Summer Reading for the High School
2008-2009

9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade 12 Grade AP English

 

9th Grade Reading List
All Academic and College Prep students are required to read one (1) book from the approved Summer Reading list cited on below. Academic and College Prep students may select any book from any of the 9th grade titles. Academic and College Prep students will be required to complete an assessment assignment upon their return to school.

All Honors students will be required to read two (2) books from the approved Summer Reading list. Students are to select one (1) book from the ten titles listed and one (1) book from the four (4) authors listed. During the first week of school, Honors students will be required to complete a written assessment based on their reading from the Honors list.

Academic and College Prep

1. Go Ask Alice--Anonymous

2. A Child Called It-- David Pelzer

3. Summer of My German Soldier--Bette Greene

4. Watership Down-- Richard Adams

5. The Old Man and the Sea--Ernest Hemingway

6. I Never Played the Game-- Howard Cosell

7. Lonesome Dove-- Larry McMurtry

8. Princess Bride--William Goldman

9. Girls of Summer--Jere Longman

Honors

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles-- Arthur Conan Doyle

2. Brave New World--Aldous Huxley

3. Ordinary People--Judith Guest

4. Our Town-- Thornton Wilder

5. Dune--Frank Herbert

6. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court--Mark Twain

7. Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe

8. Of the Farm--John Updike

9. The Bridge at San Luis Rey--Thornton Wilder

10. Johnny Got His Gun--Dalton Trumbo

Honors Authors
  • H.G. Wells
  • Tom Clancy
  • Mary Higgins Clark
  • Agatha Christie

 
 

10 Grade Reading List
All Academic and College Prep students are required to read one (1) book from the approved Summer Reading list cited below. Academic and College Prep students may select any book from any of the 10th grade titles. Academic and College Prep students will be required to complete an assessment assignment upon their return to school.

All Honors students will be required to read two (2) books from the approved Summer Reading list. Students are to select one (1) book from the twelve titles listed and one (1) book from the four (4) authors listed. During the first week of school, Honors students will be required to complete a written assessment based on their reading from the Honors list.

Academic and College Prep

1. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry--Mildred Taylor

2. The Joy Luck Club--Amy Tan

3. Death Be Not Proud--John Gunther

4. Angels and Demons--Dan Brown

5. Alive--Paul Read Piers 

6. The Bell Jar--Sylvia Plath

7. Half-Blood Prince--J.K. Rowling

8. In the Heart of the Sea--Nathaniel Philbrick

9. The Time Machine--H.G. Wells

10. It’s Not About the Bike--Lance Armstrong

11. The Hot Zone--Richard Preston

Honors

1. The Man Who Would Be King--Rudyard Kipling

2. The Hobbit--J.R.R. Tolkien

3. Eight Men Out--Eliot Asinof

4. Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston

5. A Lesson Before Dying--Ernest Gaines

6. The Good Earth--Pearl S. Buck

7. Babbit--Sinclair Lewis

8. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant--Anne Tyler

9. Wide Sargasso Sea--Jean Rhys

10. The Maltese Falcon--Dashiell Hammett

11. The Lovely Bones--Alice Sebold

12. Love in the Time of Cholera--Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Honors Authors

  • John Grisham
  • Stephen King
  • Robert Heinlein
  • Michael Crichton

 
 

11th Grade Reading List
All College Prep students are required to read one (1) book from the approved Summer Reading list cited below. Students may select any book from titles listed for 11th grade. College Prep students will be required to complete an assessment assignment upon their return to school.

All Honors students will be required to read two (2) books from the approved Summer Reading list. Students are to select one (1) book from the twelve titles listed and one (1) book from the four (4) authors listed. During the first week of school, Honors students will be required to complete a written assessment based on their reading from the Honors list.

 
Academic and College Prep

1. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams

2. The Prince and the Pauper-- Mark Twain

3. Cat’s Cradle--Kurt Vonnegut

4. Black Boy-- Richard Wright

5. Timeline--Michael Crichton

6. Isaac’s Storm-- Erik Larson

7. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter--Carson McCullers

8. In Country--Bobbie Ann Mason

9. Rumors of Peace--Ella Leffland

10. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood--Rebecca Wells

11. Junction Boys--Jim Dent

12. The Color of Water--James McBride

Honors

1. Into Thin Air--Jon Krakauer

2. The Sun Also Rises--Ernest Hemingway

3. Tender Is the Night--F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. Middle Passage--Charles R. Johnson

5. Rocket Boys--Homer Hickam

6. Timeline--Michael Crichton

7. Slaughterhouse 5--Kurt Vonnegut

8. Silent Spring--Rachel Carson

9. The Deerslayer--James Fenimore Cooper

10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest's--Ken Kesey

11. Warriors Don’t Cry--Melba Patillo Beals

12. The Killer Angels--Michael Shaara

 

Honors Authors
  • Ken Follet
  • Sue Grafton
  • Kurt Vonnegut
  • Isaac Asimov

 
 

12th Grade Reading List
All Academic and College Prep students are required to read one (1) book from the approved Summer Reading list cited below. Students may select any book from the 12th grade titles. Academic and College Prep students will be required to complete an assessment assignment upon their return to school.

All Honors students will be required to read two (2) books from the approved Summer Reading list. Students are to select one (1) book from the ten titles listed and one (1) book from the four (4) authors listed. During the first week of school, Honors students will be required to complete a written assessment based on their reading from the Honors list.

 
Academic and College Prep

1. Sleeping Murder--Agatha Christie

2. Siddhartha--Hermann Hesse

3. Grendel--John Gardner

4. The Crystal Cave-- Mary Stewart

5. The Five People You Meet in Heaven--Mitch Albom

6. Da Vinci Code--Dan Brown

7. Great Expectations--Charles Dickens

8. Angela’s Ashes--Frank McCourt

9. Kitchen God’s Wife--Amy Tan

10. A Separate Peace--John Knowles

Honors

1. A Doll’s House--Henrik Ibsen

2. Siddhartha--Hermann Hesse

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude--Gabriel Garcia Marquez

4. No Exit and Three Other Plays--Jean-Paul Sartre

5. The Fellowship of the Ring--J. R.R. Tolkein

6. House of Spirits--Isabelle Allende

Honors Authors
  • Charlotte Bronte
  • Emily Bronte
  • Charles Dickens
  • Henry James
  • Amy Tan
     
 

Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement students are required to read all the books from the approved summer reading list cited below. In addition, students are required to read one (1) book from the three (3) authors listed.

As a method of assessment, students will be required to complete the following:

  • Maintain a journal recording interpretation, thoughts and responses to situations.
  • In September, there will be class discussions and writings about the themes presented in the summer reading selections. Throughout the year these themes and works will continue to be discussed through class activities.
AP students are required to read all of the following titles and suggestion which will total six (6) books.

1. All students are to read the following four (4) books

  1. Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

  2. A Doll House - Henrik Ibsen

  3. Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson

  4. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

2. Students are required to read one full-length work by one of the following authors:

  • Isabel Allende

  • Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

  • Toni Morrison

  • Amy Tan

3. Students are to read one book of their own choosing - any genre

For each book, maintain a reading journal in which you record observations, reactions, and analysis.