Annotated Bibliography

Albom, Mitch. Five People You Meet in Heaven. New York: Hyperion, 2003. The Five People You Meet in Heaven weaves together three stories, all told about the same man: 83-year-old Eddie, the head maintenance person at Ruby Point Amusement Park. As the novel opens, readers are told that Eddie, unsuspecting, is only minutes away from death as he goes about his typical business at the park. Albom then traces Eddie's world through his tragic final moments, his funeral, and the ensuing days as friends clean out his apartment and adjust to life without him. In alternating sections, Albom flashes back to Eddie's birthdays, telling his life story as a kind of progress report over candles and cake each year. And in the third and last thread of the novel, Albom follows Eddie into heaven where the maintenance man sequentially encounters five pivotal figures from his life. Each person has been waiting for him in heaven, and, as Albom reveals, each life (and death) was woven into Eddie's own in ways he never suspected. Each soul has a story to tell, a secret to reveal, and a lesson to share. Through them Eddie understands the meaning of his own life even as his arrival brings closure to theirs.

Gruwell, Erin. Freedom Writers Diary. New York: Doubleday, 1999. As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of unteachable, at risk students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girland Zlatas Diary: A Childs Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the Freedom Writers in homage to the civil rights activists The Freedom Riders.

Hall, Barbara. The Noah Confessions. New York: Delacorte Press, 2007.

At the age of 16, it's standard procedure for every girl at Lynnie Russo's posh Los Angeles prep school to get a car. So on her 16th birthday, Lynnie is startled when she opens the small gift box from her father it doesn't contain the shiny new set of keys she was expecting. Instead she finds a worn-out bird charm bracelet. What can he be thinking? When she cuts school to go try surfing so as to have a special day, instead of grounding her, her father hands her a manuscript box and says, "Your mother wanted you to have this when it seemed you were losing perspective. I think now's the time. Through The Noah Confessions, Lynnie uncovers her family's secrets, loves, and tragedies, and comes to recognize that their past may not necessarily determine her future.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. A Raisin in the Sun is a play about a poor black family struggling to become part of the middle class. Family hardships test the faith of all involved and the result is unexpected and filled with heartbreak.

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Where Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realistism but she doesn't ignore the impact of black white relations either.

Grisham, John. Bleachers. New York: Doubleday, 2003. The story centers on the impending death of the Messina Spartans' football coach Eddie Rake. One of the most victorious coaches in high school football history, Rake is a man both loved and feared by his players and by a town that relishes his 13 state titles. The hero of the novel is Neely Crenshaw, a former Rake All-American whose NFL prospects ended abruptly after a cheap shot to the knees. Neely has returned home for the first time in years to join a nightly vigil for Rake at the Messina stadium. Having wandered through life with little focus since his college days, he struggles to reconcile his conflicted feelings towards his former coach, and he assays to rekindle love in the ex-girlfriend he abandoned long ago. James, E.L. Fifty Shades of Grey. New York: Vintage Books, 2012. When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and

intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time. Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving. Fifty Shades Darker. New York: Vintage Books, 2012. Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. But desire for Grey still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, she cannot resist. Soon she is learning more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades than she ever thought possible. Fifty Shades Freed. New York: Vintage Books, 2012. Even though Christian and Anastasia are now a proper couple, they still have many obstacles to overcome, including Christian's past coming back to haunt Anastasia. Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Anas deepest fears turn to reality.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 1996.

The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village.

Orwell, George. 1984. New York, N.Y.: Published by Signet Classic: New American Library, 1977. At any moment, depending upon current alignments, all existing records show either that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, or that it has always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia. Winston Smith knows this, because his work at the Ministry of Truth involves the constant "correction" of such records. "Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party's official image of the world is a fluid fiction. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imaginations through a process of bewilderment and brutalization that alienates each individual from his fellows and deprives him of every liberating human pursuit from reasoned inquiry to sexual passion.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. The story is told through the eyes of animals that overthrow their drunken farmer. The two main pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, vie for control. Then Napoleon raises two litters of puppies and turns them into his private fighting force which he uses to chase Snowball off the farm. After that things go downhill rapidly. By the end their society was far worse off then when the drunken farmer was in charge. Early on in the book when they are forming laws one of the laws they make was All animals are equal. By the end of the book that law has changed to, All animals are equal but some are more equal then others.

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: A.A. Levine Books, 1998. Say you've spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself! He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities, and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoiled, piglike cousin Dudley. A mysterious letter, delivered by the friendly giant Hagrid, wrenches Harry from his dreary, Muggle-ridden existence: "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Of course, Uncle Vernon yells

most unpleasantly, "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999. It's hard to fall in love with an earnest, appealing young hero like Harry Potter and then to watch helplessly as he steps into terrible danger! Chilling, malevolent voices whisper from the walls only to Harry and it seems certain that his classmate Draco Malfoy is out to get him. Soon it's not just Harry who is worried about survival, as dreadful things begin to happen at Hogwarts. This deliciously suspenseful novel is every bit as gripping, imaginative, and creepy as the first; familiar student concerns fierce rivalry, blush inducing crushes, pedantic professors seamlessly intertwine with the bizarre, horrific, fantastical, or just plain funny. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999. 13 year-old hero, who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a tripledecker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2000. Now 14, her orphan hero has only two more weeks with his Muggle relatives before returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But Quidditch buffs need not go into mourning: we get our share of this great game at the World Cup. Attempting to go incognito as Muggles, 100,000 witches and wizards converge on a "nice deserted moor." As ever, Rowling magicks up the details that make her world so vivid, and so comic. Several spectators' tents, for instance, are entirely unquotidian. One is a minipalace, complete with live peacocks; another has three floors and multiple turrets. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003. As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the

magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Life isn't getting any easier for Harry Potter. With an overwhelming course load as the fifth years prepare for their Ordinary Wizarding Levels examinations (O.W.Ls), devastating changes in the Gryffindor Quidditch team lineup, vivid dreams about long hallways and closed doors, and increasing pain in his lightning-shaped scar, Harry's resilience is sorely tested. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Cambridge [Cambridge shire]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984 Romeo and Juliet is a story about two lovers kept apart by a family feud. The Capulets and the Montagues were two families that were never going to get along and let Juliet be with the love of her life Romeo. Romeo would hide in the bushes at the Capulet house and wait for Juliet to come out at night so he could see her. Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. New York: Scribner, 2005. Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever. What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family and the death of his innocence and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as personal as The Diary of Anne Frank, Night awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.