Purpose: The Summer Reading Program encourages students to enjoy, think about, and evaluate what they read.
Reading/Writing Requirements: Summer reading is worth up to 10% of your first-quarter grade. Read the book closely and be prepared for an assessment during the first week of school in September.
CP students choose one book from the list below.
Honors students choose two books from the list below.
AP students should complete the AP Language Summer Reading Assignment.
EXTRA CREDIT for CP students: You may earn extra credit by reading a second book from this list and keeping a journal using the summer reading journal assignment.
Proxy by Alex London
Year Published
Syd’s life is not his own. As a proxy he must pay for someone else's crimes. When his patron Knox crashes a car and kills someone, Syd is branded and sentenced to death. The boys realize the only way to beat the system is to save each other so they flee. The ensuing cross-country chase will uncover a secret society of rebels, test the boys' resolve, and shine a blinding light onto a world of those who owe and those who pay. “Put down what you’re doing and read this book. Right now. The complex characters, intricate world, and blistering pace are off-the-charts amazing.” —Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
Year Published
It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.
Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS. Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating. Art is Judy's best friend, their school's only out and proud teen. He'll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Year Published
Leningrad, Russia: WWII: two teenage boys thrown in prison. Lev Beniov is caught looting a German’s paratrooper’s corpse. Even though the punishment is execution, Colonel Grechko instead sends him on a mission. He is paired with Kolya, a Russian army deserter, and “they set off on a journey that takes them through a series of nightmarish war zones, populated by cannibals, prostitutes, starving children, and demonic Nazi chess enthusiasts.”(The New Yorker)
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui
Year Published
An intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam, from debut author Thi Bui. This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
The Guineveres by Sarah Domet
Year Published
Four teenagers, each named Guinevere, find themselves under the strict guidance of the nuns at Our Lady of Perpetual Adoration. Although they share a common name, Gwen, Ginny, Win, and Vere all have different and equally heartbreaking reasons for coming to live at the convent. Domet’s debut will lure readers in with well-developed characters, rich language, and small miracles. Recommended for students who are looking for weighty romance novels. --Krystina Kelley, Belle Valley School, Belleville, IL
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Year Published
The novel is a collection of linked stories and won The Pulitzer Prize in 2011. “Most of her characters live within popular music: They play it, write it, produce recordings of it or sell it. We follow them from the excitement of high-school punk bands in San Francisco to the disappointment and disillusionments of their New York lives.”
Wildball by Brian Engles
Year Published
Set in seaside Nailer’s Cove, Wildball is the story of Shane Monoghan – one of the best collegiate shortstops in the nation. While playing summer ball in the prestigious Cove League, Shane fights for his position both on the field and off. A new novel by a local author and FHS graduate.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Year Published
A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off.
99: Stories of the Game by Wayne Gretsky and Kirstie McLellan Day
Year Published
“Arguably the best player in the history of hockey, [Gretzky] has written a warm and enthusiastic collection of memories and stories. This book showcases some of hockey’s best moments through the keen eyes of an avid student, lover, and ambassador of the game. VERDICT: Essential for all hockey fans, old and new.”—Library Journal
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
Year Published
“Kate believes her daughter, 15-year-old Amelia, has committed suicide, jumping from the roof of her private school—until she receives an anonymous text saying simply, ‘Amelia didn’t jump.’ Could she have been murdered?” (Michael Cart)
The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore
Year Published
Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner in Plainview, Indiana is home away from home for Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. Dubbed "The Supremes" by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they’ve weathered life’s storms for over four decades and counseled one another through marriage and children, happiness and the blues. (School Library Journal)
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Year Published
John Leonard of The New York Times wrote that this novel “is an inquiry into the reasons why beauty gets wasted in this country. The beauty in this case is black; the wasting is done by a cultural engine that seems to have been designed specifically to murder possibilities; the ‘bluest eye’ refers to the blue eyes of the blond American myth, by which standard the black-skinned and brown-eyed always measure up as inadequate. Miss Morrison’s prose is so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry.”
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Year Published
“Lydia is dead. From the first sentence of Celeste Ng’s stunning debut, we know that the oldest daughter of the Chinese-American Lee family has died. What follows is a novel that explores alienation, achievement, race, gender, family, and identity--as the police must unravel what has happened to Lydia, the Lee family must uncover the sister and daughter that they hardly knew. Achingly, precisely, and sensitively written.” --Chris Schluep
Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay
Year Published
For fans of horror and suspense. A family is shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in this eerie tale. “This tense, quick-moving story, part mystery and part folktale with a dash of police procedural, moves between points of view that offer tantalizing clues and moments of discomfort.” (Booklist Reviews 2016)