SUGGESTED READING FOR STUDENTS ENTERING GRADE 9 ENGLISH A
In the grade 9 course, students will read a collection of poetry (sonnets), Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare, a collection of non-fiction (news articles, testimonials, journals and editorials), Night by Elie
Wiesel and Maus by Art Spiegelman. Students are free to read these texts in advance of studying them
during the course, if they so wish.
Below are suggested texts both for student interest and in preparation for Grade 9 studies. An asterisk
(*) indicates a text that is stylistically or thematically related to the prescribed texts (above).
Novels:
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
*The Princess Bride by William Goldman
*All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
*The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
*Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Biographies and Memoirs
October Sky by Homer Hickam
Me Talk Pretty Some Day by David Sedaris
*Black Boy by Richard Wright
*If This is a Man by Primo Levi
Drama:
*The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
*The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Poets:
*William Wordsworth
*Elizabeth Barret Browning
Short Story Collections:
The Robot Series by Isaac Asimov
The Bachman Books or Different Seasons by Stephen King
*The Oxford Book of English Short Stories edited by A.S. Byatt
*Bluebeard’s Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
Graphic Novels:
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
Batman: Year One or Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
*Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
* V for Vendetta by Alan Moore