Interboro High School

Tenth Grade Summer Reading Packet

Please bring this completed packet to English class on Friday, September 9.

Dear Parent or Guardian:

Please read through the enclosed summer reading requirements for your student to complete this summer. The purpose of this activity is to encourage our students to read for enjoyment while maintaining essential literacy skills that we have covered throughout the school year. Use the space below to write down the title of the book that your student chose to read this summer, and then sign the bottom of this page after the reading is completed. Please refer to the instructions on the back of this page for more details. Thank you for your help and support with this important activity!

______

I understand that my child must read one book this summerin order to receive full credit on his or her summer reading grade. I have read the enclosed summer reading requirements, and my child has read the following title for summer reading this year:

Student’s Name: ______

Book Choice: ______

Parent/Guardian Signature: ______

1.Students will choose one book from the provided list and complete the included reading log for the book that he or she selects. Summaries are included to help you make a decision on which book would be best for your student.

2. Students will choose one writing activity from the enclosed packet.

3. In addition to the above, students will complete an in-class assessment on the book of their choice on Friday, September 9.

4. Fill in the front page of this reading packet, including the parent or guardian signature as proof of completion. All summer reading activities are part of the first marking period English grade.

Tenth Grade Book Choices

Twelve Angry Men

by Reginald Rose·Penguin Books·Paperback·73 pages·ISBN 0143104403

A landmark American drama which inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival Reginald Rose's landmark American drama was a critically acclaimed teleplay, and went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U.S. legal system. The story's focal point, known only as Juror Eight, is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal biases. Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture of America, at its best and worst, to form. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by David Mamet.

The Bean Trees: A Novel; Paperback; Author - Barbara Kingsolver

by Barbara Kingsolver·HarperCollins·Paperback·272 pages·ISBN 0062277758

The Bean Trees is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West. Written with humor and pathos, this highly praised novel focuses on love and friendship, abandonment and belonging as Taylor, out of money and seemingly out of options, settles in dusty Tucson and begins working at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires while trying to make a life for herself and Turtle.The author of such bestsellers as The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, and Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver has been hailed for her striking imagery and clear dialogue, and this is the novel that kicked off her remarkable literary career.

Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri·Houghton Mifflin·Paperback·198 pages·ISBN 039592720X

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice

A Separate Peace; Paperback; Author - John Knowles

by John Knowles·Scribner·Paperback·208 pages·ISBN 0743253973

An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to the Second World War. Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is 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. A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles’s crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.

Name______Book: ______

Evaluate
How would you rate this book? Why?
Poor Fair Average Good Excellent
Genre
To what genre does this book belong? How does this book fit the requirements of this genre?
Plot Structure
Use the space below to describe the different elements of the novel’s plot. In order to receive full credit, fill in the boxes thoroughly with complete sentences and specific details.
Exposition
The background information that you get at the beginning of the story.
Who are your main characters? What is the story’s setting (when and where it takes place)?
Rising Action
The events that occur in the story leading up to the climax.
What happens in the story that leads up to the most important event that occurs in the book?
Climax
The high point or turning point of the story.
What is the BIGGEST or most IMPORTANT thing that happens in your book? Explain how it fits the definition of climax.
Falling Action
The events that occur after the climax.
What happens after or as a result of the climax?
Resolution
The ending of the story.
How are things resolved? How does your story end?
Conflict
What major conflict or conflicts are occurring in your book? A conflict can be between two characters (example: an argument between two people), a character and nature (example: a character trying to survive in the wilderness), a character and the rules or traditions of society (example: a character defying the school dress code), or within a character (example: a difficult decision that a character has to make).
Theme or Central Idea
Use the space below to describe a possible theme (a moral or lesson that the reader can learn from the story) for this book. Explain how this is a good theme for this book. What elements of the book revealed this theme?

Writing Activity

Choose ONE of the following writing activities to complete on the following page. It must be one page in length. You may attach additional pieces of paper if needed.

1. If you were the author of this book, what would you change in the story? Write about a change you would make to this book and how this change would improve the story for the reader.

2. Write a journal entry from the viewpoint of one of the book’s characters. In your entry, explain a problem or conflict that you encountered and how it was resolved.

3. What do you think happens to the main character of your book in the future? Write a letter from the main character to a friend explaining what he or she has done with his or her life since the events of the novel took place.

4. Turn the events of this book into a song or poem. Summarize the main events and ideas of the book in the lyrics.

Writing Activity

I am answering choice # _____.