Required reading for high school students

[Pixiedust34]

I'm curious as to which books are required reading for high school students in English Literature classes.

If you have a student in high school, can you please share which books are required reading in your child's current or past grades? Thank you! It will be interesting to see how much the lists vary with requirements from different schools in different areas of the country.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

Last year, as a senior in high school, we read A Tale of Two Cities, Song of Solomon, Wuthering Heights, Mrs. Dalloway, and The Hours. We also were required to read four books off a list of books used on AP Literature tests, and the ones I read were Little Women, The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, and Emma.

I remember Freshman year reading Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, as well as the Tempest among other things that I can't recall.

Sophomore year we read The Great Gatsby, Frederick Douglass's autobiography (I can't remember the title ) and To Kill a Mocking Bird.

Junior year we studied non-fiction, and the two I really remember were In Cold Blood and Bringing Down the House (the book the movie 21 is based on). Bringing Down the House is my favorite book I've been assigned to read for any class ever

 

[golfgal]

Off the top of my head our sophomores have read Huck Finn, Great Gatsby, Our Town, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scarlett Letter, Catcher in the Rye, Night. I think that is it so far. I think they had 10 books on their list for this school year. They had a choice of 10 or so books over the summer too-I can't remember them but they read Lessons before Dying.

 

[marcyinPA]

My son is in regular academic English, not honors or AP. In 9th grade, they read Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, and another one I can't remember.

This year, he read Othello, and then they had book circle choices (sorry I can't remember what he chose...the book was about a boy who was dying but did not tell anyone...)

I'm not really impressed with the English Lit. curriculum in our district for academic English. I don't feel it is challenging enough for my son, but honors would probably be too challenging.

This is a complaint of parents in this district over and over again, and yet, nothing is ever done about it.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I think the ds had to read To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, The Shack and Night.

 

[katesorad]

All I remember having to read in high school was To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

 

[eduk8r26]

So far my niece, a freshman in college prep, has read To Kill A Mockingbird. Her brother had read The Pearl and Romeo and Juliet. I'm sure he read others but they are the only 2 that come to mind.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Grade 9 -The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, A Christmas Carol, Julius Caesar,

Grade 10 - Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade A Duty-Dance With Death, Persepolis, Sport, Odyssey, Othello, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

Grade 11 - Tempest Modern Text With Introduction, All My Sons A Drama in 3 Acts, The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Last of the Mohicans, Sam Shepard Seven Plays, White Noise, Death of a Salesman Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem

Grade 12 - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Walden, Cat's Cradle, Hamlet, Ordinary People, The Mosquito Coast

It's probably important to note DS goes to a school that is not required to follow the state regulations so some of the books will seem odd. This list is in school only. They get 3-5 summer books also.

 

[Momvic5]

My ds is a freshman. So far he has had to read Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Great Expectations.

They also studied The Odyssey/The Illiad, and we be starting Romeo and Juliet soon.

 

[cristit14]

My DD is a freshman. I don't know all of them she has read, but I do know Romeo and Juliet and Lord of the Flies and they are reading something by Stephen King right now, not a horror novel, but something about writing.

 

[SydSim]

Freshmen have three levels here. DD-14 is in the mid level and only had to read To Kill a Mockingbird (so far). We are a little dissatisfied with the reading requirement as well. Honors.... They definitely challenge them. Dd may be advancing next year. I hope I'm not sorry for what we asked for

 

[Cindy B]

Lets see:

Freshman year: Animal Farm, Romeo and Juliet, Balzac and the Chinese Slippers and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Sophmore year: I don't recall much of what my son has read this year, but they have done Othello, one free choice and something else.

 

[mousebymarriage]

DD14 is in 9th grade and in English Honors. The books that she has had to read so far (that I can remember).

Kite Runner
Romeo and Juliet
The Odyssey
and a few other I just can't remember

*she read To Kill A Mockingbird last year in 8th grade (English Honors)

 

[Zandy595]

DS is a freshman. He didn't have English last semester. So far he has only read Fahrenheit 451 for Honors English.

 

[java]

Son is a junior
Last year was The Illiad- that took a while. I think I remeber The Old Man and the Sea last year too.

Also ones that have been read
Of Mice and Men
The Great Gatsby
Death of a Salesman
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye
Genesis(yes of the Bible and it's public school......)

 

[marcyinPA]

DD14 is in 9th grade and in English Honors. The books that she has had to read so far (that I can remember).

Kite Runner
Romeo and Juliet
The Odyssey
and a few other I just can't remember

*she read To Kill A Mockingbird last year in 8th grade (English Honors)

They read Kite Runner in 10th grade honors English here. My friend's daughter was so deeply disturbed by the theme that she could not finish it. They went to the administration about it, and have since made it an optional read (meaning, they have made another choice available). It was a summer required read.

ETA: your post reminded me that my son read The Odyssey in 9th grade too (not honors).

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

Pretty much what everyone else posted but recently they added
Song of Solomon.

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

I just got these off of my old High school's website. Things have changed a lot since I was there (and we haven't even had our first school reunion yet!).

9th grade- CP- To Kill a Mocking Bird, plus various misc stories/poems from lit book

9th grade-Adv- To kill a Mocking Bird, Great Expectations, plus misc stories/poems from lit book

10th grade CP- Lord of the flies, plus lit book

10th Adv- Lord of the flies, Hiroshima plus various misc stories/poems from lit book

11th CP- Great Gatsby, into the wild, street car named desire, Huckleberry Finn plus various misc stories/poems from lit book

11 AP- Death of a salesman, Slaughterhouse 5 plus various misc stories/poems from lit book

12th cp- Wuthering Heights, Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein plus various misc stories/poems from lit book

12Ap- catch 22, Their Eyes were watching God plus various misc stories/poems from lit book

Required Summer Reading
9th- The Pearl

10thCP- Of Mice and Men

10th Adv- The catcher and the Rye

11th the alchemist

11th AP- The Scarlet Letter
A Separate Peace
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Grapes of Wrath

12th Cp- Ramage and the Drumbeat

12th Ap- A Prayer for Owen Meany
Silas Marner
Cyrano de Bergerac
Versification: a Short Introduction

 

[ndelaware]

My daughter's are in 9th grade colleg prep and this years reading is;

Anthem
Animal Farm
Of Mice and Men
A Christmas Carol
To Kill A Mockingbird
Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies


They have also read at least 30 other books this year for pleasure.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

9th grade summer reading: Animal Farm, The Jump-Off Creek, A Wizard of Earthsea, and Things Fall Apart plus a German text

9th grade school reading: The Odyssey, biblical literature, Romeo and Juliet, poetry & short story sections

10th grade summer reading: Night, Fahrenheit 451, The Catcher in the Rye, Red Sky at Morning plus a German text

10th grade school reading: Macbeth, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chosen, short story and poetry sections; Tale of Two Cities, All Quiet on the Western Front (both for history)

11th grade summer reading: Chesapeake (for history), The Old Man and the Sea, Their Eyes Were Watching God, East of Eden and a German text

11th grade school reading: The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, Thoreau, A Raisin in the Sun, As I Lay Dying, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, short story and poetry sections

12th grade summer reading: The Good Earth, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and The Chinese Bell Murders (all for history) and a German text

12 grade school reading: Hamlet, All the King's Men, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, short story and poetry sections

I went to a private prep school 7th-12th grade. We would spend anywhere from 2-4 months on each text.