Junior Theme Book Ideas

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Junior Theme Book Ideas

• Mr. Mortier

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• War Experience
• Women in Conflict with Societys Expectations
• Wild West and Wilderness Experience
• Baseball All American Sport
• 1920s Expatriate Generation
• Chicago Experience
• American Frontier/Social Protest
• Racial Tension and Identity
• Southern Issues
• Immigrant Experience
• American Family
• Americas Role in the World

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The War Experience
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Cold Mountainby Charles Frazier

• Plot Background wounded soldier decides to walk
  back home to the Blue Ridge Mts. of North
  Carolina and the woman he loves.
• Author Background His first novel, taught and
  lives in North Carolina.
• Historical Setting Civil War Era

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Catch-22by Joseph Heller

• Plot Background satirical war novel, World War
  II bombardier feigns insanity in order to get
  home
• Author Background Heller served as a B-25 wing
  bombardier in World War II, flew sixty missions
• Historical Period 1944, Final Months of World
  War II

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Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

• Plot Background war novel, life of a soldier who
  survives the bombing of Dresden
• Author Background Vonnegut served in the US Army
  from 1942-1945, was a POW, and received the
  Purple Heart
• Historical Period 1945, Dresden, Germany, and
  imaginary planet Tralfadore

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In Country by Bobbie Ann
Mason

• Plot Background daughter of man killed in
  Vietnam tries to link with her past
• Author Background newspaper and magazine writer
• Historical Period 1984, with flashbacks to the
  Vietnam War

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The Things They Carried by Tim
OBrien

• Plot Background short stories about soldiers in
  Vietnam
• Author Background served in Vietnam
• Historical Period Vietnam War

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Going After Cacciatoby Tim OBrien

• Plot Background A solider recounts what happened
  and what could have happened in Vietnam
• Author Background OBrien served in an Army
  combat unit during a tour of duty in Vietnam
• Historical Period Vietnam 1969

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Pacos Storyby Larry Heinemann

• Plot Background Vietnam Veteran returns to town
  looking for work and a sense of normalcy.
• Author Background won the National Book Award in
  1987
• Historical Period post-Vietnam war

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Enders Gameby Orson Scott Card

• Plot Background young people train for alien
  military attack
• Author Background science fiction writer known
  for his moral themes
• Historical Period future

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Cats Cradleby Kurt Vonnegut

• Plot Background search for ice that freezes at
  room temperature
• Author Background mixes science fiction and
  philosophy
• Historical Period 1960s

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Women in Conflict with Societys Expectations
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The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

• Plot Background single woman in wealthy New York
  society
• Author Background experienced New York
  affluence received Pulitzer Prize for The Age of
  Innocence in 1921
• Historical Period early 1900s

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The Color Purpleby Alice Walker

• Plot Background Georgia, Tennessee, Africa,
  1920-40
• Author Background Brought up in the rural South,
  won Pulitzer for this book
• Historical Background The exploitation of women

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The Feminine Mystique
by Betty Friedan

• Plot Background womens unhappiness in the
  1960s
• Author Background feminist organizer, writer,
  and lecturer
• Historical Period 1960s

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The Bell Jarby Sylvia Plath

• Plot Highly intelligent young woman struggles
  with career choices and her own mental stability
  in the Fifties.
• Author Autobiographical treatment of Plaths
  very real personal battles.
• Historical events Conservative era with limited
  choices for women.

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Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen
by Alix Kates Shulman

• Plot Background memoirs of a woman who feels
  trapped in her marriage and her life
• Author Background feminist writer, her book was
  considered the "first important novel to emerge
  from the Women's Liberation movement."
• Historical Period late 1960s

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The Optimist's Daughterby Eudora Welty

• Plot Background Laurel visits her dying, but
  powerful Father and finds him married to a
  coarse and shallow woman, who is Laurels age.
• Author Background Pulitzer Prize in 1973
• Historical Period New Orleans, Mississippi Delta
  1960s

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The Handmaids Tale
by Margaret Atwood

• Plot Background futuristic story about womens
  rights
• Author Background prominent Canadian writer of
  many genres
• Historical Period 22nd century (2195)

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The Wild WestThe Wilderness Experience
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Undaunted Courageby Stephen Ambrose

• Plot Background focuses on the exploratory
  journey of Lewis and Clark.
• Author Background author of several books about
  American History,
• Historical Setting late 1700s early 1800s

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The Oxbow Incidentby Arthur Van Tilburg Clark

• Setting Nevada
• Time Period 1885
• Theme Three cattle rustlers are lynchedjust as
  word comes that they are innocent. Seen as the
  struggle between democracy and totalitarianism

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Lonesome Doveby Larry McMurty

• Setting Great Plains
• Time Period Late 19th C.
• Theme Adventures of two former Texas Rangers on
  a cattle drive from Texas to Montana Pulitzer
  Prize winner

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Bad LandBy Jonathan Raban

• Setting Montana
• Time Period 1909.
• Theme Congress, lobbied by the railroad, offered
  homesteaders 320-acres. An account of the
  hardships, myths, heroes, heroines and ruin of
  many immigrants.

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O Pioneers!by Willa Cather

• Plot Background Swedish immigrants tame the wild
  land, also, a love triangle in Nebraska
• Author Background considered this her first
  novel, based on the memories of her youth.
• Historical Period 1880s immigration, role of
  women

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A Lost Ladyby Willa Cather

• Plot Background story told by a boy in a
  Midwestern town, who admires the gracious ways
  and manners of Marian Forrester
• Author Background First ever woman to be voted
  into the Nebraska hall of fame
• Historical Background the decline of the West,
  1920s

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Baseball the All-American Sport
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The Naturalby Bernard Malamud

• Plot Background a superbly gifted natural at
  play in the fields of the old daylight baseball
  era. Filled with magical realism
• Author Background The Natural was his first of
  eight novels, taught at Bennington College in
  Vermont
• Historical Period 1930s and 1940s rural vs.
  urban life

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Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof

• Plot 1919 fix of the World Series and its
  attempted cover-up
• The most thorough investigation of the Black Sox
  scandal on record The Chicago Tribune

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1920s Expatriate GenerationEarly 20th Century
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This Side of Paradiseby F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Plot Background 1920s, East coast and
  Princeton University
• Author Background Novelist and screen writer who
  epitomized the Jazz Age
• Historical Background Lost Generation, Jazz Age

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The Sun Also Risesby Ernest Hemingway

• Plot Background life among the expatriates on
  Paris's Left Bank during the 1920s
• Author Background winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize
  for Literature

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The Maltese Falconby Dashiell Hammett

• Plot Background mystery set in the underworld of
  San Francisco
• Author Background former Pinkerton detective
  wrote for pulp fiction magazines
• Historical Background 1928, prohibition, stock
  market crash

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The Chicago Experience
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Studs Loniganby James T. Farrell

• Plot Background Chicagos South Side, 1916-1930
• Author Background Irish South-Sider who worked
  a wide variety of jobs
• Historical Background End of World War I,
  Prohibition

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The Coast of ChicagoBy Stuart Dybek

• Setting Chicago
• Time period 1990S 2000S
• Theme Long stories and short ones. Some read
  like poetry. Life in neighborhoods everywhere

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House on Mango Streetby Sandra Cisneros

• Setting Chicago
• Time Period Mid-1960s
• Theme A Chicana feminist, Cisneros writes of
  growing up in Chicagos Mexican- American
  neighborhoods. Deals with ethnicity and sexual
  identity.

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American Social Protest
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In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck

• Plot Background California farm area, 1930s
• Author Background Fruit picker, journalist,
  screen writer, Nobel Prize winner
• Historical Period Great Depression, rise of the
  American Communist Party

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On the Road by Jack Kerouac

• Plot Two young men travel across the country in
  search of thrills and adventure.
• Author Autobiographical novel of Kerouacs
  experiences in the late Forties.
• Historical events McCarthyism, conformist
  culture in the Fifties when the book was
  published.

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The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

• Plot Background The semi-fictional accounts in
  the novel are based upon events that occurred
  years after On the Road
• Author Background concerns duality in Kerouac's
  life and ideals
• Historical Period late 1950s

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Electric Kool-Aid Acid Testby Tom Wolfe

• Plot Background Ken Keseys psychedelic road
  trip
• Author Background known for New Journalism
  style
• Historical Period 1960s

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One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nestby Ken Kesey

• Plot Background revolution and power struggle
  set in a mental ward
• Author Background volunteered for government LSD
  experiments worked in a psychiatric ward
• Historical Period1960s

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Less Than Zero and American Psycho by Bret
Easton Ellis

• Historical Period 1980s
• Plot Background LA college student experiments
  with drugs alcohol (Less Than Zero).
• Plot explore depths of insanity as a stockbroker
  by day tortures and murders at night (American
  Psycho).
• Author Background wrote first book when he was
  20.

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The Gang That Couldnt Shoot Straight by Jimmy
Breslin

• Plot Background Dark Comedy about Joe Gallo, a
  New York City gangster.
• Author Background awarded the Pulitzer Prize
  (1986) writer for several New York City
  newspapers
• Historical Period Mafia crime, 1940s 1960s

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Racial Tension and Identity

• African American
• Native American
• Asian American

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Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison

• Plot Background a young man finds new ways of
  dealing with race and identity
• Author Background Ellison wrote about the unity
  of the the American experience beyond class, race
  and religion.
• Historical Period 1940s and Early 1950s, Deep
  South and Harlem.

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Uncle Toms Cabinby Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Plot Background Kentucky and Louisiana, explores
  social and psychological problems with slavery
  and injustice.
• Author Background appalled by slavery, she wrote
  this book as a response. Book sold more than
  300,000 copies in 1852 when it was published.
• Historical Period The South, late 1800s

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Native Son by Richard Wright

• Plot Background Chicago, 1930s
• Author Background Moved North as a young man,
  first full-length novel
• Historical Period Great Black Migration, rise
  of American Communist Party, Great Depression

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale
Hurston

• Plot Background Eatonville and the Everglades,
  Florida, 1930s
• Author Background One of the foremost writers
  of the Harlem Renaissance
• Historical Background Harlem Renaissance,
  establishment of race colonies, racial politics

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Black Like Meby John Howard Griffin

• Plot Background White writer passes as a black
  man in the South
• Author Background Life changing experience for
  Griffin.
• Historical Period 1959, racism

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Black Boy by Richard Wright

• Plot Background Mississippi, Arkansas, Chicago,
  1912-1937
• Author Background Grew up in a poor family,
  affiliated with Communist Party
• Historical Period Era of strong racial
  prejudice, Jim Crow laws, Great Depression

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The Bluest Eyeby Toni Morrison

• Plot Background Told from five perspectives,
  focuses on an 11 year old girl who faces abuse
  and racism.
• Author Background Toni Morrisons first novel,
  she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993
• Historical Period American Midwest, Great
  Depression 1940s

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There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz

• Plot Background two brothers struggling to
  survive in Chicagos public housing
• Author Background Wall Street Journal reporter
• Historical Period 1980s

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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

• Plot murder of a Kansas farm family
  investigation and trial
• Author Background Capote is credited with
  inventing the true crime narrative
• Historical Period 1959

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by
Sherman Alexie

• Contemporary life on the Spokane Indian
  reservation, through 22 linked stories
• Basis for the film Smoke Signals

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House Made of Dawnby N. Scott Momaday

• Plot Background Native American World War II
  vet returns to the reservation
• Author Background Member of the Kiowa Nation,
  winner of the Pulitzer Prize for this work

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The Joy Luck Clubby Amy Tan

• Plot Background Chinese mothers and American
  daughters struggle for understanding
• Author Background Chinese-American, writes about
  the clash of cultures and generations

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Snow Falling on Cedarsby David Guterson

• Plot Background memories of internment camp on
  an isolated island.
• Author Background former high school teacher and
  journalist
• Historical Period 1940s, flashbacks from 1991
  to 1945.

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The Immigrant Experience
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Woman Warrior China Men
by Maxine Hong Kingston

• Plot Background growing up in a Chinese-American
  family
• Author Background Chinese-American teacher and
  college professor
• Historical Period written in 1976 stories occur
  1924-1975

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The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

• Contrast between a family of illegal immigrants
  and a middle-class suburban family
• Poses questions about immigration, unemployment,
  discrimination and social responsibility

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Call it Sleep by Henry Roth

• Plot Background story told by a young immigrant
  Jewish boy dealing with slum life in New York
  City
• Author Background published in 1934, Roth was an
  immigrant himself, lived in similar slums.
• Historical Setting New York, Immigrant Jewish
  life 1911 -1913

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When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly
Hayslip

• Non-fiction A Vietnamese woman grows up during
  the Vietnam War
• Focuses on the individuals emotional and
  physical outcomes caused by the war

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How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia
Alvarez

• Fifteen interconnected stories about a
  Dominican-American familys struggles with
  assimilation
• Four sisters and their parents look back on their
  struggles to adjust to America

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Lost in Translationby Eve Hoffman

• Setting Poland and Vancouver
• Time Period 1950s
• Theme Story of a young girl, who immigrated from
  Poland, learned a new language and culture, and
  shares what that experience means.

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Southern Issues
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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

• Plot Background Georgia cotton mill town, 1930s
• Author Background First novel at age 23, a focus
  on the grotesque
• Historical Period Condition of young women and
  Blacks in the Great Depression, growth of radio

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A Streetcar Named Desire and a second play by
Tennessee Williams

• Setting New Orleans
• Time Period 1940s
• Theme Dysfunctional family Blanche DuBois,
  despite her poverty and lack of morals, tries to
  live in a gentile fashion

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All the Kings Menby Robert Penn Warren

• Plot Background 1930s, an unnamed Southern
  state
• Author Background Novelist, poet, scholar,
  university professor
• Historical Background the Great Depression,
  political corruption in the South

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The American Family
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Ragtimeby E. L. Doctorow

• Plot Background stories of average New York
  families woven with celebrities (Houdini, Freud,
  etc.)
• Author Background born in New York English
  professor at New York University
• Historical Period early 1900s (but written in
  1974)

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All My Sons and Death of a Salesman by Arthur
Miller

• Author Background Millers dramas explore the
  issues that afflict humanity in post-WWII America
• Historical Period 1940s, after World War II
• Plot Background An aging business man discovers
  how his actions have affected his family
• Or another play like The Crucible

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Franny and Zooeyby J.D. Salinger

• Plot Background two distinct and related stories
  about the Glass siblings
• Author Background originally published in The
  New Yorker magazine.
• Historical Background teen angst late 50s early
  60s

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Nine Storiesby J.D. Salinger

• Plot Background A collection of short stories
• Author Background Includes his most famous
  stories A Perfect Day for Bananafish For
  Esme with Love and Squalor
• Historical Background late 1940s early 1950s

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The Housebreaker of Shady Hills by John Cheever

• Plot Background Collection of short stories
  focusing on the suburb of Shady Hill
• Author Background Cheever won the Pulitzer Prize
  for The Stories of John Cheever, the American
  Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle
  Award
• Historical Background late 50s early 60s

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Rabbit, Runby John Updike

• Plot Background 3 months in the life of a
  26-year-old former high school basketball player
  and his attempts to escape the constraints of his
  life.
• Author Background Updike won the Pulitzer Prize
  for both Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest
• Historical Background late 50s early 60s

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We Were the MulvaneysJoyce Carol Oates

• Plot Background ideal family begins to fall
  apart after a traumatic event.
• Author Background has published a book a year
  since the 1960s
• Historical Period 1970s

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Empire Fallsby Richard Russo

• Plot Background Explores life in a small, blue
  collar Maine town, where the mill and textile
  industries have closed, leaving behind the people
  and their stories.
• Author Background lives in Maine winner of
  Puiltzer Prize
• Historical Background present day

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Americas Role in the World
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The Plot Against Americaby Philip Roth

• Plot Background alternate history in which FDR
  is defeated in the presidential election of 1940
  by Charles Lindbergh
• Author Background winner of National Book Award
  in 1960 for Goodbye, Columbus
• Historical Background 1940

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The Manchurian Candidateby Richard Condon

• Plot A former P.O.W. is brainwashed and
  programmed to kill a presidential nominee
• Set during the Cold War (late 1940s)
• A true thriller with intrigue, suspense, and
  humor

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The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom
Wolfe

• Plot Background New York Citys social and
  ethnic divisions, told through the downfall of a
  wealthy bond salesman
• Author Background former reporter credited with
  creating the New Journalism style
• Historical Period 1980s

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Primary Colors A Novel of Politicsby
Anonymous/Joe Klein

• Plot Background The study of a presidential
  campaign, fictionalization of Bill Clintons run
  for the White House.
• Author Background Washington D.C. journalist,
  writer for Time Magazine
• Historical Background 1992 presidential campaign
  

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• War Experience
• Women in Conflict with Societys Expectations
• Wild West and Wilderness Experience
• Baseball All American Sport
• 1920s Expatriate Generation
• Chicago Experience
• American Frontier/Social Protest
• Racial Tension and Identity
• Southern Issues
• Immigrant Experience
• American Family
• Americas Role in the World

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