Required Reading: Grady High School Summer Reading 2014-2015

School is out for the summer, and I know we are all enjoying the time off, parents and kids alike.

Ahem.

I hate to be the literary, literal bearer of "bad" news (for some), but if you have a student heading to Grady High School in August*, there is some "school work" to be done...

[*Monday, August 4, 2014 is The First Day of School for APS - see calendar.]

But how could reading be work? The Grady List has been updated for 2014-2015, and is, really, a great list of literary treasures: classics, modern novels, comedies, tragedies, sci fi, coming-of-age stories, biographies and, well, let's classify some as "other" genres (List 2 for 12th Grade AP/Honors). There are a lot of options (except for 12th Grade Gen Ed); something for nearly everybody.

In fact, the Grady High School Summer Reading List is a terrific collection of suggestions and possibilities for adult readers in our community-- don't you want to know what the kids are reading? (Okay, being forced to read, but still--)

How many have you read?

Most of the books are available at the public library, some even for ebook or audiobook loan. Most can be purchased Used for a penny (plus shipping) on Amazon.com. Some of the classics can be found and downloaded FREE online to Kindle apps-- you do know you can download FREE Kindle reading apps for your computer, tablet or smartphone, right? (For more info, check out the links to The Picture of Dorian Gray and Pride & Prejudice below. You can find hundreds, probably thousands, of free classics and other ebooks by searching Amazon or Google for "free ebooks" for your Kindle reader or Kindle apps.)

Happy Reading and enjoy your summer with some terrific suggestions from the list:

GRADY HIGH SUMMER READING 2014-2015

INCOMING 9TH GRADERS ALL LEVELS: 

Choose one of the following: 

• Dreams of my Father by Barack Obama
• Life of Pi by Yan Martel
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding

INCOMING 10TH GRADERS GENERAL EDUCATION: 

Choose one of the following: 

• A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• 1984 by George Orwell
  
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

INCOMING 10TH GRADERS HONORS: 

Choose one of the following: 

• The House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
• Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

**INCOMING 11TH GRADERS ALL LEVELS: 

Choose one book from each list, for a total of TWO books:

List 1: Classics

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin

List 2: Modern

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

**11th grade AP Lang and AP US History students have additional assignments.

INCOMING 12TH GRADERS GENERAL EDUCATION: 

Students are required to read BOTH books: 

• Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
• Grendel by John Gardner
  

INCOMING 12TH GRADERS HONORS AND AP:

Choose one book from each list, for a total of TWO books:

List 1

• Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde *FREE for Kindle Apps
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen *FREE for Kindle Apps
• Atonement by Ian McEwen

List 2

• The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

The PDF can be downloaded from the Grady High School Website here.