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=Welcome to the LHS Summer Assignments-2014=

** English Department – Littleton High School ** ** Summer Reading List 2014 ** ** Grade 9th to Grade 12th **

Students in grades 9-12 are expected to read at least one assigned book over the summer. This requirement allows the English teachers to properly assess the students’ reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities as soon as the school year starts and because each of the students completes a common assignment, the English teachers can start their lessons on day one. At the High School, the English teachers revisit the summer reading books over the course of the year.

**Harper Lee, __To Kill A Mockingbird__**
Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, //To Kill a Mockingbird// follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

**English I C.P.**
Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, offers a powerful but tragic tale in "Of Mice and Men". '
 * John Steinbeck, __Of Mice and Men__**

**English II Honors**
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**Mark Twain, //The Adventures of Huck Finn//**
We are treated to a sensual feast of the sights, smells, and rhythms of the Mississippi River and the humanistic education of Huck Finn This is a seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, //Adventures of Huckleberry Finn// is essential to the understanding of the American soul.

**English II C.P.**
Set on an island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a berry farmer, the story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s, lingering memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American fisherman, a lifelong resident of the islands.
 * David Guterson, __Snow Falling on Cedars__**

This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning.
 * Tobias Wolff, __This Boy's Life __**

**English III Honors and C.P.**
A teenager shoots two bullies in defense of his sister. His sister and father pursue him as he runs from the law.
 * Leif Enger, //Peace Like A River// **

In South Carolina in 1964, Lily Owens’ life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna.
 * Sue Monk Kidd, //The Secret Life of Bees// **

What do you get when a woman who's obsessed with death and U.S. history goes on vacation? This wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three presidential assassinations.
 * Sarah Vowell, __Assassination Vacation__**

**__SENIORS__**
The subject of Vermeer’s painting her own story to tell.
 * English IV Honors and C.P.**
 * Tracy Chevalier, __Girl with the Pearl Earring__ **

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music - its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain.
 * Daniel Levitin, __This is Your Brain on Music__ **

**AP Students**

 * William Shakespeare, __The Merchant of Venice__**