SOUTH COBB 2011-12
Greetings South Cobb families! Below you will find the list of reading options for the 2011-2012
school year. Please note that for each grade level, we suggest students read at least 2 of the reading
selections (each selection should come from a different genre) [fiction, informational fiction, drama,
poetry]. Students in Honors and Advanced Placement courses are expected to read a minimum of 3
selections.
RISING 9TH GRADERS
RISING 10TH GRADERS
RISING 11TH GRADERS
RISING 12TH GRADERS
9th Grade Literature
World Literature
American Literature
All Senior Literature
Fiction
- The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
- Great Expectations by Charles
Dickens
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
(Honors)
- Forged by Fire by Sharon
Draper
- The Battle of Jericho by
Sharon Draper
- The Skin I’m In by Sharon
Flake
- Ironman by Chris Crutcher
- Twilight (any of the series) by
Stephanie Meyer
- Jesse by Gary Soto
- Bronx Masquerade by Nikki
Grimes
-The Odyssey by Homer
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray
Bradbury
-My Sisters Keeper by Jodie
Piccoult
-The Book Thief by Marcus
Zusak
-A Wizard of Earthsea by
Ursula K. Leguin
-"The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol
-"The Gift of the Magi," by O.
Henry
Fiction
- I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings by Maya Angelou
- Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
or Narcissus and Goldmund by
Hesse
- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest
Hemingway
- Romiette and Julio by Sharon
Draper
- The Color Purple- by Alice
Walker
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
Stowe
- Cry, the Beloved Country by
Alan Paton
- Native Son by Richard Wright
- Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by
Ishamael Beah
- Kite Runner by Khaled
Hosseini
-The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
-In the Time of the Butterflies
Julia Álvarez
-Angela’s Ashes Frank McCourt
Fiction
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue
Monk Kidd
- Confederacy of Dunces by
John Kennedy Toole
- Their Eyes were Watching
God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Death of a Salesman by Arthur
Miller
- Moby Dick by Herman
Mellville
- Every Time a Rainbow Dies
by Rita Williams-Garcia
- Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
- The Afterlife by Gary Soto
-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Fitzgerald
-As I Lay Dying by William
Faulkner
-Their Eyes Were Watching
God by Zora Neale Huston
-The Adventures of Augie
March by Saul Bellow
-The Bluest Eye by Toni
Morrison
-Dreaming in Cuban by
Cristina Garcia
Informational Text:
Innumeracy: Mathematical
Illiteracy and Its
Consequences by John Allen
Paulos
-Gravity in Reverse: The Tale
of Albert Einstein's 'Greatest
Blunder by Neil deGrasse
-Google Hacks: Tips & Tools
for Smarter Searching 2nd
Edition, Rael Dornfest and Tara
Calishain
The Mysteries of Mass by
Gordon Kane
-Working Knowledge:
Electronic Stability Control by
Mark Fischetti
-The Coming Merger of Mind
and Machine by Ray Kurzweil
Untangling the Roots of
Cancer by Wayt W. Gibbs
-The Cost Conundrum:
Health Care Costs in McAllen,
Texas by Atul Gawande
-Politics and the English
Language by George Orwell
Poetry:
-"Sonnet 73" by William
Shakespeare
-"Song" by John Donne
-"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe
Shelley
-"The Raven" by Edgar Allen
Poe
-"We Grow Accustomed to the
Dark" by Emily Dickinson
-"Loveliest of Trees" by A.E.
Drama:
- The Three Theban Plays by
Sophocles
-Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco
-Master Harold . . . and the
Boys by Athol Fugard
Informational Text
- Wouldn’t Take Nothin’ for
My Journey Now by Maya
Angelou
- In Search of Our Mothers’
Garden by Alice Walker
- It’s Not About the Bike by
Lance Armstrong
- Daily Newspaper (Current
British Literature
Drama:
-Death of a Salesman by Arthur
Miller
-A Raisin in the Sun by
Lorraine Hansberry
Poetry:
-“A Valediction Forbidding
Mourning" by John Donne
-"Song of Myself" by Walt
Whitman
-"Because I Could Not Stop for
Death" by Emily Dickinson
-"Mending Wall" by Robert
Fiction
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Pride & Prejudice by Jane
Austen
- The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy
- Tess of the d'Ubervilles by
Thomas Hardy
- David Copperfield by Charles
Dickens
- Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
- Wuthering Heights by Emily
Bronte
- The Canterbury Tales by
Houseman
-"Lift Every Voice and Sing" by
James Weldon Johnson
Drama:
-The Tragedy of Romeo and
Juliet by William Shakespeare
-The Glass Menagerie by
Tennessee Williams
Informational Text
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective
Teens by Stephen Covey
- The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
by T.E. Lawrence
- To Be a Slave by Julius Lester
-The Declaration of Independence by Thomas
Jefferson
-"Speech to the Second
Virginia Convention" by
Patrick Henry
-"Second Inaugural Address"
by Abraham Lincoln
-"State of the Union Address"
by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
-"I Am an American Day
Address" by Learned Hand
-"I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings" by Maya Angelou
-"Hope, Despair and Memory"
by Elie Wiesel Nobel Lectures in
Peace 1981--90
-"Bury My Heart at Wounded
Knee: An Indian History of the
American West" by Dee Brown
-"Son of the Morning Star:
Custer and the Little Bighorn"
by Evan S. Connell
-"The Story of Art" by 16th
Edition, E.H. Gombrich
-"Cod: A Biography of the Fish
That Changed the World" by
Mark Kurlansky
-"Black, Blue and Gray:
African Americans in the Civil
War" by Jim Haskins
-"The Longitude Prize" by Joan
Dash
-"The Illustrated Book of Great
Composers" by Wendy
Thompson
-"Before Columbus: The
Americas of 1491" by Charles
C. Mann
Events)
-Remarks to the Senate in
Support of a Declaration of
Conscience by Margaret Chase
Smith
-Elements by Euclid
-Classifying the Stars Annie J.
Cannon
-Biography of an Atom by
Millicent Selsam and Jacob
Bronowski
-Amusement Park Physics by
Jearl Walker
-Life by the Numbers by Keith
Devlin
-The Race to Save Lord God
Bird by Phillip Hoose
-The Story of Science: Newton
at the Center by Joy Hakim
-Circumference: Eratosthenes
and the Ancient Quest to
Measure the Globe by Nicholas
Nicastro
Frost
-"The Latin Deli: An Ars
Poetica" by Judith Cofer Ortiz
Informational Text
- Daily Newspaper (Current
Events)
- Fast Food Nation by Eric
Schlosser
- African American Troops in
WWII by Alexander Bielowski
- They Tell Me of a Home by
Daniel Black
-The American Language, 4th
Edition, H.L. Mencken
-Democracy in America by
Alexis de Tocqueville
-Declaration of Sentiments by
the Seneca Falls Conference
-What to the Slave Is the
Fourth of July?: An Address
Delivered in Rochester, New
York, on 5 July 1852," Frederick
Douglass
-Education by Ellen Condliffe
Lagemann
-What They Fought For
1861—1865 by James M.
McPherson
-America's Constitution: A
Biography by Akhil Reed Amar
-1776 by David McCullough
-Mirror of the World: A New
History of Art by Julian Bell
-FedViews by the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco
-Black Boy by Richard Wright
-Abraham Lincoln and the
Self-Made Myth by Richard
Hofstadter
-Letter From Birmingham Jail
by Martin Luther King Jr.
-The Crisis by Thomas Paine
-Walden by Henry David
Thoreau
-Society and Solitude by Ralph
Waldo Emerson
-Gettysburg Address by
Abraham Lincoln
-Lee Surrenders to Grant,
April 9th, 1865 by Horace
Porter
-The Fallacy of Success by G.K.
