Summer Reading

Downingtown Area School District Summer Reading 2026-2027 AP English Literature and Composition

We strongly recommend you purchase the books to be read, if at all possible, so you can highlight passages and make marginal notes. 

Part I: Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines (Revised Edition) by Thomas C. Foster.  This practical and oftentimes amusing guide to literature is the perfect companion for making your reading experiences more enriching, satisfying, and fun.  The author is a Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where he teaches classes in contemporary fiction, drama and poetry as well as creative writing and composition. 

Part II:  Read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  This novel resonates with philosophical and moral ramifications: themes of nurture versus nature, good versus evil, and ambition versus social responsibility dominate readers' attention and provoke thoughtful consideration of the most sensitive issues of our time and is often listed as a choice for the free response essay on the AP English Literature and Composition exam. To prepare for the assignment that follows, make notes* in the margins (or on Post-it notes) of Frankenstein and/or take notes of your observations during and immediately after you read.  Your observations of the work need not be complete sentences and should include those literary features identified in Foster’s book.  Some topics for consideration include:

• The role of weather, food, water, sex, and sight
• The role of violence, illness, blindness, and death
• The role of flight, the supernatural, and mythology
• The role of allusions, symbols, and irony.

Assignment: Now that you have read How to Read Literature Like a Professor, you should put his ideas into practice.  After reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, you will be required to submit a two-to-three page analytical reflection based on conclusions drawn from your observations.  In other words, what patterns of meaning do you recognize and how do they relate to the novel?  This is an analytical reflection NOT a five-paragraph essay; it should have a cohesive and cogent focus (like every paper you write).  Be sure to frequently integrate quoted words/phrases (as opposed to dropping in entire lines of text) and refer to specific examples; details always authenticate your ideas.

*Your instructor may collect these notes when you return to school in August.

AP english Lit and comp
summer reading assignment

Downingtown Area School District Summer Reading 2026-2027 AP Language and Composition

We strongly recommend you purchase your summer reading book, if at all possible, so you can highlight passages and make marginal notes. 
Read a full length non-fiction work of your choice. You will use this text to complete the first Outside Read assignment during the first marking period.
You are welcome to choose any non-fiction text, but here are some recommended titles:

Titles Previously Used in AP Lang

• Freakonomics – Steven Dubner and Steven Levitt 
• The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell (also, Outliers Blink, David and Goliath, and Talking to Strangers)
• Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth – Alexandra Robbins
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebekka Skloot
   

Celebrity Memoirs

• Becoming or The Light We Carry – Michelle Obama
• Spare – Prince  Harry
• Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry
• Born A Crime – Trevor Noah
• I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jeanette McCurdy
• Bossypants – Tina Fey
   

Other Memoirs

• Educated – Tara Westover 
• Know My Name – Chanel Miller (trigger warning:  sexual assault)
• High Achiever – Tiffany Jenkins (trigger warning:  addiction) 
• Somebody’s Daughter – Ashley Ford (trigger warning:  sexual assault) 
   

Social Issues

• Dopesick – Beth Macy (focuses on the opioid epidemic)
• What Made Maddie Run – Kate Fagan (trigger warning:  suicide)
• Caste – Isabel Wilkerson
• iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, and Less Happy - and Completely Prepared for Adulthood - and What It Means for the Rest of Use Jean Twinge
• The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intention and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure - Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haid
   

Self Help

• Atomic Habits – James Clear
• The Gifts of Imperfection – Brene Brown
• Untamed - Glennon Doyle

Summer Reading AP Language
and Composition Assignment

9th Grade summer
reading book list

Genres

• Realistic Fiction - imaginary characters and situations that depict the real world.
• Historical Fiction - fictionalized stories that are set in the documented past.
• Fantasy -  imaginary tales of make believe lands, creatures and people.
• Science Fiction - futuristic settings that are often based upon existing or fictionalized scientific principles.
• Mystery/Thriller - thrilling stories with mysterious or frightening events.
• Graphic Novels - fiction and non-fiction containing visual and written depictions.
• Poetry/Short Story Collections - collections of poems or short stories.
• Classics - works of fiction and non-fiction that are considered the cannon of literature and/or have been historically taught in the English classroom.

10th Grade Summer
Reading Book List

Genres

• Realistic Fiction - imaginary characters and situations that depict the real world.
• Historical Fiction - fictionalized stories that are set in the documented past.
• Fantasy -  imaginary tales of make believe lands, creatures and people.
• Science Fiction - futuristic settings that are often based upon existing or fictionalized scientific principles.
• Mystery/Thriller - thrilling stories with mysterious or frightening events.
• Graphic Novels - fiction and non-fiction containing visual and written depictions.
• Poetry/Short Story Collections - collections of poems or short stories.
• Classics - works of fiction and non-fiction that are considered the cannon of literature and/or have been historically taught in the English classroom.

11th Grade Summer 
reading book List

Genres

• Realistic Fiction - imaginary characters and situations that depict the real world.
• Historical Fiction - fictionalized stories that are set in the documented past.
• Fantasy -  imaginary tales of make believe lands, creatures and people.
• Science Fiction - futuristic settings that are often based upon existing or fictionalized scientific principles.
• Mystery/Thriller - thrilling stories with mysterious or frightening events.
• Graphic Novels - fiction and non-fiction containing visual and written depictions.
• Poetry/Short Story Collections - collections of poems or short stories.
• Classics - works of fiction and non-fiction that are considered the cannon of literature and/or have been historically taught in the English classroom.

12th Grade summer
Reading book list 

Genres

• Realistic Fiction - imaginary characters and situations that depict the real world.
• Historical Fiction - fictionalized stories that are set in the documented past.
• Fantasy -  imaginary tales of make believe lands, creatures and people.
• Science Fiction - futuristic settings that are often based upon existing or fictionalized scientific principles.
• Mystery/Thriller - thrilling stories with mysterious or frightening events.
• Graphic Novels - fiction and non-fiction containing visual and written depictions.
• Poetry/Short Story Collections - collections of poems or short stories.
• Classics - works of fiction and non-fiction that are considered the cannon of literature and/or have been historically taught in the English classroom.

Downingtown STEM Academy 9th Grade Literature: World Literature 2026-2027

Below you will find the Pre-Diploma World Literature works that will be taught for the 2026-2027 school year. This is an introduction to works that you will need to reread and revisit throughout the year. It is recommended that students make appropriate attempts to stay ahead of their reading requirements as the curriculum moves quickly. Academic notes should be taken while reading to support in-class participation.

Summer Reading Activities 

Downingtown STEM Academy 10th Grade: American Literature 2026-2027 Summer Reading

10th Grade Pre-Diploma American Literature List

Texts to start with:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Book List for the Year in the order in which they are studied:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• A collection of poetry by American authors (teacher-provided during the school year)
• Our Town by Thornton Wilder

An additional work of nonfiction will be determined by the teaching team by the start of the 2026-27 school year. This work is a replacement for a text that is now being studied at the middle school level.

Downingtown STEM Academy 11th Grade Literature 2026-2027 Summer Reading and Works List

11th Grade HL

• Suggested texts to start with:
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  • Perfume by Patrick Süskind
     
• Complete Book List for the Year:
  • 1984 by George Orwell
  •  Perfume by Patrick Süskind
  •  Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse OR Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  • Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman
  • Poetry by Emily Dickinson
  • Native Son by Richard Wright

11th Grade SL

• Required summer reading:
  •  Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
  • In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The complete book list will be specific to your assigned teacher. However, the following books will be studied by all SL Literature juniors. Feel free to read as many as you want to get ahead.

• Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - end of the year

*You will have another two books to study in addition to the above list. In order to meet the number of unique assessment topics required by the IB, these two books will vary depending on your class period. You will have Schoology access to your complete reading list prior to the start of the school year, once SL Literature sections have been assigned.

11th grade STEm
summer reading

Downingtown STEM Academy 12th Grade Literature 2026-2027 Summer Reading and Works List

We highly recommend that students purchase the books and read as many as possible in order to review them during the school year. For each work, you must read the text and be able to present extensive notes and book annotations. The expectation is that summer work is an introduction to the texts. You will need to reread and revisit the books throughout the year when studies as works of literature. Though you are not required to have any product of research to turn in for evaluation, you should do some research to acquire political, cultural, historical information as well as the author's background.

Have a safe and happy summer.

12th Grade HL

• Short Stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from the collection The Thing Around Your Neck
• Native Son by Richard Wright

• The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal (a review)
• Short Stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from the collection The Thing Around Your Neck (“Cell One,” “A Private Experience,” “The Thing Around Your Neck,” “The American Embassy,” and “The Headstrong Historian”)
• Native Son by Richard Wright
•  Poetry of Emily Dickinson
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson OR Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

12th Grade SL

• A Mercy by Toni Morrison

The book list for the year, as they are studied:

• A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller
• The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra OR All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer OR Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
• Poetry of Emily Dickinson

12th Grade stem
summer reading