Find information about Whitman Hanson Regional School District and South Shore Vocational Technical High School’s required summer reading assignments below. For the most up-to-date information and assignments for WHRSD students, visit the WHRSD website, select your school, and look under the ‘For Parents and Students’ tab for ‘Resources.’
WHRHS Summer Reading List
Freshmen Honors
Sophomore Honors
Junior Honors
AP Language
Senior Honors
AP Literature
Hanson Middle School
Indian Head Elementary School
SSVT Incoming Grade 9
SSVT Incoming Grade 10
SSVT English 11 Honors
SSVT English 12 Honors
WHRHS Summer Reading List
All WHRHS student should select one book to read from the 2023 Summer Reading List list and be prepared to complete a reflective writing assignment in the fall. See all information about summer work here.
- Chlorine Sky, Mahogany Browne || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- The Sun is Also A Star, Nicola Yoon || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- Sunshine, Jarrett J. Krosoczka || eBook (OverDrive)
- What to Say Next, Julie Buxbaum || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- The Librarian of Auschwitz, Antonio Iturbe || Graphic Novel || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)|| Audiobook (Hoopla)
- With the Fire on High, Elizabeth Acevedo || Audiobook (OverDrive) || eBook (Hoopla) || Audiobook
(Hoopla) - American Street, Ibi Zoboi || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || eBook (Hoopla) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- The Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudioBook (Overdrive)
- Spear, Nicola Griffith || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- Salaam, with Love, Sara Sharaf Beg || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- Highly Illogical Behavior, John Corey Whaley || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- Red, White, and Whole, Rajani LaRocca || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudioBook (Overdrive) eBook (Hoopla) || eAudiobook (Hoopla)
- The Inheritance Games, Jennifer Lynn Barnes || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudioBook (Overdrive)
- Just As You Are, Michelle Skeen and Kelly Skeen || eBook
(OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || eBook (Hoopla) || Audiobook (Hoopla) - When We Were Lost, Kevin Wignall || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudioBook (Overdrive)
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Erika Sanchez || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudioBook (Overdrive)
- Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh || eBook (OverDrive)
- House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
updated 6/1/23
Freshmen Honors
All AP and Honors students must choose one book from the Summer Reading List as well as the following books/short stories and/or posted assignments. See all information about summer work here.
- Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive
- Animal Farm, George Orwell || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || eBook (Hoopla)
updated 6/1/23
Sophomore Honors
All AP and Honors students must choose one book from the Summer Reading List as well as the following books/short stories and/or posted assignments. See all information about summer work here.
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- Between Shades of Gray, Ruth Sepetys || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
updated 6/1/23
Junior Honors
All AP and Honors students must choose one book from the Summer Reading List as well as the following books/short stories and/or posted assignments. See all information about summer work here.
- one classic novel from the list below
Classic Novels: Suggested Titles
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
- All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
- The Awakening, Kate Chopin
- The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
- The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- The Cider House Rules, John Irving
- A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
- The Color Purple, Alice Walker
- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler
- Dracula, Bram Stoker
- Fences (play), August Wilson
- The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood
- Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
- Catch-22, Joseph Heller
- The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
- The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
- Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
- Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
- Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
- The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
- Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
- On the Road, Jack Kerouac
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Stranger, Albert Camus
- Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
- Watchmen, Alan Moore
updated 6/1/23
AP Language
All AP and Honors students must choose one book from the Summer Reading List as well as the following books/short stories and/or posted assignments. See all information about summer work here.
- one classic novel from the list below
Classic Novels: Suggested Titles
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
- All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
- The Awakening, Kate Chopin
- The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
- The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- The Cider House Rules, John Irving
- A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
- The Color Purple, Alice Walker
- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Anne Tyler
- Dracula, Bram Stoker
- Fences (play), August Wilson
- The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Handmaid’s Tale. Margaret Atwood
- Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
- Catch-22, Joseph Heller
- The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
- The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
- Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
- Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
- Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
- The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
- Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
- On the Road, Jack Kerouac
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
- Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Stranger, Albert Camus
- Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
- Watchmen, Alan Moore
updated 6/1/23
Senior Honors
All AP and Honors students must choose one book from the Summer Reading List as well as the following books/short stories and/or posted assignments. See all information about summer work here.
- 1 memoir/biography from the list below
- 1 additional selection from either list
Memoirs and Biographies
- A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive) || eAudiobook (Hoopla)
- A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Becoming, Michelle Obama || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan || Audiobook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- Educated, Tara Westover || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- Every Falling Star, Sungju Lee || eBook (OverDrive) || eBook (hoopla) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Into Thin Air, John Krakauer || eBook (Overdrive)
- Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Thanks to My Mother, Schoschana Rabinovici || eBook (Overdrive)
- The Color of Water, James McBride || eBook (Overdrive) || Audiobook (Overdrive)
- Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances, Kwame Alexander || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
updated 6/1/23
AP Literature
All AP and Honors students must choose one book from the Summer Reading List as well as the following books/short stories and/or posted assignments. See all information about summer work here.
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
updated 6/1/23
Hanson Middle School
Indian Head Elementary School
SSVT Incoming Grade 9
Choose one book from the list below to read and complete the written assignment. See all information about summer work here.
- Calvin, Martine Leavitt || eBook (OverDrive)
- The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi, Neal Bascomb || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- We Were Liars, E. Lockhart || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- Foolish Hearts, Emma Mills || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- Elevation, Stephen King || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, Annabel Pitcher || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive)
- Wires and Nerve, Marissa Meyer || eBook (OverDrive)
updated 6/1/23
SSVT Incoming Grade 10
Choose one book from the list below to read and complete the written assignment. See all information about summer work here.
- Ashfall, Mike Mullin || eBook (OverDrive)
- The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century, Sarah Miller || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudiobook (OverDrive)
- Eliza and Her Monsters, Francesca Sappia || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudiobook (OverDrive) || eBook (hoopla) || eAudiobook (hoopla)
- I Will Always Write Back, Caitlin Alifirenka
- The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune || eBook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (OverDrive) || Audiobook (Hoopla)
- Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudiobook (OverDrive) || eBook (hoopla)
- Soundless, Richelle Mead || eBook (OverDrive)
- A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass || eBook (OverDrive) || eAudiobook (hoopla)
updated 6/1/23
SSVT English 11 Honors
For English 11 honors, students must select a work of fiction or memoir written by an American author after 2021. Find recommendations and more information about the assignment here.
updated 6/6/23
SSVT English 12 Honors
For English 12 honors, students must select fiction or memoir written by an international (non-American) author after 2021. Find recommendations and more information about the assignment here.
updated 6/6/23