HANOVER COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
High School Summer Reading 2015
Atlee High School
Students and Parents:
The Hanover County Public Schools English department believes that the purpose of summer reading is to
develop good reading practices in students, to inspire a love of reading, and to give students common ground
for learning at the outset of the school year. To foster a love of reading that will last into the school year and
beyond school walls, contemporary and dynamic texts that are accessible, varied in topic and student-focused,
have been selected. We value the power of reading to entertain, persuade, and inform and expect every
student to participate in summer reading. We strongly encourage students who wish to read beyond the
expectations of the summer reading program to read widely and voraciously.
Students should select a title (or titles) from the recommended summer reading list based on their course
requirements. Parents are encouraged to participate in the book selection. The suggested titles are appropriate
for adolescent readers, designed to capture their interest and motivate them to think about current issues and
themes. However, if students or parents have concerns about choosing one of the recommended titles, they
may select another book to read. When choosing a book of your own choice, students should avoid titles that
have been made into movies and select titles of appropriate rigor for their grade. Books can be found at county
libraries, school libraries, and through local book vendors.
All Standard students are to read at least one title and Advanced English students are to read at least two
titles and complete the attached Book Response that is due within the first 2 weeks of school and will count
as a graded assignment.
Pre-Baccalaureate, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement English, and College Composition (Dual
Enrollment) students should complete the specific reading assignments for their course, which vary by school.
These book lists are located near the end of this document.
Rising 9th Grade Reading Selections
Standard English: choose at least one title
Advanced English Students: choose at least two titles
If You Come Softly
Jacqueline
Woodson
The Alchemist:
The Secrets of the
Immortal Nicholas
Flamel
Michael Scott
Crackback
John Coy
*Tears of a Tiger
Sharon Draper
*How They Croaked:
the Awful Ends of the
Awfully Famous
Kevin O’Malley
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black
and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice
abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with peoples’ reactions.
Best Books for Young Adults 1999 Top Ten; Virginia Young Readers Program Winner 2001
Set in modern day San Francisco, twin fifteen year-old siblings, Sophie and Josh Newman,
are actually powerful magicians mentioned in an old prophecy. If the twins cannot help
ancient alchemist Nicholas Flamel locate a stolen book, which happens to be the most
powerful book ever written, the world will be destroyed.
School Library Journal Starred (2007), Booklist, VOYA (2007)
When Miles Manning, a successful high school football player, discovers his teammates are
using steroids--and one of them is his best friend--he's faced with a tough decision: Is he
willing to do what it takes to win? Football is his life, and his family, especially his dad, is
pinning its hopes on him. It's a lot of pressure for a high school junior to bear.
School Library Journal 2005, Wilson’s Senior High School 2007, Booklist starred 2005
The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident
adversely affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving, as well as many others
in their school. Contains references to suicide.
Notable/Best Books (ALA), School Library Journal, Booklist
The graphic details of the gory deaths of nineteen famous people are revealed in a
conversational manner in this often humorous, disgustingly appealing book. Readers will be
equally engaged and grateful for modern medical remedies! Some slang language
references to bodily functions and body parts.
YALSA Nonfiction nominee 2012
* May contain objectionable material
PB 9th Grade Reading Selections
All PB English 9 students: choose two titles from the “Rising 9th Grade Reading Selections,” as well as the
works below
*Little Princes: One
Man’s Promise to
Bring Home the Lost
Children of Nepal
Connor Grennan
In search of adventure, 29-year-old Connor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip
around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little
Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What began as an adventure
becomes a calling and commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their
families, risking his own life and facing dangers in the civil war in Nepal.
*The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
Narrated by Death, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old girl living in Germany
during WWII. After her brother’s death, Liesel stays with her new foster parents and is
exposed to the Nazi regime. Throughout she struggles to find a balance between childhood
innocence and the horrors around her. And then there is Max, the Jewish man hiding in
their basement. This is a book of self-discovery, formation of new family and mostly her life
as a book thief.

May contain objectionable material
ASSIGNMENT
DIRECTIONS FOR Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal - All IB students, along with
members of our IB faculty, will be participating in discussions of this text in September. In addition to the discussions we will be having
at Atlee, we encourage families to read and discuss this powerful book together.
Rising 10th Grade Reading Selections
Standard English: choose at least one title
Advanced English Students: choose at least two titles
Shelter
Harlan Coben
The Final Four
Paul Volponi
Everlost
Neal
Shusterman
Cinder
Marissa Mayer
*I am a Seal Team
Six Warrior (special
Young Adult edition)
Howard Wasdin,
Stephen
Templin
After Mickey witnesses his father's death and his mother's admission into rehab, he is sent
to live with his estranged uncle and changes high schools. When Mickey's new girlfriend,
Ashley, suddenly disappears Mickey refuses to let another person walk out of his life and
follows clues that reveal truths about both Ashley and Mickey's father. Agatha Award
Nominee for Best Childrens Young Adult (2011), Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult
(2012)
Four players at the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament struggle with the
pressures of tournament play and the expectations of society at large.
School Library Journal starred (March 2012), Booklist starred (February 2012), Bulletin of the
Center for Children's Books starred (March 2012)
When Nick and Allie are killed in a car crash, they end up in Everlost, or limbo for lost souls,
where although Nick is satisfied, Allie will stop at nothing--even skinjacking--to break free.
2009 ALA Popular Paperback List, 2008 School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2008
International Reading Association Young Adult Choice List, 2007 PEN USA Literary Award –
Finalist, 2007 Children’s Literature Council of Southern California “Fantastic Work of Fiction”
Cinder, a gifted mechanic and a cyborg with a mysterious past, is blamed by her stepmother
for her stepsister's illness while a deadly plague decimates the population of New Beijing,
but when Cinder's life gets intertwined with Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the center of an
intergalactic struggle.
Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Howard Wasdin overcomes a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and
dangerous world of U.S. Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers.
* May contain objectionable material
PB 10th Grade Reading Selections
All PB English 10 students: choose two titles from the “Rising 10th Grade Reading Selections,” as well as the
works below
*Little Princes: One
Man’s Promise to
Bring Home the Lost
Children of Nepal
Connor Grennan
In search of adventure, 29-year-old Connor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip
around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little
Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What began as an adventure
becomes a calling and commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their
families, risking his own life and facing dangers in the civil war in Nepal.
*The Great Gatsby
F. Scott
Fitzgerald
A Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen
Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach!
Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island
mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious
character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd,
watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his
life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive
obsession will force his world to unravel.
A Doll's House is Henrik Ibsen's best-known play. This masterpiece created controversy when
it was first released because of its feminist stance. It is considered by many to be the first
truly feminist play ever written. The play focuses in on Nora, who struggles with her life that
often feels smothering.

May contain objectionable material
ASSIGNMENTS
DIRECTIONS FOR Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal - All IB students, along with
members of our IB faculty, will be participating in discussions of this text in September. In addition to the discussions we will be having
at Atlee, we encourage families to read and discuss this powerful book together.
Rising 11th Grade Reading Selections
Standard English: choose at least one title
Advanced English Students: choose at least two titles
Bleachers
John Grisham
*Breathing
Underwater
Alex Flinn
Shift
Jennifer
Bradbury
Daughter of Smoke
and Bone
Laini Taylor
Lincoln’s Last Days:
the Shocking
Assassination That
Changed America
Forever
Bill O’Reilly,
Dwight Jon
Zimmerman
High school all-American Neely Crenshaw was probably the best quarterback ever to play for
the legendary Messina Spartans. Fifteen years have gone by since those glory days, and Neely
has come home to Messina to bury Coach Eddie Rake, the man who molded the Spartans into
an unbeatable football dynasty. His boys relive their high school days as they mourn their
coach’s death.
Booklist 2003, New York Times 2003, School Library Journal 2003
Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, and ordered to keep a journal, sixteen year-old Nick
recounts his relationship with her, examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes
living with his abusive father. Contains strong language, violence, and references to sexuality.
Notable Books (ALA), School Library Journal
Some friends fade away....Others disappear. Imagine you and your best friend head out West
on a cross-country bike trek. Imagine that the two of you get into a fight -- and stop riding
together. Imagine you reach Seattle, go back home, start college. Imagine you think your
former best friend does too. Imagine he doesn't. Imagine your world shifting.... Shift is a tour
de force -- a literary debut that'll knock the wind out of you as it explores the depths of loyalty,
the depths of friendship, and the unknowable depths of another person.
Booklist starred 2008, School Library Journal 2008, Virginia Reader’s choice selection, Kirkus
Reviews starred 2008, Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) 2008
Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a
sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters--the chimaerae who form the only family she has
ever known.
Starred reviews: Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Adapted from Bill O’Reilly’s historical thriller, this gripping account of one of America’s most
dramatic nights—how one gunshot changed the country forever is accompanied by abundant
ilustrations, inlcuding period photographs, maps, and art.
* May contain objectionable material
11th Grade IB Reading Selections
All 11th Grade IB English students: choose two titles from the “Rising 11th Grade Reading Selections,” as well
as the works below
*Little Princes: One
Man’s Promise to
Bring Home the Lost
Children of Nepal
Connor Grennan
In search of adventure, 29-year-old Connor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip
around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little
Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What began as an adventure
becomes a calling and commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their
families, risking his own life and facing dangers in the civil war in Nepal.
*Chronicle of a
Death Foretold
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
All the Light We
Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
We know from the start that Santiago Nasar is going to die, but we don’t know how or why
until the story unfolds. Told by an anonymous narrator many years after the event, we learn
about the death of Nasar from a variety of sources and memories, however flawed or
different they may be.
The 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning novel is the story of two young people: Werner, a young
man who is good with his hands and with gadgets living in Germany, and Marie-Laure, a
blind girl living with her father who works at the museum but disappears in Nazi-occupied
Paris during WWII. But WWII is not the focus of this novel, though the presence of war is
pervasive in the background. Instead it is the story of their lives and the interconnectedness of all humans.

May contain objectionable material
ASSIGNMENT
DIRECTIONS FOR Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal- All IB students, along with
members of our IB faculty, will be participating in discussions of this text in September. In addition to the discussions we will be having
at Atlee, we encourage families to read and discuss this powerful book together.
11th Grade AP Reading Selections
All 11th Grade AP English students: read Columbine and one other non-fiction book.
* Students are required to read Columbine by Dave Cullen.
Both books require students to complete a corresponding assignment.
AP Language and Composition is a college course that focuses on the reading and analysis of non-fiction texts. Non-fiction is
defined as writing about actual events, people, and subjects. Students are minded that this high-level course requires students to
work independently. Corresponding assignments should reflect one’s own work.
Your Summer Reading assignment is to read and reflect on a non-fiction book of your choice in addition to Columbine by Dave
Cullen. You should strive to read about something that both challenges you and interests you.
These recommended selections include choices from Time Magazine’s “Top 100 Non-Fiction Books,” from former AP Language
student recommendations, and from the current bestseller list. The Atlee library owns many of them! You are welcome to choose
from this list for your choice book or choose another book based on your interests.
Biography
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
Memoir
Riding the Bus with my Sister by Rachel Simon
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
Philosophy
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Six Questions of Socrates : A Modern-Day Journey of Discovery Through the World by Christopher Phillips
Science and Medicine
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Politics, History and Military History
SEAL Team Six by Howard Wasdin
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
The Dark Game: True Spy Stories by Paul Janeczko
Humor
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher
Business
Against Thrift: Why Consumer Culture is Good for the Economy, the Environment, and Your Soul by James Livingston
Branded Beauty: How Marketing Changed the Way We Look by Mark Tungate
Sports
The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Computers and Gaming
In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy
All Your Base are Belong To Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture by Harold Goldberg
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell
Family and Relationships
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman
Best Friends, Occasional Enemies: The Lighter Side of Life as a Mother and Daughter by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella
Nature
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
True Crime
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglass Starr
Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe
Travel
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King
Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India by Miranda Kennedy
See next page for assignments!
CHOICE BOOK ASSIGNMENT
DIRECTIONS: Write a well-developed paragraph or paragraphs that answers each question. Bring your book and your typed or neatly
handwritten responses to the first day of class.
