Penncrest High School Required Summer Reading Program
2018The goal of the Penncrest Summer Reading Program is to expose students to quality literature that will inspire them to expand and explore connections to the classroom, to the community, and to the world.
All students entering Penncrest High School’s grades 9 through 12 must select two books to read during the summer. One selection is a mandatory core reading, and the other may be self-selected. Students entering Rank Level I and Advanced Placement courses are required to read a third book. Your English teacher will assess your reading in September. Please bring any optional reading records or completed parent interview responses with you on the first day of class.
I. Mandatory Core Reading: Choose one (1) book in your incoming grade level category. Students entering rank 1 or A. P. courses must read two books from the list: the required Rank 1/A.P. book and any other menu selection.
Grade 9 Grade 10Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Phoenix Island by John Dixon
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
Rank One Selection:Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
The Terrorist’s Son by Zak Ebrahim
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rank One Selection:Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Grade 11 Grade 12Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Rank One Selection:The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
AP Selection:Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
Rank One Selection:A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
AP Selection:Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
II. Self-selected Reading: Choose and read a book that interests you. You may choose any book that you would like to read. See the back of this sheet for more ideas about where to go for ideas.
Ideas for Self-Selected Reading
From Penncrest StudentsPromise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahonThe Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim EdwardsPlaying For Pizza by John GrishamSafe Haven by Jodi PicoultI am Number Four by Piccuras LoreOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyProject 17 by Laurie Faria StolarzDog On It! by Spencer QuinnThe Long Walk by Stephen KingCutting For Stone by Abraham VergheseOn the Edge Allison Van DiepenCat’s Cradle by Kurt VonnegutThe Island by Olivia LevezLife of Pi by Yann MartelThe Freedom Writers Diary by Erin GruwellA Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled HosseiniJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk KiddParis in the Twentieth Century by Jules VerneLamb by Christopher MoorePlay Like You Mean It by Rex RyanNo Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthyThe Power of One by Bryce CourtenayEverything, Everything by Nicola YoonCity of Joy by Dominique LapierreLooking for Alaska by John GreenDavid Copperfield by Charles DickensEast of Eden by John SteinbeckAngels & Demons by Dan BrownThe Bourne Ultimatum by Robert LudlumThe Lovely Bones by Alice SeboldNorth and South by Elizabeth GaskellIf I was Your Girl by Meredith RussoThe 13 ½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moors
From Penncrest Parents
Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn ScottStanding Tall by C. Vivian StringerWater for Elephants by Sara GruenCane River by Lalita TademyA Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty SmithThe Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. TolkienThe Hour I First Believed by Wally LambUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa LahiriThe Last Lecture by Randy Pausch The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Untouchables by Narenda JadhavThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael ChabonDreams from My Father by Barack ObamaThe Rosie Project by Graeme SimsionGifted Hands by Ben Carson and Cecil MurpheyLong Walk to Freedom by Nelson MandelaThe Nightengale by Kristen HannahDays of Grace by Arthur Ashe and Arnold Rampersad
From Penncrest TeachersSarah's Key by Tatiana de RosnaySnow Falling on Cedars by David GutersonA Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy TooleProfiles in Courage by John KennedyBright Lights, Big City by Jay McinerneyThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John BoyneFreakonomics by Steven Levitt Stephen DubnerEscape from Slavery by Francis BokDevil in the White City by Eric LarsenSnow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa SeeEndurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred LansingCity of Thieves by David BenioffWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëThe Art of Fielding by Chad HarbachThe Tequila Worm by Viola Canales
Stones From the River by Ursula HegiWinter’s Bone by Daniel WoodrellBreaking Night by Liz MurrayShantram by Gregory David RobertsThe Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas LlosaInto Thin Air by John KrakauerThe Pianist by Wladyslaw SzpilmanHomecoming by Cathy KellyThe Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley PearsallThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca SklootHow I Live Now by Meg RosoffThe Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes MooreZeitoun by Dave Eggers11/22/63 by Stephen King
For more ideas, visit these websites:http://www.ala.org
The American Library Association
www.reading.orgThe International Reading Association
libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop09/index.cfm “One Book, One Philadelphia”
www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/one-book.htmlThe Library of Congress
