WHRHS
English Department
Summer Reading
Watchung Hills Regional High School Summer
Reading Philosophy
2012
As educators, it is important to guide and support students based upon
direct communication, academic considerations, and educational research.
The research on education extant at this time promotes using summer
reading as a means to support and enrich students' reading and language
development. With this desire to extend the academic calendar into
students' vacation time, we are aware that burdening young people with
work is not synonymous with inspiration. Vision and passion come from
multiple contexts in students' lives, and we believe teachers are a great
source of reliable, humanitarian, and intelligent guidance for students.
Therefore, our decision to have a common title required summer reading
for all students is based upon the aspiration to aid their academic and
personal growth without placing an excessive burden on their time.
Our process requires all students to read ---
TWO books specific to their grade level.
These required works will have a note-taking assignment over the summer
and will be a springboard for an author, genre, or thematic study, and/or
discipline/job/career specific informational texts to lead into the 12-13
curriculum.
These discussions about the works and their connections to the course will
be followed with an essay on the text from THREE to TWELVE days into
the first quarter.
This timeframe will allow students to read the work and hand in their notes
if they were not able to complete this assignment during the summer. But
consequences will be assessed for non-participation in the summer reading
required TWO BOOKS.
The expectation is that students will complete the work over the
summer to maintain their skills.
Also, this shared, old-school, virtual reading experience students engage in
enables teachers to generate more meaningful essential questions as well as
targeted formative and summative assessments for the personal reading,
writing, and critical thinking of every student.
Along with the TWO required texts, students in
College Prep, Accelerated or Honors
will be asked to read a THIRD work.
This THIRD work can be chosen from a diverse list of literature that spans
the intellectual, emotional, and cultural gamut. It can be a work that a
student has always wanted to read.
This THIRD text will be used as a point of comparison to the required
readings. Assessment for this text will be done through the aforementioned
summer reading essay the third week of September.
AP Students ALERT
AP Students ALERT
Junior students -- 11th Grade electing to take the AP Language and
Composition English course will be required to read FIVE BOOKS in total over the summer:
1. the TWO required junior year reading -Cosmopolitanism & Outliers
2. TWO additional texts as part of the AP core -The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand & Modern Liberty and the Limits of Government by Charles Fried
3. and ONE FREE READ book of their choice -for a total of FIVE books during the summer. The two AP Lang core books will frame college
expectations for fiction and job specific nonfiction/informational texts and relate directly to the
AP curriculum and will tie directly into the year's syllabus.
Senior students -- 12th Grade electing to take the AP Literature and
Composition English course will be required to read FIVE BOOKS in total over the summer:
1. the TWO required junior year reading -Shop Class as SoulCraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work &
The Spirit of Compromise: Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It
2. TWO additional texts as part of the AP core -Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature by Peter Pesic
&
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
3. and ONE FREE READ book of their choice -for a total of FIVE books during the summer. The two AP Lit core books will frame college
expectations for fiction and job specific nonfiction/informational texts and relate directly to the
AP curriculum and will tie directly into the year's syllabus.
***************
The English Department wants to help students discover themselves
through literature. We want to assist in their journey as life-long learners.
With this summer reading program, we encourage them to listen to other
people's interests and to express their own interests as a means toward
continual personal growth and lifelong learning.
Watchung Hills Regional High School Summer
Reading Assignment
Summer of 2012
o All student groups CP grade 9 through 12 MUST read TWO (2) BOOKS
Acc grade 9 through 12 MUST read TWO (2) BOOKS
Honors grade 9 through 10 MUST read TWO (2) BOOKS
AP grade 11 and 12 MUST read TWO (2) BOOKS

Each grade level has TWO required books -- One fiction/nonfiction
for 9th & 10th grade and two nonfiction for 11th & 12th grade in line
with the New Jersey Common Core Curriculum and PARCC
assessments that will replace the High School Proficiency Exam.

The third book is one of choice from the grade level list or any
book.

As students read the TWO required books, take notes on
details, ideas, plot development, characterization, theme, key terms,
main points, and overall scaffolding of story or point of the work.
(Many books are not fiction and students should be looking at
concepts, issues, and essential ideas forwarded by the genre you are
reading.)
Minimum of three
TYPED pages of NOTES ALL CP, ACC, H students can use either:
Roman numeral style outline or organized, grammatical
paragraphs for the notes.
ALL AP Students MUST DO a combination of Roman
numeral style outline and organized, grammatical paragraphs
for the TYPED notes. THINK BEYOND THE MINIMUM -- MAKE
THE "NEW" THREE (3) at least FIVE (5)!
Students should not
use outside sources
for their notes.
All reading notes should be self-generated while reading -anything read about a book
on the internet should
stay in the virtual ether
and not appear in your notes
and write ups in any way.
If you have questions about plagiarism,
PLEASE EMAIL MR. ROSS
for
CLARIFICATION
FREE READ BOOKS
DO NOT
NEED NOTES
(Unless you are inclined to make a good impression
and engage in reading and learning as a good in itself
without expecting a reward
for your reading and thinking and writing growth
by going the proverbial extra mile ...
just an English Department special announcement.
The choice is yours.)
Expectations of STUDENTS for the THIRD day of
class:
o You should bring the following materials with you:
o The TWO required books (OR AT LEAST NOTES IF YOU
BORROWED THE BOOK FROM THE LIBRARY, etc);
o Student developed theme or main idea for the TWO required
books
o At least THREE PAGES OF TYPED, SELF GENERATED notes on the
TWO required books.
REMINDER REMINDER
(imagine words blinking like a late 90's flashing .gif here)
NO outside sources for the required reading -- the only "NETs"
you need in the summer should be fishing nets, volleyball nets,
Dragnet if you are into classic TV shows, hair nets if you work in
a restaurant ... no INTERNET IDEAS, WORDS, etc. are allowed
to be a part of your reading and writing -- we do not want
citations and are assessing your reading and thinking skills -- not
media research skills -- that comes soon enough in the first
quarter.
The notes could include analysis, summary, questions, and comments you
had as you read the book.

