The Ellis School

Summer Reading

All titles for The Ellis School's summer reading assignments can be found below. Lower and Middle School students should read what is listed for the grade they are entering in September 2019. Upper School students should complete the required reading for the classes they will be taking in the 2019–2020 school year only.

For the full list of additional suggested reading and required writing assignments, please view the Summer Reading resource board on MyEllis.

Lower School Summer Reading

List of 4 items.

  • Grade 1

    There is no required reading, but parents are encouraged to read regularly and often with their daughters over the summer months.
     

  • Grade 2

    Lily and Miss Liberty by Carla Stevens*

    *Note: This book is no longer in print to purchase. Students will be loaned books from the classroom library.

  • Grade 3

    Gooney Bird Green by Lois Lowry

  • Grade 4

    The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

    Please choose one (or more) of the following to read as well:
    Matilda by Roald Dahl
    Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
    The BFG by Roald Dahl

Middle School Summer Reading

List of 4 items.

  • Grade 5

    The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

  • Grade 6

    The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz

  • Grade 7

    The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

  • Grade 8

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Upper School Summer Reading

List of 12 items.

  • Grade 9 | English: Western Literature

    Lord of the Flies by William Golding
    978-0-399-50148-7

  • Grade 10 | English: World Literature

    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
    Penguin Edition  9780141439518

  • Grade 10 | History

    A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid  
    978-0374527075
     

  • Grade 11 | English: American Literature

    Please choose ONE of the following summer reading options:
    • When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
    • No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts
    • Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
    • Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen
    • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

  • Grade 11 | Survey of American History

    The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

  • Grade 11 | AP US History

    Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis
    ISBN13: 978-0465018192

  • Grade 11 and 12 | Gender and Power

    Orlando (Annotated): A Biography by Virginia Woolf
    Paperback. Mariner Books, 1 edition (July 3, 2006). ISBN-13: 978-0156031516

  • Grade 12 | English: Literature and the Individual

    Please choose ONE of the following:
    • Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
    • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
    • Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
    • The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
    • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
    • Atonement by Ian McEwan

  • Grade 12 | AP English: British Literature

    Please read:
    • Hamlet by William Shakespeare (ISBN-10: 9780743477123 or ISBN-13: 978-0743477123)
    AND one of the following:
    • Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
    • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
    • Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
    • The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
    • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
    • Atonement by Ian McEwan

  • Grade 12 | Poetics of Social Justice

    Please read ONE of the following:
    • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (978-0618249060)
    • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (9780804172448)
    • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    • The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
    • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

  • Grade 12 | AP Biology

    Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity by Sharon Moalem
    ISBN 978-0060889661

  • Grade 12 | AP Comparative Government and Politics

    Factfulness: Ten Reasons Why We're Wrong About the World by Hans Rosling 
    ISBN13: 978-1473637498
6425 FIFTH AVENUE, PITTSBURGH, PA 15206
412.661.5992   |   admissions@theellisschool.org
6425 FIFTH AVENUE, PITTSBURGH, PA 15206
412.661.5992
admissions@theellisschool.org