The Scranton School District Summer Reading List

2014-2015 Scranton High School

West Scranton High School

All incoming FRESHMAN who are scheduled for honors English at either Scranton High

School or West Scranton High School are required to read a total of TWO BOOKS over the

summer. One of the two books is noted below as the “common requirement for all honor

students.” Students must choose their other selection from the comprehensive list beneath the

required selection.

Upon returning to school in September, students will be assessed using a district standardized

assessment tool.

The summer reading assessments will be averaged to create one exam grade for the first marking

period, which cannot not be dropped or curved.

Students entering the school district after the first day of school and before the beginning of the

second quarter will have the entire first quarter to complete all readings.

Freshmen Honors:

Common Required Selection: Black Like Me by Howard Griffin

Comprehensive List:

A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

The Turn of the Screw – Henry James

Profiles in Courage – John F. Kennedy

Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan

The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

Inherit the Wind – Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee

The Scranton School District Summer Reading List

2014 -2015 Scranton High School

West Scranton High School

All incoming SOPHOMORES who are scheduled for honors English II at either Scranton High

School or West Scranton High School are required to read a total of TWO BOOKS over the

summer. One of the two books is noted below as the “common requirement for all honor

students.” Students must choose their other selection from the comprehensive list beneath the

required selection.

Upon returning to school in September, students will be assessed using a district standardized

assessment tool.

The summer reading assessments will be averaged to create one exam grade for the first marking

period, which cannot not be dropped or curved.

Students entering the school district after the first day of school and before the beginning of the

second quarter will have the entire first quarter to complete all readings.

Sophomore Honors:

Common Required Selection: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Lewis Stevenson

Comprehensive List:

Captains Courageous – Rudyard Kipling

The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged)– Alexandre Dumas

The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls

The Life of Pi- Yann Martel

October Sky – Homer Hickam

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

Schindler’s List – Thomas Keneally

Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

The Scranton School District

Summer Reading List 2014 - 2015

Scranton High School West Scranton High School

All incoming Juniors who are scheduled for honors English III at either Scranton High School

or West Scranton High School are required to read a total of TWO BOOKS over the summer.

One of the two books is noted below as the “common requirement for all honor students.”

Students must choose their other selection from the comprehensive list beneath the required

selection.

Upon returning to school in September, students will be assessed using a district standardized

assessment tool.

The summer reading assessments will be averaged to create one exam grade for the first marking

period, which cannot not be dropped or curved.

Students entering the school district after the first day of school and before the beginning of the

second quarter will have the entire first quarter to complete all readings.

Junior Honors:

Common Required Selection: The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

Comprehensive List:

A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry

Bomb : the race to build and steal the world's most dangerous weapon- Steve Sheinkin

The Last of the Mohicans – James Cooper

Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

On the Road – Jack Kerouac

The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – Benjamin Franklin

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams

The Scranton School District

Summer Reading List 2014 - 2015

Scranton High School West Scranton High School

All incoming Seniors who are scheduled for honors English IV at either Scranton High School or

West Scranton High School are required to read a total of TWO BOOKS over the summer. One

of the two books is noted below as the “common requirement for all honor students.” Students

must choose their other selection from the comprehensive list beneath the required selection.

Upon returning to school in September, students will be assessed using a district standardized

assessment tool.

The summer reading assessments will be averaged to create one exam grade for the first marking

period, which cannot not be dropped or curved.

Students entering the school district after the first day of school and before the beginning of the

second quarter will have the entire first quarter to complete all readings.

Senior Honors:

Common Required Selection: Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Comprehensive List:

Emma – Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

Iliad - Homer

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

Obasan – Joy Kogawa

Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

Dracula – Bram Stoker

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Tom Stoppard

The Piano Lesson – August Wilson

The Jungle – Upton Sinclair

The Scranton School District

Summer Reading List 2014 - 2015

Scranton High School West Scranton High School

All incoming SENIORS to both Scranton High School and West Scranton High School who elect

to take AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION are required to read a total of SIX

TITLES. Two titles must be selected from the “common required selections.” Upon returning to

school in September, students will be assessed using a district standardized assessment tool on the

common required selections. These will be averaged, not curved or dropped.

Students must choose their other selections from the comprehensive list beneath the required

selection. Depending upon the individual teacher’s units, one or more selections from the

Comprehensive List may be encouraged. Assessments will be at the discretion of the teacher.

Students entering the school district after the first day of school and before the beginning of the

second quarter will have the entire first quarter to complete all books.

Common Required Selections: Mythology, Edith Hamilton and Dracula, Bram Stoker OR

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Comprehensive List:

The Odyssey, Books 1-12

Pride and Prejudice

Emma

Heart of Darkness

Brave New World

Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

Obasan

Angela’s Ashes

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The Piano Lesson

Death of a Salesman

Ceremony

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Song of Solomon

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Texts and Contexts