Shaker High School
Dear Parents and Students:
At Shaker High, we know that reading during the vacation months contributes significantly to a student's academic growth and promotes lifelong reading pleasure and practices. Current research supports the fact that students who read widely during the summer tend to experience a smoother transition when fall classes commence. As a result, we encourage all students to select books that interest them, and to read from a wide array of genres and authors. Specific summer reading expectations for all high school English courses are outlined below:
Students enrolled in grades 9H, 10H, or 11H must read two books -either from the suggested list or simply titles that interest them.
Students enrolled in the Writing Center English internship must read Chapters 1-2 of The Bedford Guide to Peer Tutoring.
Students in Advanced Placement Language and Composition must read two required nonfiction works.
Students in Advanced Placement Literature and Composition must read two novels of literary merit as outlined in the description below.
All students enrolled in 9R, 10R, 11R and senior electives are required to read two books of their choice.
The suggested reading list is designed to provide diverse selections of various reading levels and interests. Certainly, not every book will appeal to every reader. As such, we advise parents and students to discuss the options listed here and to select books judiciously. In order for summer reading to be an enjoyable experience, the books chosen should be appropriate for the student both in terms of content and level of difficulty.
Please note that while there is no written assignment to be completed during the summer, students may complete an assignment when they return to school in the fall.
Sincerely,
Pamela Burns
K12 ELA Supervisor
Required Reading Lists by Course
Grade 9 Honors
Students may choose one work of fiction and one work of nonfiction.
Grade 10 Honors
Students may choose any two works.
Grade 11 Honors
Students may choose any two works.
Advanced Placement Language and Composition
Reader, Come Home, by Maryanne Wolf
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
Advanced Placement Literature and Composition
Read TWO novels of literary merit and be prepared to discuss each author’s goals in terms of the AP “Big Ideas”: character, setting, structure/plot, the function of a narrator, and theme. Choose (1) Pre-21st Century novel and (1) 21st Century novel.
Use the attached spreadsheet of Works “of Literary Merit,” As Decided by AP Literary Argument Essay Prompt Suggested Titles to help guide your selection. You are NOT required to read a text from this list but may use these titles as examples of novels of “literary merit” when you explore other resources such as The New York Times Book Review. Some of these books include adult subjects and language; please be sure to complete some preliminary research or peruse reviews before you decide upon a book.
The AP Literature Summer Reading unit will provide students with the essential skills necessary to read actively, inquisitively, and to develop and defend their own interpretations through close literary analysis. At the culmination of the unit, students will demonstrate their understanding of one summer reading text by crafting an AP-style literary response.
Suggested Reading Lists by Grade Level
The lists of titles below provides options for Shaker High School students and their parents/guardians to use in order to begin the process of selecting summer reading books. Students are not limited to selecting from among those titles, nor are they limited to the suggested grade levels of the titles.
For the past several years students and teachers at Shaker High School participated in ProjectLIT - a national, grassroots literacy movement empowering readers and leaders in hundreds of schools and communities across the country. The infographic of the newly published ProjectLIT titles is posted below as part of Shaker High School’s summer reading options. Shaker High School has a ProjectLIT Book Club that meets weekly throughout the school year.
Project Lit Books
@shsprojectlit
Grades 9 and 10
Austen, Jane Sense and Sensibility
Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights
Doyle, Arthur Conan The Hound of the Baskervilles
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Smith, Betty A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Verne, Jules 20,000 Leagues under the Sea
Wells, H. G. The Invisible Man
White, T. H. The Once and Future King
Fiction
Alexander, Kwame Solo
Alvarez, Julia How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent
Anderson, Laurie Halse Fever 1792
Anderson, Laurie Halse Wintergirls
Andrews, Jesse Me Earl and the Dying Girl
Bradbury, Jennifer Shift
Collins, Suzanne The Hunger Games
Demas, Corinne Everything I Was
Dessen, Sarah The Truth about Forever
Dessen, Sarah Just Listen
Donnelly, Jennifer A Northern Light
Donnelly, Jennifer Revolution
Flinn, Alex Breathing Underwater
Forman, Gayle If I Stay
Gantos, Jack Dead End in Norvelt
Green, John The Fault in Our Stars
Green, John Turtles All the Way Down
Griffin, Adele Amandine
Griffin, Adele My Almost Epic Summer
Grisham, John Playing for Pizza
Halpin, Brendan How Ya Like Me Now
Hartinger, Brent Project Sweet Life
Horowitz, Anthony Point Blank – Alex Rider Series
Johnson, Maureen 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Leviathan, David Every Day
McCormick, Patricia Never Fall Down
Ness, Patrick The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Oates, Joyce Carol Big Mouth, Ugly Girl
Parker, Robert The Boxer and the Spy
Reynolds, Jason The Boy in the Black Suit
Scott, Michael The Alchemist
Sparks, Nicholas A Walk to Remember
Sturman, Jennifer And Then Everything Unraveled
Thomas, Angie The Hate U Give
Wein, Elizabeth Code Name Verity
Valentine, Jenny Broken Soup
Zoboi, Ibi American Street
Zusak, Markus The Book Thief
Nonfiction/Memoir/Biography
Ambrose, Stephen The Wild Blue
Beah, Ishmael A Long Way Gone
Blumenthal, Karen Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different
Halberstam, David Firehouse
Heiligman Deborah Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
Mah, Adeline Yen Chinese Cinderella
Myers, Walter Dean The Greatest
Nelson, Pete Left for Dead
Roy, Travis Eleven Seconds
Ruhlman, Michael The Making of a Chef
Sides, Hampton Ghost Soldiers
Skloot, Rebecca The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Smithson, Ryan Ghosts of War
Trevor, Noah Born A Crime
Walls, Jeannette The Glass Castle
Worsley, Frank Arthur Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Adams, Douglas Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Card, Orson Scott Enders Game Dickinson, Peter The Ropemaker
Gaimon, Neil The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Jordan, Robert Eye of the World
King, Stephen Eye of the Dragon
Odom, Mel The Rover
Paolini, Christopher Eragon
Watson, Renee Piecing Me Together
Wooding, Chris Storm Thief
Graphic Novel
Krosoczka, Jareett Hey, Kiddo
Ness, Patrick A Monster Calls
Ness, Patrick And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Grades 11 and 12
Austen, Jane Emma
Baldwin, James If Beale Street Could Talk
Coetzee, J. M. Slow Man
Eliot, George Middlemarch
Forster, E. M. A Room with a View
James, Henry Daisy Miller
Kerouac, Jack On the Road
McCullers, Carson The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Styron, William Sophie’s Choice
Vonnegut, Kurt Slaughterhouse Five
Walker, Alice The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith House of Mirth
Fiction
Adichie, Chimamanda N. Half of a Yellow Sun
Baldacci, David The Simple Truth
Barrett, Andrea Ship Fever and Other Stories
Bohjalian, Chris Before You Know Kindness
Bray, Libba Beauty Queens
Brookner, Anita Hotel du Lac
Clancy, Tom Patriot Games
Crichton, Michael Airframe
Crichton, Michael Prey
Cross, Donna Pope Joan
DeRosnay, Tatiana Sarah’s Key
Doerr, Anthony All the Light We Cannot See
Eggers, Dave The Circle
Eggers, Dave What is the What
Esquivel, Laura Like Water for Chocolate
Foer, Jonathan Safran Everything Is Illuminated
Follet, Ken Eye of the Needle
Franzen, Jonathan The Corrections
Golden, Arthur Memoirs of a Geisha
Gruen, Sara Water for Elephants
Gutterson, David Snow Falling on Cedars
Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Hamill, Pete Snow in August
Haslett, Adam You Are Not a Stranger Here
Harris, Robert Pompeii: A Novel
Hoffman, Alice Skylight Confessions
Hosseini, Khaled A Thousand Splendid Suns
Huxley, Aldous Island
Ishiguro, Kazuo Never Let Me Go
Ivan, Doig The Whistling Season
Jackson, Shirley The Haunting of Hill House
Jin, Ha The Crazed
Kimmel, Haven The Solace of Leaving Early
Kincaid, Jamaica The Autobiography of My Mother
King, Stephen Misery
Lawson, Mary Crow Lake
Lee, Harper Go Set a Watchman
Lee, Min Jin Pachinko
Livesey, Margot Banishing Verona
McDermott, Alice Charming Billy
McEwan, Ian Atonement
McMillan, Terry Waiting to Exhale
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green
Munro, Alice Runaway
Nemirovsky, Irene Suite Francaise
Ng, Celeste Little Fires Everywhere
O’Nan, Stewart The Good Wife
Patchett, Ann Patron Saint of Liars
Proulx, E. Annie The Shipping News
Quindlen, Anna Blessings
Raleigh, Michael In the Castle of the Flynns
Rand, Ayn The Fountainhead
Roth, Philip The Plot Against America
Russo, Richard Empire Falls
See, Lisa Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Shaara, Michael Killer Angels
Smith, Zadie White Teeth
Sittenfeld, Curtis Eligible
Tan, Amy The Kitchen God’s Wife
Tartt, Donna The Secret History
Tartt, Donna The Little Friend
Turow, Scott Presumed Innocent
Tyler, Anne Saint Maybe
Weber, Katharine The Music Lesson
Werlin, Nancy Double Helix
Nonfiction/Memoir/Biography
Buford, Bill Heat
Conover, Ted Rolling Nowhere
Didion, Joan We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction
Durant, Michael In the Company of Heroes
Eggers, Dave A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Ehrenreich, Barbara Nickel and Dimed
Ehrlich, Gretel The Solace of Open Spaces
Foer, Jonathan Safran Eating Animals
Foer, Joshua Moonwalking with Einstein
Frazier, Ian Great Plains
Frazier, Ian On the Rez
Friedman, Thomas The World Is Flat
Fuller, Alexandra Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
Gantos, Jack A Hole in My Life
Goodwin, Doris Kearns Team of Rivals
Halberstam, David The Daily Lives of Heroes
Halberstam, David The Best and the Brightest
Hall, Brian I Should Be Extremely in Your Company
Ilibaggiza, Immaculee Left to Tell
Kincaid, Jamaica A Small Place
Krakauer, Jon Into the Wild
McBride, James The Color of Water
McCourt, Frank Angela’s Ashes
Moehringer, J. R. The Tender Bar
Nafisi, Azar Reading Lolita in Tehran
Orlean, Susan The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup
Patchett, Ann Truth and Beauty
Schlosser, Eric Fast Food Nation
Sedaris, David Naked
Sedaris, David Me Talk Pretty One Day
Sullivan, John Jeremiah Pulphead
Vowell, Sarah The Wordy Shipmates
Vowell, Sarah The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Wallace, David Foster A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
Woolf, Virginia A Room of One’s Own
X, Malcolm The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Doyle, Arthur Conan The Lost World
Gibson, William Neuromancer
Goodkind, Terry The Sword of Truth
Haggard, H. Rider King Solomon’s Mines
Herbert, Frank Dune
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Jordan, Robert Eye of the World
Rand, Ayn The Fountainhead