It’s almost that time of the year again. Summer is quickly approaching, and that means students have to read a book and complete an assignment on the first day of school for the Fall of 2018. Riordan’s telecast has been showing trailers of the books that students can read.

Every year, the Summer Reading Committee gives students a list of books they can choose to read. The 11 books are separated into lower and upper divisions. These divisions include fiction and nonfiction books.

The lower division books titles are, Fantastic Voyage, Tears of a Tiger, A long way home: A boy’s Incredible Journey from India to Australia and Back Again, and The Boys Who Challenged Hitler.

The Upper division books are, Shadow Lessons, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time, Ball Don’t Lie, Into Thin Air: A personal account of Mt. Everest Disaster, This Boy’s Life: a Memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, and

Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West.

Freshmen and sophomores may choose any book from the list, while juniors and seniors can choose only from the Upper division list. The list of books are posted on the school’s website. The goal of this summer assignment is to keep minds stimulated over the long break, so when students come back, they are not completely devoid of thinking. Vaizaah Taito ’19 said, “Honestly, I feel like Summer Reading is unnecessary.”

Summer Reading is also mandated by Riordan to keep students busy over the summer and to keep students’ intellect from slipping or disappearing. The benefits of reading are many, but some students will balk at the assignment, claiming it is not fair to assign something over the summer. Spanish Teacher Debra Jensen, said, “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to read. It’satreat!”

Students are pretty busy during the summer, anyway. They play sports and video games. They travel, read, draw, paint, attend camps, play music, socialize, date, dream, exercise, work, sleep, visit family, and more.