Academics

Summer Reading

The CBA Summer Reading Program allows students to explore compelling and topical works associated with the various subject disciplines they will encounter during the school year.

All students will be assessed on their Summer Reading books in the opening weeks of the new school year. This assessment grade will equal 10% of the first academic quarter grade in each of these classes. It is recommended that your son begins reading by July 1 so he can thoroughly read and prepare for his assessments and classroom discussions.

Assessment may be tests or may be other projects or types of assessments. Specific expectations will be explained in September.

ISBN numbers have been provided below to help you locate the correct title. You may purchase whatever format (paperback, hardcover, e-reader, audiobook, etc.) that you prefer to use.

HOW TO PREPARE

We are confident each student can do well on his assessments if he prepares accordingly:

  1. Review the book list carefully and only read those books that pertain to courses you will take.
  2. Get your books early!
  3. Ask your son regularly about his reading progress.
  4. Encourage your son to take notes for later reference. This is especially important for the first books he reads.
  5. Remember that all fiction and most non-fiction can be reduced to these elements:
    1. PLOT (what is happening?)
    2. CHARACTER (who is making it happen?)
    3. SETTING (where and when is it happening?)
    4. THEME (what is the point of it all?)

Note: Students who change courses over the summer are still responsible for the summer reading for that new course.

The courses listed below as ‘College Prep’ were previously identified as “Standard.’ Please consider ‘College Prep’ and ‘Standard’ to mean the same thing for the books on this list.

2024 SUMMER READING BOOK LISTS

For Freshmen

All freshmen read this book:

  • THEOLOGY I (ACADEMY OATH): Season of Life, Jeffrey Marx
    ISBN: 978-0743269742

All freshmen read one of these books, depending on their English placement:

  • ENGLISH I COLLEGE PREP: Poe: Stories and Poems: A Graphic Novel, illustrated by Gareth Hinds, ISBN: 978-0763695095
  • ENGLISH I HONORS: I Must Betray You, Ruta Sepetys, ISBN: 978-0593524152

All freshmen read one of these books, depending on their History placement:

  • WORLD HISTORY COLLEGE PREP: A History of the World in 6 Glasses, Tom Standage, ISBN:  978-0802715524 (Chapters One to Four only)
  • WORLD HISTORY HONORS: Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall,
    ISBN: 978-1501121470

AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser,
ISBN: 978-0547750330 Please see Guided Summer Reading Questions
located on your Class Page under Summer Reading.

ISBN: 978-0547750330 – link located on your Class Page under Summer Reading.

For Sophomores

  • SOPHOMORES (CLASS OF 2028) 

 

  • ENGLISH II COLLEGE PREP: Copper Sun, Sharon Draper,
    ISBN: 978-1416953487
  • ENGLISH II HONORS: Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer,
    ISBN: 978-0385486804 
  • AP WORLD HISTORY: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race To Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts,  Joshua Hammer,
    ISBN: 978-1476777412 
  • THEOLOGY II COLLEGE PREP: Between Heaven and Mirth, James Martin,
    ISBN: 978-0062024251

THEOLOGY II HONORS: He Leadeth Me, Walter Ciszek,
ISBN:  978-0804141529

For Juniors

JUNIORS (CLASS OF 2027)

 

  • AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE: Shadow Divers, Robert Kurson,
    ISBN: 978-0375760983
  • ENGLISH III COLLEGE PREP: Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 
  • ISBN: 978-0060850524
  • ENGLISH III HONORS: Prophet Song, Paul Lynch, ISBN: 978-0802163523
  • US HISTORY II COLLEGE PREP or HONORS: Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Erica Armstrong Dunbar,
    ISBN: 978-1501126413
  • AP AMERICAN HISTORY (2 books):
            -Book one: Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, Alan Taylor,
              ISBN: 978-0199766239                                  

                    -Book two: Mapping America, Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Neil Asbury, 

ISBN: 978-1948062763

  • THEOLOGY III COLLEGE PREP: The Lord Is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twenty-Third Psalm, Harold Kushner,

ISBN:978-1400033355

  • THEOLOGY III HONORS: A Once and Coming Spirit at Pentecost, Raymond Brown,
    ISBN: 978-0814621547

For Seniors

SENIORS (CLASS OF 2026)

  • ENGLISH IV COLLEGE PREP: Born a Crime, Trevor Noah,
    ISBN: 978-0399588198
  • ENGLISH IV HONORS: “This Is Water,” David Foster Wallace (http://bulletin-archive.kenyon.edu/x4280.html) and Pig (2021 movie, Michael Sarnoski)
  • AP ENGLISH LIT: The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead, ISBN 978-0345804341
  • AP EUROPEAN HISTORY: The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friederich Engels (any edition) and The Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli (any edition)
  • AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser,
    ISBN: 978-0547750330
  • AP ART HISTORY, The Annotated Mona Lisa, Carol Strickland,
    ISBN: 978-1449482138
  • CHRISTIAN SERVICE: Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, Jamil Zaki, ISBN: 978-1538743065