Required Reading
Books that were required reading for me in various classes throughout the years.
1st Grade (1995-1996)
- The Search for Delicious (Natalie Babbitt; 1st grade gifted & talented group)
3rd Grade (1996-1997)
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)
- Misty of Chincoteague (Marguerite Henry; we lived nearby)
4th/5th Grade (1997-1999 - it was year-round, so I don't remember which year was which sometimes)
- The Hobbit (Tolkien; 4th grade advanced reading group)
- And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie; 4th grade advanced reading group)
- Stone Fox (John Reynolds Gardiner; 4th grade)
- Summer of the Swans (Betsy Byars; 4th grade)
- Zucchini (Barbara Dana; 4th grade)
- The BFG (Roald Dahl; 5th grade)
- Maniac Magee (Jerry Spinelli; 5th grade)
- Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes; 5th grade)
- The Call of the Wild (Jack London; 5th grade)
- The Hatchet (Gary Paulsen; 5th grade)
- My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George; 5th grade)
- Holes (Louis Sachar; 5th grade, it was a new release)
- Wringer (Jerry Spinelli; 5th grade, it was a new release)
- Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
- Charlotte's Web (EB White)
- Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 (Christopher Paul Curtis)
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred Taylor)
- The Giver (Lois Lowry)
- Shiloh (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor)
- The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
6th Grade (1999-2000)
- Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George; the advanced group read the whole trilogy)
- Number the Stars (Lois Lowry)
- North to Freedom (aka I Am David, Anne Holm)
- Walk Two Moons (Sharon Creech)
7th Grade (2000-2001)
- Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
- The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)
- The Outsiders (SE Hinton)
In 6th & 7th grade we also had a thick book of poems/short stories/book excerpts that had space for writing. I remember that in 7th grade it included "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" (Robert Frost) and "All Summer in a Day" (aka that one story that made everyone cry, Ray Bradbury)
8th Grade (2001-2002)
- Animal Farm (Orwell)
- The Lottery (Shirley Jackson)
- Diary of Anne Frank
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
- Go Ask Alice ("Anonymous")
- Ender's Game was read by the advanced class
- Romeo & Juliet was read by most of the school except my team
9th Grade (2002-2003 - it was called English 9 Honors / World Lit)
- The Iliad & The Odyssey (Homer)
- Mythology (Edith Hamilton)
- Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
- Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
- Hamlet & The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare)
- Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
- John Keats poems
10th Grade (2003-2004 - the class was American Lit & Comp Honors, I think the teachers took some liberties)
- The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- Great Expectations (Dickens)
- Macbeth (Shakespeare)
- Walden and a lot of random Emerson and Thoreau essays and excerpts
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
- Fences (play, August Wilson)
- Our Town (Thornton Wilder)
- lots of Harlem Renaissance poetry
- The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
- The Crucible (Arthur Miller)
- Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
11th Grade
Expository Writing
- The Stranger (Albert Camus)
- Siddhartha (Herman Hesse)
- The Trial (Franz Kafka)
- The Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand; not required, but we got an essay's worth of extra credit if we read it)
Science Fiction
- Frankenstien (Mary Shelley)
- Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
- Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
- The Time Machine (HG Wells)
- a number of Asimov and Dick short stories
- aaaand that's the point where I got viral bronchitis and stopped going to class
Mystery Fiction (most of the class was writing)
- Beowulf
- Edgar Allen Poe's short stories
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John le Carre)
1st Grade (1995-1996)
- The Search for Delicious (Natalie Babbitt; 1st grade gifted & talented group)
3rd Grade (1996-1997)
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)
- Misty of Chincoteague (Marguerite Henry; we lived nearby)
4th/5th Grade (1997-1999 - it was year-round, so I don't remember which year was which sometimes)
- The Hobbit (Tolkien; 4th grade advanced reading group)
- And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie; 4th grade advanced reading group)
- Stone Fox (John Reynolds Gardiner; 4th grade)
- Summer of the Swans (Betsy Byars; 4th grade)
- Zucchini (Barbara Dana; 4th grade)
- The BFG (Roald Dahl; 5th grade)
- Maniac Magee (Jerry Spinelli; 5th grade)
- Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes; 5th grade)
- The Call of the Wild (Jack London; 5th grade)
- The Hatchet (Gary Paulsen; 5th grade)
- My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George; 5th grade)
- Holes (Louis Sachar; 5th grade, it was a new release)
- Wringer (Jerry Spinelli; 5th grade, it was a new release)
- Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
- Charlotte's Web (EB White)
- Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 (Christopher Paul Curtis)
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred Taylor)
- The Giver (Lois Lowry)
- Shiloh (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor)
- The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
6th Grade (1999-2000)
- Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George; the advanced group read the whole trilogy)
- Number the Stars (Lois Lowry)
- North to Freedom (aka I Am David, Anne Holm)
- Walk Two Moons (Sharon Creech)
7th Grade (2000-2001)
- Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
- The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)
- The Outsiders (SE Hinton)
In 6th & 7th grade we also had a thick book of poems/short stories/book excerpts that had space for writing. I remember that in 7th grade it included "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" (Robert Frost) and "All Summer in a Day" (aka that one story that made everyone cry, Ray Bradbury)
8th Grade (2001-2002)
- Animal Farm (Orwell)
- The Lottery (Shirley Jackson)
- Diary of Anne Frank
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
- Go Ask Alice ("Anonymous")
- Ender's Game was read by the advanced class
- Romeo & Juliet was read by most of the school except my team
9th Grade (2002-2003 - it was called English 9 Honors / World Lit)
- The Iliad & The Odyssey (Homer)
- Mythology (Edith Hamilton)
- Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)
- To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
- Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
- Hamlet & The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare)
- Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
- John Keats poems
10th Grade (2003-2004 - the class was American Lit & Comp Honors, I think the teachers took some liberties)
- The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- Great Expectations (Dickens)
- Macbeth (Shakespeare)
- Walden and a lot of random Emerson and Thoreau essays and excerpts
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
- Fences (play, August Wilson)
- Our Town (Thornton Wilder)
- lots of Harlem Renaissance poetry
- The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
- The Crucible (Arthur Miller)
- Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
11th Grade
Expository Writing
- The Stranger (Albert Camus)
- Siddhartha (Herman Hesse)
- The Trial (Franz Kafka)
- The Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand; not required, but we got an essay's worth of extra credit if we read it)
Science Fiction
- Frankenstien (Mary Shelley)
- Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
- Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
- The Time Machine (HG Wells)
- a number of Asimov and Dick short stories
- aaaand that's the point where I got viral bronchitis and stopped going to class
Mystery Fiction (most of the class was writing)
- Beowulf
- Edgar Allen Poe's short stories
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John le Carre)