Required Reading
All English Honors and GT students will participate in a required summer reading program. Each grade level will read one mandatory/preselected title and one title the student may select from a list – for a total of two books. This reading booklet contains blank literary surveys that must be completed for each novel. AP students will have a separate reading packet to complete.
Notice to parents of English GT/ Honors students:
Students must submit the Literary Surveys for both novels on or before the assigned testing date on Monday, August 5, 2013. No surveys will be accepted after this date. NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE! Failure to turn in surveys will result in a zero for that part of the assignment. Testing on the mandatory/preselected novel will begin at 1:15 P.M. on Monday August 5 in the WHS library. Parents must provide transportation for their students by 3:00 P.M. on this date. Please check the WHS website: http://westgate.iberia.k12.la.us/ or call WHS for any changes.
IF YOU CANNOT TAKE THE TEST ON THIS DATE YOU MUST CONTACT A. DESLATTES TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO THE DATE. Anyone who fails to take the required reading test on or before this date will receive a zero on the test. If you have questions, please contact H. Roberts in the WHS office 365.2431 or or A. Deslattes at . Other WHS summer staff may not be familiar with the rules and times for summer reading; direct your questions only to A. Deslattes or H. Roberts.
Some of the choices of books contain explicit language or behaviors. These books are chosen for their literary merit, and the explicit matter is integral to the plot. A permission slip signed by a parent or guardian must be attached to each Literary Survey submitted, or the student will forfeit a percentage of his grade. (50 points for each survey)
Students will also have a second assignment on the student selected novel. The assessment will be at the discretion of each English teacher (multi-paragraph composition, project, or test). This will be done during the first grading period of the English class. Each student’s project must demonstrate mastery and understanding of the literary elements of the book. Each assessment will be worth a minimum of 100 points.
Summer Reading is worth a total of 300 points during the FIRST GRADING PERIOD. Failure to complete the required reading does not allow students to change their schedules after the school year has begun if they requested Honors/GT classes. Students who do not complete summer reading components will not be allowed to continue in honors English classes the following year.
GT Students: Both novels are selected for you. You will read the novels marked with * for your GT grade level.
Honors and GT Required Reading List 2013
There is a two book requirement for all levels (Honors and GT). All honors students must read the mandatory novel. GT student will read novels marked with ** below each grade level. See GT teachers for more information. Honors students may choose any other novel from the list to complete the two book requirement. Some of the novels include hyperlinks to digital or online copies of the novel. These are suggestions for you to use in accessing the novel; however, the links are not guaranteed to always be accessible or free of viruses. Use them at your own risk. In the event the links do not work, you will have to purchase the novel or access it through your local library.
English I - Honors/GT
Mandatory – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Plus choose one of the following:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Uglies by Scott Westerfield
The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon The Princess Bride by William Goldman
**GT only: Animal Farm by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
English II-Honors/GT
Mandatory – Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Plus choose one of the following:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung
GT only: Lord of the Flies by William Golding and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
English III-Honors
Mandatory – The Scarlett Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
Plus choose one of the following:
Honors and GT Required Reading 2013
The Great Gatsby
Grapes of Wrath
The Firm by John Grishom
The Help by
Honors and GT Required Reading 2013
GT: see your teacher for AP reading list
English IV-Honors
Mandatory – The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Choose one of the following:
Honors and GT Required Reading 2013
The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley
Grendel by John Gardner
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Honors and GT Required Reading 2013
GT: see your teacher for AP reading list
Summer Reading Permission Slips
By signing the below, Parents are stating they have read and understand the requirements and due dates set forth in this summer reading packet.
I understand that if my child does not complete this packet and take the test on the assigned date, he/she may fail the first grading period.
Mandatory Reading
I, _______________________________________ give permission for my child,
(Please print)
________________________________________, to read the following selection:
(Please print)
__________________________________________________________________________________
(Please print)
Signed: ______________________________
(Parent or guardian signature)
Date: ______________________________
Book # 2
I, ______________________________________ give permission for my child,
(Please print)
_______________________________________, to read the following selection:
(Please print)
_________________________________________________________________________________
(Please print)
Signed: _______________________________
(Parent or guardian signature)
Date: _______________________________
Book Reviews
English I:
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.
