Students entering Grade 9 are required to read one of the books on the list. While all of the books on the list clearly have literary merit, some may be suitable for more mature students. Therefore, we urge you to carefully review the list and to help your son or daughter make a selection that is appropriate based upon his or her interests, age, reading level, and maturity. To assist students in making their book selections, the Mepham High School website will have short summaries on each book. Students who are having difficulty choosing a book should ask their teachers, a librarian, or the English Department Chairperson for help. All students will be assessed on their summer reading in September.
Students entering Grades 10 – 12 are required to read the book(s) listed below for the grade level they will enter in September. This approach to summer reading will enable students and teachers to start school with meaningful, focused discussions. The “common read” format will help to increase participation and create a community of readers on each grade level. Through whole class discussions and lessons, students will have the opportunity to thoroughly analyze the text and to exchange ideas and opinions. Additionally, the required text will add value to the summer reading assessment as a springboard exercise to the school year.
Please note, students entering Senior Experience and Advanced Placement English courses will also be given a writing assignment to complete over the summer. Assignments are up on the school's Website.
Enjoy the summer with a good book!
Incoming Ninth Grade (E1)
Alexie, Sherman - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only Native American is the school mascot. While this book is not a graphic novel, it does contain several inspiring illustrations.
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
In 1659, after becoming the sole survivor of a shipwreck, Englishman Robinson Crusoe lives on a deserted island for more than twenty-eight years.
Hoffman, Alice - Green Angel
Haunted by grief and by her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.
Lupica, Mike - Million-Dollar Throw
Eighth-grade star quarterback Nate Brodie's family is feeling the stress of the troubled economy, and Nate is frantic because his best friend Abby is going blind, so when he gets a chance to win a million dollars if he can complete a pass during the halftime of a New England Patriot's game, he is nearly overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed.
Murray, Liz - Breaking Night
Liz Murray, who was homeless at the age of fifteen and had drug-addicted parents, reflects on how she overcame obstacles and eventually attended Harvard University.
Sixteen-year-old Jacob, having traveled to a remote island after a family tragedy, discovers an abandoned orphanage, and, after some investi-gating, he learns the children who lived there may have been dangerous and quarantined and may also still be alive.
Swanson, James L. - Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
Recounts the twelve-day pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth, covering the chase through Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, with a discussion of Abraham Lincoln as a father, husband, and friend that examines the impact of his death on those close to him.
Incoming Tenth Grade (E2)
Salinger, J.D. – The Catcher in the Rye
An adolescent boy, knowing he is about to be dropped by his school, spends three days and nights in New York City on a quest for self-discovery.
Incoming Eleventh Grade (E3)
and Incoming Eleventh Grade Advanced Placement (11 AP Language)
O'Brien, Tim – The Things They Carried
Related stories, linked by recurring characters and an interwoven plot, recreate an American foot soldier's experience in the Vietnam War.
Incoming Twelfth Grade (E4)
Gladwell, Malcolm – Outliers: The Story of Success
The author explores why some people are high achievers and others are not, citing culture, family, and upbringing as possible reasons some people are not as successful as others.
Incoming Twelfth Grade Advanced Placement (12 AP Literature)
Foster, Thomas C. – How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Presents a discussion on how to understand symbolism in literature, discussing the appearance of journeys, eating, drowning, rain, violence, sex, illness, geography, Christ figures, and other signifiers, and how to see patterns the way literature professors do.
And one of the following:
The Awakening — Kate Chopin
The Color Purple — Alice Walker
The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood
Heart of Darkness — Joseph Conrad
In the Time of Butterflies — Julia Alvarez
Invisible Man — Ralph Ellison
The Jungle — John Updike
The Mayor of Casterbridge — Thomas Hardy
Moby Dick — Herman Melville
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man — James Joyce
The Portrait of a Lady — Henry James
Ragtime — E. L. Doctorow
Reservation Blues — Sherman Alexie
The Scarlet Letter — Nathaniel Hawthorne
Sula — Toni Morrison
The Sun Also Rises — Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God — Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe
A Thousand Splendid Suns — Khaled Hosseini
The Turn of the Screw — Henry James
We Were the Mulvaneys — Joyce Carol Oates
Wuthering Heights—Emily Bronte
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