Regardless of whether you are a freshman who is just starting high school or a junior who is looking to begin your college apps when we return in January, one of the best things you can do now to prepare is to READ! There is no better preparation for SATs and college essays than to read. Reading is not a skill that you can master in an SAT boot camp; unlike math, reading is a muscle that is developed over time. Similarly, it is impossible to become a great writer if you are not a strong reader. Reading will introduce you to a larger vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar rules.
Holiday Challenge
My challenge is for each of you to pick up one non-school book during each holiday:
- Winter break
- Spring break
- Summer break
- Thanksgiving break
It鈥檚 not important that you read sophisticated texts, like Chaucer or Shakespeare (although if you want to, great). The important thing is to pick something up that you will find interesting, and, therefore, will be more likely to do it.
Here are some of my favorite suggestions across a variety of genres (please don鈥檛 be mad that I am suggesting Amazon. If you have a local bookstore, I fully support shopping there. But, since you are all in different places, this is an easy way to learn about the books below):
Adventure:
- by James Rollins (one of my personal favorites and one that I will be reading this holiday):
- Book 1:
- by Tom Clancy
听Amazing Kids:
- by Malala Yousafzai
- by Caroline Kettlewell
Biographies
- by Walter Isaacson
- by Katherine Graham
- by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- by Jeff Hobbs
听Business
- by Joseph Michelli
- by James O鈥橲hea
听Civil Rights/Social Justice:
- by Angie Thomas
- by Andre Brink
听Dystopian:
- by Neal Shusterman
- by Veronica Roth
Fun Beach Read:
- by Karen M. McManus
- by Paula Hawkins
听Historical Fiction
- by Linda Buckley-Archer
- by Victor Hugo
Human Behavior:
- by Steven Levitt
- by Malcolm Gladwell
Law:
- by Jodi Piccoult
- by Anne Rule (true crime):
Medicine:
- by Oliver Sacks
- by Rebecca Skloot
Space Race:
- by Margot Lee Shetterly听
- t by Douglas Brinkley
Happy reading!
