WELCOME:
Suggestions for Optional Summer Reading
BUSINESS
EDUCATION, COMPUTER EDUCATION, AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Welcome
to the
Students and families have asked us for to provide
recommendations for summer reading for high school students.
We hope that students will browse through these suggestions
and find something that appeals to them. Students’ choices may or may not
be connected to the courses they have selected for next year. The
suggestions are organized by department, and in some cases by grade level or
course, but these are meant as guidelines only. Our goal is to encourage
reading and learning over the summer holiday.
Please note that this is not a mandatory summer reading
program, and that there is no assessment or credit tied to the reading.
There is also no expectation that any student will read a particular number of
books from the list; these choices should be made according to what is
appropriate for an individual student in the context of their other summer
commitments.
Summer provides opportunities for students and their
families to enjoy books together, and yet not all recommendations will suit all
readers. We encourage parent/guardians to make decisions about reading
choices along with their children.
We hope you access these materials by utilizing many of our
outstanding local public libraries in the
Please Note:
Not all books are appropriate for all students. Parents and guardians are
encouraged to make decisions about books along with their children.
Ninth Grade:
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Summerland, Michael Chabon
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Anansi Boys,
Neil Gaiman
Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons
Mean Spirit, Linda Hogan
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Donald Duk,
Frank Chin
Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
When I Was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda
Santiago
Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden
Speak, Laurie Halse
Anderson
Buddha, Osamu Tezuka
Flight,
Tenth Grade:
White Oleander, Janet Fitch
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat
Kindred, Olivia Butler
Rule of the Bone, Russell Banks
She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb
Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon
Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto
Dune, Frank Herbert
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, Jennifer Finney Boylan
Leaving
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Eleventh and Twelfth Grades:
Push, Sapphire (adult themes, language)
When the Elephants Dance, Tess Uriza Holthe
Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,
Jonathan Safran Foer
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula k. Le Guin
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
House Made of Dawn, N. Scott Momaday
Storming Heaven, Denise Giardina
War Dances,
A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,
Ishmael Beah
The Help, Katherine Stockett
Blankets, Craig Thompson
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, Heidi W. Durrow
Lighthousekeeping,
Jeanette Winterson
The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood
A Clockwork
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
1984, George Orwell
BUSINESS ED, COMPUTER ED & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT:
Web Design
books:
Html, Xhtml & CSS, 6th ed., Elizabeth Castro
Head First: Html with CSS & Xhtml, Elizabeth Freeman & Eric Freeman
CSS: The Missing Manual,
David Sawyer McFarland
Wood Tech Books:
Understanding Wood, by R. Bruce Hoadley
Shop Class as Soul Craft,
by Matt Crawford
Computer Programming:
Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder
Engineering:
Engineering 1 and 2: Green: Your
Place in the New Energy Revolution, by Jane
Hoffman and Michael J. Hoffman
Transportation Technology, by Brian Williams
Product Design
teNeues
Business Education:
Can’t Buy My Love, How Advertising Changes the Way We Think
and Feel, by
Jean Kilbourne
Fast Food Nation, by Eric Scholsser
The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on
Leaders and Leadership, by
John Wooden and Steve Jamison
The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting and Running a
Business, by Steve
Mariotti
A Century of Jazz: From Blues to Bop, Swing to Hip Hop, by R. Carr
Funk: The
Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One,
by R. Vincent, et al.
Jazz: The
Rough Guide, by Carr, Fairweather,
and Priestley
Our
Musicals, Ourselves, John Bush Jones
Our Singing
Country, Folk Songs and Ballads, by John
A. Lomax and Alan Lomax
World Music:
The Rough Guide, Ed. by Broughton
Music
for Sight Singing, by Ottman
A History of
Western Music, by Grout
What to
Listen for in Music, by Aaron Copland
The Wind
Ensemble, by Fred Fennell
The Joy of Music, by Leonard Bernstein
SCIENCE DEPARTMENT:
These books cover a variety of
areas in the sciences, and a variety of reading levels. There are
selections ranging from topics in specific sciences, to nature study, to
scientific fiction, to biography. Find one you are interested in,
and enjoy!
Chemistry:
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, by Oliver Sacks
Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History, by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson
The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus..., by John Emsley
Biology / Ecology /
Nature Study
Why Big Fierce
Animals are Rare, by Paul Colinvaux, (good for 9th grade Honors)
Lady & The Sharks, by Eugenie Clarke (animal study)
All Things Bright and Beautiful, by James Herriott (about
a veterinarian)
Voyage of the Beagle, by
The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections on Natural History, by Stephen Jay Gould
Survival of the Sickest, by Dr. Sharon Moalem
Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea,
by Carl Zimmer
Frogs, Files & Dandelions, by Menno Schilthuizen
A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock, by Evelyn Fox Keller Freeman (biography)
Sand
King Solomon’s Ring: New Light on Animal Ways, by Konrad Lorenz (animal
behavior)
Rosalind Franklin & DNA, by Anne Sayre
The Herring Gull’s World, A Study of the Social
Behavior of Birds, by Niko
Tinbergen
Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson (ecology)
Darwinian Detectives, by Norm Johnson
Micrographia, by
Robert Hooke
The Ocean World, by Jacques Cousteau
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, by Masson and McCarthy
SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT:
9th Grade World
Civilizations:
Gates of Fire, by Stephen Pressfield
10th Grade
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in
11th-12th Grade Electives –
General
The Enchantress of
11th – 12 th Grade Electives – Economics
Freakonomics, by
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Flat, Hot and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman
11th – 12 th Grade Electives – Holocaust
Maus, by Art Spiegelman
11th – 12 th Grade Electives – AP Europe
Metamorphoses, by Franz Kafka
Germinale, by
Emile Zola
Entering 9th
Grade:
French: The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine
Food, Chic Cafes, Sophistication, and Glamour,
by Joan De Jean
Latin:
D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths
Entering 10th Grade:
French:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Hugo
Latin:
Conspirata, by Robert Harris
Russian:
Between Heaven and Hell: A Thousand Years of
by W. Bruce Lincoln
What Men Live By and Other Tales, by Leo Tolstoy
Spanish: When
I was Puerto Rican, by Esmerelda Santiago
Entering 11th
Grade:
French:
Le Petit Prince, by Saint-Exupery
Latin:
A book of poetry in English
Spanish:
Veinte Poemas de Amor,
by Pablo Neruda
Entering 12th
Grade:
French:
Antéchrista, by Nothomb
Latin:
The Iliad, by Homer
Spanish: Cien Anos de Soledad,
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez