For English classes
Each student must read at least two books from the appropriate grade-level list during the summer of 2011.
Upcoming Freshmen
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- In this autobiography Angelou tells of the turbulent events of her childhood, during which she shuttled back and forth between dramatically different environments in Arkansas, Missouri, and California. During these growing up years she struggled against the odds of being black at a time when prejudice was at its height. But most of all, her story is the story of discovering who she is — of working her way through a multi-faceted identity crisis.
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- After a plane crash strands them on a tropical island while the rest of the world is ravaged by war, a group of British schoolboys attempts to form a civilized society but descends into brutal anarchy.
- A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog by Dean Koontz
- Sixteen-year-old Jimmy, on probation for assault, talks about life with three old men in a Harlem barbershop and hears about the tools he can use to get what he wants.
- Run With the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams
- This book is a boy's account of growing up in the South during the depression era. Both a rare first novel and a new American classic, Sams' novel has been compared to Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Upcoming Sophomores
- Bleachers by John Grisham
- This is the story of a past high school star quarterback, Neely Crenshaw, who returns after many years to the town that he left and never looked back. His former coach, Eddie Rake, is on his deathbed, so the boys from teams past have come to sit and hold vigil in the Messina High bleachers each evening regaling each other with tales of their playing days and tough coach.
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared from Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August.
- The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks
- In Swansboro, North Carolina, four months after her cherished husband Jim passed away, Julie Barenson receives the puppy and note from beyond. Knowing he was dying, Jim's only regret was how lonely his beloved Jules would be, as she had no one to turn to for solace. Jim arranged for Jules to have the puppy and vows to watch over her.
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- This is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California.
- Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
- Ever since second grade, Juli and Bryce have had one thing in common: Juli's affections for Bryce are as unyielding as Bryce's efforts to evade them. Then in eighth grade, the roles are reversed, as Bryce begins to open his eyes to the truth about those around him. Juli and Bryce's individual viewpoints — presented in alternating, first-person chapters — are adeptly portrayed in this tale of maturation and first love.
Upcoming Juniors
- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
- Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, leaves the hospital before his gashed neck heals enough to get him sent back to war. Still weak, he heads for the mountains, where a minister's daughter named Ada is his objective. Inman's return could hardly be timelier for the Charleston-raised Ada: her father has died, and she finds she knows little about operating a farm. Frazier blends the story of Inman's journey with that of Ada's efforts, with the help of a drifter named Ruby, to wring a subsistence living from the neglected land.
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Hester Prynne, condemned by Puritan law to wear the scarlet letter "A" for adultress, endures her ostracism with dignity, while her lover is tormented by the burden of an unexposed sin.
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Gene Forrester looks back fifteen years to a World War II year in which he and his best friend Phineas were roommates in a New Hampshire boarding school. Their friendship is marred by Finny's crippling fall, an event for which Gene is responsible and one that eventually leads to tragedy.
- Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks
- This memoir chronicles a three week trip around the world that he took with his brother, Micah. The brothers, then 37 and 38 years old, are the only surviving members of their family. Three Weeks with My Brother works through the untimely deaths of their parents and sibling and tells the story of their family.
Upcoming Juniors in Advanced Placement
Must read Fahrenheit 451 and one of the other two.
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- This is the story of Guy Montag, a fireman whose job it was to start fires. Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching the pages of books consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a 17-year-old girl who told him of a past when people weren't afraid. Then he met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think.
- Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile
- This is the true story of how a playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent, and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history. Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- This is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose.
Upcoming Seniors
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Published to widespread success in 1847 under the androgynous pseudonym of "Currer Bell," Jane Eyre catapulted 31-year-old Charlotte Bronte into the upper echelon of Victorian writers. Though it presumably relates events from the first decade of the 19th century, contemporary Victorians, particularly women, identified with Bronte's critique of Victorian class and gender mores.
- Grendel by John Gardner
- This book is a retelling of Beowulf from the view of one of the most frightening monsters in literature. From this viewpoint the reader comes to know Grendel as more than monstrous: he is searching for meaning and questioning the heroic values that depend so heavily on his own death.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Huxley presents a terrifying vision of a Utopian world gone wrong. It seems in this world that everyone should be happy, but the protagonist, Bernard Marx, feels empty and attempts to find fulfillment thourgh love—a subversive emotion.
- You Don't Know Me by David Klass
- Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful, but shallow classmate, and other problems at school.
Upcoming Seniors in Advanced Placement
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- The captain of a steamship on the Congo River meets and observes Mr. Kurtz, the fabled chief of the Inner Station for the trading company on that river in 1890.
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
- A grim tale of retribution involving a discouraged New England farmer, his hypochondriac wife, and a girl who still finds some joy in living.
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