English as a Second Language (ESL): Great Fiction

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, is on his job fixing rides at an amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where your life is explained to him by five people, some of whom he knew, others who may have been strangers.
196 p.

Ray Bradbury's classic novel of censorship and defiance, as resonant today as it was when it was first published nearly 50 years ago. Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires by burning books. The enjoyed his job until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid.
179 p.

The World's Bestselling Mystery. Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U.N. Owen." "Nine . . ." At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead. "Eight . . ." Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . one by one they begin to die. "Seven . . ." Who among them is the killer and will any of them survive?
218 p.

A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.

253 p.

Classic tale about a group of English school boys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Ralph and Piggy, are the chosen leaders but when Ralph tries to get order and delegate responsibilities, some of the boys would rather other things like hunt for wild pigs on the island.

256 p.

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal-a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.

127 p.

The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates.

222 p.

During the difficult years of the nineteenth century South, an African-American boy and his poor family rarely have enough to eat. Each night, the boy's father takes their dog, Sounder, out to look for food and the man grows more desperate by the day. The father is jailed for stealing food and the boy has to show courage and faith to get their family through rough times.

116 p.

An ocean voyage of unimaginable consequences Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty. But I was just such a girl, and my story is worth relating even if it did happen years ago. Be warned, however: If strong ideas and action offend you, read no more. Find another companion to share your idle hours. For my part I intend to tell the truth as I lived it.

J Avi

Follows the wild adventures of Weetzie Bat and her Los Angeles friends, Dirk, Duck, and My-Secret-Agent-Lover-Man.

113 p.

A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian wilderness to find their family.

145 p.

An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors.

120 p.

In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented heart, and a place in this world. A Newbery Medal book.

122 p.

Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an island in pre-Columbian America; in Morning Girl's last narrative, she witnesses the arrival of the first Europeans to her world.

74 p.

The Year: 1773. The place: Boston. Johnny Tremain is fourteen and apprenticed to a silversmith. He is gifted and lords his skills over the other apprentices, until one day his hand is horribly burned by molten silver.

256 p.

Jessie often wanders the docks of New Orleans, playing his fife to make a few extra coins. One day, he is abducted and taken aboard a slave ship. As part of a cruel exercise routine to keep his human cargo in shape, the ship's brutal captain forces Jessie to play his fife while the slaves "dance."

176 p.

While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack. Julie of The Wolves was the winner of the 1973 Newbery Medal.

170 p.

The story of a friendship between a 12-year-old boy and an immigrant handyman, almost wrecked by the good intentions of the townspeople.

248 p.

Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.

203 p.

Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story.

184 p.

A modern classic of friendship and loss. Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie's house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs.

128 p.

Oscar-winning film Charly starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloom-a mentally challenged man receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.

274 p.

The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.

180 p.

Animal Farm is an account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind.

113p.

The story is about the pilots who made night flights to deliver mail during the early days of aviation. These flights were extremely dangerous, and these courageous men risked their lives for their work.

128 p.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds. One day Kino discovers a pearl as large, perfect pearl. With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security....

122 p.

A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression. They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.

112 p.

The narrator of this beautiful, often disquieting novel is a young Native American man living on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. Sensitive and self-destructive, he searches for something that will bind him to the lands of his ancestors but he is haunted by personal tragedy.
176 p.

Following the Normandy landings, a small company of American soldiers is sent deeper into France to find Private James Ryan, the only surviving brother out of four, and return him home to his mother in America