Viera High School Pre-AP and Advanced Placement English
Suggested Reading List – Summer 2014
Dear Prospective Pre-Advanced Placement and Advanced Placement English Students:
Congratulations for accepting the challenge of advanced courses in English at Viera High School. These courses will help
prepare you for future academic success in all subjects throughout high school and college. Success in these courses can
result in an award of college credit, qualification for Bright Futures Scholarships, and/or the distinction of graduating with an
Advanced Placement Diploma. Just as with any academic effort, these courses will require you to exercise integrity,
responsibility, pride, and perseverance to achieve your personal best. Be prepared to place English high on your list of
priorities–academic and extra-curricular–in order to assure personal success in these classes.
The following books are recommended for students in this academic track; they are listed by the grade the student is
entering. For all grades none are “required” reading for the next school year; however, students are strongly urged to
read 3-5 of the titles suggested during the summer months.
Pre-Advanced Placement English Grade 9
1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
2. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
3. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
4. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
5. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
6. The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
7. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah
Pre-Advanced Placement English Grade 10
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Kaffir Boy – Mark Mathabane
A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry
The Crucible – Arthur Miller
Hiroshima – John Hersey
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
The Pearl – John Steinbeck
The Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass –
Frederick Douglass
10. The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Advanced Placement
English Language and Composition Grade 11
1. Nickel and Dimed in America - Barbara Ehrenreich
2. This Land is Their Land - Barbara Ehrenreich
3. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life -Walter Isaacson
4. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers-Mary
Roach
5. Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and
Profited from Slavery -A. Farrow, J. Lang, J.Frank
6. Half-Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel - Jeannette
Walls
7. Winesburg, Ohio -Sherwood Anderson
Advanced Placement
English Literature and Composition Grade 12
(If you read only one, read this one!)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
How to Read Literature Like a Professor -- Thomas Foster
Other works to consider that are often seen on the AP Lit
exam: Invisible Man, Death of a Salesman, Jane Eyre, Sula, Tess of
the d‘Urbervilles, Ceremony, The Tempest, Catch 22, Billy Budd,
As I Lay Dying, A Raisin in the Sun, A Streetcar Named Desire,
The Cherry Orchard, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Sound
and Fury
The books should be available at local book stores, on-line (Half.com, Amazon.com), or at used book stores. Buying a copy,
instead of checking one out from the library, is the better choice. You may annotate your own copy–a luxury you do not
have with a library-owned edition. Publications like Cliffs Notes or Sparknotes may be helpful when interpreting your
novel choices, but they are NOT a replacement for reading the text. If you have any questions about the assignments
or resources, please email me at best.beverly@brevardschools.org. Have a great summer!
Beverly Best
Viera High School, Advanced Placement English Literature Teacher