AP Science Summer Reading List
One book is required for summer reading in either AP Biology or AP Chemistry.

AP Biology

• Henig, Robin Marantz, The Monk in the Garden (biography of Mendel)
• Leakey, Richard, The Origin of Humankind (including language and art)
• Watson, James D., The Double Helix (discovery of DNA structure)
• Weiner, Jonathan, Time, Love, Memory (Benzer’s research on DNA & behavior)
• Wilson, Edward O., The Future of Life (ecological state of the world with suggested solutions)

AP Chemistry

• Ashcroft, Frances, Life at the Extremes (scientific approach to how humans and other organisms survive at the earth’s extremes (hot, cold, altitude, desert, etc.)
• Emsley, John, Molecules at an Exhibition (collection of columns about various molecules; their history, their (mis)use, etc.)
• McGrayne, Sharon, Prometheans in the Lab (stories about the chemists behind the inventions that have shaped our world)

Twelfth Grade Summer Reading List

Choose at least two books from the “Classics of European Literature” list and at least two books from the “Contemporary Voices” list. Students enrolled in AP English should choose an additional book (for a total of five books) from either list. No more than two of the books chosen may be plays. In some cases, multiple short selections by the same author count as one “book.” (Look for “AND” in the list). In some cases, you may choose between two works by the same author, but you may not count both works toward the required number of books. (Look for “OR” in the list).

Books particularly appropriate for Classical Literature are followed by “CL”; books particularly appropriate for Advanced Studies in Literature and Composition are followed by “WL”, indicating World Literature; books particularly appropriate for AP English are followed by “AP”. However, any student may read any book on the list.

In addition, students enrolled in AP Biology should choose one of the books listed for that course. That list appears on a separate sheet:

Classics of European Literature

• Aeschylus, The Oresteia (CL) (WL)
• Aristophanes, Lysistrata (CL) (WL)
• Austen, Emma (CL)(AP)
• Camus, The Plague (WL)
• Cervantes, Don Quixote (Part 1) (AP)
• Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (AP) OR The Brothers Karamazov (AP)
• Dumas (fils), Camille (WL)
• Eliot (George), Middlemarch (AP)
• Flaubert, Madame Bovary (AP)
• Goethe, Faust (Part 1)(AP)
• Gogol, Dead Souls (AP)(WL)
• Ibsen, Hedda Gabler OR An Enemy of the People (WL)
• Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (AP)
• Kafka, Amerika (AP)(WL)
• Lampedusa, The Leopard (WL)
• Plato, “Euthyphro,” “Apology,” “Crito” and “Phaedo” from The Dialogues of Plato (the dialogues about the trial and death of Socrates, sometimes published separately as The Last Days of Sophocles) (AP)
• Renault, Fire from Heaven (CL)
• Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (WL)
• Sartre, No Exit AND at least one other play by Sartre (CL)
• Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma (AP)(WL)
• Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilych” AND at least one of the following: “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “Family Happiness,” or “Master and Man” (AP)(WL)
• Woolf, To the Lighthouse (AP)

Contemporary Voices

• Achebe, Anthills on the Savannah (AP)(WL)
• Allende, Daughter of Fortune (WL)
• Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
• Amis (Martin), Time’s Arrow (AP)
• Bradley, Firebrand (CL)
• Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin’
• Bryson, In a Sunburned Country
• Byatt, Possession (CL)(AP)
• Calvino, The Baron in the Trees (WL)
• Chevalier, The Girl With the Pearl Earring
• Cisneros, The House On Mango Street
• Coelho, The Alchemist (WL)
• Desai (Anita), Fasting, Feasting (WL)
• Erdrich, Tracks
• Garcia Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
• Jin, Ha, Waiting (WL)
• Kawabata, Snow Country (WL)
• Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
• Malamud, The Fixer
• Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones
• McCarthy, The Crossing (AP)
• Narayan, The Guide (WL)
• Naylor, Mama Day
• O’Brien, Going After Cacciato (AP)
• Patchett, Bel Canto (CL)
• Rushdie, Midnight’s Children (WL)(AP)
• Saramango, Blindness (WL)
• Sijie, Blazac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (WL)
• Smiley, A Thousand Acres (CL)
• Soyinka, Aké (AP)(WL)
• Tsukiyama, The Samurai’s Garden (CL)(WL)
• Wilson (August), The Piano Lesson

Eleventh Grade Summer Reading List — American History

Read one of the following historical mysteries. Students taking the regular American History course will be given an assignment asking them to show their knowledge of the book they have chosen during the first week of school. Students taking the AP American History course should write an essay on the book they have chosen to turn in on the first day of school. See the specific essay assignment below.