Include at least THREE specific quotations FROM THE BOOK
ONLY (including the page number from the book) on EACH of the
THREE PAGES of notes.
Culminating Assessment

At some point from the third to twelfth day back in September, you
will write an in-class essay that discusses ideas, themes or issues that
connect the required books to your optional text or possible other
source. This essay will count as your first major grade.
Watchung Hills Regional High School
Summer Reading List 2012
In-coming
Freshmen:
All in-coming freshmen must read the following TWO texts and
complete the note-taking task as explained above:
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect us and What We Can Do
by Claude Steele
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
by James McBride
Also, all freshmen must choose either a book from the list below
or any other book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on
your return to school.
1. Nine Stories J.D. Salinger
2. House of Spirits Isabelle Allende
3. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America Firoozeh Dumas
4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
5. Feed M. T. Anderson
6. Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya
7. Goddess of Yesterday Caroline Cooney
8. Home of the Braves David Klass
9. Hoops Walter Dean Myers
10. The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros
11. 19 Minutes Jodi Picoult
12. Hoot Carl Hiaasen
13. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
14. Summer of My German Soldier Bette Greene
15. Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas James Patterson
16. Dear Miss Breed Joanne Oppenheim
17. I am the Messenger Markus Zusak
18. King Dork Frank Portman
19. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee Dee Brown
20. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
English I M (9th grade) The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
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Watchung Hills Regional High School
Summer Reading List 2012
In-coming
Sophomores:
All in-coming sophomores must read the following TWO texts
and complete the note-taking task as explained above:
Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny by Amartya Sen
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Also, all sophomores must choose either a book from the list below or any
other book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to
school.
1. The Trial Franz Kafka
2. Breathing Underwater Alex Flinn
3. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
4. I Am the Clay Chaim Potok
5. Linden Hills Gloria Naylor
6. Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
7. Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy
8. The Rule of Four Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
9. 700 Sundays Billy Crystal
10. The Body of Christopher Creed Carol Plum-Ucci
11. The Cobra Event Richard Preston
12. Cut Patricia McCormick
13. Elsewhere Gabrielle Zevin
14. The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
15. Sound of Waves Yukio Mishima
16. Trinity Leon Uris
17. Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
18. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
19. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl Joyce Carol Oates
20. The Year of Secret Assignments Jaclyn Moriarty
English II M (10th grade) Maus II by Art Spiegelman
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Watchung Hills Regional High School
Summer Reading List 2012
In-coming
Juniors:
All in-coming juniors must read the following TWO texts and
complete the note-taking task as explained above:
Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah
& Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
AP students must also read and take notes on the following TWO
TEXTS AS PART OF THEIR REQUIRED FIVE BOOKS:
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Modern Liberty and the Limits of Government by Charles Fried
Also, all juniors must choose either a book from the list below or any other
book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to school.
1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks
2. Ever Since Darwin Stephen Jay Gould
3. Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi
4. Thinking in Pictures Temple Grandin
5. The Devil in the White City Erik Larson
6. All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein
7. Life from Death Row Mumia Abu-Jamal
8. The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls
9. Friday Night Lights H. G. Bissinger
10. An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore
11. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy Pietra Rivoli
12. Life of Cells Lewis Thomas
13. Losing Matt Shepard Beth Loffreda
14. Reading Like a Writer Francine Prose
15. The Language Instinct Stephen Pinker
16. The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad
17. The Stand Stephen King
18. Picturing Will Anne Beattie
19. The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor
20. The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
English III M (11th grade) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
*AP students will read a total of FIVE books.
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Watchung Hills Regional High School
Summer Reading List 2012
In-coming
Seniors:
All in-coming seniors must read the following two texts and
complete the note-taking task as explained above:
Shop Class as SoulCraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B . Crawford
& The Spirit of Compromise: Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It
by Amy Gutmann & Dennis Thompson
AP students must also read and take notes on the following TWO
TEXTS AS PART OF THEIR REQUIRED FIVE BOOKS:
Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature by Peter Pesic
&
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Also, all seniors must choose either a book from the list below or any other
book for personal enrichment that you can discuss on your return to school.
1. Blink Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
3. Rite of Passage Richard Wright
4. Gandhi: An Autobiography Mohandas Ghandi
5. Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh
6. The Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys
7. The War with the Newts Karel Capek
8. Angels and Demons Dan Brown
9. The Iron Heel Jack London
10. The Breakable Vow Kathryn Ann Clarke
11. Native Speaker Chang-Rae Lee
12. Crank Ellen Hopkins
13. Pop Goes the Weasel James Patterson
14. Salt: A World History Mark Kurlansky
15. Chango's Fire Ernesto Quinonez
16. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera
17. The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
18. A Million Little Pieces James Frey
19. Way of the Peaceful Warrior Dan Millman
20. Palace Walk Naguib Mafouz
English IV M (12th grade) The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom English - LLD Program
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
*AP students will read a total of FIVE books.