SUMMER READING
Summer reading is required of all students in grades 9-12 and is used as a starting point for discussion and writing in classes.
If a link is posted, simply download the resource from this site. If there is no link, you should look for a copy of the book which should be readily available at used book stores, through the GTACS Uniform and Book Facebook group, or from students in the grades ahead of your student.
St. Francis High School, 2025/26 School Year
Freshmen English
Old Testament: Genesis by itself or both Exodus and Numbers
New Testament: Gospel of Luke
American Literature & Honors American Literature
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
British Literature
Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien
(This can be accessed online at readerslibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/Farmer-Giles-of-Ham.pdf. If this doesn’t work simply search it as a pdf).
Honors British Literature
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
Senior Literature
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Graphic Novel)
AP Language and Composition
Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
AP Literature and Composition
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, translated by Stanley Corngold
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School
Updated July 9, 2025
The primary goal of summer reading is to encourage a love of reading. This summer (2025), the school-wide required read for all 6-8th grade students is “Wonder,” by RJ Palacio. While this is the only required reading of the summer, we encourage all to consider reading more! The following reading list is comprised of recommendations from the Cardinal Newman Society based on consulting sources and schools with a strong Catholic identity. Explore some books that you might not have considered before.
GREAT BOOK OPTIONS
6TH-8TH GRADE
7 Riddles to Nowhere (Cattapan)
A Horse and the Boy (Lewis)
A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
A Story of Joan of Arc (Earnest)
Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints (Swaim)
Amos Fortune, Free Man (Yates)
Anne of Geen Gables (Montgomery)
Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne)
Beowulf: A New Telling (Nye)
Black Beauty (Sewell)
Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad (Lee)
Blessed Marie of New France (Windeatt)
Break in the Basilica (Ahern)
Caddie Woodlawn (Brink)
Captain Courageous (Kipling)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Rostand)
Fingal’s Quest (Pollard)
Freckles (Porter)
Hans Brinker (Dodge)
Heidi (Spyri)
Hero of the Hills (Windeatt)
Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica (Norris)
Homer Price (McCloskey)
I Am David (Holm)
I, Juan de Pareja (de Trevino)
If All the Swords in England (Willard)
Johnny Tremain (Forbes)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne)
Kidnapped (Stevenson)
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (Green)
Kon-Tiki (Heyerdahl)
Lay Siege to Heaven (de Wohl)
Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving)
Leif the Lucky (D’Aulaire)
Lilies of the Field (Barrett)
Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder)
Little Women; Little Men (Alcott)
Log of a Cowboy (Adams)
Lost in St. Peter’s Tomb (Ahern)
Madeline Takes Command (Brill & Adams)
Midshipman Easy; Masterman Ready (Marryat)
Misty of Chincoteague (Henry)
My Antonia (Cather)
My Side of the Mountain (George)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Douglass)
Old Yeller (Gipson)
Our Town (Wilder)
Outlaws of Ravenhurst (Wallace)
Patron Saint of First Communicants (Windeatt)
Penrod and others (Tarkington)
Pied Piper of Hamlin (Browning)
Pygmalion (Shaw)
Radiate: More Stories of Daring Teen Saints (Swaim)
Redwall series (Jacques)
Rip Van Winkle (Irving)
Robin Hood (Pyle)
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (Taylor)
Saint Catherine of Siena (Forbes)