Summer Assignments - Unionville High School

English

All students are required to read specific books for Summer 2026.

Students should:

Actively read (highlight, annotate, and take notes) and
Prepare for an evaluation the first week of school.

9th Grade

Please read your specific class’s assignment. There are three levels of English: First Level, Academic, and Honors. Each academic level has distinctive reading and grammatical requirements.

First-Level

Select one book from the book recommendations.

Academic

You are tasked with talking to a guardian, trusted adult, or parent to select your one summer reading book. This adult/parent will recommend a book that they enjoyed and fueled their love of reading—something they loved in high school or after! With their guidance and oversight, you will read this book and know it well. If you are struggling to find a suitable choice, please see the book recommendations. You may instead pick one book from that list.

Honors

Read two books from the lists below, one fiction and one memoir/non-fiction.

Book Recommendations

These books all center on stories about people coming of age: Some are fiction, some non-fiction. Some are written in verse and some as graphic novels. Before choosing books, click the links to read summaries and reviews, choosing one of interest that your family is also comfortable with.

Make sure you actively read the books and come the first week of school, prepared for activities, projects, and writing prompts about the books. Understand the plot, but also look for these literary elements: conflict, characterization, point of view, setting, imagery, symbols, mood/tone, themes. While reading, make both literary and personal connections to the texts.

The real-life subject matter in some popular literature can cover mature and sensitive topics. Often these books can be some of the first encounters a teenager has with difficult subject matter—and these books can feed the natural curiosity of a high school student in a healthy way. Please discuss these choices with your family.

Grammar and MLA: It is expected that all students entering 9th Grade English are proficient in the mechanics of defining and identifying the eight parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, interjections, conjunctions, verbs—active & linking, and prepositions), understanding the construct of a complete sentence, properly using contractions, and using MLA format with parenthetical references. The following websites may be used to support these conventions. Click the links below:

Fiction

Memoir & Non-Fiction

10th Grade

Please read your specific class’s assignment. There are three levels of 10th Grade English: First Level, Academic, and Honors. Each level has its own reading and grammar requirements.

First-Level

Please secure a copy of One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus and read it before the first day of school.

Academic

Choose ONE book from the list. Ask a parent or guardian to help you choose.

Students are expected to read closely and take notes on their book. They should understand the plot, but also look for these literary elements: conflict, characterization, point of view, setting, style, motifs, imagery, allusions, archetypes, symbols, mood/tone, themes. While reading, make both literary and personal connections to the texts. Be prepared for an assessment the first week of school.

Honors

You will read TWO books, Animal Farm and Things Fall Apart.

Students are expected to read closely and take notes on each book. Understand the plot, but also look for these literary elements: conflict, characterization, point of view, setting, style, motifs, imagery, allusions, archetypes, symbols, mood/tone, themes. While reading, make both literary and personal connections to the texts. Be prepared for an assessment the first week of school.

All students should review grammar skills as they move from 9th to 10th grade. Reference these links:

11th Grade

First-Level

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Academic: Composition

Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Be sure to purchase the version linked, not the journal version.

Students will be expected to bring this to class on the first day of school and keep it with them throughout the year.

Academic: Literature

During the course of your 11th grade year, you’ll read a variety of texts from diverse voices in the American canon. So, this summer, your task is to read the provided texts from specific time periods of American history; when you return to school, you’ll review these works in relation to your course content. Click here to start reading!

Honors

American Born Chinese (graphic novel) by Gene Luen Yang
One Good Story, that One (short story collection) by Thomas King
Wake (graphic novel) by Rebecca Hall

12th Grade

First-Level

Choose a graphic novel or a novel that is 100 or more pages to read. There should be an emphasis on a “heroic” character.

Summer Reading Notes (Optional– Can Be Used On An Assessment)

For the summer reading, students should take notes in a double entry journal. For each chapter, you should select two or more quotations/passages that you find important, intriguing, or questioning. Then you will elaborate on your thoughts.

Academic

This year, we will be diving deep into The Human Condition—exploring the challenges, joys, struggles, and truths that make us human. Throughout the year, we’ll examine how different characters in literature and film navigate their identities, relationships, choices, and the world around them. We’ll question what it means to be alive, to feel, to struggle, and to grow.

To kick off this exploration, you will read La Hacienda by Isabel Canas. Set against a backdrop of political upheaval, personal transformation, and cultural conflict, this historical novel will introduce you to a young woman’s journey through the shifting power dynamics of 19th-century Mexico after the War of Independence.

As you read, you should answer the following questions, which will help you connect the novel to the larger ideas we’ll be exploring throughout the year. Be prepared to share your thoughts.

Is the character seeking to learn more about herself?
Is there a scene where the characters share a meal together? Write a summary of the scene. What is discussed?
Are there any forces in the text that work to directly antagonize another character? What happens between these forces?
Can you think of a character or relationship in this book that is similar to one from another book or film? What is the comparison, and why do you think it resonates?
Track any instances of weather that occur in the text. What type of weather is occurring and what is happening during the scene?
What symbols can you identify?
Where are the events of the text taking place? What are the different locations visited throughout? Describe the landscape.
Are there any distinguishing features of the character that set her apart, for better or worse, from others. Explain.
Are any characters sick or dying? Do any become sick or die due to illness? Is there a significance to the inclusion of this illness/sickness?

Finally, consider keeping track of your own thoughts as you read so that you can come to class fully prepared to discuss. You can expect to be assessed on your reading, so this will help you immensely. Some suggestions for your annotation enjoyment include:

Questions (to the character, the author, or to yourself etc.)
Predictions (mostly used for fiction)
Observations/noticing
Important/key passages
Main ideas
Character descriptions
Interesting parts
Summaries
Inferences

Honors

This summer, you will read two books in order to prepare for the school year:

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (excerpts)
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Note: Please read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster FIRST, taking copious Cornell Notes on the main ideas from each chapter (focus on the big ideas, not the example stories), as the text will serve as the essential foundation of the course. We will apply the concepts covered therein throughout the entire year, so the quality of your notes will greatly impact your experience.

You must secure a copy of the revised edition 2014. You need to read only the chapters listed below.

Students who turn in their notes on Day 1 may use the journal for the summer exam and throughout the year.

Introduction: How’d He do That
Chapter 1–Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)
Chapter 2–Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion
Chapter 3–Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
Chapter 9–It’s More than just Rain or Snow
Chapter 11– More than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Chapter 12–Is that a Symbol?
Chapter 13–It’s All Political
Chapter 14–Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, too
Chapter 15–Flights of Fancy
Chapter 18–If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism
Chapter 19–Geography Matters
Chapter 20–So Does Season
Chapter 21–Marked for Greatness
Chapter 22–He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23–It’s Never Just Heart Disease… And Rarely Just Illness
Chapter 24–Don’t Read with Your Eyes
Chapter 25–It’s My Symbol and I’ll Cry if I want to
Chapter 26–Is He Serious? And Other Ironies

Summer Reading Application

Students should be prepared to write an in-class essay during the second week of school that analyzes how Foster’s concepts are applied in This Tender Land.

Advanced Placement (AP) Classes

AP Class Summer Assignments are now located in Google Drive and should be accessed using your UCFSD login.

Access AP Summer Assignments