central summer homework

Summer homework may start as early as elementary school, but you don’t have to do it the way it’s always been done! Veteran educators like third-grade teacher Alycia Zimmerman have spent time thinking about how to make summer homework meaningful and interesting enough that students buy in—and even want to do it.  

Read on for Zimmerman’s summer homework game plan and ideas for how to make summer assignments more fun for everyone.

1. Try a New Student Meet and Greet

If possible, meet your incoming students before summer break (even if it’s virtual!) to instill the importance of summer learning.

At the end of the school year, coordinate with the teachers of your incoming students to swap classes for a period. Introduce yourselves to your future students and build excitement for the fun and challenging learning ahead and the very “grown-up” summer homework you will assign.

“We’ve been far more successful in instilling the importance of our summer assignments when presenting about it face-to-face rather than just sending a packet of directions home cold,” says Zimmernan. “The students sit on the edges of their seats as we talk about the importance of summer reading and our certainty that they will do everything they can to 'keep their brains healthy, pink, and strong’ over the summer.”

2. Emphasize the Importance of Summer Reading

Talk about the best summer assignment of all: diving into books!

Reading should be a treat, not a menial assignment, so Zimmerman doesn’t feel guilty about making reading the bulk of her summer homework. Here are some of her most effective strategies for promoting summer reading:

Have students fill out a log  to keep track of the books and other texts they read over the summer. It isn’t necessary to require a certain number of books or specific titles. Simply ask that they find books they love and spend lots of time reading them.

Have your current students write book reviews of their favorite titles to send home with your rising students. Invite your current students to serve as reading ambassadors and speak to the younger students about the importance and joys of reading. When coming from slightly older peers, the message is very well received.

And of course: Sign your students up for the Scholastic Summer Reading Program ! From May 9 to August 19, your students can visit Scholastic Home Base to participate in the free, fun, and safe  summer reading program . As part of the program, kids can read e-books, attend author events, and keep Reading Streaks™ to help unlock a donation of 100K books from Scholastic – distributed to kids with limited or no access to books by Save the Children. 

3. Share Fun and Educational Activities

Direct your students to fun (and educational) activities.

When considering other homework, the best options are activities that students will be motivated to do because they’re entertaining. 

Give your incoming students the “everything is better in moderation” speech so they understand that they shouldn’t play hours of computer games every day this summer. If possible, send them home with printable and book-based packs to polish their skills for the year ahead (you can even pair these with your own assignments): 

4. Connect Through the Mail 

Stay connected with your students over the summer through cards.

Giving incoming students the opportunity to connect with you and with each other can motivate them to complete summer assignments. Here’s one plan for connecting via letters:

Have your incoming students mail you a letter of introduction. Explain that you want to hear about their summer activities, their hobbies, their families, and anything special they want you to know before the school year begins.

When you receive letters from your students, send a postcard back with a brief response. Tell them a bit about your summer plan, and let them know you can’t wait to see them in the fall. 

Encourage them to write again!

You can also pair up students and have them write to each other over the summer. In September, they can bring their pen pal letters to class to display on the bulletin board.

Take advantage of everyone’s increasing familiarity with virtual resources by connecting online, too! Post a short video, article, or question once a week on your classroom's online platform, and invite both incoming students and rising former students to write their thoughts in the comments section. Be sure to moderate their comments and enjoy their back-and-forth dialogues as they engage with each other.

Get started by shopping the best books for summer reading below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store .

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All Grades ELA - Summer Assignment

ALL Students:

• Exact Path Language Arts for 40 minutes weekly. ( Log-in through Blended Learning)
• And, read 1 book:  

If you choose a fiction book , you need to complete the following:  

• The book must be a minimum of 150 pages.
• First, give a summary of the story (at least one paragraph). Be sure to include the title and author.
• Next,  write the name of the main character.
• Write 3 traits that this character exhibits.
• For each trait, give a quote from the book that shows that trait.
• Explain how each quote shows the character trait. Each explanation should be at least two sentences.
• Finally,  state the name of another character in the book.
• Write 3 traits that the character exhibits.
• Explain how each quote shows the character trait .  Each explanation should be at least two sentences.

If you choose a nonfiction book , you need to complete the following:  

• The book must be at least 150 pages.
• First, give a summary of the book (at least one paragraph) .  Be sure to include the title and author.
• Next, choose 8 quotes from throughout the book.
• Explain how each quote is important to the content of the book .  Each explanation should be at least two sentences.  
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How To Finish Summer Homework Assignments: 14 Tips To Save Your Child’s Summer

• July 19, 2018

Many schools assign homework for students to complete before they return to class in September. This results in both parents and students having to learn how to finish summer reading and homework while balancing fun summer activities.

This summer, school is out and homework is in.

If your child has been putting off a pile of summer homework and reading assignments—he or she is not alone.

Reading books and writing assignments during the summer may not sound appealing to many students—or parents. Students can also get UK homework help if they need the some help with completing their assignment! But summer assignments are a great way to combat the effects of Summer Learning Loss and keep your child’s brain active over the break.

The Facts On Summer Learning Loss

Six weeks in the fall are spent re-learning old material Two months of reading skills are lost over the summer One month of overall learning is lost after summer vacation

With the right mindset, goals, and structure, you’ll have no problem finishing summer reading and homework between BBQ’s, ball games, and beach trips.

Follow these 14 steps to learn how to complete summer homework—without sacrificing summer fun.

14 Tips For Finishing Your Summer Homework Assignments

Make a game plan, tip 1: take a (quick) break.

It’s hard to go from a full year of schoolwork to tackling summer homework right off the bat. Let your child take a week off of homework at the start of the summer. This will give his or her brain a chance to relax and reset, and enjoy taking part in fun summer activities like sports.

Tip 2: Review Project Requirements

Don’t have your child dive head-first into his or her homework assignments. Review the expectations of each project with your child and discuss how much time he or she will need to complete them.

It would be a shame to waste time redoing a project because your child didn’t understand it initially. Reviewing all requirements is an important first step to starting off on the right foot.

Tip 3: Break Down Each Project Into A Series of Goals

Think about which assignments will take the longest and what your child will need to complete them during the summer. Break these larger assignments into a series of goals that need to be met to complete the project.

Examples of goals include “read 2 chapters per week” or “write essay introduction by July 15th”.

Set Aside The Right Amount Of Time

Tip 4: plan a weekly summer homework schedule.

This should be similar to a school year homework schedule, but altered for the summer. T he ideal amount of time to spend doing summer homework per week is 2-3 hours , so figure out where that time fits into your child’s average summer week.

Tip 5: Make A List Of Supplies & Resources

Your summer adventures could take you and your child to a wide variety of places. Make sure you both know what to bring with you so your child can tackle homework when not at home.

Examples of supplies include:

• Textbooks or Assigned Novels

Tip 6: Choose Assignment Topics Based On Interest, Not Length

Sometimes students are given options when it comes to topics to research or books to read over the summer. Encourage your child to make these decisions based on the topics that interests him or her most—not which is “easiest”. This will result in your child enjoying his or her work, and allow him to benefit more from it.

Help Your Child Do Work On-The-Go

Tip 7: adjust your homework schedule for trips & vacations.

Exploring new places is an amazing learning experience, so don’t feel like you should sacrifice them for more homework time. Instead, plan your child’s homework schedule around these day trips and vacations.

If you know your child won’t have time to complete work while you’re away on a longer trip, make up those hours in the weeks before and after your trip.

Tip 8: Tackle The Work Your Child Can Do On-The-Go

While writing an essay is a project to save for when you return home, there are assignments that your child can tackle from just about anywhere. Options for homework to do on vacation include projects that are doable in small chunks—like reading a book or completing a math worksheet.

Tip 9: Bring Your Child’s Supplies With You

Remember that supplies list you created? Make sure you pack that backpack and bring it with you on your trip! It’d be a waste to find a spare hour to finish that math assignment, only to realize your child left his or her calculator at home.

Tip 10: Capitalize On The Quiet Times

Even the busiest trips include some quiet time. If you’re early for a dinner reservation, have your child complete a chapter of reading while you wait. Or, encourage your child to wake up 20 minutes early to answer some math questions without disruption.

Build A Support Team For Your Child

Tip 11: schedule a weekly workdate for your child & a friend.

There’s no reason your child has to work through summer homework alone. Make a weekly work date with a friend where they can tackle summer assignments together. If that friend is in the same class as your child, they can even discuss questions and challenges together. Build A Support Team For Your Child

Tip 12: Review Your Child’s Progress Every Week

Each week, speak with your child about the work he or she accomplished, and what is planned for the week ahead. If you know your child will be busy soon, work together to reorganize his or her homework schedule.

Tip 13: Touch Base With a Tutor (Or Enrol In Summer Learning Program)

A new set of eyes can make all the difference in making sure your child gets his or her summer assignments done efficiently and effectively. Your child’s tutor will be able to give constructive feedback and turn this feedback into goals for the upcoming school year.

If you want an extra head start for your child this school year, enroll him or her in a Summer Learning tutoring program to get started on the right track.

And Most Importantly…

Tip 14: reward your child with summer fun.

While schoolwork is important during the summer, it doesn’t have to come at the sacrifice of having fun. Whenever your child completes a new project or achieves a goal, reward him or her with a treat or fun summer activity.

Work Hard—And Play Hard—This Summer

Summer might seem like it will last forever, but the school year will be here before you know it. Don’t let your child fall into the habit of procrastination—instead, make a plan together and stick to it.

If you follow these tips, your child will finish summer homework and summer reading in no time…and develop great learning and study habits that will already be in place for next year!

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Connect with us, in this section, horizontal nav, summer reading.

Each year, the Catalano Memorial Library in conjunction with CCHS staff put together a list of books we think Central students would enjoy reading over the summer. The list contains books across multiple genres and writing styles. 

2024 Suggested Summer Reading List

This two page digital poster is embedded with links to read the book's description, access it on Sora, or watch the book trailer. Click the arrows to move between the pages. 

2023 Suggested Summer Reading List

Printable list of the  Catalano Memorial Library Suggested Summer Reads 2023 .

Summer Homework: A How-To Guide for Parents and Kids

It’s become a predictable yearly debate that rolls around every June:

Should my kids really be getting summer homework?

And if they do, how should we approach it so they actually learn something over the summer (rather than just doing busywork)?

Here’s the thing:

At some schools, kids are routinely overloaded with multiple books to read, and big math packets to complete.

At other schools? Nothing is assigned.

My personal opinion is that the right balance lies somewhere in the middle… Yes, we want kids to keep their minds sharp, but not at the expense of having fun over the summer.

So in this post I’ll cover:

• My opinion on the age-old summer homework debate (in the video below)
• How to handle the different types of work assigned to students over the summer
• Some specific recommendations for what you can do as a parent to keep your kids engaged in the process, including a recent interview I did with WTOP’s Every Day is Kid’s Day podcast on the topic

And you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how to make the most out of homework (or lack thereof) this summer.

You can click one of the links below to jump to one of the sections of the guide:

How much is too much summer homework? How to tackle summer reading (The Amazon Method) How to handle math packets and workbooks Creative ways to make Summer Learning fun

Or jump right in with the video below.

How much is too much? What the research says…

When kids do nothing at all in math and reading, the research shows that they can lose two to three months of learning progress over the summer.

Just think: That’s almost as if they decided to end the school year in March!

And if left alone, those losses accumulate over time with respect to their peers.

A 2007 study out of John’s Hopkins University showed that while students (on average) make similar gains in reading comprehension throughout the year, students without access to learning opportunities make no progress over the summer, while students with access outpace them year after year.

Ultimately, by the time they reach 5th grade, disadvantaged students are the equivalent of 3 full grade levels behind their advantaged peers in reading ability!