• Adamson, Mary Jo, The Blazing Tree (Boston, 1840s)
• Hambly, Barbara, A Free Man of Color (New Orleans, 1830s)
• Lawrence, Margaret, Hearts and Bones (Maine, 1780s)
• Lewis, Stephen, The Dumb Shall Sing (Massachusetts, Puritans)
• Miles, Margaret, A Wicked Way to Burn (Massachusetts, 1760s)
• Monfredo, Miriam, Seneca Falls Inheritance (New York, 1848)

Assignment for students in AP American History:

Write a 3-page paper, typed and double-spaced, that discusses the atmosphere (time and place) of the mystery, the world view (values and attitudes) of the characters, and any historical events or figures (there may be none) that enter the story. The paper is due on the first day of school.

Eleventh Grade Summer Reading List - American Literature

Rising juniors should read four books. All students should read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and one of the four selections for American History. Your other two selections should come from the list below. If you are considering AP English for your senior year, at least one of your choices should be a Core book (marked below with an “x”). In addition, students enrolled in AP Biology should choose one of the books listed for that course (that raises your total to five books). The reading list for the AP Biology course appears on a separate page. (Dover editions are recommended for the History texts and Huck Finn). Enjoy!

• Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf+
• Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
• Bellow, Seize the Day
• Capote, In Cold Blood
• Carver, Cathedral
• Cather, The Song of the Lark (x)
• Chopin, The Awakening (x)
• Collins, Picnic, Lightning (poems)+
• Dick, The Man in the High Castle (sci fi)
• Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
• Doctorow, Ragtime
• Dorris, A Yellow Raft on Blue Water
• Erdrich, Love Medicine
• Faulkner, Light in August (x)
• Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
• Frazier, Cold Mountain
• Guare, Six Degrees of Separation+
• Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (x)
• Heller, Catch-22 (x)
• Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
• James, The American (x)
• Johnson, Middle Passage
• Kelly, B.P., Song (poems)+
• Kingsolver, Animal Dream
• Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here
• LeGuin, The Dispossessed (sci fi)
• Levine, What Work Is (poems)+
• Malamud, The Fixer or The Assistant
• Miller, Death of a Salesman+
• Mukherjee, The Holder of the World
• Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place
• O’Brien, The Things They Carried
• O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find (x)
• O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night+
• Potok, My Name is Asher Lev
• Roth, Goodbye, Columbus
• Smith, Oral History
• Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath(x)
• Tan, The Joy Luck Club
• Tartt, The Secret History
• Taylor, A Summons to Memphis
• Thurber, The Thurber Carnival
• Toomer, Cane (x)
• Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
• Warren, All the King’s Men (x)
• Wharton, The House of Mirth (x)
• Williams, The Glass Menagerie+, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof+
• Wilson, Balm in Gilead+

Selections marked with “+” are plays or poetry, two plays or poetry collections equals one “book.”

Tenth Grade Summer Reading List — Western Civilization/AP European History

Students must read a total of three books prior to the fall 2002 semester, two from the British literature list (one of which is required) and one for Western Civilization/AP European History. (See separate sheet for the British Literature list).

Western Civilization Selection

• Lacey and Danziger, The Year 1000

As you read, take brief notes (no more than a single side of a piece of notebook paper per heading) on the following areas under these headings (your notes must be organized this way):

• Political organization (anything relating to government, law, justice)
• Social organization (class structure, families, communities)
• Economic organization (how individuals made their livings and how governments supported themselves)
• Religious organization (how the Church was run and the power and influence it had on government and society)
• Notes are to be handed in on the first day of class.

AP European History Selection

• Rowling, M., Life in Medieval Times

Take notes as assigned above, but focus more on changes over time than on static elements (how did government structures change between 800 and 1400, for example)

Tenth Grade Summer Reading List — British Literature

Students must read a total of three books, two from the British Literature list (one of which is required) and one for Western Civilization/AP European History. (See separate sheet for Western Civilization and AP European History). The starred books are recommended for students who want to challenge themselves as readers and plan on possibly taking AP English classes in the future.

REQUIRED READING: The required book for British literature is the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf. (You must use this translation). Beowulf is an ancient tale of good versus evil. In this story, the hero, Beowulf, is tested by a series of challenges. You need to focus on the action and the meaning behind the action; you don’t need to get too caught up in the complex family histories (i.e. kinships). The Heaney introduction may be helpful to you. You can also find this translation on tape or CD. Make sure you read along with the narrator and read separately the parts that he skips.