Animal Farm by George Orwell http://www.readanybook.com/ebook/animal-farm-43
Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy. --Joyce Thompson
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In this first of five volumes of her autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit black community there. These very lessons carried her throughout the hardships she endured later in life, including a tragic occurrence while visiting her mother in St. Louis and her formative years spent in California—where an unwanted pregnancy changed her life forever. Marvelously told, with Angelou’s “gift for language and observation,” this “remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black woman from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant.”
Uglies by Scott Westerfield http://www.readanybook.com/ebook/uglies-16935
Tally Youngblood is a 15-year old girl who lives in a bizarre world where from birth to age 16, citizens led to believe they are ugly. On their 16th birthdays, the “uglies” all undergo an operation that transforms them into The Accepted Standard of Beauty, making them “pretties” and moving them across the river to New Pretty Town, where every day is a party. What could be wrong with that? “As in every society, there are rebels…the ones who prefer to be ugly. Tally's new friend Shay is one of them. Shay leaves soon before her 16th birthday. Leaving Tally with a choice: Find Shay and turn her in or never turn pretty at all.” Pooja Didi
The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
On the sixteenth page of this incisive memoir, eighth-grader Brent Runyon drenches his bathrobe with gasoline and sets himself on fire. The burns cover 85 percent of his body and require six months of painful skin grafts and equally invasive mental-health rehabilitation. From the beginning, readers are immersed in the mind of 14-year-old Brent as he struggles to heal body and mind, his experiences given devastating immediacy in a first-person, present-tense voice that judders from uncensored teenage attitude and poignant to little-boy sweetness. And throughout is anguish over his suicide attempt and its impact on his family. Runyon has, perhaps, written the defining book of a new genre, one that gazes as unflinchingly at boys on the emotional edge as Zibby O'Neal's The Language of Goldfish (1980) and Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (1999) do at girls. Some excruciatingly painful moments notwithstanding, this can and should be read by young adults, as much for its literary merit as for its authentic perspective on what it means to attempt suicide, and, despite the resulting scars, be unable to remember why. Jennifer Mattson
The Princess Bride by William Goldman http://www.epubbud.com/book.php?g=AVX2ZHTN
The Princess Bride is a true fantasy classic. William Goldman describes it as a "good parts version" of "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure." Morgenstern's original was filled with details of Florinese history, court etiquette, and Mrs. Morgenstern's mostly complimentary views of the text. Much admired by academics, the "Classic Tale" nonetheless obscured what Mr. Goldman feels is a story that has everything: "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles." Goldman frames the fairy tale with an "autobiographical" story: his father, who came from Florin, abridged the book as he read it to his son. Now, Goldman is publishing an abridged version, interspersed with comments on the parts he cut out.
English II:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe http://www.onread.com/fbreader/1465401
Chinua Achebe’s novel follows one Nigerian villager’s clash with European colonization in 1890’s Africa. This historical clash greatly contributed to Africa’s modern day struggles. The story focuses on Okonkwo, hero of his Nigerian village. A very successful man, Okonkwo has three wives and many children because he gains social status based on his bravery and other warlike skills. Unfortunately, Okonkwo is obsessed with showing no sign of weakness or emotion, a tragic flaw that will eventually cause him continuous problems.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm
"You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter," declares Huck at the start of one of the greatest books in American literature. Filled with all the humor, creation. The tale of two outcasts' journey down the Mississippi River, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a nostalgic portrayal of a world Twain knew intimately, and the moving story of a boy who must make his own way in an often cruel society that counts it a sin to help a runaway slave.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?
The Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
First they Killed My Father by Loung Ung
"This is a harrowing, compelling story. Evoking a child's voice and viewpoint, Ung has written a book filled with vivid and unforgettable details. I lost a night's sleep to this book because I literally could not put it down, and even when I finally did, I lost another night's sleep just from the sheer, echoing power of it."-- Lucy Grealy, author of "Autobiography of a Face" From a childhood survivor of Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime comes an unforgettable narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and their triumph of spirit. Until the age of five, Lounge Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights, and sassing her parents. While her beautiful mother worried that Loung was a troublemaker -- that she stomped around like a thirsty cow -- her beloved father knew Lounge was a clever girl. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Ung's family fled their home and moved from village to village to hide their identity, their education, their former life of privilege. Eventually, the family dispersed in order to survive. Because Lounge was resilient and determined, she was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, while other siblings were sent to labor camps. As the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia, destroying the Khmer.