Summer Reading Requirement – Tenth Grade, 2025-26
I. Each rising tenth-grader has to read one required novel. This novel will be quizzed the first week of school and will be the basis of the year’s first theme. While reading, jot down character and place names, the key events in each chapter, and, if you own the book, underline passages that you think are essential to character and thematic development.
Honors English:
Samuel Clemens, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (any edition)
Regular English:
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
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. 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.
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower
Willa Cather, O Pioneers!
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Percival Everett, God's Country
Ernest J. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Chang-Rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea
Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
Larry McMurtry, Horseman, Pass By
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried
Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
Amy Tan, The Joy-Luck Club
Viet Than Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Tobias Wolff, Old School