English Department Summer Reading Titles
Enrico Fermi High School
Enfield High School
Every student will read one of the recommended titles.
Honors students will read a second book, either from the list or of their own
choosing.
Juniors and Seniors taking AP English or UConn ECE English will complete
alternative summer reading assignments distributed by the course instructors.
9th Grade Titles
Classic: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in a small town along
the Mississippi River. The story is set in the town of "St Petersburg", inspired by Hannibal, Missouri,
where Mark Twain grew up. In the story's introduction, Twain notes: "Most of the adventures recorded in
this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest of those boys were
schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a
combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite
order of architecture."
THEMES: moral and social maturation, social hypocrisy, freedom through exclusion, superstition
Contemporary: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Narrator Hazel Grace Lancaster, 16, is (miraculously) alive thanks to an experimental drug that is keeping
her thyroid cancer in check. In an effort to get her to have a life (she withdrew from school at 13), her
parents insist she attend a support group at a local church, which Hazel characterizes in an older-thanher-years voice as a "rotating cast of characters in various states of tumor-driven unwellness." Despite
Hazel's reluctant presence, it's at the support group that she meets Augustus Waters, a former basketball
player who has lost a leg to cancer. The connection is instant, and a (doomed) romance blossoms. There is
a road trip—Augustus, whose greatest fear is not of death but that his life won't amount to anything, uses
his "Genie Foundation" wish to take Hazel to Amsterdam to meet the author of her favorite book. But this
iteration is smart, witty, profoundly sad, and full of questions worth asking, even those like "Why me?"
that have no answer.
THEMES: self-discovery, terminal illness, living with tragedy, romantic teenage love, humor
Non Fiction: A Girl Named Zippy: Growing up Small in Mooreland Indiana by Haven
Kimmel
When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred
people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would run around like a circus monkey, this small girl was
possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back in
time to when small-town America was still trapped in the amber of the innocent post-war period—people
help their neighbors, go to church, keep barnyard animals in their backyards. Whether describing a
serious case of chicken love, another episode with the evil old woman across the street, or the night
Zippy's dad borrows thirty-six coon dogs and a raccoon to prove to the complaining neighbors just how
quiet his two dogs are, Kimmel treats readers to a heroine as appealing, naive, and knowing as Scout
Finch as she navigates the quirky adult world surrounding Zippy.
10th Grade Titles
Classic: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Originally published in 1870, Verne’s amazing undersea adventure is one of the earliest science fiction
novels ever written. Since that time, generations of readers have plunged below the ocean’s waves with
Captain Nemo and his first-ever submarine, The Nautilus. It’s a voyage of exploration and the imagination.
A deadly and huge sea monster is sinking ships. Three men--a French scientist, his trusty sidekick, and a
Canadian harpoonist are thrown from the deck of their American warship. A door opens on the side of the
monster, and they are taken inside the greatest submarine in the world, the top-secret Nautilus
commanded by a madman who will take them 20,000 leagues into the depths.
THEMES: man versus nature, liberty, revenge
Contemporary: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical
Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. Set during World War II in Germany, Markus
Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich.
Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t
resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her
stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her
basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to
feed the soul.
THEMES: man’s inhumanity to man, war, courage, separation, power of words, fighting for your beliefs
Non Fiction: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar,
decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence
in prison. This is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation. Told in alternating dramatic
narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The
Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.
11th Grade Titles
Classic: The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Novelist and short story writer Kate Chopin was the first American woman to deal with women's roles as
wives and mothers. The Awakening (1899), her most famous novel, concerns a woman who is dissatisfied
with her indifferent husband and commits adultery. This is a searing depiction of the religious and social
pressures brought to bear on women who transgress restrictive Victorian codes of behavior. An
American classic that paved the way for the modern novel, The Awakening is both a remarkable novel in
its own right and a startling reminder of how far women in this century have come. The story of a married
woman who pursues love outside a stuffy, middle-class marriage, the novel portrays the mind of a woman
seeking fulfillment of her essential nature.
THEMES: independence and solitude, self-expression and suicide
Contemporary: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
With a voice as distinctive and original as that of The Lovely Bones, The Age of Miracles is a novel about
coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world. Spellbinding, haunting, The Age of
Miracles is a beautiful novel of catastrophe and survival, growth and change, the story of Julia and her
family as they struggle to live in an extraordinary time. On an ordinary Saturday, Julia awakes to discover
that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and
longer, gravity is affected, the birds, the tides, human behavior and cosmic rhythms are thrown into
disarray. In a world of danger and loss, Julia faces surprising developments in herself, and her personal
world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by Hannah and other friends, the
vulnerability of first love, a sense of isolation, and a rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and
the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking story of people
finding ways to go on, in an ever-evolving world.
THEMES: coming of age, natural disaster, self-identity, belonging, discrimination
Non Fiction: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
For reasons even he didn't understand, Bill Bryson decided in 1996 to walk the 2,100-mile Appalachian
trail. Winding from Georgia to Maine, this uninterrupted 'hiker's highway' sweeps through the heart of
some of America's most beautiful and treacherous terrain. Accompanied by his infamous crony, Stephen
Katz, Bryson risks snake bite and hantavirus to trudge up unforgiving mountains, plod through swollen
rivers, and yearn for cream sodas and hot showers. This amusingly ill-conceived adventure brings Bryson
to the height of his comic powers, but his acute eye also observes an astonishing landscape of silent
forests, sparkling lakes, and other national treasures that are often ignored or endangered. Fresh,
illuminating, and uproariously funny, A Walk in the Woods showcases Bill Bryson at his very best.
12th Grade Titles
Classic: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Acting on behalf of his firm of solicitors, Jonathan Harker travels to the Carpathian Mountains to finalize
the sale of England's Carfax Abbey to Transylvanian noble Count Dracula. Little does he realize that, in
doing so, he endangers all that he loves, for Dracula is one of the Un-Dead--a centuries-old vampire who
sleeps by day and stalks by night, feasting on the blood of his helpless victims. Once on English soil,
the count sets his sights on Jonathan's circle of associates, among them his beloved wife Mina. To thwart
Dracula's evil designs, Jonathan and his friends will have to accept as truth the most preposterous
superstitions concerning vampires, and in the company of legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van
Helsing, embark on an unholy adventure for which even their worst nightmares have not prepared them.
First published in 1897, Bram Stoker's Dracula established the ground rules for virtually all vampire
fiction written in its wake.
THEMES: the self and the other, consequences of modernity and technology, attraction and sexual
expression
Contemporary: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Like its predecessor The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns uses that tumultuous backdrop of wartorn Afghanistan to render the heroic plight of two people; in this case, women of different generations
married to the same savagely abusive male. Born out of wedlock, Mariam was forced to marry forty-yearold Rasheed when she was only fifteen. Then eighteen years later, her still childless husband angrily takes
an even younger wife. Hosseini renders the story of Mariam and her "sister/daughter" Laila with
persuasive detail and consummate humanity. Their resistance is from the very core of their being.
THEMES: man’s inhumanity to man, the inner strength of women, man’s capacity for evil
Non Fiction: Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff
Rushkoff weaves together seemingly disparate events and trends into a rich, nuanced portrait of how life
in the eternal present has affected our biology, behavior, politics, and culture. He explains how the rise of
zombie apocalypse fiction signals our intense desire for an ending; how the Tea Party and Occupy Wall
Street form two sides of the same post-narrative coin; how corporate investing in the future has been
replaced by futile efforts to game the stock market in real time; why social networks make people anxious
and email can feel like an assault. He examines how the tragedy of 9/11 disconnected an entire
generation from a sense of history, and delves into why conspiracy theories actually comfort us. As both
individuals and communities, we have a choice. We can struggle through the onslaught of information and
play an eternal game of catch-up. Or we can choose to live in the present: favor eye contact over texting;
quality over speed; and human quirks over digital perfection. Rushkoff offers hope for anyone seeking to
transcend the false now. Absorbing and thought-provoking, Present Shock is a wide-ranging, deeply
thought meditation on what it means to be human in real time.
*All book descriptions taken from barnesandnoble.com