British Literature Selections

• *Austen, Pride and Prejudice
• Bradley, Mists of Avalon
• *Bronte, Wuthering Heights
• Clarke, Childhood’s End
• *Collins, The Moonstone
• Conway, The Road from Coorain
• Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• *Eliot (George), Silas Marner
• Greene, Brighton Rock
• George (Elizabeth), Missing Joseph
• Herriot, All Things Bright and Beautiful
• Hilton, Lost Horizon
• Huxley, Brave New World
• Huxley (E), The Flame Trees of Thika
• James (P.D.), Devices and Desires, or Unnatural Causes
• *Joyce, The Dubliners (a collection of short stories)
• Kipling, Kim
• Lewis, Mere Christianity
• Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley
• Rose, Parallel Lives
• Sayers, Strong Poison, or Have His Carcase, or Gaudy Night
• Scott, Ivanhoe
• Shaw, St. Joan (a play)
• Stewart, The Crystal Cave, or The Hollow Hills, or The Last Enchantment
• *Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
• White, The Once and Future King
• Wodehouse, any one of the Jeeves novels

Ninth Grade Summer Reading List

Incoming freshmen must read the required book for Early Civilization and choose two of the following books to read during the summer. Students are advised to make notes and/or summaries of the books so that they can remember the contents.

Required for Early Civilization:

• Card, Ender’s Game
• Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie
• Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Ashe, Days of Grace
• Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
• Buck, The Good Earth
• Barnes, Cold Sassy Tree
• Bronte, Jane Eyre
• Bryson, A Walk in the Woods
• Card, Speaker for the Dead OR Ender’s Shadow
• Crichton, Timeline
• Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
• DuMarier, Rebecca
• Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
• Gies, Anne Frank Remembered
• Grisham, A Time to Kill
• Gunther, Death Be Not Proud
• Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Hersey, Hiroshima
• Hesse, Siddhartha
• Huxley, Brave New World
• Jenkins, Walk Across America
• Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
• Krakauer, Into Thin Air
• McBride, The Color of Water
• Mishima, The Sound of Waves
• Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
• Orwell, 1984
• Potok, The Chosen
• Quinn, Ishmael
• Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
• Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
• Wiesel, Night
• Wright, Black Boy

Eighth Grade Summer Reading List

All entering eighth grade students should read the required reading book and two other titles from the following list. Students should complete the study guide for Howard Fast’s April Morning before the first day of school. Students will be tested on the books and complete writing assignments on the books during the first weeks of school; they must have access to the texts during the first weeks of school.

REQUIRED TEXT: Fast, April Morning (please make sure you have completed the Study Guide for April Morning)

• Choose two of the following texts:
• Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Beals, Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High
• Bradbury, The Illustrated Man
• Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
• Cather, O Pioneers!
• Christie, Murder on the Orient Express
• Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
• Earley, Jim the Boy
• Gaarder, Sophie’s World
• Gibbons, Charms for the Easy Life
• Golding, Lord of the Flies
• Griffin, Black Like Me
• Grisham, A Painted House
• Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
• Knowles, A Separate Peace
• Krakauer, Into the Wild
• Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
• Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
• Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson
• White, The Once and Future King
• White, The Sword in the Stone
• Yolen, Briar Rose

Seventh Grade Summer Reading List

REQUIRED SUMMER READING: All entering seventh grade students should read one of the following books: Adams, Watership Down; Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men; Voigt, The Callender Papers. Each student will be tested on one of them. In addition, please read at least two books chosen from the list below.

General List (choose two)

Adventure and Mystery

• Christie, Ten Little Indians (And Then There Were None)
• Fleischman, Whirligig
• Paulsen, The River
• Steinbeck, The Pearl
• Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
• Crichton, Jurassic Park
• Eddings, Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad Series)
• Herbert, The Dune Series
• Tolkien, The Hobbit
• Rinaldi, Mine Eyes Have Seen
• Creech, Bloomability
• Pullman, Clockwork
• Rushdie, Haroun & The Sea of Stories
• Asimov, I, Robot

Realism

• Brooks, The Moves Make the Man
• Cormier, The Chocolate War
• Hinton, Tex
• Lipsyte, The Contender
• Lowry, Find a Stranger, Say Good-Bye
• Myers, Fallen Angels
• Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved
• Paulsen, Nightjohn
• Paulsen, Sarney
• Rinaldi, The Last Silk Dress
• Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
• Voigt, Dicey’s Song
• Voigt, Izzy, Willy-Nilly

