Students enrolling in AP Language & Composition (Grade 11) and AP Literature & Composition (Grade 12) will have required reading assignments to complete over the summer.  These assignments were distributed to students at the mandatory AP English meeting before the end of the school year.  If your student has enrolled in AP Language or AP Literature and did not attend this meeting, it is their responsibility to contact the teacher immediately regarding the assignments.  Some assignments are due on the first day of school, while some may have deadlines during the summer.  

Students enrolled in regular or honors level English courses (Grades 9-12) will not have required summer reading.  However, each teacher in the English Department has provided recommendations below for students looking for early engagement with the course over the summer.  The selected choices will not be covered in class; they are intended to generate critical thinking and prepare students for the specific genres of literature they will be studying in their upcoming course.  Students enrolled in the honors level of each grade will eventually be assigned some kind of required outside reading during the school year, so these recommendations might be useful in preparation for those expectations.  But again, these books are recommendations, not requirements.   

OPTIONAL Summer Book Recommendations by Grade Level: 

9th Grade Literary Genres: 

• The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993, Fiction) 
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960, Fiction) 
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (2014, Non-Fiction) 
• Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (1980-91, Non-Fiction Graphic Novel)   

10th Grade American Literature: 

• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895, Fiction) 
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959, Fiction) 
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (1967) 
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen (2006, Fiction, Graphic Novel) 

For questions or further recommendations, contact Mr. Nathan Negron at nnegron@stedhs.org.   

11th Grade British Literature: 

• Persuasion by Jane Austen (1817, Fiction) 
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushie (1990, Fiction) 
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979, Fiction)
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020, Fiction) 

What Mrs. Reed is planning to read this summer:

• The Story of Charlotte’s Web by Michael Sims (2011, Non-Fiction) 
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847, Fiction) 

For questions or further recommendations, contact Mrs. Bethany Reed at breed@stedhs.org.  

12th Grade World Literature: 

• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007, Fiction) 
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989, Fiction) 
• The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee (2015, Non-Fiction) 

• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (2019, Fiction) 
• What Mrs. Schmidt is planning to read this summer: 

• The Winners (Beartown #3) by Fredrik Backman (2021, Fiction) 
• Honolulu by Alan Brennert (2009, Fiction) 

For questions or further recommendations, contact Mrs. Megan Schmidt at mschmidt@stedhs.org.