Dear Rising Grade 8 student,
We hope that you have an enjoyable summer and look forward to meeting and growing with you in the fall.
English Humanities and Social Studies Humanities 8 both stress the theme “challenge” early in the school year.
Below you will find a list of titles to choose from as your summer read. This will help prevent “summer slide” and keep
your vocabulary and English-language abilities growing during school recess. As always, our goal is to develop
lifelong readers and thinkers.
As a rising Grade 8 student, you have increased freedom. With this freedom comes increased responsibility.
You can choose any book on the list. You will notice that multiple genres and reading levels are included. All titles
are easily available at Orell Füssli located in downtown Zurich at Bahnhofstrasse 70, via Amazon.co.uk, through Ereaders, or most standard Anglophone bookstores while traveling.
Summer reading is an important part of maintaining--and enhancing--your English language skills. As you
enjoy your time away from school, we encourage you to read as much as possible both in English and in other
languages. When you return, you will be expected to be prepared to discuss or write about at least one of the titles
listed below.
If you have any questions, please Email [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you in August!
Sincerely,
English 8 Faculty
Realistic Fiction
Touching Spirit Bear, 2002
Samurai Shortstop, 2007
By Ben Mikaelson
By Alan Gratz
(670L)
(790L)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson,
2012
By John Green & David Levithan
(930L)
Fantasy Fiction
Artemis Fowl, 2009
A Wrinkle in Time, 1962
The Hobbit, 1937
By Eoin Colfer
By Madeleine L'Engle
By J.R.R. Tolkien
(600L)
(740L)
(1,000L)
Biography / Autobiography
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs
of a Boy Soldier, 2007
By Ishmael Beah
(920L)
Mountains Beyond
I am Malala: The Girl Who
Mountains: The Quest of
Stood Up for Education and
Was Shot by the Taliban,
Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who
2013
Would Cure the World, 2003
By Malala Yousafzai and Christina
Lamb
By Tracy Kidder
(1,000L)
(1,080L)
Non-Fiction
Tao of Pooh, 1983
By Benjamin Hoff
(810L)
Shipwreck at the Bottom of
the World, 2000
By Jennifer Armstrong
(1,090L)
Phineas Gage: A Gruesome
but True Story about Brain
Science, 2004
By John Fleischman
(1,030L)