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2025-26 SUMMER READING LIST

Signal Mountain Middle High School 6th-12th Grade Summer Reading Lists: 2025/2026 School Year

The summer reading titles for 2025 are organized by grade level below.  They have been linked to Amazon.com for your convenience, but you may choose to purchase them from local bookstores or other websites.

Rising 6th Grade (REQUIRED– aligns with the annual 6th Grade Walk for Water event!)

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Rising 7th Grade: Students are encouraged, but not required to read the novel below.

• Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool

Rising 8th Grade: Students are encouraged, but not required to read the novel below.

• Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

Rising 9th Grade: Reading is REQUIRED for honors and ENCOURAGED for regular.

Honors English 9: Students are REQUIRED to read the novel. Assignment for Honors English 9
ONLY: This will be completed on the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

 

Regular English 9: Students are encouraged, but not required to read the novel.

• A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Rising 10th Grade: Reading is REQUIRED for honors and ENCOURAGED for regular.

Honors English 10: Students are REQUIRED to choose TWO titles from the list of mystery novels
below. Honors 10 students will write an essay during the first week of school, including text evidence
from both novels.

• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Rebecca by Dauphne du Maurier
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Regular English 10: Students are encouraged, but not required to read 1 title from the list above.

Rising 11th Grade: Reading is REQUIRED for all juniors!  

Honors English 11: 

• The Crucible by Arthur Miller AND Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • Assignment for Honors English 11 ONLY: Honors students will write an in-class essay during the first week of school.

Regular English 11:

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Rising DP Literature 11 (TWO novels!)

• How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster
  • Read these chapters BEFORE school begins: “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not),” “It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow, “Yes, She’s a Christ Figure Too,” “Geography Matters,” and “So Does Season”
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Rising 12th Grade: Reading is REQUIRED for all seniors except for Dual Enrollment students.

Rising 12th Grade (Regular ONLY)

Please choose a memoir or work of nonfiction from the last 50 years – as you consider writing your college essay in the fall.  I want you to pick a book by someone who interests you, but if you are unsure, here are a few that I have found intriguing:

• Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
• All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
• Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Educated by Tara Westover
• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Rising DP Literature 12

DP Literature Summer Reading – There is a brief assignment due on the second day of school – see attached.

List of Very Contemporary Books – Choose one.

• • Circe by Madeline Miller (2018)
  • The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018)
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2019)
  • The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019)
  • The River by Peter Heller (2019)
  • Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (2020)
  • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)
  • Bewilderment by Richard Powers (2021)
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (2022)

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (2022)

• James by Percival Everett (2024)

Dual Enrollment English 12: Chattanooga State professors DO NOT assign summer reading.

Signal Mountain Middle/High School 6th  grade Supply List 2025-2026

Please bring the following required items with you in August!

***Required supplies for students to use in ALL classes

● 4 Mead Composition books (100 sheets or more) for Social Studies, Science, Computer Science, & Language B Carousel
● 2 GRAPH paper Composition book for Math ● 1 RED one-inch 3 ring binder for BAND
● 1 two-inch 3 ring binder for Science with a ½ pack of notebook paper inside
● 1-2 rolls of scotch tape for Science to be kept in pencil pouch
● 1 two-inch 3 ring binder OR Trapper Keeper OR “Case It” for loose items & pencil pouch
● 3 packs loose-leaf notebook paper (1 pack for binder)
● 1 set of pocket dividers (8 in a set so 1 for each class)
● 1 pencil pouch for binder Supplies carried inside a pencil pouch to each class…
● 1 pack of colored pencils
● Plenty of Pencils (several pencils kept in pouch and extra pencils kept in locker)
● Plenty of highlighters and ink pens kept in pouch
● 1 set of wired earbuds kept in pouch (wireless earbuds are not allowed)
● Sticky notes (multiple packs)

***Required supplies for Visual Arts
● Two large rolls of paper towels and one clorox wipes labeled ART
● One 9×12” hardbound (no spiral) sketchbook at least 100 pages like these:

○ https://a.co/d/3rC9XJM
○ https://a.co/d/jaeYhyO
○ https://www.michaels.com/product/6-pack-hardbound-sketchbook-by-artists-loft-MP449298 (multipack if you and some classmates want to go in together)

***Required supplies for Bible
● 1 composition notebook (wide or college ruled, no graph)
● 1 three-ring binder (½” or 1”) ***Required supplies for Physical Education
● 1 combination lock.
Click here to see the specific style. Please get the old-school style that is a circle, with no key. Other styles will not fit on our lockers. Lock is only required if you plan on leaving material in the locker room beyond the class period.
● 1 roll of Clorox wipes for sanitizing fitness mats daily for PE, given to Coach Shoemate at the start of the year.

***Required supplies for Language & Literature

Please ensure that all students bring the following items to their ELA (Language & Literature) class the first week of school.

● 1” binder with plastic slip cover (separate from list above – kept in locker)
● 4 Binder dividers (separate from list above – must be kept in ELA binder) ● 2 packs loose leaf notebook paper (separate from list above – kept in ELA binder)
● Regular pencils (can be kept in pencil pouch mentioned above)
● 1 Package Cap Erasers (kept in pencil pouch)
● 1 Pack of multi-colored highlighters (kept in pencil pouch)

***Requested supplies for Directed Studies classes

Boys:
3-pack boxes of Kleenex
1 roll of Scotch brand tape refill
1 package of pencils

Girls:
3-pack rolls of paper towels
1 roll of Scotch brand tape refill
1 package of EXPO Dry Erase marker(any color)

Recommended Math Website

khanacademy.org   Review ALL 5th grade standards, including long standard division; fraction and mixed number addition, subtraction, multiplication; and decimal addition, subtraction, multiplication. If your child is interested in advanced math placement, he/she should review 6th-grade standards as well.

Sixth Grade 2025 Summer Reading List

Required summer reading: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Students need to have read this book prior to sixth grade.

If you have any summer reading questions, please feel free to contact
Ben Hunsucker or Ellen Boone.

CAR LINE DROP OFF AND PICK-UP- MS & HS
School hours- 7:45a.m.-2:45p.m.
Doors will open at 7:15a.m.
Student need to be in their classrooms and ready to begin at 7:45a.m.