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What Is the Summer Reading Initiative?
Summer reading is part of a broad Redwood High School reading initiative. Redwood is committed to promoting reading for its humanistic values as well as an activity vital to the academic growth of students.
REQUIRED READING FOR ENGLISH CLASSES
Students should choose their book from the appropriate list below. When they come to school in the Fall students should bring their book to class as the first two graded assignments will relate to the books they have read. There is no summer work other than reading the book although we encourge you to jot down a few notes as you are reading to help with remembering key ideas and characters. And, of course, besides these required readings you are encouraged to read as much as you can over the summer.
--Redwood High School English Department |
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If you purchase your books from Book Passage, the Bessie Chin Library will get 5% of the purchase price.
Just let them know you're from Redwood.
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| Incoming 9th Graders
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows / J.K. Rowling (available July 21)
The 7th (and last!?) novel in the uber-popular series. |
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The Secret Life of Bees / Sue Monk Kidd
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared from Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August. |
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Five People You Meet in Heaven / Mitch Albom
A bitter eighty-three-year-old war veteran who believes his life is meaningless dies while trying to save a little girl's life and finds himself in heaven, where five people from his past--some loved ones, some strangers--explain what his years on Earth really meant, and whether or not he succeeded in saving the child. |
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The Book Thief / Markus Zusak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. |
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Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
(graphic biography)
With black-and-white comic strip images the author shares the story of her life in Tehran, Iran, where she lived from ages six to fourteen while the country came under control of the Islamic regime. |
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Incoming 10th graders
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier / Ishmael Beah (non-fiction)
This gripping story by a children's-rights advocate recounts his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars in recent history. |
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A Prayer for Owen Meany / John Irving
An eleven-year-old boy, Owen Meany, hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother during a Little League game in 1953. Owen believes he was God's instrument during the incident. |
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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan / Lisa See
Friends Snow Flower and Lily find solace in their bond as they face isolation, arranged marriages, loss, and motherhood in nineteenth-century China. |
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The Monkey Wrench Gang / Edward Abbey
A group of ecologically minded saboteurs wage war on western land developers. |
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Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea / Gary Kinder (non-fiction)
Recounts the story of the SS Central America, a ship which was lost off the coast of Carolina in 1857. It was carrying gold from the California gold fields and the shipwreck is considered the worst peace-time wreck in U.S. history. |
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| Incoming 11th and 12th Graders Choose one of the books from the following list:
 Toni Morrison |
The Bluest Eye
Jazz
Sula |
 Margaret Atwood |
The Robber Bride
The Blind Assassin
Oryx and Crake |
 E. Annie Proulx |
The Shipping News
Accordian Crimes
The Old Ace in the Hole |
 Tom Robbins |
Jitterbug Perfume
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Still Life with Woodpecker |
 John Irving |
The Cider House Rules
The Hotel New Hampshire
A Widow for One Year |
 Kurt Vonnegut (R.I.P.) |
Cat's Cradle
Breakfast of Champions
Jailbird |
AP English Literature & AP Language and Composition
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Mara and Dann: An Adventure / Doris Lessing
In a distant future plagued by drought, a seven-year-old girl, accompanied by her brother, encounters a variety of strange peoples in her insatiable thirst for self-knowledge. |
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Oryx and Crake: A Novel / Margaret Atwood
A novel of the future explores a world that has been devastated by ecological and scientific disasters. |
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The Children of Men / P.D. James
In 2021, with the human race becoming extinct because of the infertility of all males, Oxford historian Theodore Faron is drawn into the schemes of an unlikely group of revolutionaries out to save society. |
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The Road / Cormac McCarthy
In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity. |
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