June 2, 2008
The Homewood-Flossmoor High School community is pleased to announce the selections for the 08-09 all-school reading initiative, H-F Reads. The mission of H-F Reads is the unification of a community of readers and lifelong learners through the sharing of books, ideas, and opinions.
The philosophy behind this mission is that when people get together to discuss books, they inevitably reveal their own perspectives, experiences, and feelings. This sharing results in the building of understandings and relationships across ages, sexes, cultures, and backgrounds. By promoting the reading of quality books chosen around a common theme, H-F Reads can assist in building the rigor, relevance, and relationships that underscore our H-F school mission, which recognizes and celebrates the “diversity of backgrounds, abilities, beliefs, and aspirations” of all people in the effort to “improve the quality of each student’s life…in an expanding global society.”
H-F Reads invites community members to read four books which, though diverse in genre and subject matter, all explore this year’s theme of Science: Real and Imagined:
E=mc2 : A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis. Chronicles the "life" of Einstein's theory of relativity, discussing the scientific knowledge that led to it and describing its influence on the world, including the
scientific discoveries it made possible.
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Through journal entries,
sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a
meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
A Whole New Mind : Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H.
Pink. Explores how the world is changing in the twenty-first century, becoming
more "right-brain" based and allowing people to be more creative and artistic
than earlier left-brain generations.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new
Friend, Shay, decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced
operation that turns sixteen-year-old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes
that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.
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H-F Reads: Selected Titles for the 2007-08 School Year
The Homewood-Flossmoor High School community is continuing its all-school reading initiative: H-F Reads. The mission of H-F Reads is to create a community of readers and lifelong learners through the sharing of books, ideas and opinions. During the 2007-08 school year, we invite students, staff and community members to read the following books. Although diverse in genre and subject matter, all explore this year’s theme of Science: Real and Imagined.
Resources and Links for
H-F Reads 2008-2009
Science: Real and Imagined
E=mc2 : A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis. Chronicles the "life" of Einstein's theory of relativity, discussing the scientific knowledge that led to it and describing its influence on the world, including the scientific discoveries it made possible.
DVD
Einstein's Big Idea (DVD) Based on the book, E=mc² : A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation, by David Bodanis, this production originally aired on PBS as a segment of the television program Nova. Dramatizes how Einstein arrived at his 1905 discovery that the realms of matter and energy are linked. Reveals the roots of this breakthrough in the human stories of scientists Michael Farady, Antoine Lavoisier and Lise Maitner, whose innovative thinking across four centuries helped lead to E=mc², and ultimately unleashed the power of the atom.
On the Web
Everyone's heard of it, but what does E=mc2 -- the world's most famous equation -- really mean? And why did it change the world? In this companion Web site to the NOVA program Einstein's Big Idea, view interactive features on the history and science behind E = mc2, download audio and more. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/
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Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Through journal entries, sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. (Want more? Read the recently released sequel, The Dead and the Gone.)
On the Web
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A Whole New Mind : Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink. Explores how the world is changing in the twenty-first century, becoming more "right-brain" based and allowing people to be more creative and artistic than earlier left-brain generations.
On the Web
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Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend, Shay, decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen-year-old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like. The first book in a series which includes Pretties, Specials, and Extras.
On the Web
