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SummerReading

Classical High School Summer Reading 2024

Each student must complete the summer reading assignments for all English, social studies, and world language courses listed that they will be attending in the fall. 

 

Click on the book title to find books at the Rhode Island Public Libraries and Classical High School Library. You can use your RI Library Card at all Public Libraries and to access ebooks and audiobooks online. Apply for a Public library card here. Summer Reading books checked out in June at the Classical High School Library have an extended checkout time and are not due until Friday, September 13, 2024.

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English I: Grade 9

Read one book.  Book test given by English teacher during first two weeks of school, counted in first quarter average.

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
1951 classic novel follows 2 days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, Holden searches for truth and rails against the “phoniness” of the adult world.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
A novel in free verse that tells the story of an African American teen boy at a crossroads. Determined to avenge his 19-year-old brother's death, Will, age 15, takes his brother's gun out of their shared bedroom to kill the person he's certain is the murderer, but it's a long way down in the elevator.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog.

English II & English II Honors: Grade 10

Read one book. Book test given by English teacher during first two weeks of school, counted in first quarter average.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this novel tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, 3 young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
On his journey to seek spiritual fulfillment and wisdom, Siddhartha experiences life’s vital passages–love, work, friendship, and fatherhood-- and discovers that true knowledge is guided from within.
The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
The "dew breaker" is a quiet man, a good father and husband. As the book switches between Haiti in the 1960s and New York City present day, the reader learns that the dew breaker has kept a vital, dangerous secret.

English III: Grade 11 

Read one book. Book test given by English teacher during first two weeks of school, counted in first quarter average.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez.
Part mystery, part love story, part inner quest. In I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, the vibrant teen protagonist struggles to prove who she is not, and in that journey, discovers who she is: stronger, braver, more worthy of loving and living than she ever imagined.
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
This novel traces the Ganguli family's immigrant experience through the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and the tangled ties between generations.

AP Language and Composition Grade 11

Read for The Anthropocene Reviewed and one of the other three books (two titles all together). Book test given by English teacher during first two weeks of school; counted in first quarter average.

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
The first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.

English IV: Grade 12

Read one book. Book test given by English teacher during first two weeks of school, counted in first quarter average.

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Author Jacqueline Woodson, tells the story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.
Sooley by John Grisham
Sooley by John Grisham
After seventeen-year-old Samuel "Sooley" Sooleymon receives a college scholarship to play basketball for North Carolina Central, he moves to Durham from his native, war-torn South Sudan, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season, but Sooley has a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America, working tirelessly on his game until he dominates everyone in practice, and when Sooley is called off the bench, the legend begins.

AP Literature and Composition: Grade 12

Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor and one of the other three books (two titles all together). Book test given by English teacher during first two weeks of school, counted in first quarter average.

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A mystery, a love story, and a critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society.

AP U.S. Government

Read book. Social studies teacher gives test or essay assessment within the first month of school. Grade is counted in first quarter average.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of boys. At first, their freedom is something to celebrate. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued

AP European History

Students can select from multiple titles posted on the CHS website. Read one of the titles posted. Social Studies teacher gives an analysis essay test in the first week of school. Grade counted in the first quarter average.

 

Psychology and AP Psychology

Read book. Social studies teacher gives test or essay assessment within the first month of school. Grade is counted in first quarter average.

The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing by Judith L. Rapoport
The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing by Judith L. Rapoport
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) afflicts up to 6 million Americans. Now a distinguished psychiatrist and expert on OCD reveals exciting breakthroughs in diagnosis, successful new behaviorist therapies and drug treatments, as well as lists of resources and references.

AP U.S. History

Primary Source Document Analysis and Text Reading

Follow Assignment and documents here. Assignments to be completed prior to the start of school and will count towards first quarter average.

 

Law and Society

Read book. Social studies teacher gives test or essay assessment within the first month of school. Grade is counted in first quarter average.

The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights. Outside of prisons, a web of laws and regulations discriminates against these wrongly convicted ex-offenders in voting, housing, employment and education. Alexander here offers an urgent call for justice.