Summer Reading by Grade and Department
RATIONALE: Research continues to show that few things help students succeed in school better than reading. The following offerings will be beneficial to understanding works and/or subjects studied during the year. Beyond that, we hope you will enjoy your reading for the simple pleasure of it.
Students will read one book from the English list and one from their grade-determined, other-subject area offerings.
Grade 9—Math
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell: “The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
1776, by David McCullough: Most Americans
are familiar with the Christmas Eve crossing of the
Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis: In retrospect, it seems as if the American Revolution was inevitable. But was it? This book reveals that many of those truths we hold to be self-evident were actually fiercely contested in the early days of the republic. (Level I; Honors; Pre-AP)
Revolutionary Mothers, by Carol Berkin: This book describes the active role of women as organizers of pre-war boycotts of British goods, as "camp followers" who did laundry, cooking and sewing for troops on both sides of the fight, and as couriers, spies and other such covert operatives. The common thread that runs through Berkin’s narrative is clear --- women were active participants in the great events of 1775-1783, not stay-at-homes. It is a corner of American history worth illuminating. (Level I; Honors)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson: Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel re-imagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today. ( Level I) (fiction)
*All Social Studies AP classes have an additional summer reading book(s). (AP
Psychology, AP Modern Europe, AP
Grade 11—Science
Meteorology & Oceanography
The
Blizzard of '78, by Michael Tougias:
Chemistry
Twinkie, Deconstructed, by Steve Ettlinger: Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients label-without a clue as to what most of it means. So when his young daughter asked, Daddy, what’s polysorbate 60?, he was at a loss-and determined to find out.
Physics
A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking: One of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin?
AP Biology
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande: An examination of how medical professionals strive for better, even in the face of adversity. The author makes his case that failure is "so easy, so effortless," but also that "positive deviance" -- deliberate and determined individual improvement -- is possible. His own self-consciousness, his ability to ask questions about the nuts and bolts of medical practice, and his storytelling skills make this a book about the complex grandeur of the human endeavor that is medicine.
Biotechnology & Anatomy & Physiology
“The Cobra Event,” by Richard Preston: In New York City in the late '90s, a 17-year-old girl heads off to her private school even though she has a cold. By art class her nose is gushing mucus and she's severely disoriented. Within seconds, it seems, she's in convulsions and, most bizarrely, can't stop biting herself. All the reader can do is hope she'll die quickly, but Kate Moran's body still has a few more disgusting turns to undergo, and Richard Preston--a Jacobean master of ceremonies par excellence--takes us through them in bizarre and bloody detail.
Environment
The Wild Trees: A Story of
Passion and Daring, by Richard Preston: The Author journeys into the
perpendicular universe of the world's tallest trees. Mostly
Grade 12—World Languages, Tech Ed., Business, Physical Ed., Art & Music
Business
Grade 9
Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom: The author
rediscovers his ailing teacher after sixteen years, flies to
Door Near Here, by Heather Quarles: A teenage Katherine strives to conceal from the State that her single alcoholic mother has become too incapacitated to care for the family as Katherine unwittingly becomes head of her household.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson: A chronicle of the freshman year of a high school student who does the unthinkable— she calls the police at the end of the Senior Summer party.
The Holy Man, By Susan Trott: The Holy Man is a delightful pilgrim's tale set in the modern world. Written with wit and verve, it tells the story of a gentle-natured disciple who, in the space of a week, moves from fear and doubt to joyful enlightenment.
Grade 10
Flight, by Alexie Sherman: The year is 2007; the hero, a throwaway kid named Zits. Half-Native American, half- Irish, an orphan since the age of 6, Zits is a self-proclaimed blank sky, a solar eclipse. He inherited his mother's green eyes and his father's acne.
My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult: Anna was genetically engineered to be a perfect match for her cancer-ridden older sister. Since birth, the 13-year-old has donated platelets, blood, her umbilical cord, and bone marrow as part of her family's struggle to lengthen Kate's life.
The
Bean Trees, by
Barbara Kingsolver: Gritty, outspoken Taylor Greer, leaves her native
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd: Following a racial brawl, Lily, a fourteen-year-old white girl, is taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters.
Between a Rock and a
Grade 11
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card: Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses -- and then training them in the arts of war... The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of 'games'... Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games... He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?
Killer Angels, by
Michael Shaara, is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the battle of
The Freedom Writer’s Diary, by Erin Gruwell: One day an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students undertake a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy: The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth.
* Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko: A young Native American fights to defeat the demons that have followed him since his return from WWII. They intensify the estrangement he feels over his mixed parentage and his people's alienation.
Grade 12
Angela’s Ashes, by Frank
McCourt: A touching, witty memoir of a poor, Irish immigrant boy growing up on
the tough streets of
Painted House, by John Grisham: Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers — and two very dangerous men — came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world.
All Souls, by Michael Patrick MacDonald: In this plainly written, powerful memoir, MacDonald, now 32, details not only his own story of growing up in Southie, Boston's Irish Catholic enclave, but examines the myriad ways in which the media and law enforcement agencies exploit marginalized working-class communities.
Slaughter House Five: Kurt
Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy
Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from
the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow
Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and
Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses
the firebombing of
* How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster: What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface -- a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character -- and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain.
*Please Note: AP Juniors and Seniors must read the asterisked book and one other for their grade.
The Old Town Hall Bookstore will be offering students a 20% discount for their purchases.
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