Daniel Hand Freshmen Lit & Writing List (2025)

Books from DHHS Freshmen summer reading list in LION

Showing 1 - 20 of 39  There are a total of 114 valid entries on the list.

1. 1984

Book cover for "1984"
Star rating for 1984
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Winston Smith lives in a society where the government controls people's lives every second of the day. Alone in his small, one-room apartment, Winston dreams of a better life. Is freedom from this life of suffering possible? There must be something that the Party cannot control - something like love, perhaps?"--Page 4 of cover.
Book cover for "All quiet on the western front"
Star rating for All quiet on the western front
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"On the hundredth anniversary of the end of World War I: a hardcover edition of the classic tale of a young German soldier's harrowing experiences in the trenches, widely acclaimed as the greatest war novel of all time. When twenty-year-old Paul Baumer and his classmates enlist in the German army during World War I, they are full of youthful enthusiam. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught to believe in shatters under...

3. Allies

Book cover for "Allies"
Star rating for Allies
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
It is June 6, 1944, D-Day, and Dee Carpenter (true name Dietrich Zimmermann), an underage private in the United States Army, is headed for Omaha Beach, seeking revenge for his uncle, who was arrested by Nazis when Dee was a little boy; meanwhile, Samira Zidano, an eleven-year old French-Algerian girl is looking for the French resistance, desperate to deliver the message that the invasion is about to begin, and get their help in freeing her mother--this...
Book cover for "Animal farm"
Star rating for Animal farm
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. According to Orwell, the fable...
Book cover for "Be more chill"
Star rating for Be more chill
Description:
"Jeremy Heere is your average high school dork. Day after day, he stares at beautiful Christine, the girl he can never have, and dryly notes the small humiliations that come his way. Until the day he learns about the "squip." A pill-sized supercomputer that you swallow, the squip is guaranteed to bring you whatever you most desire in life. By instructing him on everything from what to wear, to how to talk and walk, the squip transforms Jeremy from...
Book cover for "Children of blood and bone"
Star rating for Children of blood and bone
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie...
Book cover for "Clap when you land"
Star rating for Clap when you land
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced to...
Book cover for "Concrete rose"
Star rating for Concrete rose
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"A gang leader's son finds his effort to go straight for the sake of his child challenged by a loved one's brutal murder, in a poignant exploration of Black coming-of-age- set seventeen years before the events of the award-winning 'The Hate U Give'"--
Book cover for "Curveball"
Star rating for Curveball
Description:
After an injury ends former star pitcher Peter Friedman's athletic dreams, he concentrates on photography which leads him to a girlfriend, new fame as a high school sports photographer, and a deeper relationship with the beloved grandfather who, when he realizes he is becoming senile, gives Pete all of his professional camera gear.
Book cover for "Divergent"
Star rating for Divergent
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Beatrice Prior's society is divided into five factions--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice must choose between staying with her Abnegation family and transferring factions. Her choice will shock her community and herself. But the newly christened Tris also has a secret, one she's determined to keep hidden, because in this world, what makes you different...

11. Dracula

Book cover for "Dracula"
Star rating for Dracula
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"A dreary castle, blood-thirsty vampires, open graves at midnight, and other gothic touches fill this hardcover Dover Bookshelf edition of the chilling tale about a young Englishman's confrontation with the evil Count Dracula"-- "By night, Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847-1912) navigated the flourishing world of Victorian theater, yet, in the shadows, he was the brilliant mind behind the chilling vampire masterpiece Dracula, a tale of insatiable hunger...
Book cover for "Drums, girls, & dangerous pie"
Star rating for Drums, girls, & dangerous pie
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family.
Book cover for "Everything you left me"
Star rating for Everything you left me
Description:
When the police come knocking at her door, Maybeth is worried her mother is caught up in their small town's drug scene again. Instead, the police are there to question Maybeth about her beloved and long-absent father. He has become the lead suspect in a string of unsolved murders across the Maybeth may be the key to convicting him. Trapped between her scientific mind and her love for her father, Maybeth is forced to confront the reality of who her...
Book cover for "Far from the tree"
Star rating for Far from the tree
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Grace, adopted at birth, is raised as an only child. At sixteen she's just put her own baby up for adoption, and now is looking for her biological family. She discovers Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister who was also adopted ; and Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother after seventeen years in the foster care system. Grace struggles between cautious joy at having found them,...
Book cover for "The hate u give"
Star rating for The hate u give
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters...
Book cover for "Heartstopper, Volume 1"
Star rating for Heartstopper, Volume 1
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore, and he's sort of got a boyfriend, even if he's kind of mean and only wants to meet up in secret. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie - the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months - but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him. That...
Book cover for "The Hunger Games"
Star rating for The Hunger Games
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
"The Hunger Games as you've never seen it before--in a remarkable illustrated edition. Even at the age of sixteen, Katniss Everdeen knows it takes hard work, keen observation, and inner fortitude to survive in the world. Her home, District 12, is under the merciless rule of the Capitol, continually forced to pay after losing a long-ago civil war in the nation of Panem. One of the ways the Capitol keeps control is its annual Hunger Games, a televised...
Book cover for "Internment"
Star rating for Internment
Description:
"Rebellions are built on hope. In a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of new friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the camp's Director and his guards" -- Page [4] cover.
Book cover for "It's kind of a funny story"
Star rating for It's kind of a funny story
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.
Book cover for "Jupiter rising"
Star rating for Jupiter rising
Description:
"When Jack's P.E. coach pairs him up with Jay Perkins for the cross-country team, neither of them is happy about it. Jack is grieving the loss of Joseph, his foster brother, and adjusting to his role as big brother to Jupiter, Joseph's orphaned daughter. Dealing with Jay Perkins--who'd once ganged up with his buddies to jump Joseph in the locker room--is the last thing he wants to do. But then Jack realizes that Jay is grieving too--the loss of his...