But, this trend need not apply to your son or daughter…

Because studies also show that kids who read just four books over the summer are able to almost completely eliminate that summer learning slide.

So here’s my take:

If your son or daughter is being required to…

• Read three books, probably classics that they really don’t want to read
• Write multiple essays
• And complete stacks of math assignments

… that’s probably a bit overboard.

Yes, we want kids to keep their minds sharp, but not at the expense of having fun over the summer.

So my recommendation is to create a balance. Get your summer assignments done, but try to structure it in a way that makes learning fun.

Here’s how to do it…

Required vs. Recommended Summer Homework

First off, we can break down summer homework assignments in terms of required vs. recommended .

Most schools send out a recommended reading list, and sometimes subject review packets to their students to complete over the summer.

And some actually require that their students complete a certain amount of those assignments over the summer, which are included in their grade for the upcoming school year.

Now, it does make sense to prioritize required assignments over recommended assignments… especially if your school went overboard with what they handed out.

But as long as it’s not too much material, regardless of whether reading is assigned or not, I recommend working with your child to map out a plan of attack for the summer to get it done (on their terms – see below).

How to tackle summer reading (The Amazon Method)

By far, the most popular category of summer homework assigned are reading lists.

And although most schools have a recommended reading list, they tend to be very broad ( umm, should my 8-year-old really be reading MacBeth right now? )…

Specific reading requirements

Sometimes though, there are specific books that your student needs to read over the summer (see the “required” section above), especially high school students, and you’ll need to work with them to figure out a plan of attack.

Block off some time at the beginning of summer (don’t let it wait until July!) to sit down and ask them:

“You have these 3 books you have to read this summer. How would you like to tackle these?”

And then let them answer. Help them formulate a (realistic) plan with their input, and they’ll but much more likely to follow it… and not end up in the last-minute reading rush on August 30th trying to get their summer reading done!

Flexible reading requirements

But on the other hand, if you do have some flexibility in terms of what your student is assigned to read over the summer, what I like to do is create a reading list tailored specifically towards the age or interests of your student.

And one of the best ways to do this is: Amazon!

Step 1: Go to Amazon.com and type in “Books for… [insert description of your child]”

For example, if I had a 7th grader at home I would search: “Books for middle school”

Or if I was looking for something more girl-oriented for my daughter I would search: “Books for middle school girls”

It’s amazing what books will pop up on the top of the list for kids…

Step 2: Review the list and make sure that the results are relevant (sometimes they require a little tweaking), and pay attention to the options on the sidebar where you can filter by subject, age rage, etc.

Then run them by your child and ask: “Which one of these do you want to read this summer?”

Look over the summaries and let them pick the books they want to read.

Word of caution: It’s not your responsibility as a parent to pass judgment and say:

“You know what honey, this year you’re not reading a graphic novel. You can only read books with words, no pictures.

We don’t want to do that as parents. We really want to let our kids decide, because when they’re invested, they’re much more likely to meet that four book goal over the summer.

Step 3: Either order online or head out to the library…

Make sure to do this before July 4th so the summer doesn’t get away from you, and use your list of books that you picked out.

Then, when you get your books back home…

Step 4: Sit down with them and make a plan.

Don’t assume your child will gleefully run up to his room and begin flipping the pages. They’re much more likely to read consistently if you have “READING TIME” marked off on the calendar at a consistent time each day.

You can even make it a family routine! Having everyone in the house reading at the same time will help encourage your child to get their reading done, especially if they’re reluctant or easily distracted.

Now, many kids are reluctant readers and may need a parent to help them get started… And you need to be willing to make the time to lend a hand.

This can be in the form of “you read a page, he reads a page” or for a really reluctant reader, “you read two pages and he reads one,” until he’s into the story.

Make this a habit, and before long you’ll have a bookworm on your hands!

How to handle math packets and workbooks

The same principles hold true for other assigned work as well.

Don’t assume your child will be chipping away at those math packets one day at a time (and the thicker they are, the more daunting they’ll seem).

Truth be told: we get lots of calls from parents mid-August, panicked that their kid hasn’t read and annotated a three-hundred-page book and completed a bunch of review worksheets – even though the parent has reminded him at least ten times!

This situation isn’t unique.

The value to any summer learning is doing a little bit at a time over a long stretch. The brain retains information best in bit sized chunks, not by cramming.

And this is even more important for math because it’s a subject that continually builds on itself. So if you miss something early on, you’re probably going to have to back-track when you run into that same concept again in the future.

So just like with reading assignments, if your son or daughter are assigned a math packet (or any other type of subject packet) over the summer, make sure to site down and set the plan early.

Aside from your typical reading lists and workbooks though, you can also encourage learning in other (more fun!) ways this summer…

Creative ways to make Summer Learning fun

Below is a recent interview I did with WTOP’s Every Day is Kid’s Day podcast (interview starts at 0:53) on how to bring a fresh perspective to summer learning, and make things more fun and interesting for your son or daughter this year.

Give it a listen for some more tips on:

• Using the Amazon Method to make summer reading more fun
• Alternatives to summer workbooks that are actually fun and effective
• Whether you should spend the time to try and “preview” material they’re going to see in the coming year
• And a whole bunch of other useful ideas for staying engaged over the summer

Here are some of those great ways to get your child into learning, outside of school recommended assignments:

For writing: use a dialogue journal.

One of the best ways to get your child comfortable with writing on a regular basis is to make a game out of it.

So try designating a “special” notebook or journal that lives in your kid’s room that you can use to communicate with them through writing.

Then, simply leave them a note each day, that they read and respond to.

Maybe you say something like, “I noticed how you helped your brother pick up those puzzle pieces. What a nice idea. How did you know he needed your help?”

Leave the journal on his bed and allow him to write back that evening. The next day, you respond.

And be sure not to fix grammar or spelling, just let these be a carefree way to practice writing and even illustrations.

At the end of the summer, not only will they have improved their writing skills, but you’ll also have an amazing keepsake to look back on for years to come.

For reading: listen to audiobooks!

Don’t forget that audio books can be very helpful for developing comprehension and fluency.

Studies show that when kids want to read a book just above their level and listen to the book while following along with the lines, they improve their skills more than if they read independently.

So using a site like Audible.com or going to your local library website to download audio versions of the books your son or daughter has picked out (or has assigned) for the summer isn’t cheating, it’s just another way to “open the door” to getting them involved in reading.

Plus, it’s great for long summer road trips!

For math: play (math) games on the iPad.

For most of us, it’s a constant battle to keep our kids AWAY from the devices over the summer… but it need not be either or.

One of the best ways to “bridge the gap” is to give your child the opportunity to use educational apps or websites on their phone or iPad that will keep them learning, without feeling like math always has to involve drudgery.

Multiplication.com is great site for staying sharp on math facts. And pretty much every elementary schooler needs to practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division over the summer to stay sharp.

Funbrain.com is also perfect for allowing a little screen time in-between reading or homework sessions, while still learning at the same time.

For learning that’s fun: find local adventures!

Yes, you could have your kids spend their summer doing workbooks and refresher material, and that would probably help them stay sharp… but most kids find that to be a drag on their motivation to learn.

Instead, find a local museum or science center and take field trip!

Use the outing to ask your kids to guide the learning session and pick out what they want to explore… and then tell you about it.

And then watch in amazement at how excited they are, not even realizing that they’re “learning,” but just enjoying the moment and experiencing something new.

Summer camps are great for this too, so do some Googling and find out what’s going on in your area.

Now let’s hear from you..

How have you handled the balance between required summer schoolwork and fun?

What have you done that’s helpful in your family to keep summer learning alive without going overboard?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

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Arlington Public Library

Summer Reading

Adventure begins at your library: summer reading.

Join the Summer Reading Challenge to complete 21 days of reading! 

This summer, adventure begins at Arlington Public Library as you read and participate in fun programs and experiences.

Read for a cause and support Outdoor Lab and earn fun prizes and tickets to a Washington Nationals Game!

Register in the Arlington Public Library app or pick up a paper reading log at any library location to record your reading. It’s perfectly legit to backdate your reading log. You only need to read for any 21 days starting on June 1 to win prizes.

Register for Summer Reading

Faqs for summer reading, events for summer reading, prizes and bonus challenges, book lists for summer reading, summer reading partners, how summer reading works.

• Read for any 21 days, starting on June 1, to complete Summer Reading.
• Backdate your reading activity log if you sign up by Sept. 1
• Win prizes!
• Want to keep going? Do the challenge over again and attend a library program to become a Super Reader!

Important Dates

• Summer Reading Starts  - June 1
• Last Day to Register for Summer Reading - September 1
• Last Day to Pick Up Prizes - September 3

How to Participate

• Download the Arlington Public Library App . Summer Reading registration begins June 1.
• Collect a reading log from your Library or download a copy in English/Spanish [PDF] ; large print in English/Spanish [PDF] .
• Track each day you read between June 1 - Sept. 1 . You can backdate your reading activity.
• Read for any 21 days to complete the Summer Reading Challenge! You can't read too little or too much on any given day, and you don’t have to read 21 days in a row.
• Claim a Completion Prize at any Library location! Bring your reading log (digital or paper) with you.
• Do the challenge over again and attend a library program to earn a Super Reader Prize!

Why are Summer Reading Programs Important?

Summer Reading programs help kids and teens avoid "summer slide" and reintroduce them to the joy of reading for pleasure. These programs can help motivate parents and kids to read or listen to books together and they can prompt adults to explore new books and authors.

Summer Reading: Adventure Begins at Your Library is made possible through the generosity of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library and the Washington Nationals and is hosted in partnership with Outdoor Lab and Arlington County Department of Cultural Affairs .

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How to Squeeze the Most Out of Summer Homework

We know it takes the adolescent brain a few weeks or more to get back up to speed after the long summer break. Many teachers, particularly in the high school grades, try to reduce their students’ brain power regression by trying to keep them busy over the vacation. How can summer homework, particularly reading, benefit students without seeming like a chore? The answer is complex, and it partly depends on how helpful you feel about homework in the first place.

Tips to Make Summer Homework Worthwhile

Just like classroom and home learning during the school year, if summer homework tasks are inauthentic (e.g., busy work), they will serve little to no purpose. But, the brain drain of the summer months is real. So, how do we ensure that our students are firing on all cylinders when they walk through our doors in the fall? Here are some things to keep in mind when assigning summer homework.

1. Make Sure the Tasks Count for Something

Nothing will generate ill will amongst students faster than telling them their summer work was all for naught, but you wouldn’t believe how many teachers forget their students even had anything assigned over the summer break.

Students have read your books or have done your homework in good faith. The summer homework needs to be included or even dominate your first unit of the new school year. Otherwise, you might have some trust issues to address.

2. Make Summer Work Tasks Authentic

Students, especially older ones, can quickly sniff out busy work; they are less likely to give their best effort when they sense it.

If it’s something you wouldn’t assign during class—but might give to a substitute if you’re out—don’t assign it over the summer break. The goal is to prepare students for their upcoming studies just as much as it is to keep them from forgetting what they learned in the previous school year. Find a mix of the new with the old, and make it as engaging as possible.

3. Allow Some Summer Homework to Be Self-Guided

It’s no secret that the more input the student has in the task, the more engaging the lesson becomes. Because you’re not necessarily worried about mastery of new material and aren’t focusing on academic standards, there’s no harm in letting the students choose from a list of possible projects or books to read. Try assigning a “ Passion Project ”, where students choose a topic of personal interest and create a project or presentation around it.

4. Utilize the Ultimate Flipped Learning Opportunity

Perhaps you’re a flipped learning veteran or may still be just dabbling. Either way, summer break is the perfect opportunity to assign some lesson videos from your own library or an online resource.

