Summer Reading 2026
While reading is encouraged, Summer Reading is not required for College Prep (CP) courses.
Visit the High School Library or your local public library to pick up your books.
Grade 9: English 9 Honors
Choose one (or more!) of the following:
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
And Then There Are None by Agatha Christie
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Grade 10: English 10 Honors
Read Escape from Slavery by Francis Bok
Grade 11: English 11 Honors and American Studies Honors
Choose a book either from the list below OR another book of an appropriate level by an American author that you have not read before:
As you read, you must annotate with sticky notes. Bring your book WITH sticky notes to class on the first day of school. See details below:
- Click here for details on what the sticky notes should contain.
- Click here for Sticky Note Model.
Be aware that you will be asked to consider the impact of American culture/society/ideals/reputation on the characters or plot, so read with this in mind.
Nonfiction
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The People's History of Sports in the United States by Dave Zirin
Fiction
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
There There by Tommy Orange
Overstory by Richard Powers
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Poetry
Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins
100 Selected Poems by e.e. Cummings
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry, Edited by Rita Dove [READ ONLY ONE POEM BY EACH POET TO MAKE THIS MORE MANAGEABLE.]
Grade 11: AP Language and Composition
**Link to full summer reading assignment HERE
Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs Chapters 1-12 only
Grade 12: Gothic Literature
No required reading, but suggested titles for those interested found below:
Beloved by Toni Morrison (if not already assigned to you in Gr. 10 Honors English)
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Shining by Stephen King
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Grade 12: Global Literature
No required reading, but suggested titles for those interested found below:
Read a novel or longer non-fiction text by a non-American author. While you read, think about what commonalities transcend global boundaries and make humans the same as one another.
Grade 12: Poetry
No required reading, but suggested titles for those interested found below:
Read and note your favorite and least favorite poems in either Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry by Billy Collins or 100 Poems That Matter by the Academy of American Poets, and/or check out www.poets.org, www.poetryfoundation.org, www.poetryoutloud.org.
Grade 12: AP Literature and Composition
Read one book from the list below. There will be a writing assessment on this text the first week of school.
Emma by Jane Austen
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Passing by Nella Larsen
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong