Daniel Hand Freshmen Lit & Writing List (2025)

Books from DHHS Freshmen summer reading list in LION

Showing 1 - 19 of 19  There are a total of 114 valid entries on the list.

1. 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 "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 "Becoming Muhammad Ali"
Star rating for Becoming Muhammad Ali
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Before he became the legend, Muhammad Ali, young Cassius Clay learned history and card tricks from his grandfather, hid report cards from his parents, and biked around Louisville with his pals. Bu8t when his bike is stolen, Cassius decides there's something else he wants: to be able to fend off bullies by becoming a boxer. Cassius also has a best friend, Lucky, who sticks by him whether his fists are raised in victory or his back is against the ropes....
Book cover for "The Bletchley riddle"
Star rating for The Bletchley riddle
Description:
Follows siblings Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie as they find themselves at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers working to decrypt the Nazi's Enigma cipher, where the two struggle to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's disappearance against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain and Hitler's feared invasion.
Book cover for "Code of honor"
Star rating for Code of honor
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
When Iranian-American Kamran Smith learns that his big brother, Darius, has been labeled a terrorist, he sets out to piece together the codes and clues that will save his brother's life and his country from a deadly terrorist attack.
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...
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 "Flowers in the gutter"
Star rating for Flowers in the gutter
Description:
"The Edelweiss Pirates were a loosely organized group of working-class young people in the Rhine Valley of Germany. They faced off with Nazis during the Third Reich and suffered consequences for their resistance during and after World War II."--
Book cover for "Ghost boys"
Star rating for Ghost boys
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till"--
Book cover for "The labors of Hercules Beal"
Star rating for The labors of Hercules Beal
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Herc Beal knows who he's named after--a mythical hero--but he's no superhero. He's the smallest kid in his class. So when his homeroom teacher at his new middle school gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercules's amazing feats in real life, he's skeptical. After all, there are no Nemean Lions on Cape Cod, and not a single Hydra in sight. Missing his parents terribly and wishing his older brother wasn't working all the time, Herc...
Book cover for "Little women"
Star rating for Little women
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
For generations, children around the world have come of age with Louisa May Alcott's March girls: hardworking eldest sister Meg, headstrong, impulsive Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. With their father away at war, and their loving mother Marmee working to support the family, the four sisters have to rely on one another for support as they endure the hardships of wartime and poverty. We witness the sisters growing up and figuring out what role...
Book cover for "Orbiting Jupiter"
Star rating for Orbiting Jupiter
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice." --
Book cover for "Prisoner B-3087"
Star rating for Prisoner B-3087
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was eleven, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau.

16. Smile

Book cover for "Smile:"
Star rating for Smile:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Raina Telgemeier's #1 New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir based on her childhood! Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to...
Book cover for "Stepsister"
Star rating for Stepsister
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Isabelle is one of Cinderella's ugly stepsisters, who cut off their toes in an attempt to fit into the glass slipper; but there is more to her story than a maimed foot, for the Marquis de la Chance is about to offer her a choice and the opportunity to change her fate--there will be blood and danger, but also the possibility of redemption and triumph, and most of all the chance to find her true self.
Book cover for "They called us enemy"
Star rating for They called us enemy
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's-and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future. In a stunning graphic memoir, Takei revisits his haunting childhood in American concentration camps, as...
Book cover for "The weight of our sky"
Star rating for The weight of our sky
Author:
Description:
"Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother"--