Mrs. Zentz’s Top 10 Books : Mrs. Zentz’s Top 10 Books SS English 10/4 Period 1
6/29/2005
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Published 1953 : 10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Published 1953 A book burner in a future fascist state finds out books are a vital part of a culture he never knew.
Fahrenheit 451 is a story built around book-burning, but that action is representative of all sorts of censorship.
9. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss Published 1960 : 9. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss Published 1960 In verse, Sam-I-am tells of the virtues of green eggs and ham
("the only book I ever wrote that still makes me laugh"), which actually resulted from a bet with the late Bennett Cerf, Random House's founder and publisher, that Seuss could write a book using only 50 words
8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain : 8. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The adventures of a boy and a runaway slave as they float down the Mississippi River on a raft.
Twain's choice of the first-person point of view and on Huck, a speaker of richly colloquial English, as his narrative persona has contributed to it’s continued greatness.
7. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck : 7. 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
It is that courage and determination "in the presence of this continent" that has made the book a classic of our literature
6. Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane : 6. Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane Story of a young Union soldier under fire for the first time during the Civil War.
the greatest novel of the American Civil War, perhaps the best fictional study in English of fear
5. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Bloom : 5. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Bloom The memoirs of a Dutch woman who was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp during World War II as a result of her activities in the anti-Nazi underground.
It is thought provoking, and Corrie ten Boom shows herself to be gentle and yet harshly resolute when need be.
4. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank : 4. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps.
Since then, Anne has been for many people a source of inspiration, a model of courage, and a symbol of the persecution, tragic suffering, and loss of life inflicted by the Nazis
3.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee : 3.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.
Harper Lee's only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares : 2. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whoever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin.
The four characters are well developed (within the limits of 294 pages). Brashares' descriptions are so vivid that the reader can see the olive grove in Greece and the starry sky in Baja, California. Highly Recommended
1. The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers : 1. The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers The root children spend the winter underground in the care of Mother Earth. When spring comes, they go into the world with flowers and grass.
The best book ever because as a child I checked it out everytime I went to the library!
Works Cited : Works Cited Ashley, Leonard R.N. "The Grapes of Wrath: Overview," in Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd ed., edited by Jim Kamp, St. James Press, 1994, 22 Jun 2005
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Bandler, Michael J. "Seuss on the Loose," in Parents Magazine, Vol. 62, No. 9, September, 1987, pp. 116-20, 229-30. Reprinted in Children's Literature Review. 22 Jun 2005
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Cardwell, Guy A. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Overview," in Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd ed., edited by Jim Kamp, St. James Press, 1994. 22 Jun 2005
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Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003. 22 Jun 2005
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Hoffman, Daniel. "Stephen Crane: Overview," in Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd ed., edited by Jim Kamp, St. James Press, 1994. 22 Jun 2005
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"Titlewave." Follett Library Resources. 22 Jun. 2005 .