Summer Reading

Summer 2023

Language Arts 8 & HonorsEnglish IEnglish IIEnglish IIIEnglish IV
English I HonorsEnglish II HonorsEnglish III APEnglish IV AP


Explore New Worlds with Shaw Summer Reading

Archbishop Shaw students are required to participate in a summer reading program. These treasured writings of the English language are hand-picked to challenge student reading abilities and open their minds to new concepts and ideas.

Take a look at the listing below to find which book you’ll be assigned for the summer. You’ll also find convenient shopping links.

Note: Archbishop Shaw may receive a commission from these links. Thanks for your continued support!

 

Please refer to the course the student will be enrolled in during the 2023-2024 school year.

Language Arts 8 & Honors

ISBN: 978-0375842207


The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.



English I

ISBN: 978-1451673319


Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.



English I Honors



ISBN: 978-1440641794

A Death in the Family

by James Agee

Published in 1957, two years after its author’s death at the age of forty-five, A Death in the Family remains a near-perfect work of art, an autobiographical novel that contains one of the most evocative depictions of loss and grief ever written. As Jay Follet hurries back to his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he is killed in a car accident—a tragedy that destroys not only a life, but also the domestic happiness and contentment of a young family. A novel of great courage, lyric force, and powerful emotion, A Death in the Family is a masterpiece of American literature.



English II



ISBN: 978-1440641794

Night

by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie’s wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author’s original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man’s capacity for inhumanity to man.



English II Honors



ISBN: 978-0062409867

Go Set a Watchman

by Harper Lee

A landmark novel by Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—“Scout”—returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a MockingbirdGo Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one’s own conscience.



English III



ISBN: 978-1442472433

Scythe

by Neal Shusterman

In a world where there are no natural deaths, Scythes must take on the gruesome task of population control. This gripping series follows Citra and Rowan as they grapple with their newfound profession of killing people. The unique and chilling plot of Scythe is an unsettling tale perfect for fans of dystopian novels.



English IV



ISBN: 978-1949460698

Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe

Widely regarded as the first English novel, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is one of the most popular and influential adventure stories of all time. This classic tale of shipwreck and survival on an uninhabited island was an instant success when first published in 1719 and has inspired countless imitations.

In his own words, Robinson Crusoe tells of the terrible storm that drowned all his shipmates and left him marooned on a deserted island. Forced to overcome despair, doubt, and self-pity, he struggles to create a life for himself in the wilderness. From practically nothing, Crusoe painstakingly learns how to make pottery, grow crops, domesticate livestock, and build a house. His many adventures are recounted in vivid detail, including a fierce battle with cannibals and his rescue of Friday, the man who becomes his trusted companion.

Full of enchanting detail and daring heroics, Robinson Crusoe is a celebration of courage, patience, ingenuity, and hard work.



English IV AP: Literature and Composition



ISBN: 978-1440641794

1984

by George Orwell

A scary look into a society where free thought is punishable. Disturbing and thought-provoking, 1984 warns us of the dangerous possibilities of what would happen if everyone became completely submissive to the state. Remember, Big Brother is always watching…




ISBN: 978-1440641794

The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles

Buckle up for an unforgettable journey from master storyteller Amor Towles, set in the tumultuous year of 1954. Brothers Emmett and Billy are in for a shock when they discover two stowaways on their 10-day move from New York City to San Francisco. This novel perfectly encapsulates friends as the family we choose, and it’s a road trip, for once, you may not want to end.


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