Summer Reading Requirement– Ninth Grade
I. Each rising ninth-grader (regulars and honors) is required to read Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. This novel will be quizzed the first week of school and will be the basis of the year’s first writing assignments.
II. All School Read for 2025-26: Each boy in grades seven through twelve is required to read The Confident Mind: The Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakeable Performance by Dr. Nate Zinsser.
III. Each student will also read one book from the list below. Early in the year, students will write a short in-class essay on a topic from this book. Please have access to a copy of this novel when school starts.
Bernard Malamud, The Natural
C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Frank Herbert, Dune
Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha
H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
Laura Ruby, Bone Gap
Pat Conroy, Lords of Discipline
Paul Zindel, The Pigman
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life
Tara Westover, Educated
Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
Michael Lewis, Moneyball