Summer Assignments

English 9 

Piecing Me Together – Renee Watson (student purchase)

In English 9, we’ll read a wide range of stories—fiction and nonfiction—that will help you become a stronger reader, writer, and thinker. One of our first goals will be learning how to look closely at the choices writers make when telling a story and how these choices impact the reader’s experience. We’ll specifically focus on the different types of characters in a novel and discuss the ways a writer shapes and utilizes these characters in a story.

This summer, please read chapters 1–68 of Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson. You should be prepared to discuss the story when we return. We will read the remainder of the book (chapters 70–76) together in the beginning weeks of the school year. As you read, think about the following questions. You may want to jot down a few notes to bring with you in the fall:

1. What do you notice about Jade as a character? What kind of person is she, and how do you learn that? Make note of specific passages that highlight her character.

2. Think about the other characters in the novel and the different roles they play in Jade’s life. How do these characters shape her in unique ways? Make note of specific passages that highlight interactions between Jade and other characters.

The Dutch House – Ann Patchett (student purchase)

Throughout the Honors English 9 course, you will learn to “read like a writer” and develop your own voice in your writing. During the year, you will read a variety of mentor texts that will help you develop skills in literary analysis, as well as understand and emulate examples of effective writing. Over the summer, please read parts one and two of Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House (student purchase). As you read, annotate your text and consider the following questions. There is no formal writing assignment due upon arrival in September, but you will use your notes and answers to these questions as the basis for a writing assignment shortly after you return to school:

1. Consider how Maeve and Danny are characterized through their physical description, behavior, and dialogue.  

2. How is the Dutch House a source of both comfort and conflict for Maeve and Danny? 

3. . In what way does The Dutch House resemble Fairy Tales you may have read or seen?  

4. Why is Danny an effective narrator for The Dutch House? How might the novel change if it were narrated by Maeve or Andrea?

English 10

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (Student Purchase)

As you read, please consider the following questions. These questions will be used in class discussion and for a baseline writing assessment.

1. Looking at Keiko and Herny, explain how family influences each of their identities. Support your response using specific examples and quotes from the text.

2. Language is foundational in communication but can also act as a barrier to understanding. How does language act as a barrier in these works? How does it act as a unifier? Support your response using specific examples and quotes from the text.

Honors English 10

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë (student purchase)

When Jane Eyre was published in 1847, most women could not easily own property, pursue an education or career, or live independently. Jane’s desire for autonomy challenges traditional expectations placed on women, and in a world that seeks to silence women, she tends to speak her mind and question authority. Ultimately, this novel challenges students to question whom society labels as “wicked” and whether that label is accurate or fair.

Please read to the end of Volume I, Chapter 10. As you read, please thoroughly annotate your text. Also, consider the following questions. These questions will be used during class discussions to open the school year and for a baseline writing assessment:

1. To what extent is the character Jane Eyre shaped by those around her?

2. To what extent is the character Jane Eyre shaped by her poverty?

For both questions, consider Jane’s time spent at Gateshead (chapters 1-4) and her time spent at Lowood Institution (chapters 5-10).

Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (student purchase)

Published posthumously in 1818, Northanger Abbey is both a novel and a parody of Gothic fiction. Through Catherine Morland’s overactive imagination and tendency to make naïve mistakes, Austen explores how reading shapes people’s expectations about the world around them. The novel, the first literary form we will study, serves as the basis for discussing character, setting, story, and plot.

Please read to the end of Volume 1 only or, depending on the version you’ve purchased, the end of Chapter 15). As you read, please thoroughly annotate your text. Also, consider the following questions. These questions will be used in class discussion to open the school year and for a baseline writing assessment:

1. To what extent is Catherine Morland a heroine?

2. How does reading shape the way Catherine Morland views the world around her?

Honors English 11 

Dracula – Bram Stoker (student purchase)

In Honors English 11, “Seven Types of Plot,” you’ll learn about the various characteristics that have shaped fictional storytelling for thousands of years.  You’ll begin the year by examining Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic novel Dracula.  Over the summer, please read only chapters 1-15 (I-XV); you will read the remaining twelve chapters in September.  As you read, pay particular attention to structure—i.e., how the narrative is put together.  When you return in September, we’ll discuss the first fifteen chapters before going forward into the remainder of the novel.  Come to class with an intimate knowledge of these chapters, annotating particularly pertinent details of observations that the various characters are making about the strange phenomena they’re encountering.  Dracula will serve as our first plot “type.”

AP English Language and Composition 

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America – Barbara Ehrenreich (student purchase)

In Nickel and Dimed, you will discover life at or below the poverty line through the eyes of a writer who lived it.  Ehrenreich’s book, published in 2001, brings us close to the life of house cleaners, retail workers, and restaurant servers who work long, stressful hours for minimum wage pay.  The book is not strictly an exercise in journalism, but rather an exposition of deeply personal convictions about the state of welfare that permeates American society in the modern era.  

As you read, consider the language (the actual words themselves) that Ehrenreich uses to depict episodes of strife, despair, and hardship.  How would you characterize Ehrenreich’s writing style in these moments?  Select a few passages from Ehrenreich that capture the tenor of her writing.  We’ll use these passages as jumping-off points into discussions about the impact of language when you return in September.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot (student purchase)

Over the summer, please read Parts One and Two of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks—you will write about these sections soon after the school year begins. While reading, be mindful that Skloot utilizes techniques from science writing and creative nonfiction, wherein the facts are true, but the storytelling and dialogue take some liberties. We will read the remainder of the book together in the beginning weeks of the school year. 

Honors English 12 

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale (student purchase)

“Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction”—well, we’re about to test that claim.  Kate Summerscale (appropriate name, don’t you think?) will take you on a journey through a crime that took place in Victorian England, one that spurred on countless detective fictions and fictional detectives.  We’ll treat Summerscale’s book as complete research repository of a crime and a springboard for discussing true crime and detective fiction—for it is a kind of watershed of these two genres—but also as an encyclopedia of detective history and terminology.  Prepare yourself for savvy Scotland Yard inspectors and cold criminal minds.  Be sure to annotate the book as you read, noting particularly salient bits of information that stitch together the murder case as well as make a detective.  

AP English Literature and Composition 

Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver (student purchase)

Please read through Chapter 41, and we will finish the novel together when we return in the fall. Pay attention to how this text uses Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield for its structure, while setting it in the recent past in Southwestern Virginia’s portion of Appalachia. Due to the region’s unique location and culture, track how the rural poverty surrounding these characters isn’t due to a singular factor but a complex combination of societal woes.

Also, please choose one of the following novels to read individually. When we return, we will crowd source information from these novels (since there are many possible titles on the AP Literature Exam):

All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

There There – Tommy Orange

James – Percival Everett

Persuasion – Jane Austen

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt

The Bee Sting – Paul Murray

Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead

Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston

On Beauty – Zadie Smith

Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë