Upper Division Summer Reading
Summer is a truly wonderful time to read. We hope you will enjoy delving into reading this summer. Most courses offer a selection of titles that will introduce foundational themes for the course.
At Stevenson, we ask that all students set aside social media and spend time with books that open their minds to new ideas and communities.
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, and one to write in.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson
Getting Started
Please follow the instructions below to select titles appropriate for both the history and English courses in which you are enrolled. Before classes begin this fall, we ask that you go to your Pirate Page and reflect on one of your selected titles. This Reading Reflection serves as both an opportunity to help you process the text, and a chance for your teacher to get to know you. While not graded, this should be completed independently and thoughtfully.
Please note that your teachers choose these books with great care, selecting titles we believe students will find both compelling and entertaining. It is important to recognize that on occasion students may encounter graphic material or offensive language.
Book Formats
You are welcome to choose an ebook, audiobook or print edition for the books you select from your course lists. Check instructions for the required summer read titles—for many of these, you will need a hard copy to bring to class in the fall.
Support Local Bookstores
Consider supporting independent bookstores when shopping for your summer reading selections. One good way to do so is through the site bookshop.org. Or visit your local library!
Entering 9th Grade
In ninth grade, both your English and history classes explore the themes of identity and place. Select at least two titles from the following books that take up this theme in different ways.
- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
- Citizen Illegal, José Olivarez
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Dragon Hoops, Gene Luen Yang*
- Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
- The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez
- Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Erica Sanchez
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel
- March, Book 1, by John Lewis*
- Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
- No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg
- Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford
- A Separate Peace, John Knowles
- The Star Side of Bird Hill, Naomi Jackson
- Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
- Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
- The World Without Us, Alan Weisman
*graphic novel or memoir
Reading Reflection serves both as an opportunity to help you process the text, and as a chance for your teachers to begin to get to know you. This reflection is not graded (and we hope does not feel stressful), but please complete this task both independently and thoughtfully.
Both your English and history classes explore the themes of identity and place. The titles you were provided for summer reading each take up this theme in different ways. Please answer both of the following questions about one of the books you read. Your two responses should be about 500 words altogether.
- Choose a passage or moment in the book that either you connected with or was your favorite part of the story. Why did it resonate?
- Select a character and explain how her or his sense of identity changes over the course of the text. What did this character discover? Did you relate to this character in any way?
Teacher Recommendations, Selection Stories, and Warnings
Mr. Schmittgens’s recommendation: Published in 1951, Catcher in the Rye is often viewed as a modern “coming of age” classic. The main character, a disillusioned, rebellious, and sensitive prep-school dropout recalls a three-day period of events that leads to his emotional breakdown. Popular to generations of readers—and noted in its day for the protagonist’s salty language—the story offers an unvarnished and often humorous examination of the heartbreak, hypocrisy, and pivotal events associated with adolescence. I remember picking up this book in high school (but not as an assigned reading for a class), and loving it for its humor and its journey into the world of boarding schools (a complete mystery to me) and New York City, a city that captured my imagination. It was one of those books that I felt as though I could really hear the voice of the narrator and protagonist, and while I did not particularly identify WITH him, I certainly felt something FOR him.
Entering 10th Grade
In 10th grade, you will explore the themes of language and power in your English class. Relatedly, you will explore people’s experiences of structures of power and authority in your history course.
Select at least two titles from the following books that take up this theme in different ways.
- Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
- Hagseed, Margaret Atwood
- Half a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune
- I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, Malaka Gharib*
- Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
- The Namesake , Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist , Mohsin Hamid
- Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
- Night, Elie Wiesel
- The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
- 1984 , George Orwell
- Sense & Sensibility , Jane Austen
- Unbroken , Laura Hillenbrand
- Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
*graphic novel or memoir
Reading Reflection serves both as an opportunity to help you process the text, and as a chance for your teachers to begin to get to know you. This reflection is not graded (and we hope does not feel stressful), but please complete this task both independently and thoughtfully.
Explore the themes of language and power in your English class. Relatedly, you will explore power and structures of government in your history course. The titles provided for summer reading each take up these ideas in different ways.
Please respond to all three prompts below for one of the books you chose. Shoot for 500-750 words altogether.
- Choose a passage or moment in the book that either you connected with or was your favorite part of the story. Why did it resonate?
- Consider how language contributes to a character’s sense of power or authority–or lack of power. Does the character you chose have a voice in her or his family or community, or does that character lack a voice? How does her or his identity change over the course of the novel and/or what does she/he discover?
- Consider the multiple ways one character experiences structures of power or authority that are beyond his or her control. How does the character you chose respond to those overarching structures of power or authority? In what ways do those systems of power shape the character over the course of the novel?
Teacher Recommendations, Selection Stories, and Warnings
Entering 11th Grade
In history and English this year, you will explore U.S. history and voices in American literature. To prepare for these endeavors, this summer you have been asked to read books by American authors.
Please select at least two titles from the list below.
- All Adults Here, Emma Straub
- Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
- The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
- Continental Divide, Alex Myers
- East of Eden, John Steinbeck
- Educated, Tara Westover
- The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
- Human Errors, Nathan H. Lents
- In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
- Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
- Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
- Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
- Just Mercy: A Story of Redemption and Justice, Bryan Stevenson**
- Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’Nan
- Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
- Moneyball, Michael Lewis
- Nine Stories, J. D. Salinger
- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
- The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
- Walking to Listen, Andrew Forsthoefel
- How Much of These Hills is Gold, by C. Pam Zhang
- The Chosen and the Beautiful, Nghi Vo
**This book has been adapted for young adults; students may read the original or YA version.
In history and English this year, you will explore U.S. history and voices in American literature. To prepare for these endeavors, this summer you have been asked to read books by American authors. The following Reading Reflection serves both as an opportunity to help you process a text, and as a chance for your teachers to begin to get to know you. This reflection is not graded (and we hope does not feel stressful), but please complete this task both independently and thoughtfully.
