Summer Reading

 

• Letter
• English I Standard (E.C.)/Honors
• English II Standard (E.C.)/Honors/Pre-IB
• English III IB/AP (3 Required)
• English IV Standard(E.C.)/Honors
• English IV IB (4 Required)
• AP English Literature & Composition
• Assignment (AP/IB classes)

 

Dear Students/Parents of HHS:

Metro Public Schools has made a commitment to reading this next year by providing essential literature for students in all grades K-12. The essential literature initiative has been created to emphasize the importance of reading for all students in the Metro Public Schools. This year, your child has read a certain number of prescribed books. In order to get your child prepared for more reading of complete literary works, we are encouraging your child to read some books this summer.

As a part of our commitment to reading, the English department of HHS is providing a listing of book titles by course and grade that we would encourage you and your child to use when making book selections. These lists contain award-winning, age-appropriate literature by noted authors. Students enrolled in standard English classes will have the opportunity earn extra-credit by taking assessments over the books in August.  Students enrolled in honor level classes, including AP/IB classes, have required reading over the summer.  They will take assessments over their reading in August. AP and IB students will receive more specific instructions from the English department about what they are to do regarding journal writing during the summer. All students should consider writing reading journals as a way to help their reading comprehension and to provide a study aid for taking their assessments in the fall. 

As former first lady, Jacquelyn Kennedy Onassis noted, it is important for children to… “Read to escape, read for adventure, read for romance, but read the great writers. You will find to your delight that they are easier and more joy to read than the second-rate ones. They touch your imagination and your deepest yearnings, and when your imagination is stirred it can lead you down paths you never dreamed you would travel.”

We hope that you and your child will enjoy these selections and your summer reading adventure.

Andrew T. Davis
English Department Chairperson
Hillsboro High School

Bob Lawson
Executive Principal
Hillsboro High School

 

English I Standard (E.C.)/Honors(3 Required Your choice from list)

Summer Reading

Catcher in the Rye -J.D. Salinger

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury

The Old Man and the Sea -Ernest Hemingway

Cold Sassy Tree -Olivia Ann Burns

Go Ask Alice –Anonymous

Stotan ! -Chris Crutcher

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English II Standard (E.C.)/Honors/Pre-IB (3 Required)

Summer Reading

The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart

Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver

Ender's Shadow  OR Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkein

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English III Standard (E.C.)/Honors (2 Required)

Summer Reading

Prayer for Owen Meaney   - John Irving

Choose 1 from below

The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom

The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane

The Rise of Silas Lapham - William Dean Howells

The Color Purple   - Alice Walker

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English III IB/AP (3 Required)

Summer Reading

The Awakening Norton Critical Edition

This Boy's Life -Tobias Wolff 

Poisonwood Bible -Barbara Kingsolver

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English IV Standard(E.C.)/Honors (2 Required)

Summer Reading

The Metamorphosis -Franz Kafka

Maus a Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History- Art Spiegelman

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel - Dai Sijie

Job: A Comedy of Justice -Robert Heinlein

And Then There Were None -Agatha Christie

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English IV IB (4 Required)

Summer Reading

The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde  

Like Water for Chocolate -Laura

Esquivel

A Lesson Before Dying -Ernest Gaines

Death and the Maiden -Ariel Dorfman

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AP English Literature & Composition (4 Required)

Summer Reading

Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Choose 3 from below

The Picture of Dorian Gray -Oscar Wilde  

Like Water for Chocolate -Laura

Esquivel

The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka 

Black Boy - Richard Wright

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Assignment (AP/IB classes):   

These questions will help to focus reading and will provide a guideline to help better understand the text. All answers, except those that specifically call for lists, should be in paragraph form (minimum 5 complete sentences). The answers do not have to be typed, although they should be readable, and they should also be numbered.  Journals are due on August Monday, August 28th. 

• Title, author, and number of pages read
• What is the setting of the text? Is it significant? Why or why not?
• What are the turning points? (such as shifts in point of view, plot, character development, mood or tone)
• Decide who the main character is and then trace his/her development through the novel. You should be sure to note specific instances in the text where character traits are revealed or events in the plot cause a change in the character. 
• List five of the major literary elements in the novel and describe how they are used to develop the plot. (Literary elements could include, but are not limited to, the following: metaphor, simile, personification, irony, tone, diction, foreshadowing, imagery, parallelism, and satire.) 
• What symbols and images are developed in the text? Explain through which types of literary devices these symbols and images are developed. 
• What conflicts are present in the book? Describe them.
• Give your response to the ending of the text. 
• What is the author's message or theme, and what relevance does it have for contemporary society?
• Choose one significant passage (6-12 sentences) and copy on the left half of a page. On the right side, respond to the passage. Why did you view it as significant? Did it cause you to recall a memory? Another book? Etc.

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