2021-2022 Summer Reading List

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The Summer Reading Program at Mary G. Montgomery High School is designed to engage students while giving them opportunities to expand their reading skills. Each grade level has a set of novel choices for regular, honors, and Advanced Placement students. Guides for what will be covered on the grade-level Summer Reading Test can be found below. Students will take a mandatory Summer Reading Test within the first two weeks of the semester he or she takes an English class. 

MGM Summer Reading List 2021-2022

9th Grade Selections

Regular and Honors

Hoops

Hoops by Walter Dean Myers    OR    The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney

Directions: Choose ONE novel. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

10th Grade Selections

Regular

Night

Night by Elie Weisel        OR         Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Directions: Choose ONE nonfiction book. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

Honors

Matched

Matched by Ally Conde         AND         ONE from the REGULAR list

Directions: Choose TWO novels. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

11th Grade Selections

Regular

Crazy Horse Electric

Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voight     

OR 

The Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher

Directions: Choose ONE novel. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

Honors and Dual Enrollment

Of Mice and Men

 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck        AND              ONE from the REGULAR list

Directions: Choose TWO novels. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

AP Language and Composition

Lion Called Christian

Fiction AP List (CHOOSE ONE)

  • The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Nonfiction AP List (CHOOSE ONE)

  • A Lion Called Christian by Anthony Burke and John Rendall
  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
  • They Cage the Animals at Night by James Michael Burch
Directions: Choose ONE novel from the fiction list and ONE book from the nonfiction list. Read and take notes based on the note-taking guide for your course level. You can find the guide below. The test will cover aspects addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

12th Grade Selections

Lord of the Flies

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen        OR     Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Directions: Choose ONE novel. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

Regular

Dual Enrollment

Black Boy

Black Boy by Richard Wright 

AND

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster (nonfiction)

Directions: Read the novel and the nonfiction text. There is a guide below that contains things to pay attention to as you read. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester. You will use portions of How to Read Literature Like a Professor based on the teacher’s choice. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

Honors and AP Literature and Composition

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster (nonfiction)

AND 

ONE from the REGULAR list

Directions: Choose ONE novel to read with the nonfiction selection.

 

FOR AP STUDENTS: Read and take notes based on the note-taking guide. You can find the guide below. The Summer Reading Test will cover most or all of the information addressed in the guide. You will use portions of How to Read Literature Like a Professor based on the teacher’s choice. Your test will be given within the first two weeks of the semester.

Summer Reading Disclaimer

Please be aware that these novels and books are choices. If there is a problem with a novel or book on the list, please follow the Mobile County Public School System’s appeal process. See the English department chair for further details. Before your son or daughter chooses a novel, be sure to research them to learn more about the novel’s content.

Students will be expected to have all notes on their selected books once they begin their grade level English course. Teachers will provide specific guidelines on how those notes will factor into their Summer Reading assessment and into their grade for the course. If a student takes an English course the second semester of the school year, they still must be prepared with notes and to take an assessment within the first two weeks of the course. Lastly, all summer reading assessments will be counted as a quiz grade. If you find that your son or daughter’s assessment is counted as a test grade, be sure to contact the grade level teacher.

Standards Addressed

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-12.2

Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-12.10


By the end of grade 9-12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades’ text complexity band independently and proficiently.