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Summer Reading at MBA: Ninth Grade

Information on summer reading for all grades, including the all-school read.

Ninth Grade Summer Reading

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 2024-25: Each boy in grades seven through twelve is required to read James Clear's Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.

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.

Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

Bernard Malamud,The Natural

Bram Stoker, Dracula

C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet or Till We Have Faces

Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding

Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys (not for regular students)

Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon

David Benioff, City of Thieves

David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

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

Isaac Asimov, Pebble in the Sky

James Welch, Fools Crow

Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones

Laura Ruby, Bone Gap

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

Louise Erdrich, The Round House

Mark Harris, Bang the Drum Slowly

Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Naomi Novik, Temeraire: His Majesty’s Dragon

Pat Conroy, Lords of Discipline

Pat Frank, Alas Babylon

Paul Zindel, The Pigman

Richard Bradford, Red Sky at Morning

Robert Heinlein, Tunnel in the Sky

Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life

Tony Hillerman, Dance Hall of the Dead