As the school year draws to a close, everyone is itching for it to finally be summer. But, as we all know, along with suntans and finally sleeping, summer holds a little bit of school, too, in the form of summer reading. The list for next year has been posted on the Harriton homepage since May 5. The Harriton Banner discovered a little bit for you about all the books you will be reading this summer.

Rising Freshmen:

• English 1 and 1H: The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore: Nonfiction

Two children, both named Wes Moore, had nearly indistinguishable backgrounds and childhoods, yet one ends up as a murderer, and the other as a decorated veteran, business leader and White House Fellow.

Rising Sophomores:

• English 2 and 2H: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford: Historical Fiction

At the time of the Japanese internment in World War II, a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl form a friendship and fall in love.

• English 2H: 1984 by George Orwell: Sci-Fi/Political Fiction

In a dystopia full of secret surveillance and manipulation of the public, Winston Smith fights against the propagandist Party in a saga that is not far-fetched for our world today.

Rising Juniors

• English 3 and 3H: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich: Nonfiction

This incredible insight into how the majority of America gets by in near poverty explores a darker side of our nation’s prosperity.

• English 3H: Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson: Fiction

In 1954, a fisherman is found dead, a local Japanese-American man is charged with murder, and his trial unfolds.

• AP Composition: Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol: Nonfiction

This description of the struggle to combat segregation of African-American children in the early 1980s combines with a fierce call for change in the urban education system.

• AP Composition students also must choose one of the following six:
• The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins: Nonfiction

Focusing on overachievement in high school, the book emphasizes its negative effects and pressures on students and it questions the idea of being accepted into the “right” college.

• Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt: Memoir

The author relates stories of a childhood and early adulthood in New York and Ireland with the main theme being the struggle of poverty.

• Stiff by Mary Roach: Nonfiction

“Stiff” is an account of the strange lives of our bodies after death and what it is like for our bodies once we are not with them any more.

• Ghost Map by Steven Johnson: Nonfiction

A serious and frightening read, this is the story of London’s terrifying 1854 cholera epidemic that shaped science, cities and the modern world.

• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand: Nonfiction

Illustrating themes of redemption and resilience, the story of a World War II survivor, Louis Zamperini, details his gripping struggle to live after an airplane crash in the Pacific Ocean.

• The Cheating Culture by David Callahan: Nonfiction

Callahan believes more Americans are doing wrong things to succeed and they will do anything to gain opportunities, and he wants to tell you why.

• IB English Literature HL Part 1: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: Historical Fiction

The poor Joad family of the Great Depression must leave their Oklahoma farm for jobs and a future in California.

Rising Seniors

• Reading and Writing Non-fiction and RWNF H:  Color of Water by James McBride: Autobiography

This tribute is from an African-American man to his white mother.

• Reading and Writing Non-fiction H: Night by Elie Weisel: Memoir

Elie Wiesel remembers his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps.

• Literary Traditions and Literary Traditions H: Grendel by John Gardner: Fiction

In a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the bad guy, we view the life of the monster Grendel.

• IB Literature HL Part Two: Hamlet, by William Shakespeare: Play

In one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies, Hamlet, a depressed Danish prince, seeks revenge on his uncle for his father’s death.

• Modern and Contemporary Literature and MCL H: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver: Fiction

Taylor Greer from Kentucky has to care for an Indian baby, Turtle, in Oklahoma near Cherokee territory.

• Modern and Contemporary Lit H students must also choose one of the following two:
• Color of Water (see above in Reading and Writing Nonfiction H)
• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann: Fiction

In 1978 over New York City, a tightrope walker dances on a rope suspended between the Twin Towers, and the lives of the people below are forever changed.

• AP Literature students must read all three below:
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison: Fiction

Macon Dead III, living in Michigan, journeys from birth to adulthood as an African-American male.

• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen: Play

In three acts, this early feminist work explores deeper gender issues than you would normally see.

• Atonement by Ian McEwan: Fiction

From 1935 to the present, Briony Tallis of England sees childhood and adulthood throughout and after World War II.

Enjoy your summer reading, Harriton!