Summer Reading List

Heritage Christian School’s summer reading program is designed to enrich and broaden the reading of students and to reinforce the college preparatory curriculum of the English Department. During the summer break, students will have the opportunity to choose one book they would like to read from the list of options for their grade level in the fall. After reading the book of their choice, students will type up ten one-to-two sentence insights (including the page number of the insight) they enjoyed about the book which may relate to the themes, characters, plot, setting, etc. An insight includes a specific observation and then the reason it is significant to you. If the students would like to earn extra credit, then they may choose only one additional book and complete the same assignment that they did for the required book. These assignments will be due on the first day of school.

6th Grade

  • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien
  • *Gifted Hands by Ben Carson

7th Grade

  • The Pearl by John Steinbeck
  • *Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

8th Grade

  • *The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  • *The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

9th Grade

  • *This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti
  • *The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

10th Grade

  • A Separate Peace by John Knowles
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • *Gospel by J.D. Grear
  • *Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot

11th Grade

  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
  • *Confessions by Augustine
  • *Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

12th Grade

  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • *Profound Good: See God through the Lens of Love by Blake Healy
  • Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  • *Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life by Louis Zamperini
  • *Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

AP ENGLISH 11 (Language and Composition)

  • The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  • *Confessions by Augustine
  • The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

AP ENGLISH 12 (Literature and Composition)

  • *Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • *Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
  • The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • *Profound Good: See God through the Lens of Love by Blake Healy
  • Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  • *Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life by Louis Zamperini

*These books contain overt Christian themes.