Schools set the tome for summer

Choosing a summer reading book was an easy decision for Lynn Classical High School’s administrative team this year.After reading the book, it was clear that “The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change” by Adam Braun was a great choice, said Principal Gene Constantino.”We have a committee that makes recommendations and then the administrative team decides,” Constantino said. “This book was unanimously picked.”We pick books that are going to resonate with students,” he said.”The Promise of a Pencil” is a story that is sure to do just that.The nonfiction book, which was published in 2014, is a story about one man’s mission to make a difference. It tells how Braun took $25 and created an organization that has since built more than 200 schools across the world. Braun’s journey began when he met a little boy who was begging in India. He asked the boy what he wanted most in the world and the little boy told him that he wanted a pencil. His request led to Braun backpacking through dozens of countries and leaving his Wall Street job behind to found an organization called Pencils of Promise.Since then, he has been a featured speaker at the White House, Clinton Global Initiative and United Nations. This September, he will be coming to Lynn Classical to discuss the book that chronicles his journey.”We’ve had good luck with having authors come in,” said Constantino.This isn’t the first visit Lynn Classical has had from the authors of its summer reading books. According to Constantino, the school has had “Captain Phillips, Travis Roy, and others in years past.””We have had this process for several years,” he said. “We buy books for the students and then the first week of school we do the assignments.Then the author always comes.”In this case, the money will go back to education. According to the organization’s website, all proceeds from “The Promise of a Pencil” are donated to Pencils of Promise.While Lynn Classical has every student read the same book, Lynn English assigns a different book for each grade and additional books for honor students.The faculty pays attention to what students read throughout the school year and chooses books it thinks students find interesting.”Different people read the books,” said Principal Tom Strangie. “The teachers read the books, the administration read the books, I read the books. By the end of April our goal is to decide which books might be best.”This summer, all ninth-graders will be required to read “Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, grade 10 will read “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, grade 11 will read “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo, and grade 12 will read “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot.Saugus High School assigned “Unwind” by Neal Shusterman to grade nine, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee to grade 10, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini to grade 11, and “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens to grade 12.Lynnfield High School took a different approach and assigned a different book to every English class. The books range from classics like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald to newer books like “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd.Peabody High School gave students an option to choose one book from a lengthy list of titles. The list includes “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline, and about a dozen others.Swampscott High School gave each grade the option to choose one of four selected books. A few titles include “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon, and “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro.