Dear LZHS Students and Parents/Guardians:
As an English Department, we firmly believe that reading is the foundation of learning. To be successful in
academics and in life, it is critical to have strong reading skills. Therefore, the English Department will
require all students to participate in a summer reading assignment.
Please check the list below for your course and complete the reading before the start of school. You can
expect your teacher to assign work covering the reading the first week of school. Please check the English
Department homepage for summer reading materials and assignments. They will be available by June 11,
2015.
We recommend that you buy the books which are available at local bookstores and on-line. During the first
few weeks of school, students will be engaged in activities where they will need to interact with the
summer reading text. Therefore, it benefits students to have their individual, annotated copies. Also, there
will be a limited quantity of each title available at the local public library.
We appreciate your support as we continue our efforts in developing continuous learners with strong
reading skills.
Freshmen
World Cultures: read the following selections from Mythology by Edith Hamilton:
1. Cupid and Psyche
2. Theseus
3. Hercules
4. Atalanta
Honors English I: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
All other freshmen courses: Crossing the Wire by William Hobbs
Sophomores
Honors English II: Ordinary People by Judith Guest
All other sophomore courses: Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Juniors
Honors English III: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Honors American Studies: The Crucible by Arthur Miller
AP English III: Choose one of the memoirs listed below.
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
An American Childhood, Annie Dillard
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
All other junior courses: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Seniors
Honors English IV: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (All assignments and assessments are aligned to the
Signet Classic Edition page numbers.)
AP English IV:
First, read How to Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas Foster. Be sure to read carefully and
annotate or take notes on the various archetypes Foster presents. You will need familiarity with these
archetypes upon entering class in August. Practice applying them as you complete the remaining summer
reading assignment described below.
Read at least two of the following novels to prepare for the school year. Read each novel with attention to
ideas featured in the text above, standard story elements (plot, setting, character, theme, conflict, tone, and
point of view) and any other literary techniques featured prominently (i.e. archetypes/symbolism, narrative
structure, language, social commentary, etc). You may choose books you have already read, but be sure to
re-read them carefully. All novels should be fresh in your mind at the start of school, so time your reading
accordingly. During the first week of classes in August, you will prepare a complex brief summary (précis)
of each of the two texts and write an essay on one of them in response to a prompt taken from a recent AP
exam.
Bronte, Jane Eyre
Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Dickens, Great Expectations
Dostoevski, Crime and Punishment
Ellison, Invisible Man
Euripides, Medea
Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, Sound and the Fury
Faulkner, Absalom! Absalom!
Gardner, Grendel
Heller, Catch-22
James, Turn of the Screw
Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
McCarthy, The Road
Momaday, House Made of Dawn
Morisson, Beloved
Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, King Lear
Shakespeare, Macbeth
Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Wharton, The House of Mirth
Williams, Streetcar Named Desire
Wilson, Fences
All other senior courses: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Electives
Advanced Journalism: see Ms. Wagner’s website for information on the required summer journalism
project.
Wishing you a pleasant and productive summer,
Lake Zurich High School English Department Faculty