12th GRADE BRITISH LITERATURE
SUMMER READING LIST (Pick TWO)
Douglas Adams
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Lexile: 1000)
216 pages
Seconds before Earth is demolished to make room for a
galactic freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend.
Together they journey through the galaxy.
Mostly Harmless (Lexile: 970)
277 pages
Arthur Dent is forced to leave his idyllic life and travel on
the back of a mysterious Perfectly Normal Beast to save
the Earth and others.
Pat Barker
Life Class
311 pages
The lives of four London art students are forever changed
by the events of World War I after two of them decide to
go to the frontlines to tend to wounded soldiers and see the
atrocities of war.
Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange (Lexile: 1310)
192 pages
In the Slav-oriented state of the future, the Lower Orders
are in ascendence and happy hooligans roam the London
streets, bashing senior citizens in the eyes with bicycle
chains.
Stephen Chbosky
The perks of being a wallflower (Lexile: 720)
213 pages
Charlie, a freshman in high school, explores the dilemmas
of growing up through a collection of letters he sends to an
unknown receiver.
Charles Dickens
A Christmas carol (Lexile: 1080)
155 pages
Through the intervention of four ghosts, Ebenezer Scrooge
is shown the spirit of Christmas.
Great Expectations (Lexile: 1230)
380 pages
Presents the unabridged version of Charles Dickens's
novel in which Pip, an orphan in Victorian England, learns
that a mysterious benefactor has ensured that he will be
educated and raised as a gentleman.
Oliver Twist (Lexile: 1060)
398 pages
Story of an orphan forced to practice thievery and live a
life of crime in nineteenth-century London.
Nick Hornby
About a Boy
307 pages
Will, a thirty-six-year-old London bachelor, undergoes a
change in his outlook about marriage and children when he
lies to join a single parents group in order to meet women,
and becomes friends with a needy twelve-year-old named
Marcus.
Fever Pitch (Lexile: 1340)
247 pages
The author quickly moves "way beyond fandom" into an
extreme obsession with soccer that dominates his life, loves,
and relationships.
A long way down
333 pages
A former talk-show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a
mother, each intending to commit suicide, find themselves
together on the roof of a London building and begin to
contemplate their individual choices and circumstances.
C.S. Lewis
The lion, the witch and the wardrobe (Lexile: 940) (We also
have all six of the sequels)
189 pages
Four English school children find their way through the back
of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan,
the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch who has
cursed the land with eternal winter.
The Screwtape letters
172 pages
C. S. Lewis's mockery of the Devil, which presents advisory
letters from a demon to his young nephew explaining how to
tempt a man away from God.
Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca
410 pages
The second Mrs. Maxim de Winter finds it difficult and
frightening to live in the shadow of her predecessor, a
situation that is exacerbated by her husband's moodiness, and
the presence of sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers.
Jamaica Inn (Lexile: 1070)
302 pages
High-spirited Mary Yellan was too young to suspect the truth
about her new home on the moor. Yet she began to wonder
why no one came to Jamaica Inn and why her aunt was so
frightened.
Roddy Doyle
Wilderness (Lexile: 380)
211 pages
As Irish teenager Gráinne anxiously prepares for a reunion
with her mother, who abandoned the family years before,
Gráinne's half-brothers and their mother take a
dogsledding vacation in Finland.
Anne Perry
Ashworth Hall
373 pages
Superintendent Thomas Pitt of Scotland Yard and his wife
Charlotte search for the truth to the baffling murder of the
moderator of the meeting between the Irish Catholics and
Protestants being held at Ashworth Hall.
John Gardner
Grendel (Lexile: 920)
174 pages
Grendel, the monster, tells his side of the Beowulf story,
and compares his values with the chief values of human
beings.
Cain his brother
390 pages
Inspector Monk investigates the disappearance of a well-todo citizen of Victorian London, and the primary suspect is
the man's depraved twin brother.
The art of fiction: notes on craft for young writers
224 pages
Explains the principles and techniques of good writing,
and discusses the seven basic technical matters that
beginning writers must constantly bear in mind.
Mark Haddon
The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime (Lexile:
1180)
226 pages
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people,
Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-yearold boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's
dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
Joseph Heller
Catch-22 (Lexile: 1140)
568 pages
Captain Yossarian, a paranoid bomber pilot stationed in
the Italian theater during World War II, faces a "catch-22"
in this comic novel when he wants to fly fewer combat
missions.
Frank Herbert
Dune (Lexile: 800)
538 pages
Forced by the Emperor of the known universe to live in
exile on a barren planet, Duke Leto Atreides and his son
lead the struggle against the Empire.
James Herriot
All creatures great and small (Lexile: 990)
442 pages
An English veterinarian reminisces about his life, career,
and animal patients in a small village.
Mary Stewart
The Crystal Cave (Lexile: 960)
520 pages
Follows Merlin, the magician, from his childhood in the court
of the King of Wales until Arthur's birth.
J.R.R. Tolkien (except The Hobbit)
The fellowship of the ring (and its sequels) Lexile: 860
Frodo the hobbit and a band of warriors from the different
kingdoms set out to destroy the Ring of Power before the evil
Sauron grasps control.
Narn i chîn Húrin : the tale of the children of Húrin (Lexile:
1000)
313 pages
Turin, Hurin's eldest son and a proud warrior, flees from the
elven kingdom after being held responsible for another's
death, disguises his identity, leads a group of outlaws, and
has a tragic encounter with an old family member many years
later.
Sue Townsend
The Adrian Mole diaries (Lexile: 780)
293 pages
British teenager Adrian Mole records the ups and downs of
adolescence in his diary.
Virginia Woolf
Woman and writing
198 pages
A treatise on the lack of professional and educational
opportunities for women. Includes short pieces and various
essay extracts and well as published and unpublished articles.