All students taking the Pre-AP class will be required to participate in all discussions, since this course prepares students for entry into the Advanced Placement and dual credit courses offered in their junior and senior years. This course includes a summer reading assignment: The Color of Water and The Help. The novels for the summer reading focus on the topics of acceptance and identity. Some of the material is mature in content. You will have to answer a packet of short answer questions over The Help by Kathryn Stockett and a packet of short answer questions over The Color of Water by James McBride.

Color of Water questions:

Answer each of the following questions and support it with quotations from the novel. Be sure to explain your responsein detail:

1. The title of this book, The Color of Water, refers to the answer Ruth gives when James asks if God is white or black. Discuss why God’s race was so intriguing to James and why this answer was so important to Ruth.

2. The theme of discrimination is important in The Color of Water. Examine and discuss discrimination against immigrants, Jews, and blacks as shown in this book.

3. Several women are important in the development of both Ruth’s character and James’ character. Discuss how women helped Ruth and James, including Mameh, Aunt Mary, and Aunt Candis in your consideration.

4. Write a character sketch of Mameh, evaluating her effect as a Jewish wife, an advocate for her children, and a figure in the community.

5. For many immigrants, hard work is seen as the path to success and attainment of the American way of life. Compare and contrast Rabbi Shilsky and Aunt Mary in this framework.

6. Discuss the theme of “the outsider” as it is manifested in this book.

7. Comment on the role of traditional social institutions (such as school, church, and family) in a young black man’s quest for identity, considering how these institutions fostered or blocked James in his search for individuality, self-confidence, and responsibility.

8. Although James McBride is listed as the author of this book, both he and his mother serve as narrators. Discuss whether you think this approach is successful and why he (but not his mother) would be listed as an author.

The Help questions:

Answer each of the following questions and support it with quotations from the novel. Be sure to explain your response in detail:

1. In your own words, write what was meant by "separate but equal." How did people in Jackson, Mississippi - including the ladies of the Junior League in The Help - try to apply this principle?

2. Minny is a wonderful cook and introduces Celia to some amazing food. Before that, Celia only really

knew how to make Corn Pone. What is Corn Pone and how does it help define Celia’s background?

3. Hilly and the other women in the Junior League are all fairly wealthy and college-educated women. Celia Rae Foote is from Sugar Ditch, a very poor area of Mississippi, and is not received well by the other women. KathrynStockett, the author of The Help, said ‘I wanted to create a character who’s so poor that they’re beyond prejudice.” What do you believe Stockett means by this statement? Do you believe that this statement is accurate?

4. What stands out to you the most about the Jim Crow laws? How do you believe laws like this could have been enforced for nearly 100 years? How is Hilly’sHome Help SanitationInitiative influenced by the Jim Crow laws?

5. What are Skeeter’s expectations for her future? What are the expectations that her friends and family have for her?

6. How did the different expectations for Skeeter’s future conflict with one another and cause unrest for Skeeter? How well do you believe that Skeeter and her friends dealt with these differences? What could they have done to better deal with their differences?

7. Write sentences to explain each of the quotes from the book:

●Page 10 - Hilly Holbrook explains to Elizabeth Leefolt: "Everybody knows they carry different diseases than we do. That's exactly why I've designed the Home Help Sanitation Initiative, as a disease-preventative measure. A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help."

●Page 12 - Skeeter Phelan poses a question to Aibileen Clark: "Aibileen, that talk in there ... Hilly's talk, I mean ... Did you ever wish you could change things?

●Page 83 - Elaine Stein writes to Skeeter Phelan: "Don't waste your time on the obvious things. Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else."

●Page 123 - Skeeter Phelan outlines the situation to Elaine Stein: "The colored women down here. They raise a white child and then twenty years later the child becomes the employer. It's that irony, that we love them and they love yet, yet ... We don't even allow them to use the toilet in the house."

●Page 124 - Elaine Stein expresses her thoughts to Skeeter Phelan: "What maid in her right mind would tell youthe truth? Miss Phelan, this Negro actually agreed to talk to you candidly? Because that seems like a h___ of a risk in a place like Jackson, Mississippi."

Note: Be prepared to compare and contrast these two books when you come to class that first day.