Non-Fiction/Biography

• Carter, The Education of Little Tree
• Filipovic, Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo
• Gilbreth and Carey, Cheaper By the Dozen
• Hunter, The Diary of LaToya Hunter

Sixth Grade Summer Reading List

REQUIRED SUMMER READING: Each student entering sixth grade is required to read Detectives in Togas (Westerfeld) as well as two other books from the list for English, and one book for Social Studies, all of which are starred. (You may read a starred book for English also). Most of the books are available in paperback form in local bookstores or libraries. If there is more than one edition available, be sure to select the unabridged edition. If it becomes impossible to locate a particular book, make another appropriate choice from the list.

In the fall, Detectives in Togas will be discussed in sixth grade English classes. Students will need to have the paperback to bring to class. Students will also be required to report on their two general reading selections and on the Social Studies selection. The report requirements will be given at the beginning of the school year in English and Social Studies classes. Record all additional books read.

GENERAL LIST (choose two English and one Social Studies)
*Social Studies choices

• Alcott, Little Women
• Alexander, The Book of Three
• Almond, Skelling
• Avi, Nothing But the Truth
• Bennett, Voyage of the Lucky Dragon
• Berry, Ajeemah and His Son
• Blos, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal
• Cole, The Goats
• Creech, Absolutely Normal Chaos
• *Crew, Children of the River
• Cushman, The Midwife’s Apprentice
• Dahl, Boy
• deAngeli, The Door in the Wall
• Fritz, China Homecoming
• George, On the Far Side of the Mountain
• Greene, Summer of My German Soldier
• *Hautzig, The Endless Steppe
• *Hesse, Letters from Rivka
• *Holman, The Wild Children
• Jacques, Mossflower (or Martin the Warrior, etc.)
• Konigsburg, The View from Saturday
• London, White Fang (with & listed under Call of the Wild)
• *Macaulay, Pyramid
• Mazer, After the Rain
• McGraw, The Golden Goblet
• Moeri, The Forty-third War
• Myers, Slam
• O’Dell, Bright Star, Bright Dawn
• *Nhuong, The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam
• *Naidoo, Journey to Jo’burg
• Patterson, The Master Puppeteer
• Paulsen, Brian’s Winter
• Pullman, The Golden Compass (or either of the other books in the trilogy)
• Rawlings, The Yearling
• Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows
• Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Speare, The Bronze Bow
• Speare, Calico Captive
• Sewell, Black Beauty
• Taylor, Let the Circle Be Unbroken
• *Templey, Taste of Salt
• Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• *Vuong, The Brocaded Slipper and Other Vietnamese Tales
• Wartski, A Boat to Nowhere/A Long Way From Home
• *Whelan, Goodbye, Vietnam
• *Wu, The Fantastic Robot Series/Isaac Asimov’s Robots in
• Time; Emperor

Fifth Grade Summer Reading List

REQUIRED SUMMER READING: Each student entering fifth grade is required to read three books: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O’Brien), The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 (Curtis), and one chosen from the general list. Most of these books are available in libraries or in paperback from local bookstores. If there is more than one edition available, be sure to select the unabridged edition. If it becomes impossible to locate a particular book from the general list, make another choice. Use the Summer Reading Record to record all books read during the summer. The Summer Reading Record will be collected in English during the first week of school. In the fall, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 will be discussed in English and Social Studies. Students will need to have a personal copy to bring to class.

REQUIRED BOOKS:
English: O’Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Integrated Social Studies/English: Curtis, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963

General List (choose one that you have not read yet):

• Blackwood, The Shakespeare Stealer
• Burnford, The Incredible Journey
• Creech, Love That Dog
• Creech, Walk Two Moons
• Cushman, Catherine Called Birdy
• Dahl, The BFG
• DeClements, Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade
• Farley, The Black Stallion
• Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy
• Fleischman, Jim Ugly
• Fletcher, Shadow Spinner
• Fox, One-Eyed Cat
• George, Julie of the Wolves
• Jacques, Redwall
• Keer, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
• Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Lowry, Number the Stars
• L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
• Merrill, The Pushcart War
• Paulsen, Hatchet
• Sachar, Holes
• Spinelli, Maniac McGee
• Sperry, Call It Courage
• Stevenson, Treasure Island
• Taylor, The Cay
• Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry