Summer Reading Program: Sophomores
2016-2017
The goals of the Central Catholic High School summer reading program are to encourage
students to read, improve their reading skills, and have knowledge of modern authors. Students
who read are better academic achievers and, for that reason, summer reading is essential.
Contemporary works are stressed.
1. All students are required to participate in the summer reading program.
2. All sophomores must read the required selection (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde) and two additional selections from this list. Sophomores in the Honors class must
read two additional required novels (The Book Thief and Fahrenheit 451).
3. All sophomores will complete the Summer Reading Double Entry Journal Assignment
before the first week of school. Due date for Double Entry Journals is Friday,
September 2, 2016 by 11:59 PM on Turnitin; no late assignments will be accepted.
The Double Entry Journals will be worth 25% of an essay grade in your Sophomore
English course. Please see the Summer Reading Double Entry Journal Assignment
document for further details.
4. Each grade level has a devoted Summer Reading page on Moodle. Please consult this
page for copies of this list, the Summer Read Double Entry Journal Assignment, and a
forum in which you may post questions about the novels. These pages will be monitored
over the summer by the English faculty.
All sophomores must read
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece of the duality of good and evil in man’s nature sprang
from the darkest recesses of his own unconscious—during a nightmare from which his wife
awakened him, alerted by his screams. More than a hundred years later, this tale of the mildmannered Dr. Jekyll and the drug that unleashes his evil, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted
Mr. Hyde—has lost none of its ability to shock. Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly
relates Jekyll’s desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul—and gives voice to our own fears
of the violence and evil within us.
Additional selections
One Drop
Bliss Broyard
Ever since renowned literary critic Anatole Broyard's own parents, New Orleans Creoles, had
moved to Brooklyn and began to "pass" in order to get work, he had learned to conceal his racial
identity. As he grew older and entered the ranks of the New York literary elite, he maintained the
façade. Now his daughter Bliss tries to make sense of his choices and the impact of this
Page 1 of 5
Summer Reading Program: Sophomores
2016-2017
revelation on her own life. She searches out the family she never knew in New York and New
Orleans, and considers the profound consequences of racial identity. With unsparing candor and
nuanced insight, Broyard chronicles her evolution from sheltered WASP to a woman of mixed
race ancestry.
The Great Santini
Pat Conroy
Step into the powerhouse life of Bull Meecham. He’s all Marine—fighter pilot, king of the
clouds, and absolute ruler of his family. Lillian is his wife—beautiful, southern-bred, with a core
of velvet steel. Without her cool head, her kids would be in real trouble. Ben is the oldest, a born
athlete whose best never satisfies the big man. Ben’s got to stand up, even fight back, against a
father who doesn’t give in—not to his men, not to his wife, and certainly not to his son. Bull
Meecham is undoubtedly Pat Conroy’s most explosive character—a man you should hate, but a
man you will love.
The Circle
David Eggers
An eerie timeliness sets the tone of Dave Eggers' new novel. At its center is Mae Holland, a
talented young woman who lands what seems to be an ideal job with the world's most powerful
internet company. Like its vast open space offices, the Circle promises transparency, linking
users' entire lives into a single universal operating system. But what begins on a dreamy utopian
note becomes something vastly more sinister as Mae settles into this remote, apparently selfcontained community. A subtle, ambitious work of fiction by the National Book Award finalist
author of A Hologram for the King.
Slow Getting Up
Nate Jackson
Nate Jackson’s Slow Getting Up is an unvarnished and uncensored memoir of everyday life in
the most popular sports league in America—and the most damaging to its players—the National
Football League. After playing college ball at a tiny Division III school, Jackson, a receiver,
signed as a free agent with the San Francisco 49ers, before moving to the Denver Broncos. For
six seasons in the NFL as a Bronco, he alternated between the practice squad and the active
roster, eventually winning a starting spot—a short, tenuous career emblematic of the average pro
player. Drawing from his own experience, Jackson tells the little known story of the hundreds of
everyday, "expendable" players whose lives are far different from their superstar colleagues.
From scouting combines to training camps, off-season parties to game-day routines, debilitating
physical injuries—including degenerative brain conditions—to poor pensions and financial
distress, he offers a funny, and shocking look at life in the NFL, and the young men who risk
their health and even their lives to play the game.
Page 2 of 5
Summer Reading Program: Sophomores
2016-2017
The Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown
For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about
beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate
account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936
Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard
workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to
defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the
world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies
with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered
self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own
journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an
unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of
one extraordinary young man’s personal quest
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life...If you
miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience...It is a poignant and
deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships. The Nolans lived in the
Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919...Their daughter Francie and their son
Neely knew more than their fair share of the privations and sufferings that are the lot of a great
city's poor. Primarily this is Francie's book. She is a superb feat of characterization, an
imaginative, alert, resourceful child. And Francie's growing up and beginnings of wisdom are the
substance of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Could YOU survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure YOU didn’t live
to see the morning? In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of
Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel
and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages
of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live
TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister,
regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games.
Page 3 of 5
Summer Reading Program: Sophomores
2016-2017
The Book Thief
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.
The Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis
Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders
or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his
bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior
demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape
coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God.
Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking
and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of
punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the
goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into
servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed
completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores
with his razor-sharp insight and wit.
The most brilliant feature of The Screwtape Letters may be likening hell to a bureaucracy in
which "everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where
everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, selfimportance, and resentment." We all understand bureaucracies, be it the Department of Motor
Vehicles, the IRS, or one of our own making. So we each understand the temptations that slowly
lure us into hell. If you've never read Lewis, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start. And
if you know Lewis, but haven't read this, you've missed one of his core writings.
Page 4 of 5
Summer Reading Program: Sophomores
2016-2017
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never
been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot
twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is
about to be completely rewritten.
Maze Runner
James Dashner
The first book in the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series—The Maze Runner is a
modern classic, perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent.
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His
memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself
surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone
walls. Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they
know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every
night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the
strange worlds of love, drugs, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and dealing with the loss of a
good friend and his favorite aunt.
Page 5 of 5