Grade 9 Global Studies

* Learning Center Collection

Students are required to read and take notes on one book from the list below. The notes will be used as part of an assessment of the reading to be given during the first week of school.

*Chang and Eng: A Novel – Strauss

Chronicles the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese twins who were joined at the chest.

*Forbidden City – Bell

Seventeen-year-old Alex joined his father, a cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in China in 1989. As

outsiders they faced a time of upheaval as political demonstrations began in Tiananmen Square .

*The Good Women of China : Hidden Voices – Xinran

Xinran shares the stories of the women she talked to while hosting a radio show in China during the 1990s.

* Hiroshima – Hersey

An account of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, from the viewpoint of the people who lived through it

*The Hot Zone – Preston

The dramatic story of U.S. Army scientists and soldiers who worked to stop the outbreak of a deadly and extremely contagious

virus in 1989

*The House of Blue Mangoes – Davidar

Three generations of Dorai men from a wealthy non-Brahmin Christian family struggle to preserve their village and livelihood in

the Indian village of Chevathar in the face of social and political change.

*The Lost Garden – Yep

The author describes how he grew up as a Chinese American in San Francisco and how he came to use his writing to celebrate

his family and his ethnic heritage.

*An Ocean Apart, A World Away – Namioka

Yanyan, having always wanted to be a doctor, makes a difficult decision to leave the exciting Liang Baoshu behind in China and

moves to New York to attend medical school.

*Red Scarf Girl – Jiang

The author tells about the happy life she led in China until she was twelve-years-old when her family became a target of the

Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or

refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party.

The Samurai’s Garden – Tsukiyama

On the eve of World War II a young Chinese man is sent to his family's summer home in Japan to recover from tuberculosis. His

own adventure becomes entwined with the lives of three people he meets there.

*Shiva’s Fire – Staples

In India , a talented dancer sacrifices friends and family for her art.

*A Step From Heaven – Na

A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America .

*Ties That Bind, Ties That Break – Namioka

A young woman's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her

feet bound.

*When My Name Was Keoko – Park

With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan

during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.