MARPLE NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL

Summer Reading List -- 2006

Summer reading is a requirement for all students.   All students will read at least one book and be prepared to focus on the book as the first unit of study in English class in September.   Extra credit will be available to those students who either 1) complete a writing assignment on the required book, or 2) read an extra book from the grade level suggested list and keep a journal.  Honors students in grades 10-12 are required to read more than one book. Books are available at all local bookstores and public libraries.

Grade 9 Regular/Concepts Requirement:  (One Book)

  • Big Mouth & Ugly Girl , by Joyce Carol Oates

Grade 9 Honors Requirement: (Three books)

  • And Then There Were None (10 Little Indians), by Agatha Christie, AND
  • Witness, by Karen Hesse
    Plus One book from the following list:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
  • The Chosen, by Chaim Potok

Grade 10 Regular/Concepts Requirement: (One Book)

  • Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, OR
  • The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker

Grade 10 Humanities Requirement: (One Book)

  • King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, by Roger L. Green

Grade 10 Honors Requirement: (Read all of the following)

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
  • Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
  • Silas Marner, by George Eliot
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Grade 11 Regular Requirement:  (One Book -- Choose from the following)

  • My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok

  • This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff
  • Black Ice, by Lorene Cary
  • A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind

Grade 11 Concepts Requirement:

  • Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

Grade 11 American Studies Requirement:  (Two Books)

  • The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
    Plus One Book from the following list:

  • My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok

  • This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff
  • Black Ice, by Lorene Cary
  • A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind

Grade 11 Honors Requirement:  (Three Books)

  • The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (ISBN 0-14-024775-0 Special Edition)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Grade 12 Regular/Concepts Requirement:  (One Book)

  • Self-selected book with parent permission.  Parent permission forms (distributed to students in May) must be handed in to the teacher on the 1st day of English class in September 2006.

Grade 12 Honors Requirement: (Four Books)

  • The Tempest , by William Shakespeare
  • Brave New World , by Aldous Huxley
  • Song of Myself , by Walt Whitman
  • The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse , by Hermann Hesse

Grade 12 AP Requirement: (Five Books)

  • Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
  • Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen (buy version that also contains A Doll House
  • Demian, by Hermann Hesse
  • Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
  • Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

Extra Credit Opportunity for Grades 10 -- 11:  Maintain a reading journal of the assigned book or a book from the suggested list which follows these guidelines:

  • Make frequent, dated notations.  Include thoughtful comments about a mixture of the following:  conflicts, theme, predictions, questions about the work, character development, writer's style
  • Write about topics other than plot:  Use a 100 page marble-bound notebook.   Write in blue or black ink only.  Skip lines between entries, and date each entry.

Extra Credit Opportunity for Grade 12:    Write a one-page response to the book which records reactions to, and thoughts about, the book.   Plot summaries will not receive credit.  These essays will be shared with classmates.

There is no extra credit offered to grade 9 or Honors 12.

All extra credit work is due in the 1st English class in September.