Summer Reading
SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE
Each student is required to read one of the four books listed for the grade by the first week of school.
Grade Seven
• The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Grade Eight
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Watership Down by Richard Adams
FRESHMAN AND SOPHOMORES
Students are to choose one of the following books to read over the summer. They will be tested on the book during the first week of school.
Grade Nine:
• Princess Bride by William Goldman
• The Once and Future King by T.H. White
• The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Grade Ten:
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
JUNIORS AND SENIORS
This summer Juniors and Seniors are required to read one of the books assigned to their class level.
Grade 11:
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo – abridged version acceptable
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Grade 12:
• Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
JUNIOR/SENIOR EXAM: SCHOOL POLICY
Students who do not complete this requirement according to the schedule will not be allowed to continue in DLS course work.
There will be an exam for all Juniors and Seniors (NO EXCEPTIONS)..
The exam is designed specifically to ensure that you have read the book completely and not just Cliffs Notes. So read the book carefully.
Students who do not satisfy the August 23 requirement must do the following by October 8.
1. turn in a 1000 word essay on their assigned novel, and
2. pass a second objective exam.
Students who have not satisfactorily completed one of the two testing requirements will not be allowed to continue with DLS course work!
SUGGESTED READING FOR ALL AGES
Grade 7:
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Shane by Jack Schaefer
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Grade 8:
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• The Pigman by Paul Zindel
• Skeeter by K. Smith
Grade 9:
• Christy by Catherine Marshall
• Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien
• A Good Courage by Stephanie S. Tolan
Grade 10:
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remargue
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Reivers by William Faulkner
• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Grade 11:
• Mr. Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
• Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Grade 12:
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Trial by Franz Kafka
• All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra