All-School Read
Summer Reading
In a world where the 24- hour news cycle, online gaming, and social media constantly distract and compete for our attention, the faculty here at Northwood School believe in the power of reading to instill compassion, creativity, mindfulness, and well-being in our students.
Countless studies show that reading promotes empathy, imagination, neuron stimulation, and heightened connectivity in the left temporal cortex.
The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist. We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else’s shoes in a figurative sense. Now we’re seeing that something else may be happening biologically.
Gregory Berns, Researcher and Director of Emory University’s Center for Neuropolicy
Watching film adaptations or reading online summaries like SparkNotes, while potentially interesting and time-saving, cannot compare to engaging with and connecting to the texts themselves. Students will be cheating themselves, as well as infringing upon the Northwood Honor Code, by substituting these sources for actual reading. In other words, you are required to read the books. If so preferred, electronic (e-books) are acceptable for completing the readings. If students choose an audiobook version, we suggest listening while following along on the page.
With this in mind, we offer you this summer’s list of required reading for returning and incoming Northwood School students. Please note that all students are required to read the All-School Read as well as the books specific to the English course they are entering and other applicable AP courses. In this document, you will also find details of summer reading. Any questions can be directed to Noël Carmichael, Dean of Academic Affairs, carmichaeln@northwoodschool.org.
Fostering Community Through Shared Intellectual Experience
Northwood School’s All-School Read is designed to foster a sense of community by encouraging a shared intellectual experience across the school. The All-School Read tradition at Northwood has been in place for more than thirty years. Recent titles have included Outcasts United (Warren St. John), The Power of Meaning (Emily Esfahani Smith), The Boys in the Boat (Daniel James Brown), The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Wes Moore), The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives (Dashka Slater), Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand), Where You Go Is Not What You’ll Be (Frank Bruni), The Bridge of St. Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder), Freakonomics (Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner), and I Am Malala (Malala Yousafzai). Each spring, a committee of faculty, students, staff, and administration selects a book to be read by all members of the school community before the academic year begins.
Our theme for the 2024-2025 school year is: Balance
The summer 2024 All-School Read is:
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
This book was nominated by recent graduate Colin Kis ’24. Here is a personal note from Colin about why he chose this book for our community:
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is a beautiful and moving book about Trevor’s childhood as a biracial child in South Africa during apartheid. There’s a lot in this book that may be upsetting, but it also has funny moments since Trevor Noah wrote it. His story had me glued to it. Also, his story is significant in today’s social and political climate. Overall, I highly recommend this book. It will both entertain you and make you think.
More about Born a Crime…
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid
“Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”—Esquire
Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Esquire, Newsday, and Booklist
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
Where to find Born a Crime
We encourage faculty and students to buy their copy from Lake Placid’s independent bookstore, The Bookstore Plus (https://thebookstoreplus.com/item/klyGZUU-JwKSyFZ9rw4OhA) or from their own local, independent bookstore.
alternate version, there is a young adult version available as well: https://thebookstoreplus.com/item/3bfSPEKfdTd5tIQHYqsaKg
There is an audiobook version available here on Audible.
There is also an eBook version available on Kindle and other eReaders. There is an eBook copy available through Northwood’s Sora account. If you are interested in that version, please contact the school librarian, Mrs. Martin (martins@northwoodschool.org)
Northwood School Summer Reading 2024
