Edith Hamilton’s classic retelling of all the primary Greek myths serves as a great introduction to the Greek world that is the backdrop to the freshman literature sequence. Students will learn the Greek origin myth and several memorable cautionary tales. Also, these short stories introduce the Greek gods as well as all the major Greek heroes, such as Hercules, Pericles, Theseus and Jason. This is a must-read for students to prepare for the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid and Greek dramas covered in the freshman literature curriculum.

**Note: Read Parts I-III of the Hamilton book only. Reading further actually begins to preclude the subject matter of the Iliad and Odyssey which we read during the year.** 

This book provides a dramatized retelling of St. Augustine’s Confessions. The primary text will be read during first semester of sophomore year. By understanding the events that shaped St. Augustine’s life, students will be better prepared to appreciate Confessions, one of the greatest works of Western literature.  The book follows his career from his early Christian training by his mother Monica, his disavowal of his belief for the tenets of Manichaeism when he went to Carthage to study, and his continuation in that theology as he went to Rome and later Milan. There the work and teachings of the good Bishop Ambrose and his human and healthy wisdom reveal Augustine's blindness, and he again embraces the true faith.  St. Augustine’s life is a life of conversion, and he experienced many successive conversions throughout his journey to God.   

As our juniors prepare to study moral theology, Lewis’ book will prepare their minds and hearts to better appreciate the deep impact of original sin and how the forces of darkness try to undermine joy and truth. In this book, the cunning plans of the adversary are not centered around obvious sins. Instead, the tempters focus on subtle forms of sin (e.g., vanity, pride, distraction, insincerity, forgetting God), and show how these can achieve the same effect as more obvious sins, that is, to lead us away from God. Ultimately, the tempters in this story do not care what sins are committed by their subjects - so long as they accomplish their goal of separating people from God. The case can be made that The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging and humorous account of temptation - and triumph over it - ever written. 

12th Grade

Frankenstein
Shelley, Mary
ISBN 978-0486282114