NHS English
Department
Required Summer
Reading Assignment 2014
9-12 College Prep
Classes
Reading is best when it is a pleasurable experience, so this
year, for the summer assignment, we are inviting you to choose a book written
by any author listed at your incoming grade level on the back of this pag . It is easy to read up about their books
online, or to ask librarians or booksellers. Many, if not all, of their books
can be found at either the NHS or public library. After you read the book,
choose from the following assignments to complete. All assignments are due on the first day of school, and should represent
the best of your abilities. Enjoy!
1. Choose five passages from throughout your book that best
exemplify the devices of characterization, theme, conflict, and setting. For
each passage, first carefully type and cite the page on which the passage is
found. Then, in a typed paragraph or two, written to the best of your ability,
provide your explanation of the way in which the passage does exemplify the
device. Your total paper submission should be no shorter than two pages. Choose
original, interesting quotations from throughout the book, and not the ones
that are found on websites such as Sparknotes.
2. Create a Found Poem for your book. A Found Poem is one
that is made up completely from phrases and passages found within the book
itself. It retells the story, focusing on a particular theme or character’s
point of view. Some Found Poems do both. Your Found Poem should be no shorter
than one page in length, typed, using a 10-11 font of your choice. On a
separate piece of paper, please type a well-written explanation of your poem that
provides a brief summary of the story, and identification of the themes and
ideas you wished to convey in your poem.
3. Create a collection of illustrations for your book that
focuses on the settings and/or key events described in the book. Your book
should contain no fewer than four detailed drawings, and each illustration
should incorporate a cited passage from the book. On the accompanying page, provide a typed
explanation of the scene, characterization, or setting it conveys, providing
the reader with context needed to understand the illustration. Your
illustrations may be completed in any of the following mediums: charcoal, pencil,
colored pencil, pastel, watercolor, paint, marker or crayon. No digital or
photo. Please bind or fasten your collection.
DUE: FIRST DAY OF
SCHOOL. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Note: The phrase “other than [book title]” means
that we will not accept those books as summer reading. They are titles that are
(or will be) used here in NHS curriculum. Please be careful to look for other
titles by your chosen author!)
Authors for Summer Reading Assignment 9-12CP
2014
Julia Alvarez (other
than In the Time of the Butterflies)
Sandra Cisneros (Other
than House on Mango Street)
Chinua Achebe (other
than Things Fall Apart)
Khaled Hosseini (other
than The Kite Runner)
Annie Dillard
Isabelle Allende
Gail Tsukiyama (other
than The Samurai’s Garden)
Sherman Alexie (other
than Absolutely True Diary of Part-time Indian and Reservation Blues)
Ray Bradbury (other than
Fahrenheit 451)
Barbara Kingsolver
(other than Bean Trees)
Jeanette Walls (other
than Glass Castle)
Nick Hornby
Amy Tan (other than Kitchen
God’s Wife)
Ernest Gaines (other
than Lesson Before Dying)
Frank McCourt
Joyce Carol Oates
John Steinbeck (other
than Of Mice and Men; Grapes of Wrath)
JRR Tolkien (other than The Hobbit)
Cory Doctorow (other
than Little Brother)
Anna Quinlan
Tim O Brien (other than The
Things They Carried)
Cormac McCarthy (other
than The Road)
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck (other
than Of Mice and Men; Grapes of Wrath)
Tobias Wolff
Toni Morrison (other
than Song of Solomon)
Chang-Rae Lee
Anchee Minn
Junot Diaz (other than The Brief Life of Oscar Wao)
Edwidge Danticat (other
than Krik Krak)
Jhumpa Lahiri (other
than Interpreter of Maladies)
Chitra Banarjee
Divakaruni
Ralph Elllison
Tom Wolfe
Ian McEwan
Margaret Atwood
Haruki Murakami
Zadie Smith
Orson Scott Card
Joseph Heller
