Summer Reading Requirement – Tenth Grade
I. Each rising tenth-grader is required to read the two books below. These novels 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)
Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (try to buy the edition with the ISBN: 0-451-16396-6)
Regular English:
Colson Whitehead The Nickel Boys
Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (try to buy the edition with the ISBN: 0-451-16396-6)
II. All-School-Read: Each boy in grades seven through twelve will be required to complete the all-school read. This year the novel is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. All students will complete a project related to Frankenstein due on Monday, August 17, 2020, and turn it in to the student’s advisor (not English teacher, though they might be the same teacher). Use the following link for instructions regarding the project: https://libguides.
III. Each student will also read one book from the list below. On the second day of school, 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.
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Paul Auster, Mr. Vertigo
Octavia Butler, Kindred
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Willa Cather, My Antonia
Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Dave Eggers, What is the What
Percival Everett, God's Country
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Ernest J. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Josephine Humphries, Rich in Love
John Irving, Cider House Rules
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Chang-Rae Lee, Native Speaker
Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe
James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
Larry McMurtry, Horseman, Pass By
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
Walter Mosely, Little Scarlet
John Nichols, The Milagro Beanfield War
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried
Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
Amy Tan, The Joy-Luck Club
Viet Than Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-5 (Honors students who read this book last year cannot pick this one.)
Tobias Wolff, Old School
​Richard Wright, Black Boy