Summer Reading 2022-2023
Freshman & Transfer Student Letter
- All students will be required to do summer reading. Requirements for each grade and course level are listed separately.
- Students will be required to make one annotation for every ten pages of the novel.
- For this reason, these books must be purchased. Teachers will randomly choose pages to check for annotations and the response will be graded based on a rubric reflecting the requirements listed below.
ANNOTATION: Analyze + Note= anNOTEtation (underline AND comment – no highlighting without an accompanying comment!)
As you work with your text, consider all of the ways that you can connect with what you are reading. Here are some suggestions that will help you with your annotations:
- Define words or slang; make the words real with examples from your experiences; explore why the author would have used a particular word or phrase.
- Make connections to other parts of the book. Mark quotes and note why they are important
- Make connections to other texts you have read or seen, including:
- Movies
- Comic books/graphic novels
- News events
- Other books, stories, plays, songs, or poems
- Draw a picture when a visual connection is appropriate.
- Re-write, paraphrase, or summarize a particularly difficult passage or moment.
- Make meaningful connections to your own life experiences.
- Describe a new perspective you may now have.
- Explain the historical context or traditions/social customs that are used in the passage.
- Offer an analysis or interpretation of what is happening in the text.
- Point out and discuss literary techniques that the author is using.
If you are stuck, consider completing the sentences below in the margins of your pages:
- This interests me because…
- This reminds me of…
- This shocks me because…
- This disgusts/upsets me because…
- This confuses me because…
- This inspires me because…
- I can relate to this because…
- This line really impacts me because…
- This part of the book will stay with me because…
There are no exceptions to the summer reading program. If a student has transferred after August 1, it is the student‘s responsibility to make arrangements for the completion of the assignments with his/her English teacher. If those who transfer after August 1 have not completed the summer reading by halfway through the first quarter, the assignments will be given zeros. If there are any questions, please contact the school or a teacher in the English department.
Grade 9 – Advanced English 1; English 1
Required Book 1: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Required Book 2: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Grade 10 – Advanced American Literature; American Literature; General American Literature
PICK AND ANNOTATE ANY TWO OF THE FOLLOWING TITLES:
Book 1: Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Book 2: The Martian by Andy Weir
Book 3: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Book 4: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Book 5: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Book 6: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Book 7: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Book 8: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Book 9: I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Book 10: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Book 11: The Revenant by Michael Punke
Book 12: The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
Book 13: The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus
Book 14: Dune by Frank Herbert
Grade 11 – Advanced British Literature; British Literature
PICK AND ANNOTATE ANY TWO OF THE FOLLOWING TITLES:
Book 1: 1984 by George Orwell
Book 2: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Book 3: The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
Book 4: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Book 5: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Book 6: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Book 7: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Book 8: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Book 9: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Book 10: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Book 11: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Book 12: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Book 13: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Book 14: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Book 15: The Dubliners by James Joyce
Book 16: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Book 17: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Book 18: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman
Book 19: Watership Down by Richard Adams
Book 20: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Grade 11 – AP Language and Composition
PICK AND ANNOTATE ANY THREE OF THE FOLLOWING TITLES:
Book 1: 1984 by George Orwell
Book 2: Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Book 3: The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
Book 4: Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Book 5: Dracula by Bram Stoker
Book 6: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Book 7: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Book 8: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Book 9: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Book 10: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Book 11: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Book 12: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Book 13: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Book 14: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Book 15: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Book 16: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Book 17: White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Book 18: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Book 19: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Book 20: The Dubliners by James Joyce
Book 21: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Book 22: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Book 23: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman
Book 24: Watership Down by Richard Adams
Book 25: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Grade 12 – Advanced World Literature; World Literature
PICK AND ANNOTATE TWO OF THE FOLLOWING TITLES:
Book 1: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Book 2: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Book 3: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Book 4: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Book 5: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Book 6: Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Book 7: The Plague by Albert Camus
Book 8: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Book 9: Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Book 10: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Book 11: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Book 12: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Book 13: Doctor Zhivago BY Boris Pasternak
Book 14: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Book 15: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Grade 12 – AP Literature and Composition
PICK AND ANNOTATE ANY THREE OF THE FOLLOWING TITLES:
Book 1: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Book 2: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Book 3: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Book 4: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Book 5: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Book 6: Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Book 7: The Plague by Albert Camus
Book 8: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Book 9: Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Book 10: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Book 11: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Book 12: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Book 13: Doctor Zhivago BY Boris Pasternak
Book 14: Blindness by Jose Saramago
Book 15: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Book 16: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Book 17: Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Book 18: Kaffir Boy:The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane
Book 19: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Book 20: Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin
Contact information:
Mrs. Lori Cassidy
English Department Chair
lorijanecassidy4@gmail.com
Nativity BVM High School (570) 622-8110