Eleventh Grade Stress


Book Description

As they pass the halfway point in their high school journey, life begins to get more serious for the four classmates in Eleventh Grade Stress. - Luke continues to wrestle with math and the standardized state tests. He takes refuge in his work on the yearbook and his solitary fishing trips. The hostility of his girlfriends father abruptly ends the most rewarding relationship of his life. - Elly is getting along better than ever with her parents because she is dating the star quarterback for the schools football team. But her folks dont seem to care about the secret damage that this relationship is doing to Elly.- Marcus still loves basketball, but history classes are beginning to open his eyes to life beyond the court. His planned campus visit to the nearby state university leads his father have the talk with him. - Mia is still on track to graduate first in her class and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, but her home life is troubled. Her parents finally reach a breaking point.




Holt McDougal Literature


Book Description




Two Old Women


Book Description

Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine. Though these women have been known to complain more than contribute, they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail, Velma Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community and forgiveness "speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness and wisdom" (Ursula K. Le Guin).







Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers


Book Description

Her name is Lovey Nariyoshi, and her Hawai'i is not the one of leis, pineapple, and Magnum P.I. In the blue collar town of Hilo, on the Big Island, Lovey and her eccentric Japanese-American family are at the margins of poverty, in the midst of a tropical paradise. With her endearing, effeminate best friend Jerry, Lovey suffers schoolyard bullies, class warfare, Singer sewing classes, and the surprisingly painful work of picking on a macadamia nut plantation, all while trying to find an identity of her own. At once a bitingly funny satire of haole happiness and a moving meditation on what is real, if ugly at times, but true, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers crackles with the language of pidgin--Hawai'i Creole English--distinguishing one of the most vibrant voices in contemporary culture. Stories from this enduring novel have been adapted into the film Fishbowl, by groundbreaking director Kayo Hatta.







McDougal Littell Literature


Book Description




Under My Skin


Book Description

From New York Times bestselling author and master of suspense Lisa Unger comes an addictive psychological thriller about a woman on the hunt for her husband’s killer. What if the nightmares are actually memories? It’s been a year since Poppy’s husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattan’s Riverside Park. In the immediate aftermath, Poppy spiralled into an oblivion of grief, disappearing for several days only to turn up ragged and confused and wearing a tight red dress she didn’t recognise. What happened to Poppy during those lost days? And more importantly, what happened to Jack? The case was never solved, and Poppy has finally begun to move on. But those lost days have never stopped haunting her. Poppy starts having nightmares and blackouts — there are periods of time she can’t remember, and she's unable to tell the difference between what is real and what she’s imagining. When she begins to sense that someone is following her, Poppy is plunged into a game of cat and mouse, determined to unravel the mystery around her husband’s death. But can she handle the truth about what really happened?




The Language of Literature


Book Description