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Pursuit of Happiness

2007-2008

Titles for students from ninth through twelfth grade

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband, when she is abruptly snatched from her home in present California and transported back to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning; and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back again and again to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father the daughter who is to become her ancestor. Each time, however, the stays grow longer and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has even begun.

• Reading Guide from ReadingGuides.com

• Interview with Octavia Butler from WAB.org (Writers & Books)

• Summary analysis and quizzes from enotes.com

• Pima County Public Library Catalog

• WorldCat

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

In Nebraska at the end of the nineteenth century, Swedish immigrant Alexandra Bergson leads her family to success, but not without personal sacrifice.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

In Common Sense, Thomas Paine argues for American independence. His argument begins with more general, theoretical reflections about government and religion, then progresses onto the specifics of the colonial situation.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Presents the 1892 "deathbed" edition of Whitman's great work, comprising all the poems in his collection "Leaves of grass."

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