Have students watch some TED Talks or lectures from Coursera or instructional videos from Khan Academy . They might not come in with complete mastery of the assigned topics, but they will be much better prepared to begin learning the material than if they were just doing worksheets from last school year’s work.

5. Celebrate Achievements and Milestones

If you have the resources, include a voluntary option for students to track their achievements and milestones online. Doing so can help students stay accountable in completing assignments while giving teachers the opportunity to motivate their students to continue their learning journey. You can experiment with virtual awards ceremonies, certificates of achievement, or personalized feedback messages. Consider acknowledging everyone again in person at the beginning of the school year to include those who were unable to participate online.

6. Encourage Peer Collaboration and Support

Another option to consider is incorporating group projects, peer review activities, and collaborative discussions into summer homework assignments to encourage students to actively engage with course content and develop essential teamwork and communication skills. Peer collaboration also fosters a sense of camaraderie and accountability among students, as they work together to achieve common goals and support each other's learning journey. For example, try facilitating peer review sessions where students provide feedback and support to their peers on their homework assignments. Students can exchange drafts of their essays or presentations and provide constructive feedback on areas for improvement. Suggest using free online platforms like Google Docs or Padlet for peer collaboration.

Looking for other fun ideas to encourage learning over summer break? Check out Edmentum’s free 30-Day Summer Challenge . Our flyer includes creative ideas designed to keep students engaged in their learning. With 30 days’ worth of fun activities, facts, and resources, learners are bound to learn something new each day and make the most out of summer break.

This post was originally published in June 2013 and has been updated.

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Summer Reads 2024: Princeton professors share what's on their lists

Illustration by Matilda Luk, Office of Communications

Six Princeton professors talk about beloved books on their shelves and share what’s on their summer reading lists — from scholarly nonfiction to crime fiction, with history, poetry, rom-com, artificial intelligence, magic, democracy, philosophy and more in the mix.

Some book choices reflect our contributors’ research and teaching. Others illuminate personal interests and current issues in the headlines. 

Campt is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor in the Humanities, and professor of art & archaeology and visual arts at the Lewis Center for the Arts . 

Tell us about a particular book on your shelf.  

" The Sweet Flypaper of Life , " photographs by Roy DeCarava, text by Langston Hughes.

This exquisite little book (which when opened, nestles perfectly in the palm of your hands) is a volume I teach regularly, but it’s also an endless source of inspiration and a beacon of hope. DeCarava’s intimate black-and-white photos of Harlem street and domestic life allow us to “feel" Black sociality through a complex play of darkness, shadow and light which resonates with deep affective power. 

His work is a prime example of a concept that lies at the heart of my research: "visual frequency" — a term that describes imagery that registers beyond what we see by soliciting powerful emotional responses. It captures ineffable qualities of Black sociality and its irrepressible strivings even in the face of the most challenging circumstances.

What’s on your summer reading list? 

As I prepare to go on sabbatical, I have the privilege of allowing my personal and professional booklists to merge as I now begin to embrace the delight of extended unstructured reading time — beginning with two books of poetry:

" To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness "   by Robin Coste Lew takes us on a lyrical journey through the author’s family photographs and the confluence of insights, responses and emotions that emerge through our encounter with the memories and relations that photographs conjure.

" Bluest Nude " by Ama Codjoe is a collection of verses which enact through poetry what I aspire to do in prose. Like me, she " writes to "  the artwork of Black artists including  Betye Saar, Malick Sidibé, Mickalene Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, and my Princeton colleague in visual arts Deana Lawson,  among others.

Rounding out the top three titles on my work/pleasure reading list is " Devotion ," the first catalog/collection of essays on and conversations with the genre-defying filmmaker Garrett Bradley. With essays and interviews by an exceptional range of artists, critics, curators and scholars including Huey Copeland, Tyler Mitchell, Joy James, Doreen St. Felix, Legacy Russell, Kevin Quashie, Arthur Jafa and Linda Goode Bryant, quite frankly, I cannot wait!

Tom Griffiths

Tom Griffiths 

Griffiths is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture of Psychology and Computer Science .

Tell us about a particular book on your shelf. 

I am going to break the rules a little bit to include two books that I highly recommend for readers interested in learning more about artificial intelligence:

" The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values " by Brian Christian. One of the biggest questions raised by AI is how to create AI systems that are aligned with human values. This book takes on that question and provides a great introduction to some of the ideas behind modern AI. Brian was my co-author on "Algorithms to Live By" (2016), and I loved this new book of his.

" The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI " by Fei-Fei Li, a 1999 alumna and former faculty member at Princeton, where she did some of the fundamental research that launched the AI revolution. This book elegantly interweaves her story with insights about how AI works and is this year's Pre-Read for the incoming Class of 2028.

Most of the non-fiction reading I do is about finding connections between topics in AI and cognitive science and ideas in other fields. Two books I’m excited to read are:

• " Games: Agency as Art " by C. Thi Nguyen. Games are objects that reveal a lot about human cognition — designing a game partly involves reverse-engineering how people think about the world and what they find rewarding. This book takes a unique perspective on games and game design that I am hoping will inform some new projects in my lab.
• " Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa " by my Princeton colleague Anthony Grafton, the Henry Putnam University Professor of History. This book is about how early practitioners of magic interpreted aspects of what we would later recognize as cognitive science through a supernatural lens. What we believe about magic provides a very pure measure of how human minds interpret their environment. I have a few papers that look at this idea in detail.

I also read a lot of fiction — about a book a week. Here are three novels I’m looking forward to reading this summer:

• " The Familiar " by Leigh Bardugo explores the interpretation of magic and miracles in post-Inquisition Spain (a topic of particular interest as my wife has Sephardic heritage).
• " Dawn " by Octavia E. Butler is a science fiction story about a survivor rescued from an extinction event by aliens and tasked with recreating human society. Alignment problems abound.
• " Empires " by Nick Earls unfolds over three centuries and three continents. I grew up in Australia and read books by Australians when I get homesick — Earls is one of my favorite Australian authors.

Jacob Nebel

Nebel is professor of philosophy and a 2013 Princeton graduate .

My favorite philosophy book is " Reasons and Persons " by Derek Parfit. It’s just breathtaking in scope, wrestling with questions about the rationality of morality and self-interest, our attitudes to time, the nature and importance of personal identity, and our obligations to future generations. The headline, “ Tibetan monks found chanting text by Oxford philosopher, ” refers to this book.

Parfit died unexpectedly in 2017. He, his work, and his mentorship (he supervised my BPhil thesis at Oxford) meant a great deal to me. A wonderful biography — “ Parfit ” by David Edmonds — was published last year by Princeton University Press.

Some philosophy books:

• " The Bounds of Possibility: Puzzles of Modal Variation "   by Cian Dorr, a 2002 Princeton graduate alumnus, John Hawthorne and Juhani Yli-Vakkuri, is about the limits of how different things could have been. For example, Nassau Hall could have been smaller than it actually is, but it couldn’t have been as small as my pinky toe. This sort of judgment gives rise to various puzzles, which are the topic of this book.
• " Bias: A Philosophical Study ." What is it for someone or something to be biased? Why do we tend to attribute bias to people who disagree with us, and to think that we ourselves are less biased than others? This book, by my Princeton colleague (and senior thesis adviser) Thomas Kelly, professor of philosophy, is about questions like these concerning the nature and normative significance of bias.
• " The Rules of Rescue: Cost, Distance and Effective Altruism " by Theron Pummer is about whether and in what ways our duties to aid are sensitive to the number of people we could help, their distance from or connections to us, the cumulative sacrifice we make over our lifetimes, and how we want our own lives to go.

Some non-philosophy books:

• " The MANIAC"   by Benjamín Labatut is a fictionalized biography of John von Neumann (among other things). 
• " City in Ruins "   by Don Winslow is the conclusion to a crime trilogy I’ve enjoyed so far. 
• " Glorious Exploits " by Ferdia Lennon is a comedy set in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.
• " Funny Story "   by Emily Henry, queen of the millennial meet-cute.
• " Everyone Poops " by Tarō Gomi (originally published in Japanese). I have a 2-year-old son, and this summer is potty-training season.

Christy Wampole

Wampole is professor of French and Italian .

" Perspectives on Our Age: Jacques Ellul Speaks on His Life and Work ." Recently, I’ve taken an interest in technophobia and technoskepticism and was happy to find some of my intuitions confirmed in the writings of the French sociologist Jacques Ellul (1912-1994). 

Although he died before the Internet and cellphones had introduced now familiar forms of distraction, depression and anxiety, Ellul wrote presciently about the many ways technology would change every aspect of culture, including daily life, art, literature and philosophy. The humanity of his writing inspires me to bring an analog spirit to my writing and teaching.

I am in the middle of a book project on the Zeitgeist or the spirit of the times, an idea that emerged in response to the French Revolution.

Back then, several European thinkers — mostly Germans — tried to figure out why the people seemed suddenly moved by some invisible force to rise up against monarchy, and one of the more consistent explanations was that a ghostly figure, the spirit of the age, had exerted its influence on them.

This project has filled my shelves with an odd mix of books: writings on ghosts, revolution, atmospheres, Napoleon, vibes, pop culture, crowds, Romanticism, journalism, public opinion polls, generations. Still left to read over the summer are:

• " The Unnamable Present "   by Roberto Calasso ("L'innominabile attuale" in Italian), part of a series about the secular West in the 20th century.
• " The Mood of the World "   by Heinz Bude, originally published in German under the title "Das Gefühl der Welt," seeks to understand contemporary uneasiness in the realms of politics, finance, social life and technology. 
• " Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture "   by Douglas Coupland, a book about and for my generation, which, perhaps because of my default Gen-X slacker attitude, I never actually read. 
• And many more books with titles that refer in some way to the spirit of the times: " Surfing the Zeitgeist "   by Gilbert Adair, " The Spirit of the Age "   by William Hazlitt, the two-volume " L’Esprit du temps "   by Edgar Morin and "Geist der Zeit"   by Ernst Moritz Arndt, published in 1806 .

I will also do a deep dive into the Mass-Observation Archive, a social research project started in 1937 using questionnaires, diaries, and various observers who would record the minutiae of daily life. Some of the materials collected have been anthologized into volumes such as “ Speak for Yourself: A Mass-Observation Anthology 1937-1949 .”

Anna Yu Wang

Yu Wang is assistant professor of music .

" Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions " by Kofi Agawu. With chapter titles like “Polymeter, Additive Rhythm, and Othering Enduring Myths,” this book is chock full of provocations on the ethics of researching African music (in particular) and music beyond the Western canon (in general). It models daring question-asking, compelling argumentation, and candor. My thinking continues to be challenged, in the best of ways, by this book.

First, let me recommend some mind-opening reads:

• " Record of a Spaceborn Few " by Becky Chambers, part of the exquisite “Wayfarers” series, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series in science fiction or fantasy. Set in an outer space human colony, this book is a sensitive and hope-filled exploration of death, change, immigration, otherness and the makeup of social institutions.
• " Private Equity " by Carrie Sun. This memoir penned by the former assistant of a major hedge fund CEO explores mental hardship, Asian-American identity and workplace culture.
• " The Sea Around Us " by Rachel Carson. This book offers a beautiful account of the history and lifeforms of the earth’s ocean. It is written in a vivid, transporting prose that I aspire towards in my own writing.

These more scholarly books on my summer reading (and rereading) list engage the ethics and politics of difference-making and relation-seeking, and the way these opposing tendencies leave their mark on aesthetic experience.

