Students Entering Grade 10:
Recommended/Required Summer Reading Lists

Academic English Recommended Summer Reading:

• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
  What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.
   
• Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron
  Author and coach Ben Bergeron writes about what it means to be your best—not just in sports, but in everyday life. Bergeron, a coach to some of the top CrossFit athletes in the world, shares real stories and lessons about hard work, staying focused, and building strong character. The book shows that true success isn't just about winning—it's about always working to improve and never giving up.
   
• How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
  As their worlds change around them, two girls must learn to both let go and hold on, and that nothing is as easy—or as difficult—as it seems.
   
• I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
  A teenage boy named Adam Farmer sets out on a bike journey to deliver a package to his father. As he pedals through the countryside, his thoughts shift between the present and fragmented memories of his past. Told through a mix of narrative, interviews, and internal monologue, the story slowly unravels the truth about Adam's identity and the secrets surrounding his family.
   
• I'm Glad My Mother is Dead by Jennette McCurdy
  Former child actress Jennette McCurdy reflects on her complicated childhood, her rise to fame, and the pressures she faced growing up in the spotlight. Through dark humor and raw honesty, she explores themes of control, identity, and healing, offering a powerful memoir about reclaiming one's voice after years of silence.
   
• Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog by John Grogan
  John and Jenny had just begun their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.
   
• Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom
  “A Boy’s Remarkable Journey From a Refugee Camp to Harvard” by Mawi Asgedom tells the story of Selamawi Haileab Asgedom or Mawi. He was a refugee who came to America when he was young. Through hard work and his father’s influence, he became a Harvard graduate.
   
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  A story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the unchartered territory of high school.

If you are having difficulty finding and acquiring a text for summer reading,  please click here to email Lori Jolley in the Curriculum Department.

 

Honors English Required Summer Reading (select one):

• An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
  Annie grows up in Pittsburgh and explores, seeks a life of awareness, her eyes wide open to experience. Outstanding writing of childhood and of learning.

• Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
  "Angela’s Ashes" is a memoir by Irish author Frank McCourt that tells the story of his childhood in Brooklyn and Ireland. It was published in 1996 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
   
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
  Chopin’s most famous novel concerns a woman dissatisfied with her indifferent husband. This is a searing depiction of the religious and social pressures brought to bear on women who transgress restrictive Victorian codes of behavior.
   
• The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
  James McBride writes a powerful tribute to his white mother, one by whom he was often embarrassed yet whom he wanted protected. Growing up in an all-black project, McBride dealt with (and writes about) issues of identity, race and acceptance.
   
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  A black girl suffers brutal treatment at home and is sent off in marriage to a cruel man with children. She learns of possibilities from her sister and from a friend and becomes self-directed and happy.
   
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
  The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto — of lines of tired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized — is one of the greatest moments in literary history.
   
• How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
  The four Garcia sisters face a strange, new life in America when they are forced to flee the Dominican Republic because of the political climate. They recall memories of years past spent in their “home” country before coming to America.
   
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
  A muck-raking novel about the problems of industry in America after the turn of the century; reformist.
   
• Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon
  A humorous yet serious play about immigrants in New York’s Yonkers and their life. Pulitzer Prize-winner.

If you are having difficulty finding and acquiring a text for summer reading, please click here to email Lori Jolley in the Curriculum Department.