1. What did you find surprising about the topic introduced in this book?
2. How has reading this book changed your opinion of a certain person or topic?
3. If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides of the debate? Does he or she seem to have a bias?
4. How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?
5. What major life lesson can be learned from this event or story?
Columbine assignment questions:
DIRECTIONS: Write a well-developed paragraph or paragraphs that answers each question. Bring your book and your typed or neatly
handwritten responses to the first day of class.
1.
2.
Some readers have referred to Columbine as a “non-fiction novel.” Do you think this description fits?
How does the author build and maintain suspense and mystery in the book? How does he deal with the fact that readers may know—or think
they know—the outcomes or details of the book’s events?
3. Why is it important that books like Columbine be written and read? How does the author build and maintain suspense and mystery in the
book?
4. As you read the book, what surprises did you encounter? Why do you think you hadn’t known about them before?
5. Which, if any, of the book’s characters do you consider to be heroes? Which were scapegoats?
6. Do any of the characters change or evolve through the course of the story? Do they change their view of the world and their relationship to
it? If so, what events trigger such changes?
7. How did the author’s choice of writing his novel as if it were a research paper affect the tone and feel of the novel?
8. If the media were to cover a story like Columbine today, would there be as many myths and as much confusion?
9.
How does the intent of Cullen using so many news stations and repetitively reiterating the mistakes they made reveal the attitude he has
towards news reporters and his purpose to intrigue the reader to agree with his point of view?
10. What does Columbine demonstrate about people listening to whatever they hear without checking facts and information?
Rising 12th Grade Reading Selections
Standard English: choose at least one title
Advanced English Students: choose at least two titles
*The Catalyst
Laurie Halse
Anderson
The Christopher Killer
Alane
Ferguson
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
*Lockdown
Alexander
Gordon Smith
*Ghosts of War: The
True Story of a 19
Year-Old GI
Ryan
Smithson
Life couldn’t get any worse for eighteen year-old honor student Kate Malone when she doesn’t
get into her dream college. Then, because of a devastating fire, Kate’s high school classmate
and former bully is forced to move in with her. Contains mildly strong language.
Bulletin (Center for Children’s Books 2002), VOYA 2003
Camryn Mahoney, the eighteen year-old daughter of the town’s coroner, becomes an active
participant in the investigation into the murder of one of her close friends. She not only gets an
inside look into the world of forensic science, she learns valuable lessons about whom to trust.
Contains factual details about an autopsy.
Edgar Award 2007, Heartland Award for Excellence in children’s Literature 2007, Black-eyed
Susan Book Award 2008-09 Nominee (Maryland State Reading List)
Each summer the wealthy, seemingly perfect, members of the Sinclair family gather on their
private island. We Were Liars is the story of those annual reunions; in particular what
happened during a summer that protagonist Cadence is unable to remember. Prejudice, greed,
and shifting patriarchal favoritism among the three adult sisters contrasts with the
camaraderie and worldview of the teenage cousins and their dear friend Gat. Lazy days of
sticky lemonades on the roof and marathon Scrabble games give way to twisty suspense, true
love, and good intentions gone horribly wrong.
Goodreads Choice 2014 winner
Futuristic. Alex, a 14-year-old who has been involved in crime for several years, describes his
life in a notorious underground prison a mile below the surface of the earth where he and
other teen boys are incarcerated for life. Alex and his savvy cellmate devise an escape plan.
Themes: fear, brutallity and loyalty. Students looking for a fast-paced read that deal in the
consequences of bad decisions, prison life and survival will be drawn to this book. There
are graphic descriptions of the violence of the prison officials, guards and inmates,
though none of the scenes are gratuitous.
Award winning British author
Follows young man’s journey as he joins the reserves following 9-11, his thought process about
which service he chooses, and why he marries after boot camp. This mature young man tells
the story of deployment to Iraq. Contains mildly graphic descriptions and mildly strong
language.
Starred Review: School Library Journal
* May contain objectionable material
12th Grade AP Reading Selections
All 12th Grade AP English students: choose at least two titles from the “Rising 12th Grade Reading
Selections,” as well as one of the works below
Your Summer Reading assignment is to read one of the AP novels and two of the fiction choices listed for the county. You will then
use the reference book How to Read Literature Like a Professor and apply its concepts to all three novels.
Required Text
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading between the Lines.