• " Ornamentalism " by Anne Anlin Cheng, professor of English at Princeton. This book studies how the ornament, cast as the site of the oriental, feminine and marginalized, became leveraged as the foil for “modernity.”
• " Interspecies Communication: Sound and Music Beyond Humanity " by my Princeton colleague Gavin Steingo, professor of music, surveys the motivations behind human attempts at animal and alien communication in the 20th century. It addresses charged themes like desire, love and the imagination of the human/nonhuman divide.
• " Sound Relations: Native Ways of Doing Music History in Alaska " by Jessica Bissett Perea. This study of Indigenous musicking in Alaska shows how musical acts and positionalities are formed from a dense network of incommensurable truths.
• " Chinatown Opera in North America " by Nancy Yunhwa Rao. This book historicizes the significance of Cantonese opera among the first Chinese immigrants in Canada and the U.S., stretching the limits of how American music is conventionally defined.

Leonard Wantchekon

Wantchekon is the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of politics and international affairs .

My favorite book is " Ambiguous Adventure " by Cheick Hamidou Kane, a classic of African literature. It is the captivating story of the Diallobe community facing the challenge of preserving their cultural identity in the face educational opportunities brought by the French colonial rule. The central character, Samba Diallo, becomes a brilliant college student in France, while remaining deeply rooted in his local traditions. The question is how to remain true to the “ultimate values” of the past while embracing modern education.

I am re-reading two novels related to my work:

• " Homegoing " is a historical fiction novel by Yaa Gyasi. It follows the family history of a woman from the Asante ethnic group in Ghana during the transatlantic slave trade. Her two daughters are separated by life circumstances — one marries a British governor running the slave trade and the other is an enslaved captive of the same man. The book covers the lives of their descendants over several generations. It parallels my research on the intergenerational trauma of the transatlantic slave trade and on the social mobility of students from the first colonial schools in Benin, my home country, and Nigeria.
• “ Burger’s Daughter ” is a political and historical novel by the Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer. It covers the emergence of a group of white political activists working alongside the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela to end the Apartheid regime. The novel is a direct and vivid account of the struggle against Apartheid in the 1970s, which inspired my own involvement in the prodemocracy movement in Benin in the early '80s, as well as my 2012 autobiography, “ Rêver à contre-courant ."

Also on my list is " Purple Hibiscus " by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, on the lives of two siblings from an upper-class family in Eastern Nigeria during the Civil War. It is a fascinating account of a wealthy Nigerian authoritarian family, the emotional turmoil of the children and the powerful bonds that emerge from it.

And three books to read ahead of the 2024 presidential election:

• The most interesting read is “ Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action and Make Real Change ” by Eitan Hersh. The book describes the way contemporary American politics has become more of a hobby, an entertainment or a spectator sport, with strong emotional attachments to candidates and dinner table arguments triggered by sound bites from campaign ads or provocative social media posts by politicians. It calls for a shift in political culture with more constructive dialogue between informed citizens as well as effective collective action for meaningful social change. It is also a call for us to be more involved in local politics.
• A great complementary reading is “ Reclaiming Participatory Governance: Social Movements and the Reinvention of Democratic Innovation ,” a collection of essays by Adrian Bua and Sonia Bussu. The book explores the challenges of bottom-up democracy, in which citizens play a prominent role in policy formulation and implementation. Participatory governance requires electoral campaigns that are deliberative, with more town hall meeting-style interactions between candidates and voters, as opposed to campaign ads and rallies. This is consistent with evidence from my research on deliberative political communication, indicating that these strategies promote ethical voting and informed citizenry.  
• For an in-depth history of town meetings in American democracy, I would suggest Frank M. Bryan’s “ Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works .” The bottom line is that, “Citizens are not born, they are raised.” In 19th-century New England, town halls were widely perceived as training grounds for citizenship.

Related Stories

Summer Reads 2021: What are Princeton professors reading — and listening to — this summer? .

Six Princeton professors talk about how the books on their shelves relate to their research and teaching, and share the books, audio books and podcasts on their summer reading lists.

Summer Reads 2018: What are Princeton professors reading this summer? .

Six Princeton professors talk about how the books on their shelves relate to their work and share what’s on their summer reading lists. We also have some movie recommendations.

Spinal tap 2015: A peek into professors' bookshelves .

Six Princeton professors talk about how the books on their shelves relate to their scholarship and teaching, highlight one or two favorite books, and share what's on their own summer reading (and in one case, film) lists.

Summer Reads 2023 .

Six Princeton professors share what's on their reading lists, from “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius (ca. AD 171-175) to the season's latest.

Spinal tap 2017: What are Princeton professors reading this summer? .

Six Princeton professors talk about how the books on their shelves relate to their work, highlight one or two favorite books and share what's on their own summer reading lists.

Summer Reads 2020: What are Princeton professors reading this summer? .

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In This Section

Summer reading, 2024 summer reading texts.

Please find the Summer Reading Books for August 2024. Links to available paperback and some audible editions on Amazon have been provided. Please be aware that links may change. Any unabridged version of the text will be suitable. (You may also find editions in Kindle eBooks or in iBooks.) Students will not be responsible for any introductory material; they will only be responsible for the actual text of the book.

Students are required to read all of the assigned books for their class, and the Summer Reading Test will cover all three of the books.

Entering Grade 9

Entering grade 9 honors, entering grade 10, entering grade 10 honors, entering grade 11, entering ap language & composition, entering grade 12, entering ap literature & composition.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Paperback 

Romeo and Juliet

Things Fall Apart

The Adventures of Ulysses

Kindle (no paperback available)

Death of a Salesman

The Great Gatsby

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

A Separate Peace

Twelfth Night

The Stranger

The Good Earth

Henry IV, Part 1

Gulliver’s Travels

The Devil in the White City

Frankenstein

Lord of the Flies

Klara and the Sun

Please contact English Department Chair Mr. Christopher Gismondi ( [email protected] ) with any questions or concerns.

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Summer 2024 reading from MIT

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MIT faculty and staff authors have published a plethora of books, chapters, and other literary contributions in the past year. The following titles represent some of their works published in the past 12 months. In addition to links for each book from its publisher, the MIT Libraries has compiled a helpful list of the titles held in its collections .

Looking for more literary works from the MIT community? Enjoy our book lists from 2023 , 2022 , and 2021 .

Happy reading!

Novel, memoir, and poetry

“ Seizing Control: Managing Epilepsy and Others’ Reactions to It — A Memoir ” (Haley’s, 2023) By Laura Beretsky, grant writer in the MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES) program

Beretsky’s memoir, “Seizing Control,” details her journey with epilepsy, discrimination, and a major surgical procedure to reduce her seizures. After two surgical interventions, she has been seizure-free for eight years, though she notes she will always live with epilepsy.

“ Sky. Pond. Mouth. ” (Yas Press, 2024) By Kevin McLellan, staff member in MIT’s Program in Art, Culture, and Technology

In this book of poetry, physical and emotional qualities free-range between the animate and inanimate as though the world is written with dotted lines. With chiseled line breaks, intriguing meta-poetic levels, and punctuation like seed pods, McLellan’s poems, if we look twice, might flourish outside the book’s margin, past the grow light of the screen, even (especially) other borderlines we haven’t begun to imagine.

Science and engineering

“ The Visual Elements: Handbooks for Communicating Science and Engineering ” (University of Chicago Press, 2023 and 2024) By Felice Frankel, research scientist in chemical engineering

Each of the two books in the “Visual Elements” series focuses on a different aspect of scientific visual communication: photography on one hand and design on the other. Their unifying goal is to provide guidance for scientists and engineers who must communicate their work with the public, for grant applications, journal submissions, conference or poster presentations, and funding agencies. The books show researchers the importance of presenting their work in clear, concise, and appealing ways that also maintain scientific integrity.

“ A Book of Waves ” (Duke University Press, 2023) By Stefan Helmreich, professor of anthropology

In this book, Helmreich examines ocean waves as forms of media that carry ecological, geopolitical, and climatological news about our planet. Drawing on ethnographic work with oceanographers and coastal engineers in the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, Japan, and Bangladesh, he details how scientists at sea and in the lab apprehend waves’ materiality through abstractions, seeking to capture in technical language these avatars of nature at once periodic and irreversible, wild and pacific, ephemeral and eternal.

“ An Introduction to System Safety Engineering ” (MIT Press, 2023) By Nancy G. Leveson, professor of aeronautics and astronautics

Preventing accidents and losses in complex systems requires a holistic perspective that can accommodate unprecedented types of technology and design. Leveson’s book covers the history of safety engineering; explores risk, ethics, legal frameworks, and policy implications; and explains why accidents happen and how to mitigate risks in modern, software-intensive systems. It includes accounts of well-known accidents like the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents, examining their causes and how to prevent similar incidents in the future.

“ Solvable: How We Healed the Earth, and How We Can Do It Again ” (University of Chicago Press, 2024) By Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies and Chemistry

We solved planet-threatening problems before, Solomon argues, and we can do it again. She knows firsthand what those solutions entail, as she gained international fame as the leader of a 1986 expedition to Antarctica, making discoveries that were key to healing the damaged ozone layer. She saw a path from scientific and public awareness to political engagement, international agreement, industry involvement, and effective action. Solomon connects this triumph to the stories of other past environmental victories — against ozone depletion, smog, pesticides, and lead — to extract the essential elements of what makes change possible.

Culture, humanities, and social sciences “ Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It ” (Princeton University Press, 2023) By Adam Berinsky, professor of political science

Political rumors pollute the political landscape. But if misinformation crowds out the truth, how can democracy survive? Berinsky examines why political rumors exist and persist despite their unsubstantiated and refuted claims, who is most likely to believe them, and how to combat them. He shows that a tendency toward conspiratorial thinking and vehement partisan attachment fuel belief in rumors. Moreover, in fighting misinformation, it is as important to target the undecided and the uncertain as it is the true believers.

“ Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China ,” (Princeton University Press, 2023) By Tristan Brown, assistant professor of history

In “Laws of the Land,” Brown tells the story of the important roles — especially legal ones — played by fengshui in Chinese society during China’s last imperial dynasty, the Manchu Qing (1644–1912). Employing archives from Mainland China and Taiwan that have only recently become available, this is the first book to document fengshui’s invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty.

“ Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions ” (Polity, 2024) By Alex Byrne, professor of philosophy

MIT philosopher Alex Byrne knows that within his field, he’s very much in the minority when it comes to his views on sex and gender. In “Trouble with Gender,” Byrne suggests that some ideas regarding sex and gender have not been properly examined by philosophers, and he argues for a reasoned and civil conversation on the topic.

“ Life at the Center: Haitians and Corporate Catholicism in Boston ”   (University of California Press, 2024) By Erica Caple James, professor of medical anthropology and urban studies

In “Life at the Center,” James traces how faith-based and secular institutions in Boston have helped Haitian refugees and immigrants attain economic independence, health, security, and citizenship in the United States. The culmination of more than a decade of advocacy and research on behalf of the Haitians in Boston, this groundbreaking work exposes how Catholic corporations have strengthened — but also eroded — Haitians’ civic power.

“ Portable Postsocialisms: New Cuban Mediascapes after the End of History ” (University of Texas Press, 2024) By Paloma Duong, associate professor of media studies/writing

Why does Cuban socialism endure as an object of international political desire, while images of capitalist markets consume Cuba’s national imagination? “Portable Postsocialisms” calls on a vast multimedia archive to offer a groundbreaking cultural interpretation of Cuban postsocialism. Duong examines songs, artworks, advertisements, memes, literature, jokes, and networks that refuse exceptionalist and exoticizing visions of Cuba.

“ They All Made Peace — What Is Peace? ” (University of Chicago Press, 2023) Chapter by Lerna Ekmekcioglu, professor of history and director of the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies

In her chapter, Ekmekcioglu contends that the Treaty of Lausanne, which followed the first world war, is an often-overlooked event of great historical significance for Armenians. The treaty became the “birth certificate” of modern Turkey, but there was no redress for Armenians. The chapter uses new research to reconstruct the dynamics of the treaty negotiations, illuminating both Armenians’ struggles as well as the international community’s struggles to deliver consistent support for multiethnic, multireligious states.

“ We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care ” (Portfolio, 2023) By Amy Finkelstein, professor of economics, and Liran Einav

Few of us need convincing that the American health insurance system needs reform. But many existing proposals miss the point, focusing on expanding one relatively successful piece of the system or building in piecemeal additions. As Finkelstein and Einav point out, our health care system was never deliberately designed, but rather pieced together to deal with issues as they became politically relevant. The result is a sprawling, arbitrary, and inadequate mess that has left 30 million Americans without formal insurance. It’s time, the authors argue, to tear it all down and rebuild, sensibly and deliberately.

“ At the Pivot of East and West: Ethnographic, Literary and Filmic Arts ” (Duke University Press, 2023) By Michael M.J. Fischer, professor of anthropology and of science and technology studies

In his latest book, Fischer examines documentary filmmaking and literature from Southeast Asia and Singapore for their para-ethnographic insights into politics, culture, and aesthetics. Continuing his project of applying anthropological thinking to the creative arts, Fischer exemplifies how art and fiction trace the ways in which taken-for-granted common sense changes over time speak to the transnational present and track signals of the future before they surface in public awareness.

“ Lines Drawn across the Globe ” (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2023) By Mary Fuller, professor of literature and chair of the faculty

Around 1600, English geographer and cleric Richard Hakluyt published a 2,000-page collection of travel narratives, royal letters, ships’ logs, maps, and more from over 200 voyages. In "Lines Drawn across the Globe," Fuller traces the history of the book’s compilation and gives order and meaning to its diverse contents. From Sierra Leone to Iceland, from Spanish narratives of New Mexico to French accounts of the Saint Lawrence and Portuguese accounts of China, Hakluyt’s shaping of the book provides a conceptual map of the world’s regions and of England’s real and imagined relations to them.

“ The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline ” (Yale University Press, 2023) By Yasheng Huang, the Epoch Foundation Professor of International Management and professor of global economics and management

According to Huang, the world is seeing a repeat of Chinese history during which restrictions on economic and political freedom created economic stagnation. The bottom line: “Without academic collaboration, without business collaboration, without technological collaborations, the pace of Chinese technological progress is going to slow down dramatically.”

“ The Long First Millennium: Affluence, Architecture, and Its Dark Matter Economy ”   (Routledge, 2023) By Mark Jarzombek, professor of the history and theory of architecture

Jarzombek’s book argues that long-distance trade in luxury items — such as diamonds, gold, cinnamon, scented woods, ivory, and pearls, all of which require little overhead in their acquisition and were relatively easy to transport — played a foundational role in the creation of what we would call “global trade” in the first millennium CE. The book coins the term “dark matter economy” to better describe this complex — though mostly invisible — relationship to normative realities. “The Long Millennium”   will appeal to students, scholars, and anyone interested in the effect of trade on   medieval society.

“ World Literature in the Soviet Union ” (Academic Studies Press, 2023) Chapter by Maria Khotimsky, senior lecturer in Russian

Khotimsky’s chapter, “The Treasure Trove of World Literature: Shaping the Concept of World Literature in Post-Revolutionary Russia,” examines Vsemirnaia Literatura (World Literature), an early Soviet publishing house founded in 1919 in Petersburg that advanced an innovative canon of world literature beyond the European tradition. It analyzes the publishing house’s views on translation, focusing on book prefaces that reveal a search for a new evaluative system, adaptation to changing socio-cultural norms and reassessing the roles of readers, critics, and the very endeavor of translation.

“ Dare to Invent the Future: Knowledge in the Service of and Through Problem-Solving ” (MIT Press, 2023) By Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, professor of science, technology, and society

In this provocative book — the first in a trilogy — Chakanetsa Mavhunga argues that our critical thinkers must become actual thinker-doers. Taking its title from one of Thomas Sankara’s most inspirational speeches, “Dare to Invent the Future” looks for moments in Africa’s story where precedents of critical thought and knowledge in service of problem-solving are evident to inspire readers to dare to invent such a knowledge system. “ Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention ” (Oxford University Press, 2024) By Roger Petersen, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science “Death, Dominance, and State-Building” provides the first comprehensive analytic history of post-invasion Iraq. Although the war is almost universally derided as one of the biggest foreign policy blunders of the post-Cold War era, Petersen argues that the course and conduct of the conflict is poorly understood. The book applies an accessible framework to a variety of case studies across time and region. It concludes by drawing lessons relevant to future American military interventions.

Technology, systems, and society

“ Code Work: Hacking Across the U.S./México Techno-Borderlands ” (Princeton University Press, 2023) By Héctor Beltrán, assistant professor of anthropology

In this book, Beltrán examines Mexican and Latinx coders’ personal strategies of self-making as they navigate a transnational economy of tech work. Beltrán shows how these hackers apply concepts from the coding world to their lived experiences, deploying batches, loose coupling, iterative processing (looping), hacking, prototyping, and full-stack development in their daily social interactions — at home, in the workplace, on the dating scene, and in their understanding of the economy, culture, and geopolitics.

“ Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in a World of Machines ” (Penguin Random House, 2023) By Joy Buolamwini SM ’17, PhD ’22, member of the Media Lab Director’s Circle

To many it may seem like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humankind. But to Buolamwini, this moment has been a long time in the making. “Unmasking AI” is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze” — evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products. She shows how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity “excoded” and therefore vulnerable in a world rapidly adopting AI tools.

“ Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action ” (MIT Press, 2024) By Catherine D’Ignazio, associate professor of urban science and planning

“Counting Feminicide” brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting feminicide, and challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work. D’Ignazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account.

“ Rethinking Cyber Warfare: The International Relations of Digital Disruption ” (Oxford University Press, 2024) By R. David Edelman, research fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies

Fifteen years into the era of “cyber warfare,” are we any closer to understanding the role a major cyberattack would play in international relations — or to preventing one? Uniquely spanning disciplines and enriched by the insights of a leading practitioner, Edelman provides a fresh understanding of the role that digital disruption plays in contemporary international security.

“ Model Thinking for Everyday Life: How to Make Smarter Decisions ” (INFORMS, 2023) By Richard Larson, professor post-tenure in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

Decisions are a part of everyday life, whether simple or complex. It’s all too easy to jump to Google for the answers, but where does that take us? We’re losing the ability to think critically and decide for ourselves. In this book, Larson asks readers to undertake a major mind shift in our everyday thought processes. Model thinking develops our critical thinking skills, using a framework of conceptual and mathematical tools to help guide us to full comprehension, and better decisions.

“ Future[tectonics]: Exploring the intersection between technology, architecture and urbanism ” (Parametric Architecture, 2024) Chapter by Jacob Lehrer, project coordinator in the Department of Mathematics

In his chapter, “Garbage In, Garbage Out: How Language Models Can Reinforce Biases,” Lehrer discusses how inherent bias is baked into large data sets, like those used to train massive AI algorithms, and how society will need to reconcile with the inherent biases built into systems of power. He also attempts to reconcile with it himself, delving into the mathematics behind these systems.

“ Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness ” (Penguin Random House, 2024) Chapter by Tod Machover, the Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media; Rébecca Kleinberger SM ’14, PhD ’20; and Alexandra Rieger SM ’18, doctoral candidate in media arts and sciences

In their chapter, “Composing the Future of Health,” the co-authors discuss their approach to combining scientific research, technology innovation, and new composing strategies to create evidence-based, emotionally potent music that can delight and heal.

“ The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots ” (W. W. Norton and Company, 2024) By Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; and Gregory Mone

In “The Heart and the Chip,” Rus and Mone provide an overview of the interconnected fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and reframe the way we think about intelligent machines while weighing the moral and ethical consequences of their role in society. Robots aren’t going to steal our jobs, they argue; they’re going to make us more capable, productive, and precise.

Education, business, finance, and social impact

“ Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics: 15 Tactics to Turn Your Business Plan Into a Business ” (Wiley, 2024) By Paul Cheek, executive director and entrepreneur in residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and senior lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management, with foreword by Bill Aulet, professor of the practice of entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan and managing director of the Martin Trust Center

Cheek provides a hands-on, practical roadmap to get from great idea to successful company with his actionable field guide to transforming your one great idea into a functional, funded, and staffed startup. Readers will find ground-level, down-and-dirty entrepreneurial tactics — like how to conduct advanced primary market research, market and sell to your first customers, and take a scrappy approach to building your first products — that keep young firms growing. These tactics maximize impact with limited resources.

“ Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities ” (KoganPage, 2023) By Jenny Li Fowler, director of social media strategy in the Institute Office of Communications

In “Organic Social Media,” Fowler outlines the important steps that social media managers need to take to enhance an organization's broader growth objectives. Fowler breaks down the key questions to help readers determine the best platforms to invest in, how they can streamline approval processes, and other essential strategic steps to create an organic following on social platforms.

“ From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ” (MIT Press, 2024) By Malia Lazu, lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management

In her new book, Lazu draws on her background as a community organizer, her corporate career as a bank president, and now her experience as a leading consultant to explain what has been holding organizations back and what they can do to become more inclusive and equitable. “From Intention to Impact” goes beyond “feel good” PR-centric actions to showcase the real work that must be done to create true and lasting change.

“ The AFIRE Guide to U.S. Real Estate Investing ” (Afire and McGraw Hill, 2024) Chapter by Jacques Gordon, lecturer in the MIT Center for Real Estate

In his chapter, “The Broker and the Investment Advisor: A wide range of options,” Gordon discusses important financial topics including information for lenders and borrowers, joint ventures, loans and debt, comingled funds, bankruptcy, and Islamic finance.

“ The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset That Drives Extraordinary Results ” (Hachette Book Group, 2023) By Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

The geek way of management delivers excellent performance while offering employees a work environment that features high levels of autonomy and empowerment. In what Eric Schmidt calls a “handbook for disruptors,” “The Geek Way”   reveals a new way to get big things done. It will change the way readers think about work, teams, projects, and culture, and give them the insight and tools to harness our human superpowers of learning and cooperation.

“ Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in Schools ” (Teaching Systems Lab, 2023) By Justin Reich, associate professor in comparative media studies/writing

In “Iterate, ”  Reich delivers an insightful bridge between contemporary educational research and classroom teaching, showing readers how to leverage the cycle of experiment and experience to create a compelling and engaging learning environment. Readers learn how to employ a process of continuous improvement and tinkering to develop exciting new programs, activities, processes, and designs.

“ red helicopter — a parable for our times: lead change with kindness (plus a little math) ” (HarperCollins, 2024) By James Rhee, senior lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management

Is it possible to be successful and kind? To lead a company or organization with precision and compassion? To honor who we are in all areas of our lives? While eloquently sharing a story of personal and professional success, Rhee presents a comforting yet bold solution to the dissatisfaction and worry we all feel in a chaotic and sometimes terrifying world.

“ Routes to Reform: Education Politics in Latin America ” (Oxford University Press, 2024) By Ben Ross Schneider, the Ford International Professor of Political Science and faculty director of the MIT-Chile Program and MISTI Chile

In “Routes to Reform,” Ben Ross Schneider examines education policy throughout Latin America to show that reforms to improve learning — especially making teacher careers more meritocratic and less political — are possible. He demonstrates that contrary to much established theory, reform outcomes in Latin America depended less on institutions and broad coalitions, and more on micro-level factors like civil society organizations, teacher unions, policy networks, and technocrats.

“ Wiring the Winning Organization: Liberating Our Collective Greatness through Slowification, Simplification, and Amplification ” (IT Revolution, 2023) By Steven J. Spear, senior lecturer in system dynamics at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Gene Kim

Organizations succeed when they design their processes, routines, and procedures to encourage employees to problem-solve and contribute to a common purpose. DevOps, Lean, and Agile got us part of the way. Now with “Wiring the Winning Organization,” Spear and Kim introduce a new theory of organizational management: Organizations win by using three mechanisms to slowify, simplify, and amplify, which systematically moves problem-solving from high-risk danger zones to low-risk winning zones.

“ Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance ” (Oxford University Press, 2024) Chapter by Annie Thompson, lecturer in the MIT Center for Real Estate; Walter Torous, senior lecturer at the MIT Center for Real Estate; and William Torous

In their chapter, “What Causes Residential Mortgage Defaults?” the authors assess the voluminous research investigating why households default on their residential mortgages. A particular focus is oriented towards critically evaluating the recent application of causal statistical inference to residential defaults on mortgages.

“ Data Is Everybody’s Business: The Fundamentals of Data Monetization ” (MIT Press, 2023) By Barbara H. Wixom, principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR); Leslie Owens, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and former executive director of MIT CISR; and Cynthia M. Beath

In “Data Is Everybody’s Business,” the authors offer a clear and engaging way for people across the entire organization to understand data monetization and make it happen. The authors identify three viable ways to convert data into money — improving work with data, wrapping products with data, and selling information offerings — and explain when to pursue each and how to succeed. Arts, architecture, planning, and design

“ The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage, and Death ” (Routledge, 2023) Chapter by Laura Anderson Barbata, lecturer in MIT’s Program in Art, Culture, and Technology

This book provides an examination of death, dying, and human remains in museums and heritage sites around the world. In her chapter, “Julia Pastrana’s Long Journey Home,” Barbata describes the case of Julia Pastrana (1834-1860), an indigenous Mexican opera singer who suffered from hypertrichosis terminalis and hyperplasia gingival. Due to her appearance, Pastrana was exploited and exhibited for over 150 years, during her lifetime and after her early death in an embalmed state. Barbata sheds light on the ways in which the systems that justified Pastrana’s exploitation continue to operate today.

“ Emergency INDEX: An Annual Document of Performance Practice, vol. 10 ” (Ugly Duckling Press, 2023) Chapter by Gearoid Dolan, staff member in MIT’s Program in Art, Culture, and Technology

This “bible of performance art activity” documents performance projects from around the world. Dolan’s chapter describes “Protest ReEmbodied,” a performance that took place online during Covid-19 lockdown. The performance was a live version of the ongoing “Protest ReEmbodied” project, an app that individuals can download and run on their computer to be able to perform on camera, inserted into protest footage.

“ Land Air Sea: Architecture and Environment in the Early Modern Era ” (Brill, 2023) Chapter by Caroline Murphy, the Clarence H. Blackall Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture

“Land Air Sea”   positions the long Renaissance and 18th century as being vital for understanding how many of the concerns present in contemporary debates on climate change and sustainability originated in earlier centuries. Murphy’s chapter examines how Girolamo di Pace da Prato, a state engineer in the Duchy of Florence, understood and sought to mitigate the problems of alluvial flooding in the mid-sixteenth century, an era of exceptional aquatic and environmental volatility.

Miscellaneous

“ Made Here: Recipes and Reflections From NYC’s Asian Communities ” (Send Chinatown Love, 2023) Chapter by Robin Zhang, postdoc in mathematics, and Diana Le

In their chapter, “Flushing: The Melting Pot’s Melting Pot,” the authors explore how Flushing, New York — whose Chinatown is the largest and fastest growing in the world — earned the title of the “melting pot’s melting pot” through its cultural history. Readers will walk down its streets past its snack stalls, fabric stores, language schools, hair salons, churches, and shrines, and you will hear English interspersed with Korean, several dialects of Chinese, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and hundreds of other fibers that make up Flushing’s complex ethnolinguistic fabric.

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Summer Reading/Work Central

Welcome to the Chelmsford Public Schools Summer Reading/Work Central page. Please select one of the options below to find your summer reading/work assignments.

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Eight books to add to your summer 2024 reading list.

Summer means it’s time to break out the sunscreen, the beach towel, and a good book (or ten). But how to find one?

You can get some help from faculty members from the University of Chicago. Below, the 2024 winners of UChicago’s annual Quantrell and PhD Teaching awards share books that left an impression on them.

The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher , by Lewis Thomas

“I first read this series of essays in college, and it has stayed with me. I thought they were beautifully written pieces that somehow, as a whole, gave me a sense of where we exist in the universe.”

—Prof. Sidney Nagel

Disability Worlds , by Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp

“ Disability Worlds is by two veteran anthropologists with disabled children who explore the work of parent advocacy and endeavors to build new academic and artistic worlds for disabled kids, mostly in New York City. The book is also a tribute—and a love letter of sorts—to the flourishing NYC disability arts scene.”

—Prof. Michele Friedner  

Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert , by Sunaura Taylor

“ Disabled Ecologies considers what it means to think about land and environment as disabled; it explores intersections between environmental and disability activism in Tuscon, Arizona where the main aquifer water has been polluted. Taylor is also an artist and in the book, she includes painted and drawn images of how she imagines the (disabled) aquifer looks. I will never think of the desert in the same way again.”

—Prof. Michele Friedner

Independent People , by Halldor Laxness

“A father, a daughter, lots of sheep. Grass and rock, wind and rain, snow and ice. Self-reliance and self-delusion, ignorance and insight. Work and gain, exploitation and loss. And finally, heartbreakingly, back to the father and the daughter.”

—Prof. Chris Kennedy

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer , by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Marcus Clark describes this history of cancer and its treatment as a story of scientific humility. For decades, radical mastectomy was considered the only option for breast cancer treatment, and scientists agreed because it made common sense—until new discoveries and treatments proved them wrong. “That struck me as a real cautionary tale of science that I try to impart to others. Just because something makes sense and it's an attractive model, doesn't mean it's correct,” he said.

—Prof. Marcus Clark

Thirty Million Words , by Dana Suskind

“Apropos the Quantrell Award, I met Dana at the Honorands Reception for my award and picked up her book right afterwards. Although things have evolved a bit since the book’s writing, the story is quite inspirational in terms of how her core work in cochlear implants led her to a broader, impactful effort for social good.”

—Prof. Fred Chong

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong family memoir , by Kao Kalia Yang

“I have appreciated how this firsthand account that is centered on the lived experiences of Yang’s grandmother reveals the resilience and determination of a family and culture that perseveres and rises up through sufferings of war, poverty, prejudice, distance, separation and relocation. Interwoven in the narrative, you come to see how culture, history, and family is the cornerstone to their strength and resilience which is beautifully depicted through the voices of this Hmong immigrant family.”

—Assoc. Prof. Miwa Yasui

The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry , by Wendell Berry & Paul Kingsnorth

“This collection of essays awakens us to the hope, value and meaning that is found in the simple things of life—caring, serving, and loving our neighbors, our land, our community, and slowing down to enjoying these gifts that are given. The essays illustrate that it is precisely in the ordinariness of life—its connection to our history, heritage, society, and nature that gives purpose and depth of meaning, and contrasts this to the constant call for progress and advancement that dominates our modern day society. In the fast paced world we live in that calls for constant change, Berry’s vision can give us a grounding we need to focus and cherish the life we have been given.”

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Adventure Begins at Your Library: Summer Reading 2024

May 15 to August 15

Log reading, complete activity badges, write reviews, and more to rack up points. spend those points for cool raffle prizes for all ages, use beanstack, our reading challenge online platform, or ask the adult or youth service desk at your local library branch for a paper log. library staff can help you set up an online account, too., how to sign up.

• How to Sign Up: Desktop , opens a new window
• How to Sign Up: Mobile App , opens a new window

Already signed up?

• Log Into Beanstack , opens a new window
• Other Reading Challenges , opens a new window

Reading Challenge FAQs

Logging reading: web browser vs. beanstack tracker app.

Logging reading on a web browser (i.e. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.) and logging reading on the Beanstack Tracker app is entirely different. Please see the instructions below. To see the exceptions about logging minutes and books together, please see this FAQ .

For Web Browser

• Click the “Log Reading” or “Log Reading and Activities” button in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
• Select the accurate reader(s) and then the desired log type (Books, Minutes). 
• Important Note:  We do not restrict back-date logging. You can backlog to any date you'd like.
• Important Note:  These fields are not required.
• Click “Log.”
• The reading session will be added to their log and to any applicable challenge log. If warranted, the reader may earn badges, tickets, or rewards, which will pop up after logging.
• Important Note: Customers can log books multiple times, especially in a challenge like  1,000 Books Before Kindergarten .

For the Beanstack Tracker App (Mobile App)

Logging with a title (a book).

• Tap the "+" icon at the bottom center of your app screen and select "Reading."
• Select a title by searching the title, author, or ISBN of the book. You can also choose from “recently logged titles” if you wish to log a title again. This is especially useful for youth readers.
• After typing in the title of the book, choose the title from the list and fill out the rest of the information if you’d like, including tracking progress.
• When done, click “save.”
• "Quick Complete" A notice will pop-up letting you know that quick logging will not count minutes or pages read. If you still want to proceed, tap Quick Log As Complete . Important: Quick logging will NOT count minutes or pages read.
• How many challenges the book will count for (depending on what challenges you’re enrolled in)
• Logging the reading for today (or, backdating it)
• A toggle button for “did you finish the book.”
• Under the “view more” option, you can log how many minutes and pages you read.
• "Start Timer" Will start a reading timer
• Once you’ve completed logging and/or reading, click “save” and a message will appear that confirms the book has been logged.

Logging Without a Title (minutes)

If you want to log reading without using a book title ( minutes, pages , etc.) follow these instructions.

• Click the large blue button that says “Log without a Title.”
• Logging reading for today (or backdate)
• How many books did you complete?
• *Under the drop down menu that says “View More”: How many minutes did you read?
• *Under the drop down menu that says “View More”: How many pages did you read?
• Once you’ve completed logging and/or reading, click “save” and a message will appear that confirms the minutes or number of books have been logged.

What if I want to log books and minutes together?

As a reading challenge participant, you always have the option to log both books and minutes together. However, there are some important exceptions when it comes to this. For details on logging reading, see this FAQ .

• Logging options are based on individual challenges. If the challenge you are signed up for only offers "books" then you can only log books. If it only offers "minutes" then you can only log minutes.
• Summer Reading Challenge
• Adult Winter Reading Challenge
• 365-day challenges
• Be default, if the challenge is a year-round challenge and is for all ages, minutes will be the option to earn badges within the challenge.
• Minutes will count ONLY toward the youth summer reading programs  (children and teen -- with the exception of the  1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program ) and  books will count ONLY toward the adult summer and winter reading programs . 
• For the summer reading challenges, adult program points are always tallied by logging books, not minutes. Youth program points are tallied by logging minutes, not books.
• To earn points and be eligible for prizes, adults must record books and youth must record minutes.

How do I create an account with Beanstack?

The main page for our reading challenges is https://librarypoint.beanstack.org/reader365 . You can register for any program in the following ways: 

• This will pop up a box that describes what the challenge is. There will be link options at the bottom of this box that say “Sign In” or “Create an Account”. 
• The “Create an Account” option will expand to two choices: Register an Individual or Family or Register a Class or Group.
• Click the link “Sign up for free” which is located underneath the “Don’t have an account?” question (above the login fields).
• This will take you BACK to the reader365 pag e, where they will choose the challenge they would initially like to sign up for, just like the registration option #1 (above).
• Registration option #3 : Scroll down past the “Challenges” carousel, and you will see a section called “Create Your Account or Sign In”.

On the Mobile App

Please watch this 1:54 minute instructional video on how to sign up on the Beanstack Tracker app .

How do I log activities in a reading challenge?

