PHS SUMMER READING!
Relax, Refresh, and Read!
Information to Know!
- Reading can be one of the most rewarding experiences, especially when you get to choose what you read. Aside from 'getting caught up' in a great story, reading helps expand your vocabulary, improve your concentration, and increase your knowledge and awareness through the experiences of the characters you meet. So, this summer, kick back with a book and enjoy all the benefits!!
- The books listed below by grade level were selected by English teachers. While summer reading is optional, we strongly encourage you to dive in!
- There is required summer reading for Honors Western Literature (12th Grade), AP Literature and Composition, AP Language and Composition, and Honors Journalism--- the specific requirements for each of these courses is listed at the bottom of this page.
GRADE 9
Ball Don’t Lie - Matt de la Pena
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Pride - Ibi Zoboi
Booked - Kwame Alexander
The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo
Everything Everything - Nicola Yoon
Grown - Tiffany D. Jackson
Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Jumped - Rita Williams-Garcia
Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom
Monster - Walter Dean Myers
Bad Boy - Walter Dean Myers
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
A Wreath for Emmett Till - Marilyn Nelson
Dragon Hoops - Gene Luen Yang
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell
All But My Life - Gerda Klein
One of Us Is Lying - Karen McManus
Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
Looking For Alaska - John Green
GRADE 10
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Nickel Boys - Colton Underwood
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Daniel James Brown
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
The Lovely Bones: A Novel – Alice Sebold
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven - Sherman Alexie
Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver
Water For Elephants – Sara Gruen
The Hot Zone - Richard Preston
Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Where the Crawdads Sing- Delia Owens
They Called Us Enemy - George Takei
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
The Martian - Andy Weir
One of Us Is Next - Karen M. McManus (sequel to One of us is Lying)
Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out - Susan Kuklin
TroubleMaker for Justice: The Story of Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the March on Washington - Jacqueline Houtman
Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertelli
Leah on the Offbeat - Becky Albertelli
Attack on America: The Day the Twin Towers Collapsed - Mary Gow
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Out of My Mind - Sharon Draper
Out of My Heart - Sharon Draper
GRADE 11
Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In The Time of Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
Before We Were Free - Julia Alvarez
Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini
Dawn - Elie Wiesel
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Girl with the Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
GRADE 12 --- Academic Level Courses
The Help- Kathryn Stockett
Hidden Figures- Margot Lee Shetterly
The Nightingale- Kristin Hannah
The Great Alone- Kristin Hannah
The Butler: A Witness to History- Wil Haygood
The Glass Castle- Jeannette Walls
Courage to Soar- Simone Biles
The Freedom Writers Diary- Erin Gruwell
Into Thin Air- John Krakauer
On the Road- Jack Kerouac
42 Is Not Just a Number: The Odyssey of Jackie Robinson- Doreen Rappaport
Little Fires Everywhere- Celeste Ng
GRADE 12 --- Western Lit Honors
AP Literature and Composition & AP Language and Composition
HONORS JOURNALISM
Choose one of the options from the linked list. Students will be expected to create and present a presentation on their selected journalist a few weeks into the start of the school year.