Great Books
Great Books is an enrichment program at AP meant to give students additional reading, thinking, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Established in 1947, The Great Books Foundation's mission is to help people think and share ideas. Toward this end, the Foundation publishes collections of classic and modern literature to be used by trained Great Books leaders in reading and discussion programs for students. Teachers of Great Books at AP have been officially trained by the Great Books Foundation to lead Great Books discussion groups.
6th and 7th Grade Readings
- The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
- The White Umbrella by Gish Jen
- The ParsleyGardenby William Saroyan
- The Secret of the Yellow House by Anatoly Aleksin
- As the Night the Day by Abioseh Nicol
- The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
- The Allegators by John Updike
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee (from Through the Looking Glass) by Lewis Carroll
- The Magic Jacket by Walter de la Mare
- Props for Faith by Ursula Hegi
- Letting in the Jungle (from the Jungle Books) by Rudyard Kipling
- The Spring Running (from the Jungle Books) by Rudyard Kipling
8th Grade Readings
- Sucker by Carson McCullers
- The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse by William Saroyan
- Rules of the Game (from the Joy Luck Club) by Amy Tan
- The Destructors by Graham Greene
- The Watch by Ivan Turgenev
- Approximations by Mona Simpson
- The Griffin and the Minor Canon by Frank R. Stockton
- Star Food by Ethan Canin
- Winter (from the Winter Room) by Gary Paulsen
- High School Graduation (from I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings) by Maya Angelou
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (chapters 7-18) by Mark Twain
9th Grade Readings
- Miriam by Truman Capote
- ZooIsland by Tomas Rivera
- At the Pitt-Rivers by Penelope Lively
- New African (from Sarah Phillips) by Andrea Lee
- Sponono by Alan Paton
- Bobby’s Room by Douglas Dunn
- A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Little Cousins by Peter Taylor
- The Idealist by Frannk O’Connor
- The Time Machine (chapters 1-16) by H. G. Wells