• Note that Activities will only appear as an option if the reader is enrolled in a current challenge with activity badges .
• Select the accurate reader(s) and then “Complete An Activity.”
• If you are enrolled in a challenge or challenges with multiple activity badges, they will then be able to select the desired activity badge to view and complete its activities.
• Check off the activity, 
• Write a response into a text box
• If warranted, you may earn the activity badge and any attached tickets, or rewards after completing the activity, which will pop up after logging.

Logging within a Specific Challenge

• Once viewing a challenge, click over to the “Badges” tab and then “Activity Badges”.
• Click on any unearned activity badge to complete the activity by either checking it off, writing a response into the text box, or entering the activity code.
• If warranted, the reader may earn the activity badge and any attached tickets, or rewards after completing the activity, which will pop up after logging.

Summer Reading Point Guide

Children & Teens Program: 1 minute of reading = 1 point earned

Adult Program: 1 book = 300 points

Completed activities for all programs:

• 25 points for a standard activity
• 35 points for a big activity

Reviews for all programs:  50 points

Completed challenge for all programs: 2,000 points

You can earn over 2,500 points in the challenge, but you will not earn anymore tickets for prizes.

• Prize Details
• Badges & Reading Lists
• Summer Events at the Library

Grand Prize Drawings: How many spendable tickets does each badge earn?

Receive tickets for grand prizes when you earn badges. spend these tickets in any way you wish the more tickets you spend on a prize, the greater your chance of winning..

Registration Badge: 10 tickets

Completed Challenge Badge: 50 tickets

150 Points Badge: 10 tickets

300 Points Badge: 30 tickets

500 Points Badge: 50 tickets

1000 Points Badge: 75 tickets

1500 Points Badge: 100 tickets

2000 Points Badge: 200 tickets

2500 Points Badge:  200 tickets

All Activity Badges: 25 tickets

Review Badge: 5 tickets

Grand Prize Prizes for Adults

Grand Prizes for Teens

Grand Prizes for Children

Completion Prize for Adults

Get a mini notebook & pen set when you complete the 2024 Summer Reading Challenge. Pick up at your local library's Adult Services desk.

Additional Prizes for Children & Teens

All-Ages Activity Badges

Adventure Begins at the Library

Summer Vibes Only

We Recommend

Librarypoint Scavenger Hunt

Children's program activity badges (ages 0-5).

Beach Explorer

To Infinity, and Beyond!

Music & Art Exploration

Around the World

Reading recommendations for children ages 0-5.

Pirates, Ho!

• Action & Adventure

Space Voyager

Colors are fun, children's program activity badges (grades k-5).

Exploration Awaits

Destination - Your Hometown!

Discovery Through S.T.E.M.

Worldly Travels

Reading recommendations for children in grades k-5.

Adventure Begins at Your Library with These Picture Books!

• Home & Garden

Here Comes the Sun!

• Nature & Environment

The Summer Solstice

Unforgettable Journeys

• Suspense & Thriller

Teen Program Activity Badges

Totally Terrific Teen Technology

Read Around This Summer

Graphic Novels are Real Books, Too!

Travel Through the Pages

Reading recommendations for teens.

Adventure Begins at Your Library

• Science Fiction

The Great Outdoors

Beyond-the-Beaten-Path Road Trips

• General Fiction

Galactic Adventures

Adult program activity badges.

Explore Around You

Become an Artist or Artisan

Learn, Discover, & Create!

Relax with a Good Book

Reading recommendations for adults.

No Passport Required

• Older Adults

My Librarian: Hit the Road, Jack

• Travel & Culture

• Historical Fiction

Arts & Crafts

• Crafts & Hobbies

Summer Events

Discovery tables, lunch at the library, teen art tuesdays, join the fun all summer long, join the fun.

TaleWise: Adventure of the Lost Treasure

Stuffed Animal Sleepover

Summer Movie Matinees

Summer Movie Matinee Summer Movie Matinee, part of a series Series

Watch a film.

World War II Movie Discussion Group World War II Movie Discussion Group, part of a series Series

Movie Matinee Movie Matinee, part of a series Series

Summer Flicks Summer Flicks, part of a series Series

Behind the page, lafayette 200 events, learn something.

Join a Book Group this Summer

Preserving Your Family History

Tech things, makers and dragons makers and dragons, part of a series series, lego building challenges.

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BiblioWeb: webapp01 Version 4.20.0 Last updated 2024/06/12 09:14

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• ALL THINGS BAMA

Keon Ellis Starts Summer League with Strong Performance: Roll Call, July 8, 2024

Blake byler | jul 8, 2024.

The NBA has begun summer league play, with the California Classic, the first of three summer leagues, beginning over the weekend. Playing for the Sacramento Kings, former Alabama guard Keon Ellis scored 18 points in his first game of the summer.

Ellis worked his way from a two-way contract to a standard deal and is a rotation player on the Kings' roster. He's one of seven former Crimson Tide players confirmed to be playing in the summer league, including Aaron Estrada (Pistons), Brandon Miller (Hornets), Noah Clowney (Nets), Alex Reese (Trail Blazers), Charles Bediako (Magic), and Jaden Shackelford (Thunder).

JD Davison is also expected to play for the Boston Celtics, but the roster has not been confirmed yet.

Did you notice?

• New Orleans Pelicans forward Herb Jones is changing numbers, giving No. 5 to new teammate Dejounte Murray. Jones will now wear No. 2 as one of the best defenders in the NBA. Murray was grateful for Jones' willingness to give him his number, and took to social media to express it:

HERB JONES A REAL ONE!!!!!! — Dejounte Murray (@DejounteMurray) July 6, 2024

• Alabama baseball added a transfer in Campbell pitcher Packy Bradley-Cooney.

I am very grateful for my time at Campbell and will always be a part of the brotherhood. Excited to be finishing my college career at the University of Alabama! #RollTide pic.twitter.com/HWOVEWHNmM — Packy Bradley-Cooney (@BradleyPacky) July 8, 2024

Countdown to Crimson Tide's 2024 Football Season Opener:

On this day in crimson tide history:.

July 8, 2015 : Kenny Stabler died in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was 69.

Crimson Tide Quote of the Day:

"If John David doesn't win the Heisman, they ought to stop giving it."  — Paul W. “Bear” Bryant in 1957 about his only player to win the Heisman Trophy. John David Crow was born on this date in 1935.

Check us out on:

BLAKE BYLER

Blake Byler is a staff writer for BamaCentral and primarily covers Alabama basketball and football. He has covered a wide variety of Crimson Tide sports since 2021, and began writing full-time for BamaCentral in 2023. You can find him on Twitter/X @blakebyler45.

Follow blakebyler45

'GMA' 2024 Summer Concert Series lineup: Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Green Day and more

Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Green Day and Nicky Jam are among the chart-topping artists performing live in Central Park for the 2024 "GMA" Summer Concert Series.

This year's lineup, brought to you by "GMA" sponsor Wayfair, features the hottest names in music who will deliver live performances from New York City's Central Park or the " GMA " studio in the heart of Times Square.

G-Eazy, Sofi Tukker, Megan Moroney and Old Dominion are among the artists who will be performing live from Times Square.

"GMA" invites guests to attend the live broadcast from Central Park as part of the live audience; however, performances taking place in Times Square studios will not have live audiences. Please make sure to request tickets to join the audience in Central Park .

CLICK HERE to request free tickets for "GMA" performances in Central Park.

Stay tuned for updates, and check out the 2024 schedule below:

Kane Brown: July 19

#KaneBrownOnGMA

Click here to request free tickets for Kane Brown in Central Park.

Green Day: July 26

#GreenDayOnGMA

Click here to request free tickets for Green Day in Central Park.

Carrie Underwood: August 2

#CarrieUnderwoodOnGMA

Click here to request free tickets for Carrie Underwood in Central Park.

August 9: Nicky Jam

#NickyJamOnGMA

Click here to request free tickets for Nicky Jam in Central Park.

G-Eazy: August 16

#GEazyOnGMA

G-Eazy will perform live in our Times Square Studio.

SOFI TUKKER: August 23

#SOFITUKKERonGMA

Sofi Tukker will bring the party to perform live in our Times Square Studio.

Megan Moroney: August 30

#MeganMoroneyOnGMA

Megan Moroney performs live in our Times Square Studio.

Old Dominion: September 6

#OldDominionOnGMA

Old Dominion closes out the Summer Concert Series by performing live in Times Square.

Up Next in Culture—

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As publishers of insights, we believe that reading books can be a powerful tool for learning, growing, and navigating the landscape of today’s complex business environment. And books can both illuminate and provide moments of respite from the demands of daily life. McKinsey Global Publishing leader Raju Narisetti returns with McKinsey’s 2024 annual book recommendations list—a McKinsey Global Publishing tradition—featuring suggestions from 50-plus CEOs and global leaders in media, nonprofit, and other organizations, as well as several McKinsey leaders.

This year’s contributors spanned six continents and shared more than 90 books across ten genres. Fiction emerged as the most popular genre recommendation, followed by personal development. The standout favorite among our contributors? Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity was endorsed by five leaders. Technology was also a popular category, with AI as a major focal point—a mirror of the technological zeitgeist shaping our era. Dive in to find your next great read, and scroll to the bottom of the page to download the full list.

What to read next: McKinsey’s 2024 annual book recommendations

More on books.

McKinsey Global Publishing’s 2024 book picks

McKinsey on Books

Author Talks

Revisit previous years’ summer reading lists.

2023 summer reading guide

2022 summer reading guide

We still know what you’re reading this summer

Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It takes a village to curate amazing lists from a busy group of leaders from all over the world. We wish to thank Alan Alper, Aria Finger, Ashley Huston, Deron Triff, the Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, Mariana Fischbach, Preeti Wali, Rebecca Lowell Edwards, Rimjhim Dey, Silvia Wiesner, and Vinay Sridhar for their contributions to this publication.

Special thanks to McKinsey Global Publishing colleagues Amanda Soto, Dan Spector, Diane Rice, Eleni Kostopoulos, Emily Adeyanju, Janet Michaud, Kanika Punwani, Martine Louis, Mary Gayen, Mike Borruso, Nathan Wilson, Pamela Norton, Philip Mathew, Sean Conrad, Stephen Landau, and Victor Cuevas for making this list come alive.

And thank you to the contributors and their organizations for providing McKinsey Global Publishing with their photographs and permission to use them.

We hope you have enjoyed our annual reading list. Please let us know how we could have made it even more enjoyable or useful for you: drop us a note at [email protected] .

Start typing and press Enter to search

Summer Homework

Cha has required summer homework for students entering grades 1-12 in 2023-24. this includes both math and reading. we also have suggestions for additional practice where needed. please read this entire page to make sure you’re prepared to begin the year running.

All incoming students in Grades 1-12 are required to complete summer reading assignments as a part of their first quarter English grade. Assignments are due the first day of school so please plan accordingly.*

Please click the gold button below that applies to the grade you are entering for the 2023-24 school year. We recommend printing the corresponding assignments.

Students in  Middle  and  Upper School mathematics classes (Grades 6-12) will need to complete required homework prior to the start of the 2023-24 school year . Please click the gold button below to find the assignments by grade/course.

The following items are optional resources for students to be prepared for the school year ahead.

Click the image above to learn about tutoring options available from CHA faculty.

Click the image above to open a downloadable/printable publication for Summer Learning Strategies in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics. You’ll find many helpful links to additional resources, too!

Click the image above to access CHA’s Summer 2023 Book Suggestions for PK-Grade 5.

For students who were in Grades K-5 at CHA during the 2022-23 school year, we encourage you to click the image above and use your current xtramath login to keep up those math skills over the summer!

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10 things to do with kids around metro Detroit to keep learning through the summer

It's known as the summer slide and research suggests for some children, it could be real: Student test scores can flatten or decline over summer vacation, according to the Brookings Institution .

