Reading Suggestions

Are you a rising senior who wants a bestselling fiction novel after plenty of non-fiction texts during junior year? This may be the one. Heading into one of our AP English classes as a junior? This could be for you, too!

All of us in the English Department have read this YA Fantasy book...and FIVE different teachers put this on their suggestions for summer reading! That is a testament to the text written by one of our own!

Want to read a classic novel? Mr. Kelley suggested this one! Want additional classic text options? Ask some adults in your lives what their favorite book was in high school. Or parents and guardians, think back to that one book you still remember...pass on the title!

Recommended by Ms. Janicek, this YA novel also has a 4.5 on GoodReads, a 4.8 on Amazon, and has been called a "YA Must Read."

The full title is Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed, and this is one of the non-fiction texts on the recommended list. This one showed up on Ms. Szabo's and Ms. Klein's lists.

Ms. Phillips and Ms. Szabo are both fans of this book, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Best for AP students at the junior and senior level.

The book cover shown is the second book in the graphic novel series and showed up on a couple teachers' lists. Reading graphic novels and other visual texts takes skill - so look at this pleasure reading (or another graphic text) as a way to become more adept at this important ability.

The book and its sequel, Muse of Nightmares, allows YA readers to dive into the YA Fantasy genre with its captivating plot and beautiful language. Ms. Macias had this duo-series near the top of her recommendations.

Named one of Time Magazine's Top 100 Fantasy Books of all-time, An Ember in the Ashes is the first of four books in the series; move onto the others if you've read this one already!

Teachers were limited on the number of books (1-5) they could suggest for their ultimate summer reading list. Mr. Gerber suggested three, all of them high-interest-read-by-the-beach-books. This one specifically is a tech thriller.

And this one, also suggested by Mr. Gerber, fits in the science fiction genre.

This turned into an instant bestseller and falls into the psychological thriller genre, sprinked with some dark humor. Touted as a possible good fit for our upperclass students, two teachers also suggested this book (we did have several repeats, actually The English teachers read and recommend books to each other all the time!).

As Amazon notes, " A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek." This book was recommended by Ms. Freichels. Everyone who has read Lessons in Chemistry knows a person who reminds them of the main character, Elizabeth Zott, in some way.

Mr. Smith wanted to suggest something to "foster the love of reading," and this series did that for him. It's a good historical fiction series called The King Raven Trilogy by Stephen R. Lawhead. Book 1- Hood; Book 2- Scarlet; Book 3- Tuck. The trilogy image to the left links to the first of the three books.

Suggested by Ms. Szabo, this is a novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet. This is her debut novel and won several awards, including the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. If you think you don't like poetry or want to try a genre not often studied formally in school, this may be the one to choose.

David Foster Wallace's works have been called "remarkable" and "unsettling" in various reviews, and this collection of his short(er) stories fits. What does DFW reveal about the world in the late 80s and early 90s - when many of your parents were growing up? Suggested by Mr. Curry for students moving into senior electives.

Ms. Freichels, who also teaches in our Fine Arts Department and directs our phenomenal plays, suggested the dark comedy play, Witch.

English teachers love to talk about books. And when a student wants to recommend a book to us and then talk about it later? The best. Thanks to one of the students in (Ms. Nieves) class this year for recommending The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Fantasy, historical fiction, magical realism all wrapped into one? You decide.

On Ms. Young's list and set in1980's Chicago and present-day Paris, this book won several awards and was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

In the fantasy genre and suggested by Ms. Macias

Do you prefer non-fiction? Ms. Phillips added a thoughtprovoking and inspirational text. This book has an engaging TED Talk that can also pique interest. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy__kBVq1M

Recommended by Ms. Christian

Recommended by Ms. Klein

Suggested for upperclassmen