The English Department looks forward to welcoming you to high school and congratulates you on reaching this milestone in your academic journey. To assist you in this journey and to help prepare you for the rigors of high school, the 9th grade teachers have compiled a list of summer reading texts that we hope will entertain and challenge you. This list will also give you an idea of the depth of what you will be reading and in some cases will give you some background to upcoming texts. We encourage you to read with friends and parents and to discuss themes, character development, and figurative language. Where a film version is available andit meets parental guidelines for viewing, watch it! Literature and film have much in common BUT film does not replace literature. In short, have fun, make lemonade out of the lemon of required reading, but do come prepared!
Each student must read the following selections over the summer. One novel, one biography (or autobiography) of a famous American of the 1920s or 1930s, and these poems by Langston Hughes: “Harlem”, “Theme for English B”, and “Mother to Son”.
Note: summer reading grades account for 5% of your first quarter grade.
You will keep reading logs for both the novel and the biography typed in 12 point font that addresses the prompts below. In the first week of school you will hand in your typed reading log, stapled in the upper left hand corner, with your name, your teacher’s name, the period number, and the date clearly labeled, also in the upper left corner of the first page. Logs will be your first submission to turnitin.com.
Questions 1, 2, and 3 address your biography. Questions 4 through 8 are for the novel (fiction). Question 9 is for either text. Cite your information.
1. Where and when did the author live? (Biography)
2. What were or are his interests? (Biography)
3. Identify the motivating factor(s) of his life. (Biography)
4. How does the text open? Consider tone, diction, and setting. (Novel)
5. What is the author trying to convey about life or human nature (theme)? (Novel)
6. What is the major conflict? (Novel)
7. Describe the climax. (Novel)
8. Who is your favorite character from the novel? Why? (Novel)
9. Who would you most like to meet in Starbucks? What would you like to tell him?(It need not be your favorite character.) (Novel or Biography)
Famous Americans - Suggestions for the biography/autobiography (non-fiction):
Margaret Burke-White Al Capone Coco Chanel Countee Cullen Walt Disney
Albert Einstein F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston Dorothea Lange Charles Lindberg Jesse Owens Eleanor Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt Orson Welles
Fiction Selections:
Blackbirdby Jennifer Lauck. A beautiful memoir, both heartbreaking and absorbing, of a child’s loss, loneliness, and her ability to survive and grow.
Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. This WWII novel of mutiny aboard the USS Caine explores ethical and legal issues of mutiny law in a real-life situation when officers and sailors must face their captain’s debilitating paranoia. (Great film starring Humphrey Boart and James Cagney)
The Maltese Falconby Dashiell Hammett. An award-winning classic mystery involving a hard-nosed PI, a dangerous dame, and a mysterious bird. This novel became a standard for mystery novels and film noir. (Oscar winning film starring the incomparable Humphrey Bogart)
Alas Babylon by Pat Frank. Survival after a nuclear attack brings out heroes and the cowards as residents of a small Florida town reestablish law and order, find food, and ponder the future. Writing is simple, straightforward, and practical.
Emmaby Jane Austin. A witty and amusing look at Regency England’s manners and social mores embodied by a delightful mis-matcher. (Best movie version stars Gwyneth Paltrow. Clueless is a fun update starring Alicia Silverstone)
Jane Eyreby Charlotte Bronte. Where Emma is light, this tale is dark. A suspenseful gothic tale of a penniless orphan who becomes a governess and then the mistress of a house haunted by madness, terrible secrets, and desire. (Great movie versions available among which are the early one with the incomparable Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, and the newer version with William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsborough and Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbinder.)
Rebeccaby Daphne Du Maurier. A modern companion to Jane Eyre where a delicate heroine saves both the day and the hero as she rises from rags to riches. (Best film version with Sir Lawrence Olivier and a type-cast Joan Fontaine – she plays a great victim)
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. A gothic tale of a Victorian era girls’ boarding school with a deadly secret which focuses on one character, Gemma, who is intrigued and confused by a circle of girls who seem to hold strange powers.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This classic looks at the difficult lives of immigrants and inside the horrors of the Chicago meat-packing industry in the 1920s and 1930s.