Wyomissing Area Junior-Senior High School
English Department Summer Reading List
Summer 2017

Entering grade 7 English

Choose 1:

• The Honest Truth  by Dan Gemeinhart
• One For the Murphys  by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
• Eight Keys  by Suzanne LaFleur
• Half a World Away  by Cynthia Kadohata
• Crossover  by Kwame Alexander

Entering grade 8 English

Accelerated

Choose 1:

• How the Beatles Changed the World  by Martin W. Sandler
• Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case  by Chris Crowe
• Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow  by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
• Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment  by Carla Killough McClafferty

Academic

Choose 1:

• Ghost  by Jason Reynolds
• I Will Always Write Back  by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
• The Seventh Most Important Thing  by Shelley Pearsall
• A Time to Dance  by Padma Venkatraman
• Zach’s Lie  by Roland Smith

Comprehensive

Choose 1:

• The Lottery Rose  by Irene Hunt
• Zach’s Lie  by Roland Smith
• Miracle’s Boys  by Jacqueline Woodson

Entering Grade 8 Accelerated Writing Workshop

• Summer homework packet (no required reading)

Entering grade 9 English

Honors

• The Alchemist  by Paulo Coelho

Academic

Choose 1:

• Copper Sun  by Sharon Draper
• Ender’s Game  by Orson Scott Card
• The Fault in Our Stars  by John Green
• Divergent  by Veronica Roth

Comprehensive

Choose 1:

• Fever 1793  by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Nothing but the Truth  by Avi
• Whirligig  by Paul Fleischman

Entering grade 10 English

Honors

Both required:

• A Separate Peace  by John Knowles
• The Grapes of Wrath  by John Steinbeck

Academic

• A Separate Peace  by John Knowles

Comprehensive

• “The Demon Lover” (short story)  by Elizabeth Bowen

Entering grade 11 English

AP Language and Composition

Everyone must read:

• The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald

and then choose one of the following:

• The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace  by Jeff Hobbs
• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto  by Michael Pollan
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot
• Outliers  by Malcolm Gladwell

Honors

Everyone must read:

• The Scarlet Letter  by Nathaniel Hawthorne

and then choose one of the following:

• The Handmaid’s Tale  by Margaret Atwood
• Grendel  by John Gardner

Academic

Choose one:

• The Road  by Cormac McCarthy
• Angela’s Ashes  by Frank McCourt
• My Sister’s Keeper  by Jodi Picoult
• The Lovely Bones  by Alice Sebold
• Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer

Entering Comprehensive English 11/12

Choose 1:

• Looking for Alaska  by John Green
• The Glass Castle  by Jeannette Walls
• The Color of Water  by James McBride
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian  by Sherman Alexie

Entering grade 12 English

AP English Literature

Everyone must read:

• 1984  by George Orwell

and then choose one among the following:

• Oryx and Crake  by Margaret Atwood
• Wuthering Heights  by Emily Bronte
• The House of Leaves  by Mark Danielweski
• A Visit from the Goon Squad  by Jennifer Egan
• The Night Film  by Marisha Pessl
• The Secret History  by Donna Tartt

Honors

Both required:

• 1984  by George Orwell
• Brave New World  by Aldous Huxley

Academic

Choose 1:

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven  by Mitch Albom
• I Am the Messenger  by Markus Zusak
• The Kite Runner  by Khalea Hosseini
• The Last Lecture  by Randy Pausch
• Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen