High School Summer Reading
Some choice texts contain controversial, provocative, sexual, or violent elements. You may or may not be willing to expose yourself to these materials, and your parents/guardians need to be part of your book decision when choice is involved. For this reason, parental/guardian approval is required before you start reading any choice titles.
English 1
All students, honors and college preparatory, should choose one age-appropriate work of fiction to read over the summer. If you need help choosing a book, see the list curated by the LMSD High School Librarians for recommended titles.
(Students attending the SMART program should await direction from the program teachers; a single book be used in this program.)
English 2
Students in an Honors class should choose and read two of the five books listed below.
Students in a College Preparatory class should choose and read one of the five books listed below.
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Reading & Writing Non Fiction
The Color of Water by James McBride (Honors and College Preparatory)
An Autobiography of Choice (Honors)
Sport in Literature and Non-Fiction
The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant (Honors and College Preparatory)
Modern and Contemporary Literature
The Bean Trees by Barabara Kingsolver (Honors and College Preparatory)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by Mark Haddon OR Fledgling by Octavia Butler (Honors)
Voices in African American Literature
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi (Honors and College Preparatory)
Film and Literature
Student-selected film AND book on which the film was based (Honors and College Preparatory)
Heroes and Monsters
Grendel by John Gardner (Honors and College Preparatory)
AP Language
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson AND Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson AND a student-selected nonfiction book related to education or politics.
AP Literature
The Dead by James Joyce AND Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, AND Atonement by Ian McEwan
IB Literature Part 1
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
IB Literature Part 2
Hamlet by William Shakespeare AND The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
IB English B HL 1 and 2
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri