Summer has arrived!  All of the major south-county bookstores have a copy of the SPHS Summer Reading List, and you should be able to procure a copy there. If you’re unsure which class you’re registered for, contact Guidance. If you have any questions about your summer assignment, attempt to email the course’s teacher (see below) or contact Mr. Benton, at bentonro@pcsb.org.

English 1 Honors

Middle school is over; rejoice!  There is no assigned summer reading. The texts for this coming year are Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Burton Raffel, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Here is a link to an Amazon list created for this class, and if you’re interesting in the standards being covered in this class, please visit this link.  Email Mr. Benton at bentonro@pcsb.org with any questions.

English 2 Honors

The required summer reading text is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.  The English 2 Honors summer packet is due on the first day of school, August 10th. The texts for the year may include works such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Color of Water by James McBride, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

English 3 Honors

The required summer reading text is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot; the English 3 Honors summer assignments (a double-entry journal and study questions) are due during the first week of school. The other works of literature that students will be reading throughout the school year may include Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Patterson at pattersons@pcsb.org.

AP English Language

The two required summer reading texts are 1984 by George Orwell and A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The latest edition of the Barron AP English Language and Composition Study Guide is also a required text. Within the first two weeks of school, you will be required to turn in the AP English Language summer packet and demonstrate that you have completed all of the assigned work.  If you have any questions, e-mail Ms. Wise at wisep@pcsb.org.

English 4 Honors

The required summer reading is Grendel by John Gardner; the English 4 Honors summer packet is due on August 10th. Texts for the year may include works such as Beowulf, The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Composition (Dual Enrollment)

Although there is no required summer reading for a college course, students entering ENC 1101 are responsible for being proficient in the areas of grammar, mechanics, and parts of speech and must possess an advanced vocabulary. Within the first week of class you will be given a test covering the information from several websites  available in this Composition summer packet of links to several websites.

AP English Literature

The three summer texts are Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (If you didn’t sign out a summer packet from me before the end of school, please email me at bentonro@pcsb.org and then download the AP Literature summer packet and print it.)  All three parts of the summer packet (the Mythology questions and the two theme logs) are due in class on the first day of class; you should write your work directly on the packet unless you feel you need more room. There will be a quotation quiz on Jane Eyre and an in-class essay on Siddhartha on the first day of class, August 10th or 11th (depending on block-scheduling possibilities).  Once you have the Mythology questions completed, I don’t expect you to spend any more time in the summer studying Mythology; that quizzie won’t happen for a few weeks. The suggested reading order is as follows: Mythology, Siddhartha, Jane Eyre: you’ll want the two novels to be freshest in your mind for the Day-One assessments.Texts for the year may include William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.  Here is a link to an Amazon list created for this class.