High School Book LIst - Federal Way Public Schools

Title Author
High School Supplementary Reading List
Content
Mansfield Park Austen, Jane When adultery disturbs the relatively peaceful household at Mansfield Park, it has quite
unexpected effects. The diffident and much put-upon heroine Fanny Price has to struggle to
cope with the results, re-examining her own feelings while enduring the views of others.
Maus, A Survivor‘s Tale II:
And Here My Troubles
Began
Maus, A Survivor‘s Tale,
Book I: My Father Bleeds
History
Spiegelman, Art This second volume, subtitled And Here My Troubles Began, moves us from the barracks of
Auschwitz to the bungalows of the Catskills. Genuinely tragic and comic by turns, it attains a
complexity of theme and precision of thought new to comics and rare in any medium. Maus
ties together two powerful stories: Vladek's harrowing tale of surviving against all odds,
delineating the paradox of daily life in the death camps, and the author's account of his
tortured relationship with his aging father. At every level this is the ultimate survivor's tale —
and that too of the children who somehow survive even the survivors. Depictions of war.
Spiegelman, Art It is the story of Vladek Speigelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a
cartoonist coming to terms with his father's story. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the
Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity. Vladek's harrowing story of
survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father.
Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments
and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century's grisliest news is a story of
survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies
the bloody paw prints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us. Depictions of war.
Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy, Thomas The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with an act of such heartlessness and cruelty that it still
shocks readers today. Michael Henchard, an out-of-work hay-trusser, gets drunk at a fair and
for five guineas sells his wife and child to a sailor. When the horror of his act sets in the
following morning, the wretched Henchard swears he will not touch alcohol for twenty-one
years. Through hard work and acumen, he becomes rich, respected, and eventually the mayor
of Casterbridge. Eighteen years pass before Henchard's fateful oath comes back to claim its
due. Upon the return to Casterbridge of his wife and daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, Henchard's
fortunes steadily decline. He clashes with his business assistant, Donald Farfrae, who soon
becomes his major rival. He ruins his business through impulsive speculations and takes to
drinking again. One by one he forfeits his possessions and relationships to Farfrae. Soon
Farfrae owns Henchard's business and his house, has gained the affection of his lover
Lucetta, and has even become the mayor of Casterbridge. In a final insult, Farfrae marries
Elizabeth-Jane. Having lost everything he once possessed, Henchard is forced to face himself
in his most tragic and desperate moment. Note: This book may contain offensive material.
Merchant of Venice Shakespeare,
William
This is one of Shakespeare's darkest comedies, for the romantic story of a young man,
Bassanio, who has squandered his fortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady
he loves is set against the most disturbing story of the Jewish moneylender Shylock and his
demand for the "pound of flesh" owed him by the Venetian merchant, Antonio, who has fallen
into Shylock's debt. Here pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic
entanglement to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best. Note:
This play may contain offensive material.
Metamorphosis Kafka, Franz When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed
in his bed into a monstrous vermin. With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first
sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man
who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his
family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though
absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The
Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of
twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his
predicament is the predicament of modern man." Note: This book may contain offensive
material.
Midsummer Night‘s Dream,
A
High School 2011-12
Shakespeare This is a romantic comedy and satire on power and romance. Strange occurrences in a forest
filled with fairies delight readers as their magic changes the romantic fate of two couples.
Sexual innuendo.