Montgomery High School 2013-2014 English II Summer Reading It is a well-known fact that people become better readers, writers, and thinkers and even come to love reading with practice. The MHS English teachers would like to foster good reading habits in our students. To that end, students will participate in a summer reading program. See the outlined assignments below. LEVEL ENGLISH II ASSIGNMENT: Actively read any novel from the attached list (including the Advanced English options). In a physical copy of the book, complete the Reading Log/Annotation assignment as or after you read. (See the below instructions at #4.) This will be due on the first day of class and will comprise 50 points of your first major grade of the school year. At the end of the first week of school, you will complete an in-class writing assignment over your chosen book. This will count as the remaining 50 points of your first major grade of the year. How to approach the reading: 1. Choose a book from the list attached that you will enjoy reading. 2. Purchase the book or check it out from a library. As you will need to write in the book or place sticky notes in it (sticky notes for library books, stick notes/writing for purchased books), no eBooks are allowed. You need a physical copy. Make sure that you come to class with the book and your completed Reading Journal/Annotations on the first day of school. Remember, this will count as 50 points of your first major grade. 3. Read the book through completely for enjoyment. 4. After you have read the book through, go back into the book and complete the Reading Log/Annotation assignment. Highlight the text, and make margin notes with regards to the following elements: A. Plot – Think about what happened. What were the beginning, middle, and end? What was the major conflict? How was it resolved? Highlight important plot points and summarize key events (for example, the climax) in the margins. B. Characters – List and give a description of each new character as he or she is introduced. Describe how they relate to the protagonist of the novel. C. Setting – Where and when does the story take place? Why is that important? Highlight specifics as to where and when the action takes place and if the setting changes. D. Point of View – From which P.O.V. is the narrative told? Who is the narrator? Are they part of the story or outside of the story? How much about the characters do they know? Does the P.O.V. shift? Highlight indicators of the point of view. E. Theme – Highlight and comment on specific sentences/passages that help in developing various themes. What messages was the author communicating through the book? DO NOT HIGHLIGHT EVERYTHING! Your highlighting and commenting should be thorough and be throughout the book, but not necessarily on every page.

ADVANCED ENGLISH II ASSIGNMENT: You will be responsible for actively reading two books over the course of the summer. You must read your choice of one of the following novels: A Thousand Splendid Suns, The God of Small Things, Snow, or Never Let Me Go. In addition to that, you will choose any other book from the entire list to read. In a physical copy of each book, complete the Reading Log/Annotation assignment as or after you read. (See the below instructions at #4.) This will be due on the first day of class and will be your first major grade of the school year (50 points per novel). You will complete the Reading Log/Annotation assignment for both books, but will complete your in-class writing assignment over your choice of the above four novels on the last day of the first week of class. This will count as your second major grade of the school year. How to approach the reading: 1. Choose books from the list attached that you will enjoy reading. 2. Purchase the books or check it out from a library. As you will need to write in the book or place sticky notes in it (sticky notes for library books, stick notes/writing for purchased books), no eBooks are allowed. You need a physical copy. Make sure that you come to class with the book and your completed Reading Journal/Annotations on the first day of school. Remember, this will count as 50 points of your first major grade. 3. Read the books through completely for enjoyment. 4. For each chapter that you read, complete the following by writing the information at the end of each chapter. For items with an asterisk (*), please highlight and make margin notes on the pages of your choice. Setting: Be specific to where and when the action takes place and if the setting changes. Characters: List and give a description of each new character as he or she is introduced. Describe how they relate to the protagonist of the novel. (*) Figurative Language/Imagery/Symbolism: Highlight two quotes minimum from each chapter. In the margins, briefly comment on the significance of the highlighted passage. Summary: Write a three-sentence summary at the end of each chapter. It must include the beginning, middle, and end of the actions of the chapter. Narrative Purpose: In one sentence, explain the purpose of the chapter as it relates to the development of the narrative. Did it create the setting? Did it introduce or develop a character? Did it introduce a dilemma? Did it increase the tension or bring resolution? Did it provide thematic commentary? Draw specific conclusions. (*) Sentence Style and Diction: Highlight a sentence or passage from the text that contains unusual or beautiful sentence structure and highlight one example of important/significant diction (word choice). For the sentence style, explain the impact/importance of the highlighted sentence/passage. For the diction example, jot down in the margin the associations that the word creates and the bias or attitude the diction helps to develop. Continue to the next page for the book list.

