HONORS English 9
Summer Reading List

Welcome to our English Department’s Summer Reading Lists for Grade 9! As a means by which to improve reading comprehension, the English department requires all Grade 9 students to read at least ONE book listed under the name of the class they have chosen for the 2008-09 school year. At the start of the school year, all students will be tested by their English teacher on their selection. Books listed may be borrowed from the state library system or purchased on-line or from local bookstores.

Please note that starred (*) books indicate a parental advisory due to occasional profanity, explicit language, and/or drug-use or sexual references.

Reading Lists may also be viewed on-line at the English Department website: http://kapalama.ksbe.edu/high/english/index.htm

The Good Earth, Pearl Buck. [Amazon]
Set in the early 20th century, this Nobel Prize-winning novel chronicles the highs and lows in the life of the simple Chinese family whose ties to the land are profoundly strong and profoundly touching.

My Antonia, Willa Cather [Amazon].
Struggle and adaptation are key ideas in this realistic novel about immigrant pioneers as they strive to adjust to the harsh realities of prairie life in Nebraska.

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison. [Amazon]
No, this is not the science fiction type of invisible man. This novel focuses on an unnamed black man’s search for identity as an individual and as a member of his race and society.

Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton. [Amazon]
A black minister in South Africa goes in search of his children and finds them corrupted and destroyed by generational and racial conflicts.

Rabbit Run, John Updike [Amazon].
This is the first of the Rabbit Angstrom novels in which an immature young man still longing for the glory of his lost youth runs away from his responsibilities.