Prep School Library: 11th and 12th Grade Symposium

Candace Chen works at a boring office job in Manhattan, trying to get by -- until a mysterious plague hits New York and spreads rapidly through the country, zombifying its victims and sending the survivors scattering across the country. But Candace has a secret, and when it's discovered by the leader of the cult she joins to survive, she has to weigh the promises of safety with the risks of setting out on her own. This novel is funny, insightful, and full of suspense: It's a pandemic story, but not one that you have read before.

Percival Everett’s James retells the story of the runaway enslaved man who accompanies Huck down the Mississippi River in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This time, the book is brilliantly narrated from James' perspective, and his voice is powerful in its condemnation of the society in which he lives. While the novel starts off as a tight companion piece to Huck Finn, it ultimately takes the reader onto new adventures and experiences, and you can appreciate the life James carves out for himself whether you have read Twain's classic or not.

This novel follows the titular Sam as she navigates girlhood and young adulthood with a single mother and largely absent father. Sam isn’t interested in academics, but she is passionate about rock climbing. Ultimately, Sam forges a path for herself that looks different from the one the adults in her life imagined for her but is nonetheless uniquely—and triumphantly— her own.

"The science is not settled, so we could be wrong" is a phrase you might have heard, but this argument for inaction, based on a flawed understanding of how science works, has been deliberately used to obscure scientific consensus. Merchants of Doubt exposes this modern American history of sowing doubt about the dangers of smoking, acid rain, ozone holes, and climate change. It also reveals the errors in understanding that underlie this politically and financially motivated science denial and how to correct them.

Interior Chinatown is a strange, post-modern, satirical novel that follows the life of Willis Wu, a persistently typecast Taiwanese-American actor who desperately wants to transcend bit parts and land a coveted "Kung Fu Guy" role on the silver screen. The Washington Post called it “One of the funniest books of the year,” but it also asks readers to re-examine the complexities and contradictions lurking within the pursuit of the "American Dream."

In a mysterious house, with rooms that stretch in infinite directions, Piranesi lives alone in search of what a mysterious visitor describes as "A Great and Secret Knowledge." What is the knowledge that Piranesi seeks? Can the visitor be trusted? How did Piranesi find himself in this house? These questions will keep you turning the pages, but the real power in this stunning novel is a deeply personal exploration of identity and the pursuit of truth.

In this sci-fi novel, the Axis powers have won the Second World War, and the United States has been divided between Germany and Japan. Slavery is legal once again, and most people must hide their identities from the fascist government. As Americans anticipate a war between the two global superpowers, a book about an alternate reality — one where the Allies won — has begun to secretly circulate. This American classic forces us to contemplate reality and contingency, begging the question of what is real and how we can challenge our perceived reality.

Discover the amazing true story of a Pakistani immigrant raised in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of London who had his life's trajectory forever altered by a chance encounter with the musical stylings of Bruce Springsteen. This book is for anyone who has ever wanted to love, stand up, scream, try, run, join in, understand, start over, win, speak out, or dream.