Book Title and Author The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

Shift Jennifer Bradbury

The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck

Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn Larry Colton Non-Fiction

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry

Synopsis “Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together, this dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers… [including] Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he’s bought over the years. Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? For all the answers, stick your thumb to the stars!” (From Amazon.com) “Best friends Chris and Win head out on a West Virginia to Washington State bicycle adventure after high school graduation, at the end of which Win disappears. Alternating chapters flash back to details of the trip, then forward to a private investigation instigated by Win's powerful father to uncover why his son told lies to Chris about an uncle in Seattle who doesn't exist, among other things. Little by little, Win's rich, domineering, and neglectful parents come more into focus, and it becomes evident that the teen needed to escape their iron rule.” (From Amazon.com) “The Good Earth is Buck’s classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple’s fortunes improve over the years: They are blessed with sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property in the House of Wang—the very house in which O-lan used to work. But success brings with it a new set of problems. Wang soon finds himself the target of jealousy, and as good harvests come and go, so does the social order. Will Wang’s family cherish the estate after he’s gone? And can his material success, the bedrock of his life, guarantee anything about his soul?” (From Amazon.com) “In this extraordinary work of journalism, Larry Colton journeys into the world of Montana's Crow Indians and follows the struggles of a talented, moody, charismatic young woman named Sharon LaForge, a gifted basketball player and a descendant of one of George Armstrong Custer's Indian scouts. But Counting Coup is far more than just a sports story or a portrait of youth. It is a sobering exposé of a part of our society long since cut out of the American dream.” (From Amazon.com) “Set on Chicago's South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family…. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama. Sacrifice, trust and love among the Younger family and their heroic struggle to retain dignity in a harsh and changing world is a searing and timeless document of hope and inspiration." (From Amazon.com)

Book Title and Author The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini ADVANCED ENGLISH CHOICE

Synopsis “The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable….until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever…. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule." (From Amazon.com) “Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them[--]in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul--they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation." (From Amazon.com)

“As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro ADVANCED ENGLISH CHOICE

The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd

Snow Orhan Pamuk ADVANCE ENGLISH CHOICE

Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together." (From Amazon.com) “When Lily's fierce-hearted black ‘stand-in mother,’ Rosaleen, insults three of the town's most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love— a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.” (From Amazon.com) “An exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their headscarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant Ipek, now recently divorced. Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka finds himself pursued by figures ranging from Ipek’s ex-husband to a charismatic terrorist. A lost gift returns with ecstatic suddenness. A theatrical evening climaxes in a massacre. And finding god may be the prelude to losing everything else." (From Amazon.com)

Book Title and Author All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy ADVANCED ENGLISH CHOICE

The Pearl John Steinbeck

The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan

Synopsis “Paul Bäumer[…]enlists with his classmates in the German army during World War I. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm. But the world of duty, culture, and progress they had been taught breaks in pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. Through years of vivid horror, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principle of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against one another . . . if only he can come out of the war alive.” (From Amazon.com)

“Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama, it is the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. The sevenyear-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevo[c]ably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing 'big things [that] lurk unsaid' in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest. Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated." (From Amazon.com) “In this short book illuminated by a deep understanding and love of humanity, John Steinbeck retells an old Mexican folk tale: the story of the great pearl, how it was found, and how it was lost. For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife cannot temper his obsession or stem the events leading to the tragedy." (From Amazon.com)

“Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's 'saying' the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money…. Forty years later the stories and history continue…. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties.” (From Amazon.com)