WELCOME: Suggestions for Optional Summer Reading
BUSINESS EDUCATION, COMPUTER EDUCATION, AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Welcome to the Amherst Regional High School Summer Reading Page!
Students and families have asked us for to provide recommendations for summer reading for high school students. Below, we provide specific book recommendations from many areas of our school, as well as general information about how to access reading material over the summer.
We hope that students will browse through these suggestions and find something that appeals. 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.
Happy reading to you from the staff of Amherst Regional High School!
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, Sherman Alexie
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 Atlanta, Tayari Jones
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, Sherman Alexie
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 Orange, Anthony Burgess
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
America’s Musical Life-A History, by Richard Crawford
Caribbean Currents, from Rumba to Reggae, by Peter Manuel
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
Oxford History of Western Music, by Richard Taruskin
What to Listen for in Music, by Aaron Copland
The Wind Ensemble, by Fred Fennell
The Joy of Music, by Leonard Bernstein
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 Darwin (a bit denser)
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 County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold
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
9th Grade World Civilizations:
Gates of Fire, by Stephen Pressfield
10th Grade US History
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, by John Dittmer
11th-12th Grade Electives – General
The Enchantress of Florence, by Salman Rushdie
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
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
Germinale, by Emile Zola
Entering 9th Grade:
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 Russia's Artistic Experience,
by W. Bruce Lincoln
What Men Live By and Other Tales, by Leo Tolstoy
Spanish: When I was a 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