Special Collections
Word Beta Test Reading List
Description: These titles were used during our Beta testing phase. Please feel free to try any of them now, while we convert the rest of the Bookshare library. #general
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The Golden Apples
by Eudora WeltyThis collection of short stories of the Mississippi Delta by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author is &“a work of art&” (The New York Times Book Review). Here in Morgana, Mississippi, the young dream of other places; the old can tell you every name on every stone in the cemetery on the town&’s edge; and cuckolded husbands and love-starved piano teachers share the same paths. It&’s also where one neighbor has disappeared on the horizon, slipping away into local legend. Black and white, lonely and the gregarious, sexually adventurous and repressed, vengeful and resigned, restless and settled, the vividly realized characters that make up this collection of interrelated stories, with elements drawn from ancient myth and transplanted to the American South, prove that this National Book Award–winning writer, as Katherine Anne Porter once wrote, had &“an ear sharp, shrewd, and true as a tuning fork.&” &“I doubt that a better book about &‘the South&’—one that more completely gets the feel of the particular texture of Southern life, and its special tone and pattern—has ever been written.&” —The New Yorker
The Ponder Heart
by Eudora Welty&“A wonderful tragicomedy&” of a Mississippi family, a vast inheritance, and an impulsive heir, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Delta Wedding (The New York Times). Daniel Ponder is the amiable heir to the wealthiest family in Clay County, Mississippi. To friends and strangers, he&’s also the most generous, having given away heirlooms, a watch, and so far, at least one family business. His niece, Edna Earle, has a solution to save the Ponder fortune from Daniel&’s mortifying philanthropy: As much as she loves Daniel, she&’s decided to have him institutionalized. Foolproof as the plan may seem, it comes with a kink—one that sets in motion a runaway scheme of mistaken identity, a hapless local widow, a reckless wedding, a dim-witted teenage bride, and a twist of dumb luck that lands this once-respectable Southern family in court to brave an embarrassing trial for murder. It&’s become the talk of Clay County. And the loose-tongued Edna Earle will tell you all about it. &“The most revered figure in contemporary American letters,&” said the New York Times of Eudora Welty, which also hailed The Ponder Heart—a winner of the William Dean Howells Medal which was adapted into both a Broadway play and a PBS Masterpiece series—as &“Miss Welty at her comic, compassionate best.&”
Thirteen Stories
by Eudora Welty&“I&’ve read her Thirteen Stories many times, and I&’m always awed by how much comedy, pathos, satire and lyricism she manages to squeeze into her stories.&” —Sue Monk Kidd A strong sense of place—in this case Mississippi—along with often larger-than-life characterizations of ordinary folk with all their glorious eccentricities and foibles, and above all a completely distinctive voice, come together in Eudora Welty&’s fiction to offer us a world that is sometimes sad, sometimes comic, often petty, and always compassionate. Here is a baker&’s dozen of Welty&’s very best, including: &“The Wide Net,&” in which a pregnant wife threatens to drown herself, despite fear of the water, and a communal dragging of the river turns into a celebratory fish-fry; &“Petrified Man,&” revealing the savagery of small-town gossip; &“Powerhouse,&” Welty&’s prose answer to jazz improvisation and the emotional heart of the blues; and &“Why I Live at the P.O.&”, the hilariously one-sided testimony of a postmistress who believes herself wronged by her family. With her highly tuned ear and sharp insight into human behavior, Eudora Welty has crafted stories as vital and unpredictable as they are artful and enduring. &“Miss Welty has written some of the finest short stories of modern times.&” —The New York Times &“Eudora Welty is one of our purest, finest, gentlest voices.&” —Anne Tyler
Charlotte's Web
by E. B. WhiteSome Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.
This is a tender novel of friendship, family, and adventure that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come.
Newbery Honor book
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
by Mo WillemsWhen a bus driver takes a break from his route, a very unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place-a pigeon! But you've never met one like this before. As he pleads, wheedles, and begs his way through the book, children will love being able to answer back and decide his fate. In his hilarious picture book debut, popular cartoonist Mo Willems perfectly captures a preschooler's temper tantrum. Images and image descriptions available.
Elements of Language
by Holt Rinehart WinstonHere's your chance to step out of the grammar book and into the real world. You may not notice parts of sentences, but you and the people around you use them every day. The following activities challenge you to find a connection between sentences and the world around you. Do the activity below that suits your personality best, and then share your discoveries with your class.
Lighthousekeeping
by Jeanette WintersonAn orphaned girl is held spellbound by the tales of a lighthouse keeper on the Scottish coast, in a novel by the Costa Award-winning author of The Passion. After her mother is literally swept away by the savage winds off the Atlantic coast of Salts, Scotland, never to be seen again, the orphaned Silver is feeling particularly unmoored. Taken in by the mysterious keeper of a lighthouse on Cape Wrath, Silver finds an anchor in Mr. Pew—blind, as old and legendary as a unicorn, and a yarn spinner of persuasive power. The tale he has to tell Silver is that of a nineteenth-century clergyman named Babel Dark, whose life was divided between a loving light and a mask of deceit. Peopled with such luminaries as Charles Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson, Mr. Pew&’s story within a story within a story soon unfolds like a map. It&’s one that Silver must follow if she&’s to be led through her own darkness, and to find her own meaning in life, in this novel by a winner of the Costa, Lambda, and E.M. Forster Awards, the author of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit; Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and other acclaimed works. &“In her sea-soaked and hypnotic eighth novel, Winterson turns the tale of an orphaned young girl and a blind old man into a fable about love and the power of storytelling…Atmospheric and elusive, Winterson's high-modernist excursion is an inspired meditation on myth and language.&”—The New Yorker
Everything, Everything
by Nicola YoonIf you love Eleanor and Park, Hazel and Augustus, and Mia and Adam, you’ll love the story of Maddy, a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world, and Olly, the boy who moves in next door... and becomes the greatest risk she’s ever taken.
My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.
But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.
Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.
A New York Times Bestseller
Now a major motion picture