Our Picks for Summer Reading

Even Treasure Island, with its pirates and buccaneering, can be related to the dilemma of Christians in today’s world, serve as a lesson for actions having consequences and show how those who are morally ambiguous ultimately lack ethical clarity.

 

As summer comes nearer, you and your young ones are probably already looking through the list we’ve provided of required and supplemental readings. While at least two books are required each summer and provided as part of your tuition and fees (and are available for pickup from the front office upon enrollment / re-enrollment), we believe that additional reading will only strengthen the minds of our students. To that end, we’ve provided additional recommendations that we think will greatly benefit the development of your child’s vocabulary, critical thinking, and biblical worldview.  

 

For parents and children who are interested in additional reading, we’ve provided brief descriptions of a few of our favorites below the required reading list. These books are available for purchase at your local bookstore or through online retailers, so surprise your favorite bookworm with a few great adventures to dive into during the summer!

Each student will be required to read at least two books each summer while attending Westminster. All students read the same books in each grade, so in-depth classroom discussions can take place throughout the fall.

 

Grades 1-3: A written assignment is required for each book

Grades 4-12: An annotation is required for each book (a tutorial for how to annotate your books is available)

Swimmy by Leo Lionni
Little Bear by Maurice Sendak

Days With Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan
The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Davis Wyss

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Night by Elie Wiesel
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Mythology by Edith Hamilton
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

The designated summer reading books for students entering tenth grade honors are:

 

Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Iliad by Homer (trans. Fitzgerald)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The designated summer reading books for students entering eleventh grade honors class are:

 

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Phillbrick
Billy Budd by Herman Melville

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the Pearl Poet (Tolkien translation only)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

 

The designated summer reading books for students entering twelfth grade AP English are:

 

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones is one of the recommended books for third grade. Many children's Bible story books emphasize major stories of the Bible and the lessons within them, but this one points out the connection between all of the stories of the Bible and offers a unique angle at taking a look at the "big picture."

 

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White is one of the books recommended for fourth grade. "The Trumpet of the Swan" is a beautiful story of overcoming obstacles and adversity. A young swan, born without a voice, learns to play the trumpet like the great Louis Armstrong in an effort to impress a beautiful swan, Serena.

 

Anything from the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary is one of the recommended readings for fifth grade. There are several to choose from. Children of all ages love reading about Ramona because she's so relatable. Each book delves into Ramona's life, touching on teachers, habits of others and the quirky things Ramona likes to do.

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson is one of the recommended books for sixth grade. This book offers a story based upon real people and events. It shows that experiencing new things and being in a new place can create a positive outcome in life—and that you can find happiness and peace in the most unlikely of places.

 

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry is one of the recommended books for seventh grade. "Call it Courage" is an excellent story about overcoming fears. In this story, Mafatu overcomes his fear of the ocean after ending up on a neighboring island full of cannibals. During his time, he learns to hunt, fish and survive as he attempts to find a way to escape the island.  

 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne is one of the recommended books for eighth grade. Jules Verne had an uncanny ability to imagine life in the future, and this book offers readers a look at real-life and fictional encounters deep within the ocean.

Good Reads for Ninth Through Twelfth Grade

 

Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust by Milton Meltzer is one of the recommended books for ninth grade. This book doesn't detail experiences of the Holocaust from the outside. This book takes a deep look in first-person at accounts of the Holocaust to learn what it was really like to experience this horrific time in history.

 

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown is one of the recommended books for tenth grade. This book emphasizes the struggles faced by Native Americans as they imagined what life would look like for them. The book touches on starvation, how the U.S. government interacted with Native Americans, retaining cultural identity and the need to adapt to a changing world.

 

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall is one of the recommended books for eleventh grade. This story shows that when you set out to help someone, they can end up helping you in a much more profound way. This is evidenced by a couple who reach out to help a homeless man, but he returns much more than they could ever have imagined.

 

These are just a few of our favorites, but we know that any book selected for your grade level will be one that you’ll enjoy, and that will help further shape your child’s path to learning in the coming school year. Enjoy your summer, and get to reading!