Summer Reading for High School Students ~ Merging Books with Movies

Keep reading for a summer reading list for high school students that introduce the books behind the movies.

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Summer reading for high school students. 

For some, that sentence brings to mind a list of books to read before the next school year begins.

I remember that be a standard with my AP or honors classes.

But, for some of us, it means finding engaging titles teens can just enjoy.

Instead of spending days playing video games or watching shows, they can be reading books.

They may be called the lazy days of summer, but that doesn’t mean learning has to stop completely. 

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Classic Book Ideas for Summer Reading for High School Students

Just because we homeschool, that doesn’t mean we can’t read some of the ‘classic’ literature for fun or even titles that fit with upcoming studies for the new school year.

I figure if high schools around the country issue a summer reading list with the expectation of titles being read during those lazy days, then my boys can do the same.

Beowulf

This one is something my senior is just starting and will have it count towards his British Literature course. 

He’s already asked about watching a movie version when he is done reading. 

There are MANY different versions of this book. 

The Beowulf edition we are using matches the Hewitt Homeschooling Lightning Literature and Composition: British Medieval course we are reviewed this summer.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This is a title that we did during American literature (and watched the movie with Gregory Peck.) 

A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

I like this as a slice of life from a particular time period.

Especially true is learning a bit more about how racism was rampant in the south during that time.

There is now a sequel to the original novel, Go Set a Watchman. This is set 20 years after the original title. Scout had fled her hometown and has now returned to visit her father. 

Lord of the Flies

This title was a ‘must-read’ when I was in high school. 

However, it has fallen out of favor in recent years. 

I really want my boys to read it to see just how ‘utopian’ a boy lead society truly is and how brutal our ‘human nature’ can be.

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

If you haven’t read these, then add them to your reading list! 

While a high school student might grasp more of the story than a younger child, my third son read The Hobbit when he was 6 going on 7.

Anyone that enjoyed the films will most likely enjoy the books. 
 

The Great Gatsby

The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

There are a few movie versions including one with Robert Redford and another with Leonardo DiCaprio. I’ve only watched the latter.  

Pride and Prejudice

This classic may have less appeal for the guys. However, my eldest son made it through the excellent miniseries adaptation starring Colin Firth. This one is true to the novel.

While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.

This is one of the most popular novels in English literature. Comedic writing with lots of whit includes a depiction of manners, education, marriage, and money during the British Regency period.

I also adore the loose adaptation of the story in the Bollywood film, Bride and Prejudice.

The Last of the Mohicans

Follow a passionate, forbidden romance between Uncas, a young Mohican, and Cora, the daughter of a British Colonel. A time-honored favorite in historical fiction that serves as a cultural conversation about interracial love and friendship.

For my boys, the movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis is viewed as part of American History studies. 

 

12 Years A Slave

Another excellent choice for supplementing American History studies.

“Twelve Years a Slave” tells the amazing story of a free Black man who in 1841 is taken away from his family and sold into slavery in the deep south of the United States.

Solomon Northop takes us with him on his most unfortunate Journey through the days of slavery. A journey no human being should ever endure. We feel his pain as he wakes up with his arms and legs bound in the chains of slavery. Will he ever get to see his wife or hold his children in his arms again?

The book listed below includes interviews with other former slaves as well as photos of their life.

The movie was incredibly moving and well received by my eldest son when we watched it.

 

Dystopian Books High School STudnets Will Enjoy for Summer Reading

The dystopian genre of books has increased in interest and continues to grow.

Maybe we just all like to see a world that has it worse than ours is appealing.

Ender’s Game

The first of a quintet of novels, Ender’s Game introduces readers to a future Earth where the government breeds future generations in the hopes of building a secure defense against an alien race which attacked 100 years earlier.

Ender is an unusual child and is recognized as the potential savior the government has been seeking. 

After intense training, he is put into a simulator to come up with the best way to neutralize the alien threat. 

Only, what seemed like a game really isn’t and his actions take everyone by surprise. 

This was on my eldest son’s reading list when he worked through Sonlight Core 100. 

He LOVED this book as did his younger brothers who couldn’t help but feed off his enthusiasm. 

We’ve seen the movie and while it was enjoyable the boys admitted that the book was better.  (No great surprise there!) 

If you haven’t read the book or watched the Ender’s Game movie, I highly recommend it!

The Divergent Series

This dystopian series is a big hit with teens and even many adults I know. 

The first book, Divergent, has the following description:

“One choice can transform you. Beatrice Prior’s society is divided into five factions—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice must choose between staying with her Abnegation family and transferring factions. Her choice will shock her community and herself. But the newly christened Tris also has a secret, one she’s determined to keep hidden, because in this world, what makes you different makes you dangerous.” 

The other titles continue the storyline with Tris and seeing how choices impact your life. 

My boys all loved this title and are begging me to just buy the sequels as the library has a LONG waiting list for them. 

Just from the commercials for the movie, the boys saw that there are some big differences. 

The Hunger Games

This is another dystopian novel where the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts exists in what was previously known as North America. 

To keep control over its citizens, the Capitol forces each district to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

We watched the first film before anyone had read the book. 

We did NOT like the movie at all and felt that it was promoting a rather sick idea of reality TV. 

We could NOT understand why so many homeschooling friends were raving about it. 

Then my eldest son read the trilogy while off at a month-long program in interior Alaska and he loved the novels. 

The Catching Fire had movie makers sticking more to the story than they had in the original film.

Contemporary Books for High School Students to Enjoy

Since originally writing this post in 2014, I decided to expand to include ones where I have either read the book or seen the film.

Some of these are geared more towards the gals than the guys with the bits of romance in them.

The Fault in Our Stars

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Make sure you have tissues at the ready when watching the film. 

 

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them.

But Tibby says they’re great. She’d love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them.

Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye.

And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins.

I enjoyed reading both the books and watching the films. 

The Sun Is Also a Star

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

I have watched the film, but not read the book. 

Before I Fall

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—”Cupid Day”—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is … until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

This one is more appealing to the gals. I enjoyed the film overall.

Warm Bodies

‘R’ is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows – warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can’t understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won’t be changed without a fight.

My teens and I really enjoyed the film and need to read the book now.

Scott Pilgrim

Scott Pilgrim is in love, but there are complications. Having to battle his new girlfriend’s evil exes was nothing he planned on, but love makes you do funny things.

These are graphic novels.

While we haven’t read them, my eldest son and I definitely enjoyed the quirky movie. My other boys and husband didn’t have the same reaction.

The Hate U Give

This is the only title here that I have not read or watched the film. However, it is on my list to do.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

While I am sure there could be a MUCH longer list if I spent more time thinking about it, that’s what came to mind in short order.

 

What are some titles you remember reading as a high school student?
What books are YOUR high schoolers reading this summer?

Check out what other homeschoolers are suggesting for this age group!
 

This post was originally published on Jul 8, 2014 and has since been updated.