Summer Reading

June 2022

Jackson Hole Community School

Summer Reading 2022

 

JHCS students are required to read one book and to write one essay over the summer. Summer reading is assigned by grade level (see below). We encourage students to explore some of the suggested reads (recommendations and reviews made by our school’s DEI Club!) found on the back of this page, too. For the essay, each student needs to follow the directions outlined below. Any questions you have regarding summer reading and the required essay should be directed to Dave Baczko at [email protected]. Happy summer!

 

Required Summer Reading:

 

9th Grade: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10th Grade: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

11th Grade Novel: Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

12th Grade: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

 

 

Suggested Reading—These lists include works that the English and History Departments at JHCS recommend as worthwhile reads for our students at each grade level. 

Suggested Summer Reading —The JHCS DEI Club recommends the following books for summer reading. 

 

(Disclaimer: A few of the suggested texts feature language and detail that might be uncomfortable for some readers. Students should feel free to research the nature of the story before reading it). 

 

9th Grade: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 

 

In Thomas's debut novel, she expands from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite, predominantly white, private school. Angie Thomas examines how society uses stereotypes against black people in order to justify violence and racism against them. The story explores serious topics around racism, police brutality, and activism. 

 

10th Grade: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

 

Jason Reynolds explores the history of racism in our country. The novel takes readers on a journey from then to now, explaining why we feel how we feel, how our history has evolved into the systemic racism we know today, and how we can become actively anti-racist every single day. Reynolds inspires hope for an anti-racist future. 

 

11th Grade: Just Mercy: Adapted for Young Adults by Bryan Stevenson

 

Bryan Stevenson dives into the United States' broken justice system. Bryan reflects on his own experiences and efforts as a lawyer and advocate, with a focus on the most marginalized and rejected people in America. This is a story about justice and advocating for the wrongly convicted.  

12th Grade: Born A Crime by Trevor Noah 

Noah’s unexpected path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. The stories in this collection are amusing, tragic, and emotionally moving in equal measure. Trevor reveals his unusual world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty, whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, getting flung from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or simply attempting to survive the life-and-death hazards of dating in high school.