Why read on summer break?

A 2010 study of ACT results showed that what makes some students ready for college (and others not ready) is an ability to understand difficult literature.

At RAHS, we want all of our students to be ready for college!

Therefore, ALL RAHS STUDENTS need to pick at least TWO books from the summer reading lists to stay in the practice of academic reading!

How do I choose?

It doesn’t matter which two titles you pick. Ask your English teacher what might be good choices for you.

There will be opportunities throughout your 11th

grade English class to use this in writing and analysis work.

Talk to an English teacher about which choices might be best suited for you.

By Linda HoganAngela Jensen, a troubled 17-year-old, narrates the tale of her returnto Adam's Rib, an island town in the boundary waters betweenMinnesota and Canada. Tucked into a pristine landscape of countlessislands, wild animals and desperately harsh winters, it's her NativeAmerican family's homeland. Hogan's finely tuned descriptions of theland and its spiritual significance draw a parallel between the ravagessuffered by the environment and those suffered by Angela's mother.

Solar Storms

By Mary OliverMary Oliver's visionary poems talk about the renewals ofnature and the renewals of humanity in love, in onenesswith the natural, in union with the things of this world.Lyrical and elegiac, Mary Oliver celebrates the primitivethings of America – and the wilderness that survives.

American Primitive

By Joseph HellerThis is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a herowho is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to killhim. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keepsincreasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service.Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missionshe’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucraticrule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combatmissions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is provensane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

Catch 22

By Flannery O’ConnorThis collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the Americanshort story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers:race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and thetragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highlyindividual stamp and could have been written by no one else.

Everything That Rises Must Converge

By Jack KerouacWhile it stunned the public and literary establishment when it waspublished in 1957, it is now recognized as an American classic. WithOn the Road, Kerouac discovered his voice and his true subject—thesearch for a place as an outsider in America. On the Road swings tothe rhythms of fifties underground America, jazz, generosity, and chilldawns with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveler andmystic, the living epitome of Beat.

On the Road

By Toni MorrisonTwo friends who become something worse than enemies. In thisbrilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright andSula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio.Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of adreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar ofthe black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendshipends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic,ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.

Sula

By Sudhir VankateshWhen first-year graduate student Sudhir Venkatesh walked into anabandoned building in one of Chicago’s most notorious housingprojects, he hoped to find a few people willing to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty--and impress his professors with hisboldness. He never imagined that as a result of this assignment hewould befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of adecade embedded inside the projects under JT’s protection.

Gang Leader for a Day

By Kao Kalia YangBeginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for theircollaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recountsthe harrowing story of her family’s captivity, the daring rescue undertakenby her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yangwas born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. In search of a place to call home,thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles ofLaos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward toAmerica. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmongexperience has been primarily recorded by others.

The Latehomecomer

By Amanda RipleyIn a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to makecomplex arguments and solve problems they’ve never seen before.They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the moderneconomy. What is it like to be a child in the world’s new educationsuperpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children,author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows threeAmericans embedded in these countries for one year.

The Smartest Kids in the World and how they got that way

By Karen RussellThirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, herfamily’s island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the FloridaEverglades. But when illness fells Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitableheadliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sisterfalls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and herbrilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World ofDarkness. As Ava sets out on a mission through the magical swamps tosave them all, we are drawn into a lush and shimmering edge of reality.

Swamplandia!

This is a new option for Summer Reading. Since so manystudents reported reading and enjoying books that are not onthis list, we decided to open up our options this year. Talk tofriends, family, librarians, or go online and read some bookreviews to find a book you are interested in reading. Use thesame 5 prompts to keep track of what you have read.

Novel of your choice

As you read, please consider (and

take notes on) the following:What repetitions or patterns can you find in the book?

What life lessons does the book teach?

What motivates the specific characters?

Choose a passage (2-10 pages) you think is significant and explain its importance.

Keep track of questions you have as you read.