All-School Read

The All-School Read (ASR) is an opportunity for the entire Berkshire community, from students to alumni, to engage in a body of work from a traditional literary perspective as well as a scientific, economic, philosophical, or historical one.

It’s a chance for students to interact with talented authors and thinkers, while considering a given topic in a real-world context. This examination promotes critical thinking and provides an opportunity for a collective conversation on campus. The program launches in the fall with a kick-off event, and the book's theme is studied within the curriculum and revisited during special events throughout the year.

2020 ASR

For the first time since its inception in 2013, the ASR features six books. We invite you to join us as we explore multiple themes -- immigration, race, love, justice, poverty, class, and more -- through the lens of identity. The selections are: The Book of Unknown Americans, about a family from Mexico who has come to America searching for healing and hope; Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, the Pulitzer Prize-winning account of eight families in Milwaukee struggling to keep a roof over their heads; The Fortunes, a multigenerational novel about a Chinese American family that spans over a century of history; The Hate U Give, a novel about a 16-year-old who moves between the two worlds of the poor neighborhood where she lives and her fancy suburban prep school; The Other Americans, a murder mystery, family saga and love story whose characters are deeply divided by race, religion, and class; and Where the Crawdads Sing, a mystery surrounding a woman who was abandoned at age 10 to live alone in the wild coastal marsh of North Carolina.

About The Books

THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS
by Cristina Henriquez

A 2014 novel told from multiple first person points of view; the two main narrators are Alma Rivera, a 30-something housewife from Pátzcuaro, Mexico, and Mayor Toro, a teenage social outcast and first-generation American whose parents were originally from Panama.

EVICTED
by Matthew Desmond

Poverty and Profit in the American City is a sociological study of evictions, housing, and homelessness in Milwaukee. The book follows the lives of a number of tenants and landlords in order to examine how access to housing affects the poor.

THE FORTUNES
by Peter Ho Davies

Inhabiting four lives - a railroad baron's valet who unwittingly ignites an explosion in Chinese labor, Hollywood's first Chinese movie star, a hate-crime victim whose death mobilizes Asian Americans, and a biracial writer visiting China for an adoption - this novel captures and capsizes over a century of American history, showing that even as family bonds are denied and broken, a community can survive - as much through love as blood.

THE HATE U GIVE
by Angie Thomas

Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite private school in a predominantly white, affluent part of the city becomes entangled in a national news story after she witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend, Khalil. She speaks up about the shooting in increasingly public ways, and social tensions culminate in a riot after a grand jury decides not to indict the police officer for the shooting.

THE OTHER AMERICANS
by Laila Lalami

Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
by Delia Owens

The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya as she grows up isolated in the marsh of North Carolina from 1952–1969. The second timeline follows a murder investigation of Chase Andrews, a local celebrity of Barkley Cove, a fictional coastal town of North Carolina.

VIDEO: 2020 ASR ANNOUNCEMENT

Past All-School Read Programs

ASR 2019

We Should All Be Feminists, an essay by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, explores the term “feminist” and how important it is, in our modern lives, that we all embrace ideals of gender equality. The book was chosen as Berkshire School celebrated the 50th anniversary of coeducation at the School.

To support the 2019 ASR, author and educator Regina Barreca visited Berkshire to share her insight on the evolution of feminism in America.

MORE: 2019 ALL-SCHOOl READ

ASR 2018

Station Eleven, a novel by Emily St. John Mandel, was chosen as 2018's All-School Read. At once a gripping, post-apocalyptic page-turner and an elegy for a lost civilization, Station Eleven's themes explore the resilience of the human spirit and the power of the relationships that bind us together.

MORE: 2018 ALL-SCHOOL READ

ASR 2017

Walking to Listen: 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time by Andrew Forsthoefel is the story of the young author's journey walking across the United States and the many people he met along the way. It's part adventure story and part portrait of our nation in the 21^st century.

MORE: 2017 All-School Read

ASR 2016

Emmy-nominated political comedian W. Kamau Bell visited Berkshire to present his show, The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in about an Hour. The show was part of the School's 2016 All-School Read program, which focused on Between The World and Me by award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates.

MORE: 2016 ALL-SCHOOL READ

ASR 2015

ASR 2014

berkshire private college prep schools all-read program

Shiza Shahid, CEO and co-founder of the Malala Fund, addressed the Berkshire community during 2014's All-School Read program. A graduate of Stanford University, Shiza is the co-founder and CEO of the Malala Fund, an organization that works to empower girls through education.

MORE: 2014 All-School Read

ASR 2013

Author Tracy Kidder's Strength in What Remains explores the journey of Deogratias "Deo" Niyizonkiza through the horrors of civil war and genocide in his native Burundi, to medical school and a life of healing. Niyizonkiza, founder of Village Health Works, visited the school for the inaugural All-School Read program in 2013.

MORE: 2013 All-School Read

All-School ReadS announced today! https://t.co/6PFvwBKMkw
— Berkshire School (@BerkshireSchool) May 18, 2020

“We Should All Be Feminists” written by @ChimamandaReal was announced as next year’s All-School Read selection by Ms. Carew-Miller. Click the link to read about the ASR program and #ASR2019 Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: https://t.co/Of12sqdXE4 #summerreading pic.twitter.com/Vt9t4zO74M
— Berkshire School (@BerkshireSchool) May 17, 2019

Station Eleven, a novel by @EmilyMandel, is this year's All-School Read! Check out our reading guide for more about this post-apocalyptic page-turner. https://t.co/h1lvUkQvJu #ASR2018 #stationeleven #summerreading pic.twitter.com/PTmFOSHKSD
— Berkshire School (@BerkshireSchool) July 7, 2018

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