April 13, 2023

Dear Families of Students in Grades 9-11,

As the end of the school year gets closer, the Reinberger Libraries begin planning for summer reading. The Upper School’s summer reading program is designed to encourage reading as a fulfilling and pleasurable activity, modeled by the faculty. It also helps to maintain reading skills and reduce the effect of the “summer slide.” In Upper School, students are only required to read one book over the summer, chosen from a selection of faculty nominations which is paired with a short assignment. We hope that they will use some of their extra time to read many more books of their choosing. The range of faculty nominations take into consideration the varied interests, abilities, learning styles and maturity levels of the students served as well as provide varying levels of difficulty, appeal and points of view that are reflective of the pluralistic nature of a global society.

We launched this year’s summer reading program and website to students at assembly on Monday, April 10. While nominations are on display in the library, this website – also available under Upper School Resources on the Family Resources Page of the school’s website – includes nominated titles, book covers and links to reviews so that you can look through the options with your children.

Although nominations have a high degree of potential reader appeal, ours is a student-focused model, so the final summer reading selections are determined by student choice. These choices are due by Friday, April 21, which provides students and families ample time to browse and research the nominations. The website will be updated in mid-May after these selections are determined and again in early June after assignments for each book are posted. Students will have received their assignments in late May when they have the opportunity to meet their faculty/staff discussion group leader.

Summer reading nominations are often highly anticipated by students each year, so we hope that you might also find a title or two that you’d like to read this summer as well.

Sincerely,

Gwendolyn Nzimiro

Upper School Librarian