Mrs. Lapierre

1
Mrs. Lapierre

• Tenth Grade Reading List

2
Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

• I saw your mother, Moira said.Where? I said. I
  felt jolted, thrown off. I realized I'd been
  thinking of her as dead.Not in person, it was in
  that film they showed us, about the Colonies.
  There was a close-up, it was her all right. She
  was wrapped up in one of those gray things but I
  know it was her.Thank God, I said.Why, thank
  God? said Moira.I thought she was dead.She
  might as well be, said Moira. You should wish it
  for her.

      The answers you get from literature
depend on the questions you pose
3
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

• Do you know what a myth is, Jefferson? I asked
  him. A myth is an old lie that people believe
  in. White people believe that theyre better than
  anyone else on earth - and thats a myth. The
  last thing they ever want is to see a black man
  stand, and think, and show that common humanity
  that is in us all. It would destroy their myth.
  They would no longer have justification for
  having made us slaves and keeping us in the
  condition we are in. As long as none of us stand
  theyre safe. Theyre safe with me. Theyre safe
  with Reverend Ambrose. I dont want them to feel
  safe with you anymore.

4
My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult

• "If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop
  saying you have one? Or are you always a sister,
  even when the other half of the equation is
  gone?" 

There's some illogical part of me that still
believes if you want superman to show up, first
there's got to be someone worth saving.
5
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

• "How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not
  only in his own cramped stomach but in the
  wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare
  him--he has known a fear beyond every other."

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and
apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of
pride in my profession.
6
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

• "I wanted my children to have the best
  combination American circumstances and Chinese
  character. How could I know these things do not
  mix?"

7
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

• Still, when she stands up, Angie Carusso thanks
  me. She asks my name, but I tell her it isn't
  important."No," she protests, "it is."I relent.
  "It's Ed.""Well, thanks, Ed," she says. "Thank
  you."She thanks me a few times more, but the
  best words I hear all day come to me right when I
  think it's over. It's the girl, Casey. She twists
  herself onto Angie's hand and says, "Next week
  I'll give you a bite of mine, Mum."In a way, I
  feel sad and empty, but I also feel that I've
  done what was intended. Just once, an ice cream
  for Angie Carusso.

      So many teenage books say, 'This is in
your voice, this is about you,' and that's great.
We really need that. But we also need books that
say, 'This is also for you, but you need to come
up here, to step up to this.