir of the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants who lived within the traditions and fears of the Chinese past as well as the realities of the alien modern American culture.
Talk to Ms. Coughran, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Speirs, Ms. Steers.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Eight-year-old "Scout" Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Giang, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Speirs, Ms. Steers.
Call of the Wild by Jack London
The dog hero, Buck, is stolen from his home and pressed into service as a sledge dog in the Klondike.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Marks, Mr. McVay, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo as told through the history of the BuendÃa family.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Makker, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Steers.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Captain Ahab's determination to find and kill the great white whale becomes an obsession driving him to disaster.
Talk to Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Mr. McVay, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Presents the script of the Arthur Miller play about the hysteria that gripped Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 after a vengeful teenager leveled an accusation of witchcraft against her employer.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave who now lives in post-Civil War Ohio, has borne the unthinkable and works hard at "beating back the past." She struggles to keep Beloved, an intruder, from gaining possession of her present while throwing off the legacy of her past.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers
Animal Farm by George Orwell
A political satire in which animals take over running a farm but find their utopian state turning into a dictatorship.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Mr. McVay, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Poet-physician Dr. Zhivago moves his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be safety in the Ural Mountains during the Russian Revolution, only to become caught up in the battle between Whites and Reds, and to fall in love with Lara, a nurse.
Talk to Ms. Jeung, Ms. Roth
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Chronicles the mental breakdown of Esther Greenwood--a brilliant, beautiful, talented and successful young woman.
Talk to Mr. Giang, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Makker, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Steers.
Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
Collects twenty-four short stories by American author Edgar Allan Poe, including famous and lesser-known horror tales, as well as travel narratives, metaphysical essays, and political satires.
Talk to Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Mr. McVay, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Steers.
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
An adolescent boy, knowing he is about to be dropped by his school, spends three days and nights in New York City.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Fryer, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Mr. McVay, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers.
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's "Macbeth," a drama about a man who kills the King of Scotland in order to claim the throne for himself.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Giang, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Mr. McVay, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Two sets of lovers get lost in the woods and become caught up in a dispute between the fairy king and queen, along with a group of local artisans preparing a play for Duke Theseus' wedding.
Talk to Ms. Anderson, Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Mr. McVay, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw
Henry Higgins is the cause of Liza Doolittle's metamorphasis from a "draggle-tailed guttersnipe" to a "duchess" by improving her manner, speech, and clothes.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Mr. Carter, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Steers.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The monster was supposed to be man's benefactor, but, scorned for his ugliness, he swears revenge on his creator and the human race.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Steers.
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Follows Tayo, a young Native American, after his release from a veteran's hospital following World War II as he searches for meaning and sanity in his life.
Talk to Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers
Antigone by Sophocles
King Creon of Thebes refuses to allow the burial of his nephew, whom he has declared a traitor. The dead man's sister, Antigone, is engaged to Creon's son. Disaster follows for the family.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The saga of a family in 1939 that struggles through the Great Depression by laboring as Dust Bowl migrants.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune.
Talk to Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Mr. McVay, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Relates the trials, suffering and human dignity of Uncle Tom, an old negro slave, who is cruelly treated by a Yankee overseer resulting in his death.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Corrales, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Steers.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau's reflections on the natural world, written during a two year period when he lived alone in a cabin on the shores of Walden Pond.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Shimada.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
An epic novel featuring the Russian role in the Napoleonic Wars and providing a complex panorama of the life of the time.
Talk to Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Steers
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
The voyages of an Englishman carry him to a land of people six inches high, a land of giants, an island of sorcerers, and a land where horses are masters of human-like creatures.
Talk to Mr. Carter, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Steers
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Huck, in flight from his murderous father, and Jim, in flight from slavery, pilot their raft down the Mississippi River in search of freedom.
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Mr. Carter, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Coughran, Mr. Giang, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Krist, Ms. Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Steers.
Candide by Voltaire
Presents an English translation of the 1759 novel "Candide," the story of an optimist whose life takes him from one disaster to another.
Talk to Mr. Carter, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Rutter.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonbegut Jr.
A fourth-generation German-American is tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944 which he witnessed while a prisoner of war.
Talk to Ms. Bauman, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Marks, Ms. Steers.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Tells the story of two African-American sisters: Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a child-wife living in the south, in the medium of their letters to each other and in Celie's case, the desperate letters she begins, "Dear God."
Talk to Ms. Bellamy, Ms. Bradley, Ms. Cebrian-Paskell, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Krist, Ms. Makker, Ms. Marks, Ms. Roth, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Lily Bart's quest for a husband among the noveau riche of New York high society leads to shame and misery when she is accused of being the mistress of a wealthy married man.
Talk to Ms. Coughran, Ms. Marks.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
The play is a tender, despairing portrait of two women, one lost in the past, the other in herself.
Talk to Mr. Carter, Ms. Coughran, Ms. Roth, Ms. Rutter, Ms. Spiers, Ms. Steers.
Native Son by Richard Wright
Trapped in the poverty-stricken ghetto of Chicago's South Side, a young black man finds release only in acts of violence.
Talk to Ms. Coughran, Mr. Isaacs, Ms. Jeung, Ms. Scruggs, Ms. Shimada.
Please note: All summaries above are direct quotes from the record of the book in Destiny, the San Lorenzo Book Catalog. Also, these are less than HALF of the books on the list! Consider it a preview!