Calhoun County s reading lists were compiled by the English Language Arts Leadership Team with input from teachers in all schools. The lists are annotated with comments and suggested grade levels that the team felt might be helpful to teachers in making their reading selections: however, the annotations are for faculty use only and not for distribution to parents and students. The team believes that grade level choices should be a school by school decision, rather than a system mandate; however, all book choices should originate from the system level list. Calhoun County Schools will select books that teach the English Language Arts Standards from the Course of Study and have appropriate age related content, age-appropriate themes, and limited profanity. We discourage the use of reading materials that introduce excessively adult themes for our secondary students. Please review books on the provided lists carefully before selecting for classroom use or summer reading assignments. Calhoun County Schools encourage the use of non-fiction books in addition to the recreational fictional selections most often used. This supports the new College and Career Ready Standards for Informational Text with attention to range of reading and level of text complexity. Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks information can be found on the appendix B at the common core web site: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/appendix_b.pdf. Calhoun County Schools encourage our English teachers to communicate with students and parents in advance of their scheduled reading list for the school year and the summer reading program. This communication should include clear expectations, timeline, synopsis of the assigned books, and rubric or explanation of grading procedures. Summer reading lists grades should be entered in a timely manner. Calhoun County Schools will collaborate among schools (K-12) to modify and update the reading lists. The reading lists are on-going and subject to change. 1
1984 A Bend in the Road A Break with Charity A Child Called It A Country Doctor A Doll s House A Farewell to Arms A Gospel A Lesson Before Dying A Midsummer s Night Dream A Northern Light A Painted House A Raisin in the Sun A Separate Peace A Tale of Two Cities A Thousand Splendid Suns A Voice in the Wind A Walk to Remember A Wrinkle in Time (read in many elementary schools) Absalom! Absalom! Across Five Aprils Aesop s Fables Alabama Moon (on 7 th and 8 th grade list) Alice s Adventures in Wonderland All Creatures Great and Small All Quiet on the Western Front All the King s Men An Echo in the Darkness An Epistle And the Earth Did Not Devour/Swallow Him And Then There Were None (10 th, 11 th, 12 th ) Angela s Ashes Animal Farm Anthem Antigone As I Lay Dying As Sure as the Dawn Ashes of Rose Assignment: Rescue Atlas Shrugged Ava s Man Beowulf Big Fish Billy Budd Black Boy Brave New World Call of the Wild Cantebury Tales Carry My Bones Catch 22 Cathy s Book (10 th, 11 th, 12 th ) Charlotte Doyle (Also on Jr. High list) Cold Sassy Tree Copper Sun Count of Monte Cristo Dandelion Wine Death Be Not Proud Death of a Salesman Divergent Doctor Faustus Dracula Driver s Ed Edith Hamilton s Mythology Emma Ethan Frome Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Fahrenheit 451 Fallen Angels Fences Fever 1793 Flight #116 is Down (also on Jr. High List) Flowers for Algernon (also on Jr. High list) For One More Day Fountainhead Frankenstein Freak the Mighty Fried Green Tomatoes Gathering Blue (also on Jr. High list) Go Ask Alice 2
Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece Great Expectations Grendel Growing Up Gulliver s Travels Hamlet Harry Potter Heart of Darkness Hiroshima I Am Mordred I am the Cheese Imitate the Tiger In Cold Blood (10 th, 11 th, 12 th ) Invisible Man It s All Over But the Shoutin Jacob Have I Loved (10 th, 11 th, 12 th ) Jane Eyre Jane Pittman Journey to the Center of the Earth Julius Caesar Le Morte D Arthur Les Miserables Let the Circle Be Unbroken Letters from a Slave Girl Life on the Mississippi Lord of the Flies Macbeth Man s Search for Meaning Metamorphosis Midsummer Night s Dream Moby Dick Monster Much Ado About Nothing Murder on the Orient Express My Antonia Mythology Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Native Son (12 th ) Night (11 th or 12 th ) Night, Day, or Dawn Nothing but the Truth Number the Stars Oedipus Rex Of Mice and Men (11 th ) Old Man and the Sea Oliver Twist On Writing One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Othello Our Town (also on Jr. High list) Out of the Dust Paradise Lost (12 th ) Picture of Dorian Gray Pride and Prejudice Pug Sheridan Pygmalion Rebecca Romeo and Juliet Schindler s List Sense and Sensibility Short Stories of Edgar Allen Poe Silas Marner Something Wicked this Way Comes Speak Summer of My German Soldier Taming of the Shrew Tears of a Tiger Tess of the D Urbervilles That was Then, This is Now (Also on Jr. High list) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin The Awakening The Bell Jar The Bible The Bonesetter s Daughter The Book of Proverbs The Book Thief The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 3
The Clearing The Comedy of Errors The Contender The Crucible The Day the Earth Stood Still The Diary of a Young Girl The Diary of Anne Frank The English Patient (12 th ) The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp The Fellowship of the Ring The Fountainhead The Friends The Giver (also on Jr. High list) The Glass Menagerie The Good Earth The Grapes of Wrath The Great Gatsby The Greatest Generation The Help The Hiding Place The Hobbit The Hound of the Baskervilles The House of Dies Drear (also on Jr. High list) The House of Seven Gables (also on Jr. High List) The Hunger Games The Iliad The Importance of Being Earnest The Island of the Blue Dolphin (on 7 th 8 th grade list) The Joy Luck Club The Jungle The Lovely Bones The Mayor of Casterbridge The Most They Ever Had The Odyssey The Old Man and the Sea The Once and Future King The Outsiders The Pearl The Pigman The Plaque The Rag and Bone Shop The Red Badge of Courage The Return of the King The Scarlet Letter The Screw Tape Letter The Secret Life of Bees (10 th, 11 th, 12 th ) The Souls of Black Folk The Stand The Story of My Life The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Stranger The Sun Also Rises The Tempest The Time Machine The Two Towers The War of the Worlds The Westing Game (Also on Jr. High list) The Witch of Blackbird Pond The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Yearling Their Eyes Were Watching God These Happy Golden Years Things Fall Apart Thus Spake Zarathustra To Kill a Mockingbird (10 th, 11 th, 12 th ) Treasure Island True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (also on Jr. High List) Tuck Everlasting (read in many elementary schools) Tuesdays With Morrie Twelfth Night Twilight Uncle Tom s Cabin Walden Walk Across America War of the Worlds 4
Warriors Don t Cry Where the Lilies Bloom Wood Song Wuthering Heights 5