Summer Reading Lists

2024 Summer Reading Assignments

In addition to the assignments below, all students will be tested on the book(s) and terms upon returning to school in September.

Common Read - All Grades 9-12

All students must read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Please note that The Last Lecture is the only required reading for non-honors/AP classes.

English 9 Honors

9 Honors must read:

  • The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch) AND
  • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne)

Assignment(s):

Define and study the following literary terms:

1. antagonist
2. character
3. characterization
4. conflict
5. exposition
6. figurative language
7. flashback
8. foreshadowing
9. genre
10. literal
11. narrator
12. plot
13. point of view
14. protagonist
15. setting

English 10- Honors

10 Honors must read:

  • The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch) AND
  • To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

English 10 R and 10H Lit. Terms for Mastery:

English 9 terms AND...

  1. Alliteration
  2. Allusion
  3. Assonance
  4. Consonance
  5. Dialogue
  6. Hyperbole
  7. Imagery
  8. Metaphor
  9. Oxymoron
  10. Personification
  11. Simile
  12. Sonnet
  13. Symbol
  14. Symbolism
  15. Theme

English 11- AP English Language and Composition

AP English Lang and Comp must read:

  • The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch) AND
  • Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson) ** (Students will need a copy of this book in class during the months of September and October)

AP Lang. Rhetorical Devices for Mastery:

  1. Allusion
  2. Anaphora
  3. Antecedent
  4. Anecdote
  5. Asyndeton
  6. Chiasmus
  7. Connotation
  8. Denotation
  9. Diction
  10. Ellipsis
  11. Ethos 
  12. Euphemism
  13. Figurative Language
  14. Irony
  15. Jargon
  16. Juxtaposition
  17. Logos (logical)
  18. Loose (cumulative) sentences
  19. Metaphor
  20. Metonymy
  21. Paradox
  22. Parallelism (parallel structure)
  23. Parenthetical Idea  
  24. Pathos (emotional)
  25. Polysyndeton
  26. Rhetoric
  27. Rhetorical Question
  28. Satire
  29. Shift
  30. Synecdoche
  31. Syntax
  32. Thesis
  33. Tone
  34. Understatement 
  35. Vernacular

English 12- AP English Literature and Composition

AP English Lit and Comp must read and prepare for assessments on:

  • The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch) AND
  • Jekyll and Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)
    • Students will need a copy of Stevenson's book in class in September

AP Literature Lit. Terms for Mastery:

An extensive list of literary elements with definitions can be accessed at https://literarydevices.net/, which AP Lit seniors will be responsible for on an assessment in the fall.