Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
FRESHMAN ENGLISH
(1100) Literature and Composition I
All students are expected to read ONE summer reading book of their choosing. Students should
choose a book that they want to read, have never read before, and that feels comfortable for their
reading level. Students will need to bring the book to class and should be prepared to discuss
and/or write about the book in the first weeks of school in September. To this end, we strongly
suggest that students take notes to help them remember the major characters, themes and plot of
the text. We also suggest that students read the book later in the summer, as to help them
remember it more clearly.
The following is a list of suggested authors, but is by no means exhaustive.
Isabel Allende
Margaret Atwood
Olive Burns
Orson Scott Card
Lorene Cary
Carl Deuker
Michael Dorris
Sharon M. Draper
Ken Follett
Nick Hornby
Khaled Hosseini
Brian Jacques
Barbara Kingsolver (not The Bean Trees)
Gordon Korman
Jon Krakauer
Joyce Carol Oates
Ann Patchett
James McBride
Walter Dean Meyers
Louis Sachar
Alice Sebold
Esmeralda Santiago
Amy Tan
J.R.R. Tolkein
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
SOPHOMORE ENGLISH
Course
(1208) Literature and
Composition II - Honors
(1206) Literature and
Composition II – Level 1
(1204) Explorations in Literature
and Composition – Level 2
Title
Author
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Tracy Kidder
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Tracy Kidder
Mountains Beyond Mountains
(item edited 6/18/2010)
Tracy Kidder
JUNIOR ENGLISH
(1308) American Literature –
Honors
(1306) American Literature –
Level 1
(1304) American Literature and
Society – Level 1
The Awakening
Kate Chopin
Into the Wild
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer
Into the Wild
Jon Krakauer
SENIOR ENGLISH
(1550) Art of the Film
(1460) Contemporary Literature
(1450) Modern Literature
(1480) Theology in Literature
(1420) British Literature
(1510) Writing, Memoir, Fiction
and Poetry
(1410) Senior Literature and
Composition
(1430) Shakespeare
WATCH: On the Waterfront
(movie)
READ: A Street Car Named
Desire
The Natural
The Metamorphosis
Siddhartha
Directed by E. Kazan
The Book of Job
The Once & Future King
The Glass Castle
Stephen Mitchell
T.H. White
Jeannette Walls
Always Running: LaVida
Loca: Days in L.A.
Interred with Their Bones
Luis J. Rodriquez
Tennessee Williams
Bernard Malamud
Franz Kafka
Hermann Hesse
Jennifer Lee Carrell
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
SCIENCE
Advanced Earth Science
The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery (2005 ed. w/ 2006 afterward by author) paperback edition
SOCIAL STUDIES
Freshman World History
Incoming 9th graders are asked to read a nonfiction book about any leader past or present.
The leader may be a political figure or have significantly influenced society through their work
in the fields of business, education, medicine, science or the arts.
One focus of the 9th grade World History course is to evaluate how leaders positively and
negatively affect their societies. Reading a biography or autobiography of a contemporary or
historical leader will provide one example of how people become leaders and use their power to
change society in good--or bad--ways.
Choosing a Book
You may pick a book from the suggested reading list or you may select a book on your own.
The list includes books about a variety of leaders in different fields and books written at different
reading levels. We hope that you will pick a topic that interests and engages you. We also hope
that you will select a book that reflects your comfort level as a reader. Make sure the book you
choose is neither too challenging, nor too easy.
Some Examples of Good and Bad Choices
If you choose your own book, be sure to choose a book
about a leader, not merely a famous person. Anyone who
has held political office, led a rebellion, or advocated for
social change is a good selection. Government is not,
however, the only field in which there are leaders. When
selecting a book, be sure it meets all of the criteria below:
• nonfiction
• at least 100 pages
• a book you have never read before
• focused on one person or a small group of
people
• about a person who influenced government,
Good choice: Jackie Robinson--As the first
African-American Major League Baseball
player, he positively influenced race relations
in the US
Bad Choice: LeBron James--While he is an
amazing basketball player, his athletic
accomplishments do not impact other parts of
society
Good Choice: Bono of U2--In addition to
being a rock star, Bono has led a campaign
asking rich nations of the world to forgive
the debt of poorer nations
Bad Choice: Kurt Cobain --Although he was
an influential rock musician, he did not affect
other parts of society
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
education, health, relationships between people
of different races, religions, genders
(men/women), social classes (rich and poor)
or sexual orientation
When School Begins
You will be asked to talk and write about your book during the first weeks of school. To help
you remember what you read, write a short summary. It is also a good idea to read the book
during the later half of the summer so it remains fresh in your memory.
Questions to consider as you read
• How did this person become a leader?
• What motivated him or her to become a leader?
• Which aspects of society did this leader affect?
Please fill out the slip on the next page and have your parent or guardian sign it.
The World History teachers look forward to meeting you!
Suggested Reading List(if you choose another book, be sure it meets the criteria listed)
Eve Curie
Michael D'Antonio
Madame Curie: A Biography
Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian
Dreams
Dinesh D’Souza
Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader
Candace Fleming
The Great and Only Barnum (PT Barnum)
Dian Fossey
Gorillas in the Mist
Judith & Dennis Fradin Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy
Russell Freedman
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery
Russell Freedman
Martha Graham: A Dancer’s Life
Jane Goodall
My Life with the Chimpanzees
Malcolm X & Alex Haley The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Andrew Helfer
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography
Phillip Hoose
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
Paul Johnson
Churchill
William Kamkwamba & The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Bryan Mealer
Joshua Kendall
The Man who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness and the Creation of Roget’s
Thesaurus
Tracy Kidder
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer
Ron Kovic
Born on the Fourth of July
Glenna Lang &
Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the Story of The Life and Death
Marjory
Wunsch
of Great American Cities
John Lewis
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
Wangari Maathai
Unbowed: A Memoir
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
Albert Marrin
Terror of the Spanish Main: Sir Henry Morgan & his Buccaneers
Albert Marrin
The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt & the Rise of Modern America
Albert Marrin
The Sea King: Sir Francis Drake and His Times
Albert Marrin
Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel
Brad Matsen
Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King
Carla Killough McClafferty Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium
Larry McMurtry
Crazy Horse.
Farley Mowat
Woman in the Mists
Rigoberta Menchu
I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
Walter Dean Myers
The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
Barak Obama
Dreams from My Father
Sarah Palin
Going Rogue: An American Life
Peter Peterson
The Education of an American Dreamer
Thomas Ricks
The Gamble: General David Petraeus & the American Military Adventure in Iraq
Arjia Rinpoche
Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama’s Account of 40 Years under Chinese Rule
Spain Rodriguez
Che: A Graphic Biography
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman
President
Danny Smith
Lost Hero: Raoul Wallenberg’s Dramatic Quest to Save the Jews of Hungary
Jane Resh Thomas
Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I
Paul Tough
Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America
Jack Weatherford
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Terry Whalin
Sojourner Truth: American Abolitionist.
Sterling Biographies Series
Cleopatra
Albert Einstein
John F. Kennedy
George Patton
Wicked History Series
Leopold II
Ivan the Terrible
Hannibal
Mary Tudor
DK Biography Series
Nelson Mandela
Gandhi
Joan of Arc
Charles Darwin
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
During the first week of school, there will be a test on the book or books that you have read.
Course
Book
Author
SOPHOMORE SOCIAL
STUDIES
(2204) Modern World Issues
(2206) World History 11 –
Level 1
(2209) AP World History
Packets of readings
People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks
A History of the World in Six
Glasses
When Asia Was the World (students will read chapter 10,
chapter 1, and chapter 2 for
their summer reading, we will
read the rest of the book
throughout the year)
First chapter – Strayer, Ways
of the World
Tom Standage
The Island at the Center of the
World
Paul Revere’s Ride
Russell Shorto
JUNIOR SOCIAL STUDIES
(2309) AP United States
History
(2306) Issues in American
History
Fischer
Questions to answer:
1. In what ways is General Gage a
sympathetic character?
2. How does Fischer show that the
importance of Paul Revere in history
is not national myth making?
3. How was warning the countryside
a collective effort?
4. What was Lexington's role in the
events of the day?
5. Why and how were reports of the
events of April 19th manipulated for
public consumption?
(2304) Issues in American
History - Level 2
Nickel and Dimed: On (not)
Getting by in America
Barbara Ehrenreich
(item added 6/18/2010)
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
ELECTIVES – SOCIAL
STUDIES
(2679) AP Economics
(2649) AP Psychology Honors
(2636) Developmental
Psychology
(2438) Political Thought
(2580) Facing History:
Holocaust and Other
Genocides
(2590) Race, Gender, and
Human
McBride
(2516) U.S. Government &
Politics
(2536) International Relations:
Focus on Human
Rights
Naked Economics
Packets of Reading – How We
Decide
Opening Skinner’s Box: Great
Psychological Experiments of
the Twentieth Century
Blink
Charles Wheelan
The Leopard
The Sunflower: On the
Possibilities and Limits of
Forgiveness
The Color of Water: A Black
Man’s Tribute to his White
Mother
Hardball: How Politics is
Played Told by One Who
Knows the Game
Choose ONE of the
following:
Giuseppe di Lampedusa
Simon Wiesenthal
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs
of a Boy Soldier
Iran Awakening
Don’t Be Afraid, Gringo
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Three Cups of Tea
The End of Poverty
Unbowed
Jihad vs. McWorld: How
Globalism and Tribalism are
Reshaping the World
Confessions of an Economic
Hit Man
Ishmael Beah
Lauren Slater
Malcom Gladwell
James McBride
Christopher Matthews
Shirin Ibadi
Benjamin Medea
Tracy Kidder
Mortenson and Relin
Jeffrey Sachs
Wangari Maathai
Benjamin R. Barber and
Andrea Schultz
John Perkins
Lexington High School Summer Reading List
2010
Please contact individual departments with any questions.
Thank you!
(2536) International Relations:
Focus on Human
Rights
(2576) Civil Rights Movement
(2479) Human Geography
(2488) Field Research in
America’s History
Continued
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha:
Two Years on the Heart of an
African Village
Race Rebels: Culture, Politics
and the Black Working Class
Choose ONE of the
following:
City of Joy
The End of Poverty
Fast Food Nation
Geography of Nowhere
Guns, Germs and Steel
Lexington: From Liberty’s
Birthplace to Progressive
Suburb
Sarah Erdman
Robin D.G. Kelley
Dominique Lapierre
Jeffrey Sachs
Eric Schlosser
James Howard Kunstler
Jared Diamond
Richard Kollen
During the first week of school, there will be a test on the book or books that you have read.