As we look ahead to the 2026–27 school year and our theme of Authenticity, drawn from our school motto Esse quam videri, “To be rather than to seem,” we are excited to share this summer’s reading selections for students.
Students are asked to complete a summer reading selection from two designated choices for their incoming grade level and can expect an assessment on their chosen book early in the fall.
8th Grade
Gathering Blue
By Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue is a post-apocalyptic YA novel featuring a girl named Kira who, despite being born with a physical disability, learns to survive by harnessing her unique artistic talents. As Kira is trained as a threader, or embroiderer, she begins to uncover hidden truths about her society and questions the rules she has been taught to accept. In this novel, also a sequel to The Giver, authenticity is shown through Kira’s growing willingness to trust her own creativity and perception in a world that pressures her to conform.
Long Way Down
By Jason Reynolds
Long Way Down follows 15-year-old Will, who steps into an elevator after his brother is shot and, during the 60-second descent, encounters ghosts of others killed by the same cycle of gun violence. Written entirely in verse, the short lines and white space make it surprisingly accessible for developing readers despite its emotional weight. Its themes of grief, loyalty, and the seductive logic of revenge resonate powerfully with teenage readers and spark immediate, honest classroom conversation.
9th Grade
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark Haddon
Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone enjoys logic, patterns, and solving problems, so when he discovers his neighbor’s dog dead in the middle of the night, he decides to investigate the mystery himself. As Christopher searches for answers, he uncovers unexpected secrets about his family that challenge the way he understands the world. Told through Christopher’s unique perspective, the novel explores trust, independence, and the difficulties of communication.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
By Adib Khorram
Darius Kellner often feels like he does not quite fit in at school, with friends, or even within his own family. When he travels to Iran to visit his grandparents, Darius struggles with unfamiliar customs, family expectations, and his own depression. Through a meaningful friendship and a growing connection to his cultural heritage, Darius begins to gain confidence and discover a stronger sense of identity and belonging.
10th Grade
The Poet X
By Elizabeth Acevedo
The Poet X follows Xiomara, a Dominican American teenager in Harlem, who discovers slam poetry as a way to express her thoughts and emotions. She uses writing as a private space to explore identity, faith, love, and independence while navigating the pressures of family expectations and adolescence. The book is especially powerful for its verse form and honest voice, both of which model authenticity in action and encourage readers to consider how creativity and language can be used to develop and claim one’s identity.
The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak
The Book Thief follows Liesel, a young girl in Nazi Germany who finds solace in stealing books and sharing stories during the horrors of World War II. Narrated by Death, it explores how language and literature sustain the human spirit under oppression. The writing is lyrical and unconventional, which challenges and rewards strong readers.
For 10th graders, it bridges personal coming-of-age themes with serious historical content, including genocide, moral courage, and loss, without being gratuitous. It pairs naturally with history and English curricula and generates rich discussion about propaganda, resistance, and what it means to be human. Given SKS’s international community, its European wartime setting and universal themes of belonging and survival travel well across cultural backgrounds.
11th/12th Grade
Old School
By Tobias Wolff
Old School, by acclaimed fiction writer Tobias Wolff, tells the story of a student at an East Coast prep school in the early sixties. The student experiences episodes of inclusion and exclusion, all while trying to figure out who he is and what he wants to do with his life. His journey of self-discovery is set against the visit of several famous writers to the school. Old School was recognized immediately upon its publication as an admirable addition to the “prep school novel,” a group that includes classics like The Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace.
The Color of Water
By James McBride
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother is an autobiography in the form of a tribute to the author’s mother, Ruth. Ranging sensitively across complex issues of culture, religion, and race, McBride interweaves his own story with earlier stories of his mother’s life in Europe and then in North Carolina in the years prior to the Civil Rights Movement. This memoir was massively popular when it was first published in the late 1990s, remaining on the New York Times trade paperback list for over 100 weeks.
English Language Learning Students
The following choices are for students who are contracted for English Language Learning classes for the 2026–27 school year.
ELL Intermediate to Advanced
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
(See the description under the 9th grade choices.)
ELL Low to Intermediate
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
By Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a novel by Roald Dahl about a poor boy named Charlie Bucket who wins a golden ticket to tour the mysterious chocolate factory owned by Willy Wonka. Inside the factory, Charlie and four other children experience candy-filled rooms and strange surprises. Each child’s bad behavior leads to consequences, while Charlie’s kindness and honesty make him stand out.
In the end, Willy Wonka rewards Charlie with the factory because he was the kindest and most honest child in the group. This novel is a strong choice for Beginner to Intermediate English Language Learners, with a Lexile level of 810L placing it in the Grades 4–8 range for native speakers. It connects directly to our school theme of Authenticity, as Charlie’s story is fundamentally about the value of remaining kind and true to one’s character.
2026 Summer Faculty Read
NeuroTeach: Brain Science and the Future of Education
By Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher
This summer, all teaching faculty are required to read NeuroTeach: Brain Science and the Future of Education by Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher, a compelling and practical exploration of how insights from cognitive neuroscience can directly inform what we do in the classroom.
Whitman and Kelleher challenge educators to move beyond intuition and tradition, offering research-backed strategies that help students learn more deeply and retain information more effectively. As we head into next year with a renewed focus on strengthening our pedagogical practice, this book provides an ideal shared foundation for professional conversation and growth.
We are excited to announce that we will be working directly with co-author Glenn Whitman and the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, beginning at our end-of-year meetings on June 9 and continuing throughout the 2026–27 school year.
This partnership represents a meaningful opportunity for our faculty to engage with the research not just as readers, but as practitioners committed to translating brain science into better outcomes for our students.
