American Literature Parallel Reading
(Tucker, 4th Block)
Directions: Choose one of the following books to read on your own. The assignment to complete is on the back. It is due Wednesday, March 22 by 3:30.
- A Separate Peace, by John Knowles: An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years,A Separate Peaceis timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II.Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II,A Separate Peaceis a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.
- The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver: Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.
- Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger: The hero-narrator ofThe Catcher in the Ryeis an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.J.D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923.
- The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd: Set in South Carolina in 1964,The Secret Life of Beestells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
***Book options 1-3 are all available in the library. If you are interested in The Secret Life of Bees, you will need to obtain a copy on your own.
Assignment (60 points summative writing grade):
This is similar to a lab abstract you may have to write in college, where you write three paragraphs that may not be related, but cover different aspects required for a particular topic. Each paragraph needs to be labeled. The written portion must be typed and in MLA format. Points will be deducted if it is handwritten.
Paragraph 1: Label “Introduction”
Write a 5-7 sentence paragraph explaining the book you chose, why you chose it, and whether or not you enjoyed the book. You may use pronouns I, me, my in this section ONLY.
Paragraph 2: Label “Article summary”
Locate an article (it needs to be printed and attached to your project) that relates to your book. It does not have to be about your book, but something your book discusses. For example, Into the Wild is about Chris McCandless trying to survive in Alaska. So, an article about the dangers of living in Alaska or about poisonous plants or about how to properly take care of meat after you kill an animal would all be good topics to look up.
You will need to include a citation for your article at the end of this section. An example will be provided at a later date.
Once you find an article, read it and write a 7-8 sentence summary detailing the contents of the article. You do not need quotes from your article in your summary.
Paragraph 3: Label “Article Connection”
Write a paragraph connecting the information in your article to the book you chose. Here, make sure you include 2 quotes from the article and 2 quotes from the book showing how they connect to one another.
Bonus Visual (10% bonus added on to your final summative product grade):
Option 1: Create an original book cover for your book. It needs to include the title, author, summary on the back, reviews, visual, one key quote that sums up the overall theme of the text.
Option 2: Create an original movie poster. It needs to include the title, author, actors/actresses who will star in it, reviews, rating, visual, one key quote that sums up the overall theme of the text.
Extra Credit Formative Grade Opportunity: If you complete the graphic organizer that walks you through the abstract as you read, it will be accepted for a replacement formative grade. If you choose not to do it, it will not count against you. DUE Thursday, March 16 at the beginning of class.
Due Date: The assignment will be accepted no later than Wednesday, March 22 at 3:30. That gives you four weeks to obtain the book, read it, and complete the assignment.