Chesterton
Geoffrey Chaucer
- A Tale of Two Cities by
Charles Dickens
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
-The Tragedy of Macbeth
byWilliam Shakespeare
-The Importance of Being
Earnest by Oscar Wilde
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by
John Keats
Multicultural Literature
- The Chosen by Chaim Potok
- Ceremony by Leslie Marmon
Silko
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Parrot in the Oven by Victor
Martinez
-The Namesake by Jhumpa
Lahiri
-Home by Anton Chekhov
-Mother Tongue by Amy Tan
-Take the Tortillas Out of
Your Poetry by Rudolfo Anaya
AP Literature
- The Oedipus Trilogy by
Sophocles
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua
Achebe
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Wuthering Heights by Emily
Bronte
AP Language and
Composition
- Brave New World by Aldous
Huxley
- The Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass: An
American Slave, Written by
Himself (Yale)
- Their Eyes Were Watching
God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
REQUIRED ITEMS FOR THE
COURSE:
- Fast Food Nation: The Dark
Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser (with new
afterword),
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The South Cobb High School English department aligns its summer reading list with the
Common Core Standards derived from the National Governors Association and Council
of Chief State School Officers. Additional texts have also been added per teacher
recommendation.
Top Ten Project List: One project is suggested for each reading selection. If you are enrolled in an
Advanced Placement class you should engage in one of the assignments at the bottom of the sheet
specifically given for your class.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Book Summary - Write a summary of the novel from one character’s point-of-view (500- 700
words). At the end of the summary, a personal critique should be offered.
Compare/Contrast - Write an essay in which you compare and/or contrast this novel with the
film version of this book OR with a novel by the same or different author (300-500 words).
Consider why certain scenes were left out of added, and why things were presented in the movie
differently than you imagined when reading the book
F.Y.I. - Research a topic connected to your novel and create an informational brochure. Be sure
to include a Works Cited page (found on Cobb County District Website: Research Paper) of your
sources.
Interview - After studying a written interview in a newspaper or magazine, write a fictional
interview between you and a character from the book (two pages).
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Letter - Compose a letter to the author of the book. Use business letter format and address
specifics from the novel (250-500 words).
Newspaper Article - Study a news article to familiarize yourself with the format and write a
detailed news article about an event from the book. Include a heading and the 5 W’s—Who,
What, When, Where, and Why.
Review - Write a book review of your summer reading selection. Find examples of other book
reviews in a newspaper, magazine, or on-line to use as a template for your work (300-500 words).
Storyboard - Create a story board that depicts important scenes from the book as they might be
included in a film.
X-ray - Look beyond the literal meaning and write an essay about the theme, specific symbolism,
imagery, figurative language, and/or allegory of your summer reading selection (300-500 words).
AP Language
Summer Reading Projects:
*The projects listed below should be completed in place of the projects listed above.
1. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (Yale)
Project: Keep a journal, summarizing each chapter, and explaining the style, structure, and techniques of
the writer. Each entry should be 2-3 well-developed paragraphs.
2. The Kiterunner by Khaled Hosseini
Project: Keep a journal, summarizing each chapter, and explaining the writer's style, structure, and
techniques. Each entry should be 2-3 well-developed paragraphs.
3. Read 5 speeches of your choice from the "Top 100 Speeches" on the website,
AmericanRhetoric.com.
Project: Write several paragraphs, explaining the content and strategies used by each writer/speaker. Then
write a 1-2 page typed essay, explaining which of the 5 speeches was most effective and why (be specific).
4. Read 8 mode essays:
Project: *See the South Cobb website (southcobbhigh.org) in early June for the details of the reading and
project.
NOTE: You should wait to purchase other novels for the class, which will be read during the semester,
until the school year starts, and your teacher confirms them.
South Cobb families…here are a few tips to help your child(ren) have a successful summer in reading:

For vocabulary development, ask your child to keep a word log to record unfamiliar and/or
interesting words discovered while reading the book:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Write each word
Using context clues, try to figure out the meaning of the word.
Look up the dictionary definition.
Identify the parts of speech (noun, adjective, verb, etc.).
Write an original sentence with each new word using context clues.
For help with reading comprehension, ask your child to think about the book and talk to you
about any, or all, of the following:
1. Which character do you like the best and why?
2. Which character did you like the least and why?
3. Why did the author use this setting for the story?
4. What more do you know after reading the story?
5. What do you feel about what you read?
6. What else does it make you think about?
7. What questions do you have for the author?
 For other reading tips in addition to these, please visit these websites:
www.readingrockets.org/org/article/385
www.seedsofknowledge.com/reading4.html