2nd Quarter Annotated Reading List

Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes. New York: Atria, 2007. Print.

Jodi Picoult presents a whole new outlook on a school shooting. In Sterling High, the main goal is popularity. Grades, sports, and friendships are good, but popularity is key. When a boy who has been bullied since he first stepped on the bus on his first day of Kindergarten becomes fed up with the way others act towards him, every student and family from Sterling High will be changed forever. A devestating event leads to built relationships, startling truths, and completely changed lives.


The realness Picoult accomplishes throughout the story contributes to the empact of the emotions on the reader. Although this book is fiction, the strong emotion felt throughout the book seems as if it all really happened. By doing this, Picoult helps the reader feel every ounce of emotion she felt while writing the book and the emotion of the characters involved in the story.

Young, WM. Paul. The Shack. Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007. Print.

Young tells the story of Mackenzie Allen Philip's life after a terrifying death of a daughter. Mack is struggling with letting his daughter, Missy, go after her abduction and recieves a letter from God. This letter tells him to go to the shack where it happened. Knowing the letter couldn't possibly be from the God, Mack dreadfully goes expecting some kind of set up. When he arrives, Mack is in complete awe of his surroundings. The experiences he goes through at his weekend at the shack gives him a new outlook on the murder of his young daughter. His relationship with God will forever be changed.

Young's descriptions with the encounters and conversations Mack has with God brought up new and unthought of reasons for pain in this world. His characters that represent the three parts of the trinity also gives readers an imaginitive view of God in three persons.

Rand, Ayn. Anthem. New York: Dutton, 1995. Print.

Ayn Rand presents a future Utopian society where jobs are chosen for you, everyone dresses the same, and no individualism is to be allowed. When Equality 7-2521, a useless Street Sweeper, dares the branch out and discover something new, he is immediately shunned. Now, the rest of Equality 7-2521 is on a mission to escape and become a part of a different, possibly chaotic world. The darkness Rand uses in the story is very effective by helping portray the dark, simplistic society these people live in. With no exciting events happening outside Equality's rebellion, chaos seems to be more pleasing to the reader than a strict, completely controlled society.


Ludy, Leslie. Set-Apart Femininity. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 2008. Print.

Leslie Ludy tackles many uncomfortable ideas for a present teenage girl in the current American society. She challenges young ladies to radically change their lives in ways that seem almost impossible. Ludy explains that by these changes, a stronger, healthier, and more beneficial spiritual realtionship will begin to grow and form. Ludy also explains the different in being a Set-Apart christian and being a christian. The Set-Apart life consists of taking stands against the smallest actions that may cause sin, even if they sometimes seem ridiculous. Ludy's unreasonable challenges really cause the reader to rethink what they believe it means to be a true christian and live a fruitful life.