Putnam High School Summer Reading List

Grades 9 – 12

For all the summer reading, find the grade you are going into. Select four books from the list and read them over the summer. When you come to school in September, you will be responsible for tests, projects, and class discussions regarding the texts you read.

Grade 9 Summer Reading List

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

In his nationally acclaimed, semi-autobiographical debut, author Sherman Alexie tells the heartbreaking, hilarious, and beautifully written story of a young Native American teen as he attempts to break free from the life he was destined to live.

Firehouse by Halberstam (nonfiction, biography)

Out of all the men who responded to the terrorists' attacks on September 11, 2001, from the Engine 40 Ladder 35 Firehouse, only one man survived.

The House of the Scorpion by Farmer (science fiction)

In the future, clones are looked down upon by humans. However, Matt, a clone of a powerful leader, experiences special privileges.

A Night to Remember by Lord (nonfiction/history)

The story of the sinking of the Titanic is told in a "you were there" approach.

When I was Puerto Rican by Santiago (memoir)

In this first volume of her much-praised, bestselling trilogy, Esmeralda Santiago's story begins in rural Puerto Rico from the barrio to Brooklyn to high honors at Harvard.

Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics (nonfiction, sports)

This book uncovers the history of one of sports greatest track and field stars, Jesse Owens. It traces the racial struggles her faced in America and the dramatic contests in 1936 at the Olympics in Nazi Berlin.

Behind You by Woodson (African American fiction)

After fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is mistakenly shot by the police, his loved ones struggle to cope with his loss, unaware that his is watching over them.

Bottled Up by Murray (realistic fiction)

Pip must face his high school principal, his drug addiction, his alcoholic father and a younger brother who looks up to him

Dancing on the Edge by Nolan (fiction)

Miracle McCloy feels like a misfit in a dysfunctional family. Her mother died when she was born and her distant, brooding father disappears suddenly. Raised by her psychic grandmother, Gigi, Miracle searches for her identity and dancing becomes the only thing that makes Miracle feel like a whole person. After being committed to the psychiatric ward of a hospital, Miracle must face the truth about her past.

Grade 10 Summer Reading List

Speak by Anderson (fiction)

Melinda begins high school as a social outcast after a traumatic experience in the summer.

Into the Wild by Krakauer (nonfiction)

In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to a charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet and invented a life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. Jon Krakauer brings Chris McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows and illuminates it with meaning in this mesmerizing and heartbreaking tour de force.

Twilight by Meyer (vampire fiction)

Bella moves from sunny, dry Arizona to wet, dreary Forks, Washington to live with her dad. Not only does Bella live in a totally different place, she meets a handsome guy who is also totally different.

Death be not Proud by Gunther (memoir)

Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor. During the months of his illness, everyone near him was unforgettably impressed by his level-headed courage, his wit and quiet friendliness, and, above all, his unfaltering patience through times of despair. This deeply moving book is a father's memoir of a brave, intelligent, and spirited boy.

In the Time of the Butterflies by Alvarez (historical fiction)

It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas -- "The Butterflies." In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters -- Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé -- speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Boom-Time America by Ehrenreich (nonfiction)

Recount the experiences of a reporter who tried to support herself in three different areas of the Untied States, working at three minimum-wage jobs.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream by Bissinger (nonfiction)

The story of a high school football team in Texas and their struggle to win the championship in 1988.

Poe: Selected Tales by E.A. Poe (classic horror)

Seventeen of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories.

Black and White by Volponi (fiction)

Two friends experience the justice system differently after committing a crime and getting caught.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale I and Maus: A Survivor's Tale II by Spiegelman (historical fiction, graphic novel)

A memoir about Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, and his son a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father, his story, and history itself. The cartoon format portrays Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

Grade 11 Summer Reading List

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Moving through time from the rural  South to the northern ghetto, starkly contrasting the  attitudes of two generations of an embattles  family, Go Tell It On The Mountain   is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught  up in a dramatic struggle and of a society  confronting inevitable change.

Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, The Law the Changed the Future of Girls in America by Blumenthal(nonfiction)

The gripping history about women's struggle for equality in sports form the 1960s to the 1990s.

Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (nonfiction) by Gladwell

Gladwell notes how small changes in human behavior can start a fad or change the world.

Fast Food Nation by Schlosser (nonfiction)

An alarming look into the origins and effects of the American fast-food industry.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by See (historical fiction)

This novel takes place in 19th century China when girls suffered from foot binding. It tells the story of "nu shu," a secret language between Chinese women.

The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver (fiction)

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them all they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil.

Ishmael by Quinn (fiction)

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still timesave.  Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him -- one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Kesey (fiction)

Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome powers that keep them all imprisoned.

Brave New World by Huxley (science fiction)

Aldous Huxley's tour de force Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a 'utopian' future - where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthesized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

We by Zamyatin (science fiction)

D-503 is a loyal "cipher" of the totalitarian One State, literally walled in by glass; he is a mathematician happily building the world's first rocket, but his life is changed by meeting I-330, a woman with "sharp teeth" who keeps emerging out of a sudden vampirish dusk to smile wickedly on the poor narrator and drive him wild with desire. In becoming a slave to love, D-503 becomes, briefly, a free man.

11 AP English Language and Composition: Summer Reading Options.

Choose one memoir, one fictional novel, and one nonfiction book from the list below.

Memoir

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Fiction

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1984 by George Orwell

Nonfiction

Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the American Meal by Eric Schlosser

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Grade 12 Summer Reading List

White Noise by Delillo (fiction)

When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event," a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys-radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings-pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.

The Kite Runner by Hosseini (fiction)

A story of mystery, friendship, betrayal, and redemption set in pre-war Afghanistan.

Three Cups of Tea by Mortenson and Relin (nonfiction)

Be inspired by a real life hero living among our times. Greg Mortenson climbed some of the highest mountain peaks in the world and then, became involved in even bigger challenges. This book reveals the culture and challenges of the people living in Pakistan and my inspire you to make a dramatic, positive impact on the world.

The Last Lecture by Pausch (nonfiction)

Made famous by his "Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon and the quick Internet proliferation of the video of the event, Pausch decided that maybe he just wasn't done lecturing. Despite being several months into the last stage of pancreatic cancer, he managed to put together this book. The crux of it is lessons and morals for his young and infant children to learn once he is gone. Despite his sometimes-contradictory life rules, it proves entertaining and at times inspirational.

The Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting by Feldman (nonfiction)

In this unprecedented look at college football's secret season, Bruce Feldman rips the cover off the game's frenzied pursuit of raw talent, taking you deep inside the SEC war room of recruiting legend Ed Orgeron, the combustible Cajun, who helped build national championship teams at the University of Miami and at USC. In a stunning, blow-by-blow account of the year leading up to National Signing Day 2007, the award-winning journalist shadows Orgeron and his Ole Miss assistants as they set about hunting high school students, pleading, plotting, and inventing ways to lure them to their sleepy Oxford campus. Packed with candid confessions and outrageous off-the-field action, Meat Market makes what happens on the field seem almost tame by comparison.

Plainsong by Haruf (fiction)

Guthrie, a high school teacher raising his two young sons on his own, becomes involved the lives of Victoria, a pregnant teenager and the two elderly bachelor brothers who take her in.

The Namesake by Lahiri (coming of age, diversity)

Ashoke Ganguili, born in the United States to Indian parents, struggles with his identity from his teen years through his thirties.

In Search of our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker (essay collection)

As a woman, writer, mother, and feminist, Walker explores the theories and practices of feminism, incorporating what she calls the "womanist" tradition of African American women.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (fiction)

The story of a religious man's spiritual quest to determine why God allows disasters to occur. Wilder sets the action in Lima, Peru, in 1714, where a Franciscan monk witnesses the collapse of a bridge that has stood for over a century, killing the five people on it. The priest becomes determined to develop a scientific method for calculating what personality characteristics the five might have shared that would make God ready to call them to him. In the novel, Brother Juniper spends years compiling data about each victim in order to draw his conclusions.

Lost Horizon by Hilton (historical fiction)

A plane crash in the Himalayan mountains, leaves the passengers stranded until they are rescued by a group of people living in Shangri-La where growing old is slow and life is "perfect."

6/10

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