Please respond to all three prompts below for one of the books you chose. Shoot for 500-750 words altogether.
- Choose a passage or moment in the book that either you connected with or was your favorite part of the story. Why did it resonate?
- Who has a voice in this story? Do any of the characters challenge or expand your idea of what is typically American?
- Consider the book’s setting and era. How were the characters’ (or the narrator’s, or the author’s) experiences and choices shaped by the region or historical moment they lived in?
In history and English this year, you will explore U.S. history and voices in American literature. To prepare for these endeavors, you have been tasked with reading The Handmaid’s Tale for English 3 Honors in addition to at least one additional book by an American author. You will discuss The Handmaid’s Tale in your class at the start of the semester. At this time, we ask that you reflect on the second text you selected.
Please respond to all three prompts below for one of the books you chose. Shoot for 500-750 words altogether.
- Choose a passage or moment in the book that either you connected with or was your favorite part of the story. Why did it resonate?
- Who has a voice in this story? Do any of the characters challenge or expand your idea of what is typically American?
- Consider the book’s setting and era. How were the characters’ (or the narrator’s, or the author’s) experiences and choices shaped by the region or historical moment they lived in?
Teacher Recommendations, Selection Stories, and Warnings
Entering 12th Grade
In your semester-long English classes as a senior, you will have the opportunity to explore a specific topic or theme in depth, which will prepare you well for your college coursework. While the titles below do not reflect a single theme, they have been selected by your teachers as engrossing reads. While the content may be more mature than you have encountered on our previous lists, this is a reflection of your readiness as a rising senior to grapple with the complexities of our world.
You should read a minimum of two books from this list (unless this requires you to read more than three summer reading books for your English and history classes in total). Read through the descriptions below to help you find your matches, and once you have finished your reading, visit your Pirate Page to complete a post-reading reflection on one of the self-selected books.
- American Spy, Lauren Wilkinson
- Atonement, Ian McEwan
- Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan
- Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas, Alexi Pappas
- The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People, Susan Orleans
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel*
- Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
- The Hours, Michael Cunningham
- I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us, and a Grander View of Life, Ed Yong
- Infinite Country, Patricia Engel
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
- Lab Girl, Hope Jahren
- The Other Americans, Laila Lalami
- Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
- Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin
- The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
- Nick, Michael Farris Smith
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong
- 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, Lorrie Moore and Heidi Pitlor, editors
- The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert
- There, There, Tommy Orange
- The Woman in Black, Susan Hill
- Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
*graphic novel or memoir
One of your reading tasks this summer was to select at least two books from our list that intrigued you. Your task is now to reflect on one of these books using the prompts below. This Reading Reflection serves both as an opportunity to help you process a text, and as a chance for your teachers to begin to get to know you. This reflection is not graded (and we hope does not feel stressful), but please complete this task both independently and thoughtfully. Shoot for 500-750 words altogether.
- What in this book resonated most with you? What will you remember and carry forward? Were there any moments
In preparation for AP Literature, you have been tasked with reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison in addition to at least one additional book. You will discuss Song of Solomon in your class at the start of the semester. At this time, we ask that you reflect on the second text you selected.
Teacher Recommendations, Selection Stories, and Warnings
Infinite Country, Patricia Engel
In her 2021 novel, Engel, who holds dual citizenship in the US and Colombia, tells the story of a family separated by borders and caught in America’s immigration system—a system that fuels frustration but also inspires hope in the characters. (One brief passage of sexual violence.)
AP Art History – 11th & 12th Grade
In AP Art History you will explore the role of art both in responding to contemporary circumstances and in shaping history. To prepare for this journey, this summer you are asked to select one title from the following. Don’t forget to visit your Pirate Page for a post-reading reflection:
- The Birth of Venus: A Novel, Sarah Dunant
- The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa, Michael Kimmelman
- Luncheon of the Boating Party, Susan Vreeland
- Brunelleschi’s Dome, Ross King
- Sunflowers, Sheramy Bundrick
- The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century, Edward Dolnick
- Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton
- Frida: A Novel of Frida Kahlo, Barbara Mujica
- Clara and Mr. Tiffany, Susan Vreeland
- The Art Forger, B.A. Shapiro
The titles provided for summer reading each take up one or more perspectives through which we can understand the significance of art through history. Please answer both of the following questions about the book you read. This Reading Reflection serves both as an opportunity to help you process the text, and as a chance for your teacher to begin to get to know you. Please aim for your response to be approximately 500-750 words. This reflection is not graded (and we hope does not feel stressful), but please complete this task both independently and thoughtfully.
- Choose a character or moment in the book that either you connected with or was your favorite part of the story. Why did it resonate?
- Select a work of art or architecture that was a central component of the text. In what ways did the piece you selected shape the story being told or the historical moment in which the story took place?
AP Economics
In AP Economics this year, you will delve into macroeconomics, or the study of the operation of national economies, with a special emphasis on real world applications.
To introduce you to overarching themes in the study of macroeconomics, you are tasked with reading Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.
Demystifying buzzwords, laying bare the truths behind oft-quoted numbers, and answering the questions you were always too embarrassed to ask, the breezy Naked Economics gives readers the tools they need to engage with pleasure and confidence in the deeply relevant, not so dismal science.