Summer Reading 2008

 

Note: If for any reason a parent feels a book/novel is inappropriate for his son/daughter, please contact the teacher for an alternative reading assignment.

Download Assignment - Grades 9-12

 

Suggested Reading for Parents:

Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting Into College  by Sally P. Springer and Marion R. Franck

The authors explain college applications, what admission counselors look for, how to prepare for the new tests, how to put together an application package, early admissions, and financial aid. Sample application forms and recommendation letters are included.

 

Entering 9th Grade

 

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

Sports Fiction

T.J. Jones is a mixed race high school athlete. He heads a swim team and recruits some unlikely athletes. Subplots deal with racism, child abuse, adoption, prejudices, bullying, a father dealing with a past tragedy, gun violence and death.

Profanity

An ALA Notable Book

Washington State Book Award

California Recommended Reading

 

Entering 9th Grade Honors (Both are Required)

 

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

Sports Fiction

T.J. Jones is a mixed race high school athlete. He heads a swim team and recruits some unlikely athletes. Subplots deal with racism, child abuse, adoption, prejudices, bullying, a father dealing with a past tragedy, gun violence and death.

Profanity

An ALA Notable Book

Washington State Book Award

California Recommended Reading

 

The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jaques Steinberg

The author follows a diverse group of prospective students as they compete for places in the nation’s most elite colleges.

 

Entering 10th Grade

 

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Explains what really happens to a body that is donated to the scientific community: dissection in medical anatomy classes, contemporary uses such as stand-ins for crash-test dummies, and considerable historical and background information.

 

OR

 

 

 

Life is So Good by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman

An autobiography in which George Dawson, a 101-year-old man who learned to read when he was ninety-eight, offers his firsthand view of America during the twentieth century, and shares his philosophy for living a happy life.

California Recommended Reading

Christopher Award

 

Entering 10 Grade Honors (Two books are Required)

 

 The Book Thief   by Marcus Zusak (Required)

Historical Fiction

Death narrates the story set in a Nazi Germany town during and after World War Two.

The Association of Jewish Libraries Inaugural Teen Book Award

The Jewish National Book Award

 

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (Required)

Explains what really happens to a body that is donated to the scientific community: dissection in medical anatomy classes, contemporary uses such as stand-ins for crash-test dummies, and considerable historical and background information.

 

OR

If for any reason a parent feels Stiff is inappropriate for his son/daughter, he/she may choose Life us so Good.

 

 

Life is So Good by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman

An autobiography in which George Dawson, a 101-year-old man who learned to read when he was ninety-eight, offers his firsthand view of America during the twentieth century, and shares his philosophy for living a happy life.

California Recommended Reading

Christopher Award

 

Entering 11th Grade

 

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

This is a play about a middle class African American family living in Chicago in the 1950’s.

 

 

 

 

Entering 11th Grade Honors

 

Roots by Alex Haley

It begins with a birth in 1750, in an African village. It ends seven generations later at a funeral in Arkansas.

California recommended reading.

 

 

Entering 12th Grade

 

The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today: 60 of the World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Vision of the Next Half Century

Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace asked the question “What will life be like 50 years from now?” to sixty of the world’s greatest minds. Their responses glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods of the times.

 

AP English Language and Composition (Both required)

The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jacques Steinberg

The author follows a diverse group of prospective students as they compete for places in the nation’s most elite colleges.

 

The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today: 60 of the World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Vision of the Next Half Century

Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace asked the question “What will life be like 50 years from now?” to sixty of the world’s greatest minds. Their responses glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods of the times.

 

 

AP Literature (Both required)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein was seeking the answers to life and death. He worked to create something the world had never seen. But he did not know that one day his efforts would destroy him and everything he had.

California recommended reading.

 

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

In segregated rural Louisiana of the 1940’s, a retarded African-American youth is wrongly convicted of murder. Another African-American, a teacher, helps him to live and die with dignity.

California recommended reading; Notable/Best Books (A.L.A)