The extent of summer slide may not be catastrophic, but keeping young brains stimulated while they're away from school is important (and may also be important to keep parents and caregivers from pulling their hair out when confronted with two months to fill with activities).

Southeast Michigan is central to a bevy of low-cost and free activities to keep kids occupied, happy and learning. Here's a list from the Detroit Free Press' education reporter:

1. Self-guided nature walks and scavenger hunts at Heritage Park, Farmington Hills

Good for : A sunny or overcast day

Cost : Free

Farmington Public Schools partnered with the Farmington Nature Center at Heritage Park to create printable, self-guided nature walks with activities for children. The activities are separated by grade level, so kindergartners have different, more age-appropriate tasks than fifth graders. The Nature Center, indoors, is also open in case it starts to rain and is great for kids who love animals. The Nature Center is free and open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon until 4 p.m.

2. Public planetarium shows at Wayne State University, Detroit

Good for : Cold or rainy summer nights, an activity before getting ice cream

On select Friday nights in June and July, Wayne State hosts a free public planetarium show , one at 6 p.m. and another at 7:30 p.m. The presentation includes a 30-minute film followed by a talk by a planetarium staff member. The presentation may be more attuned to learners who can sit for a little more than an hour, so may not be the best for very young children.

3. Kensington Metropark Farm Center, Milford

Good for: A sunny summer morning

Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Kensington Metropark's farm center offers kids the chance to meet chickens, goats , sheep, cattle and draft horses. The farm center also hosts "Fun on the Farm" on select Thursdays ( the farm center's calendar can be found here ). Each event focuses on a different farm animal with specific activities for children ages 2 to 6. An adult must be present.

4. Stemville, Northville and Detroit

Good for : A little math and science tuneup

Cost : $20 for one child and one adult at Northville and $10 in Detroit or $5 for Detroit residents

If you want to encourage a little science and engineering creativity, Stemville promises to encourage kids to create with various tools, robots and more . This summer, the organization is hosting a pop-up with Decked Out Detroit, along with the location in Northville. Stemville requires parents to book online in advance and recommends children wear socks with grips.

5. Michigan State University's Community Music School, Detroit

Good for : Families and kids who need a consistent summertime activity

Cost : $100 for a summer session

MSU's community-based music school in Detroit offers a summer session for early childhood learners from 0-8, with different classes for different age levels. Many of the programs begin in mid-July and end in late August. Early childhood music promises to promote "tonal and rhythmic awareness" and other musical skill-building.

6. Summer reading challenges, your local library

Good for: Motivation to read

It's a classic summer activity for a reason: It's free and burgeoning (and established!) readers have a lot of options for books to get through over the summer. Local libraries across the state have created summer reading challenges, which often include prizes, such as an art prize basket in Southfield or an Amazon gift card in Detroit . Children (and adults in some challenges) just need to track their reading.

7. Outdoor Adventure Center, Detroit

Good for : Rainy or sunny days

Cost: Free to $5 depending on age

Near the riverfront, the Outdoor Adventure Center features indoor exhibits and activities like archery. It also offers a calendar filled with events , some that cost money, like an outdoor party with bubbles and sidewalk chalk and a live reptile exhibit . Once a month, the OAC offers sensory-friendly days , with sounds at a lower volume.

8. Ann Arbor Arts Center, Family Fridays, Ann Arbor

Good for : A rainy Friday evening

Cost: Varies

Ann Arbor Arts Center, in addition to other programs for kids and teens, offers a family Friday event on select Fridays, which has children completing a different craft in each session, such as stuffed animals or a painted cookie mug. The center also hosts art activities for teens, including pottery and beginning drawing.

9. Downriver Arts Council, Wyandotte

Good for : Teens who need something to do

Cost : Varies

The Downriver Arts Council offers a range of activities for teens, from Anime Academy to a teen art club . Adults looking to home in on their artistic side can also check out classes.

10. Summers concerts at Huron-Clinton Metroparks

Good for : Families on a summer evening

Lake St. Clair and Stony Creek Metropark are hosting a variety of concerts on Sunday and Friday evenings, depending on the park. Parents can expose kids to different types of music, from disco to rock.

Contact Lily Altavena: [email protected].

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Walled Lake Central

In This Section

Please check here often for a listing of student activities, athletics and clubs available for all Walled Lake Central students.

Walled Lake Central is proud to offer 36 varsity sports across three seasons. Please visit the Vikings Athletics page  for information regarding teams, coach contacts, and eligibility. 

Chromebook Support Request

Purchase Yearbook

Clubs and Activities

Click on the club or activity for more information.

Open to all WLC students.

Open to current and former students.

Open to all students taking French.

Open to all WLC students interested in the medical field.

Open to all students in Grades 10-12 with a 3.2 GPA or above.

Open to juniors with a 3.9 GPA or above and seniors with a 3.5 GPA or above.

Open to all WLCSD high school students.

Open to all students with a 2.8 GPA or above.

Open to all WLCSD high school band students.

• Metro/State
• MS Politics
• National Politics
• The American South

Activities and events to add to your Jackson summer bucket list. See dates and times here

Looking for something to do with the rest of your summer? Jackson provides a multitude of activities — mostly indoor so you can beat the heat — to add to your summer bucket list.

And, with schools still on summer break, there are plenty of child-friendly activities as well.

Flags from Mississippi exhibition

• When: March 9 through Nov. 8
• Where: Two Mississippi Museums, 222 North St.

"Flags from Mississippi: Emblems Through Time" is a limited exhibition at the Two Mississippi Museums. The exhibit takes guests through Mississippi's history with 20 different versions of the state flag including the original magnolia flag sewn in 1861.

The exhibit opened in March and will run until November.

Admission to the flag exhibit is included in museum tickets which range from $8 to $15. Admission is free on Sundays.

'What Became of Dr. Smith' exhibition

• When: April 20 through Sept. 22
• Where: Mississippi Museum of Art, 380 South Lamar St.

Mississippi native Noah Saterstrom set out to solve the mystery of his great-grandfather Dr. D.L. Smith who, according to Saterstrom's family lore, had disappeared in the early 1920s.

Through years of research, Saterstrom discovered his great-grandfather didn't actually disappear. Smith had spent the last four decades of his life in a mental institution in Jackson.

The exhibit highlights the stigma and marginalization of mental illness by society through paintings, photos and texts.

The "What Became of Dr. Smith" exhibition opened in April and will run through September.

Admission ranges from $10 to $15 and is free for people with memberships.

Paw Patrol adventure exhibition

• When: May 11 through Sept. 8
• Where: Mississippi Children's Museum, 2145 Museum Blvd.

The Mississippi Children's Museum's 2024 summer exhibit is "Paw Patrol: Adventure Play." The interactive exhibit allows children to embark on rescue missions like those in the cartoon Paw Patrol.

The exhibit opened in May and will run until Sept. 8.

Admission is $13 a ticket and free for children under 1 year old.

'Dinosaurs Around the Word' exhibit

• When: June 8 through Jan. 5
• Where: Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, 2148 Riverside Drive

The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science invites guests to travel back in time in a new indoor, outdoor version of the museum's popular "Dinosaurs Around the World" exhibition.

The "Dinosaurs Around the World: The Great Outdoors" exhibit includes 11 animatronic dinosaurs.

Admission to the exhibit is included with regular museum admission, which ranges from $6 to $8 with children under three getting in free.

Belhaven Block Party

• When: Every Friday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Where: Belhaven Town Center, 1121 North Jefferson St.

Belhaven Block Party is a free event happening every Friday evening in the town center. Each event includes live music, drinks and ice cream.

'Reading the Room' at Native Coffee

• When: July 10, 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Where: Native Coffee, 1800 North State St.

This free event is for all the book lovers in the Jackson area. This "Reading the Room" event at Native Coffee marks the first in a new series sponsored by the Mississippi Book Festival and the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Visit Jackson lists the following for those interested in attenting:

• Bring any book you are currently reading
• Enjoy some time set aside to read on your own
• Talk books with your neighbors over drinks and snacks
• Celebrate Mississippi's vibrant literary culture with us

Neo-Soul Candlelight Concert

• When: July 10, 8:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.
• Where: Old Capitol Museum, 100 State St.

The Listeso String Quartet will perform Neo-Soul favorites illuminated by the glow of candlelight for this multi-sensory experience. The tentative program includes covers of artists including Prince, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Sade, D'Angelo, Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean, Boyz II Men, Miguel, SZA, H.E.R., Erykah Badu and Solange.

Tickets are $35 each.

Hibachi nights at Hal and Mal's

• When: July 11 and July 25, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
• Where: Hal and Mal's, 200 Commerce St.

In this summer series hosted by Hal and Mal's, guests can enjoy hibachi cooked in the restaurant's courtyard and discounted drinks.

Admission is $20 and covers food. Drinks are an additional $5 for sake cocktails, wells and seltzers, $3 for Fertile Ground beer and $2 for domestic beers.

Operation Shoestring parenting community event

• When: July 13, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Where: Operation Shoestring, 1711 Bailey Ave.

Jackson-based nonprofit Operation Shoestring will host a free community event catered toward Jackson parents and children.

The interactive event coincides with the nonprofit's recent podcast "Raising Children in Central Jackson: A Series of Oral History Recordings."

More on the podcast: Operation Shoestring publishes podcast series on raising children in Jackson, past and present

More on the event: Operation Shoestring holds Jackson parenting community event. See when and where

Community Curation Day: Photograph Preservation

• When: July 13, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Where: William F. Winter Archives and History Building, 200 North St.

In this free program, Mississippi Department of Archives and History collections coordinator Laura Heller will demonstrate preservation practices for photographs. Visitors can bring in family photographs and learn how to best preserve them.

Reel Insights: Perspectives of Mental Health in Cinema

• When: July 16, 5:30 p.m.

This event marks the first in a three-part film series centered around depictions of mental health in cinema. July's event explores the ways filmmakers navigate mental health complexities on screen.

The event will be followed by two more in August and September in partnership with the Mississippi State University Psychology Department.

Admission is free and those interested in going can register on the MMA website .

Got a news tip? Contact Mary Boyte at [email protected]

2024-2025 Summer Homework Assignment Information

Central High School

Department of mathematics.

Department Office: 

School based teacher leader: , john zak (email: [email protected] ), summer assignment information, required summer assignments (2023-2024) now available.

A summer homework assignment is required for all students taking Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus, AP Calculus, or AP Statistics.

Students will be assessed via an open note quiz during the first week of classes on problems directly from the homework assignment.

Student should be complete the assignment by hand on paper.  Only hand-written, paper notes are allowed during the assessment.

Go the current summer assignments page for course-specific details.

Course Selection Information

Updated course selection information now available on our Course Descriptions page , including detailed course information and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about math honors and AP courses.  

How can a student apply to take a math honors or AP course?

Students complete an online application via a google form (ava ilable February 1st) with basic information about previous coursework.

Students complete a placement exam ( available the first week of March ). **

Teachers complete a short recommendation based on student attendance and other characteristics not easily captured by a student’s grade or performance on an exam.

Based on all three, the department makes a recommendation of either an honors or standard course.  The recommendation is the student’s default course placement.

If a student or parent disagrees with the department’s recommendation they can still request math honors via the special request google form ; the math department teacher leader (Mr. Zak) will follow-up with parents individually.  

** AP Statistics , AP Computer Science A, and AP Computer Science Principles do not require a placement exam.  Extra information about applying for these courses is available now.  Click on the link for more information.

Department Info, News, and Notes:

Math testing days: .

Tuesday, Thursday

Math Office Hours: (Tutoring)

During open advisories

Other Tutoring Opportunities:

Peer Tutoring:  Available through NHS.  Contact Mr. Hover, head of NHS, for more details.

Math Club: 

Meets Thursdays.  Join the Google Classroom with Code: 6qjatfi