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Summer Reading Lists 2011


Dear Students & Parents,

Summer is the perfect time to catch up on some reading.  Not only is reading during the summer months an important way to keep up all the hard-earned skills we've practiced during the school year, it is also a great way to relax, unwind, and have fun.  

This year we are very excited about the New York public library systems' summer reading program:  http://summerreading.org/ -- This is a safe, fun social networking site where students can create avatars, share what they're reading/watching/listening to, and earn badges.  Upper school students might be interested in the New York Times 2nd Annual Summer Reading Contest for Students where they can write editorial reviews and submit their work to be posted in the NYTimes blog.

To help get you started we have listed below the BFS English Department's required reading for middle and upper school students as well as the BFS Library Department's suggested summer reading for students in all divisions.  If you're looking for even more great ideas about what to read this summer take a look at the Top Ten Summer Reading Lists for Kids & Teens: 2011.
 
We hope you stay safe and enjoy your summer.  Happy Reading!
 
In Friendship,  The BFS Library Department 

p.s. Don't forget to practice your math skills this summer, too.  Make sure you take a look at what the Math Department recommends for summer Math reading & activities.
 
Suggested Summer Reading for Students Entering Preschool & Lower School
Required Summer Reading for Students Entering Middle School
 
Incoming 5th Grade: 
  • Crash by Jerry Spinelli
Incoming 6th Grade:
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
Incoming 7th Grade:
  • The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Incoming 8th Grade: 
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Suggested Summer Reading for Students Entering Middle School
 
Required Summer Reading for Students Entering Upper School
*Please note that there are three required texts for each grade level.
 
Incoming 9th Grade:
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  • The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 
Incoming 10th Grade:
  • The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemmingway
  • Burro Genius by Victor Villaseñor 
Incoming 11th Grade:
  • Black Boy by Richard Wright
  • The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov (Penguin edition with translations by Ronald Wilks and Paul Debreczney)
  • In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 
Incoming 12th Grade:
  • Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Random House 25th Anniversary Edition 2006)
  • Essays of E.B. White (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1999)
  • Babel Tower by A.S. Byatt OR Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The BFS English Department Recommends the following reading for Incoming Seniors:
 
An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Plague by Albert Camus
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote 
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter 
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Volokhonsky translation)
The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Volokhonsky translation)
Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Volokhonsky translation)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante 
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt 
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley 
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy 
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera 
Voices from the Other World: Ancient Egyptian Tales by Naguib Mahfouz 
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan 
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami 
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 
On Beauty by Zadie Smith 
Perfume by Patrick Suskind (Translation by John Woods) 
A Confederacy of Dunces by John kennedy Toole 
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 






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