Revised ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 2014. Print.
AP Novels (choose ONE)
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
County Novel List (choose TWO)
Choose any two titles
ASSIGNMENT (due on the FIRST DAY OF CLASS)
DIRECTIONS:
1. After you finish reading each novel, review it and find a significant passage (from one to three paragraphs) that
relates in some way to one of the chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Each of your passages
must relate to a different chapter. You should find three passages total--one from each novel.
2.
For each passage, write a one-page response paper (typed and double spaced), applying the ideas and
approaches in the relevant chapter of How to Read Literature to your analysis of and response to the passage.
For example, you might discuss the description of people coming in to dinner at the beginning of The Great
Gatsby in relation to Foster’s discussion of meals often being a kind of communion, a coming together of a
community.
3.
Title each response with the name of the chapter from How to Read Literature. At the top of the page, quote the
passage from your novel (at the least include the first and last sentence of the passage) and cite the page
number in parentheses.
12th Grade IB Reading Selections
All 12th Grade IB English students: choose two titles from the “Rising 12th Grade Reading Selections,” as well
as the works below
*Little Princes: One
Man’s Promise to
Bring Home the Lost
Children of Nepal
Connor Grennan
In search of adventure, 29-year-old Connor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip
around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little
Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal. What began as an adventure
becomes a calling and commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their
families, risking his own life and facing dangers in the civil war in Nepal.
*The Stranger
Albert Camus
Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an
Algerian beach, Camus explores what he terms "the nakedness of man faced with the
absurd." Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957, is noted for his existentialist aesthetic.
PLEASE ONLY READ THE STORY: Metamorphosis. When Gregor wakes up, he finds he’s
been transformed into a “vermin” or a giant cockroach. He struggles to continue living as a
man while everyone else sees that he is transformed and no longer a part of the family.
The play deals with an aristocratic Russian family forced to sell their family cherry orchard to
survive in the changing times in Russian society.

May contain objectionable material
ASSIGNMENT
DIRECTIONS FOR Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal- All IB students, along with
members of our IB faculty, will be participating in discussions of this text in September. In addition to the discussions we will be having
at Atlee, we encourage families to read and discuss this powerful book together.
There are many excellent sources of additional titles to choose from if you don’t see something you like on
the list.
Virginia Readers’ Choice 2014-15 www.vsra.org/virginia‐readers‐choice/nominate‐vote/
Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) 2014 www.ala.org/yalsa/
Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network Recommended Reading Lists:
http://www.haisln.org/images/HAISLN_9th‐10th_grade_2015.PDF
http://www.haisln.org/images/HAISLN_11th‐12th_2015.PDF
Please note that links to these lists are provided as a convenience for students and parents. Hanover County Public Schools
has not read or specifically endorses these lists. It is possible that some titles may contain objectionable material. If
students decide not to read titles from the Hanover County recommended list, parents and students are encouraged to
review the book’s content prior to making a selection.
BOOK RESPONSE ASSIGNMENT FOR STANDARD/ADVANCED ENGLISH
DIRECTIONS: For each book read, write a well developed paragraph or paragraphs that answers one of the following
choices. Turn your responses and your reading log in to your new English teacher during the first two weeks of school in
the fall.
RESPONSE QUESTIONS
1. What most impressed you about this book? What least impressed you about this book? How would you change
what is weak?
2.
Which character is the most believable? Why? Which was the most memorable? Why? How do these characters
(or character) propel the plot and theme of the story?
3.
What facts did you learn from reading this nonfiction or biography? How does this nonfiction/biography compare
to others that you have read? Explain.
4.
What is the basic theme/message that the author is making? What will be the universal appeal? What conclusion
have you drawn about the social implications? Explain.
5.
Why did you choose a book that was not on the suggested list? What literary merit does your choice achieve?
Explain why you would recommend this book to others.
BOOKS READ (Title and Author)
1.
2.
3.
SUMMER READING PLEDGE
I acknowledge that my child has fulfilled the HCPS summer reading requirements by reading and completing the
assignment for the books listed above.
__________________________________
Parent Signature
___________________
Date
I acknowledge that I have completed the reading listed above.
_________________________________
Student Signature
___________________
Date