English 10 Summer Reading Assignments for the 2014-2015 School Year
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Everyone must read one book. Pick either one fiction or one nonfiction novel.
Please be proactive about doing cursory level research before you select your titles; get an idea of what
your book is about before you buy them at Half Price Books, Amazon, Half.com, or EBay. I would
even see if they are PDFs online before you buy them. Discretion should be used because some titles
may have adult themes, language, and violence. Book summaries are provided for you below.
Your choices are the following:
Fiction Titles
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (Asia)
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat (Latin America)
Copper Sun By Sharon Draper (Africa)
City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende (Latin America)
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Nonfiction Titles
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (Africa)
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung (Asia)
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann (Latin America)
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For your book, you must complete each of the following questions.
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FICTION QUESTIONS (only complete if you read fiction)
How is a character in your book similar or different to a character in another book, movie, or someone
you know? Explain how these two individuals are similar and/or how they are different.
If you could change one thing in the book, what would it be? Why would you change it? How would
you change it?
Choose a character and explain how the character changes throughout the story. What causes the
change? What lessons does the character learn?
If you had to persuade someone else to read this book, what would you say? Without revealing the
resolution (ending), write enough about this book to make someone else want to read it.
Discuss the creative techniques the author used to make the story more effective (ex. flashbacks, point of
view, foreshadowing, descriptive words). Explain how these techniques helped or interfered with your
understanding of the story.
What is one conflict in the story? How was the conflict resolved? What might have happened if the
conflict was not resolved?
What is an important lesson or message that you learned from this novel? How did the author reveal
this message or lesson?
NONFICTION QUESTIONS (only complete if you read nonfiction)
1. After having read this book, what would you do differently?
2. How can you apply the information in this book to your life? In other words, what is the relevance of
this book to readers of your generation?
3. What are the most important ideas in the book? Are they important to others or just to you? Why is that?
4. What conclusions can you draw from reading the book? What information in the text helped you draw
those conclusions?
5. What information from this book would you like to share with someone else? Why?
6. What is the author’s purpose for writing this book?
7. Who is the intended audience? Use evidence from the book to support what you decided to say.
1. Assignment is due--Wednesday, August 20, 2014 (the first day of the school year).
2. If you would like to email me your completed summer reading assignment(s) before the school year
begins, please feel free to do so. In fact, I will offer 5 points extra credit for completed and emailed
assignments received by Monday, August 18, 2014. This is not required though. Remember to “share”
and “unlock” Google docs.
3.
My email is [email protected], if you have any concerns or questions.
Fiction Title Summaries
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The Joy Luck Club is about 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. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her
life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined.
The Farming of Bones begins with narrator Amabelle Desir speaking of her love, Sebastian Onius.
These two Haitians are later separated following the beginning of the 1937 massacre. Amabelle begins a
long journey in pursuit of news of her love, and along the way encounters various difficult obstacles.
Copper Sun takes place in 1738, during the time of the slave trade. It begins in a small village in Africa.
Copper Sun addresses issues of the African Slave Trade, slavery in America, and freedom. Most critics
saw Copper Sun as “unflinching and unforgettable”
City of the Beasts is the first young adult novel by Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende. Published
in 2002, the story is set in the Amazon rainforest.
Nonfiction Title Summaries
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A Long Way Gone is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. Published in 2007, this book provides a
firsthand account of the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in
conflicts worldwide.
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is a 2000 nonfiction book written
by Loung Ung, a Cambodian author and survivor of the Pol Pot regime. It is a personal account of her
experiences during the Khmer Rouge years.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009) is a non-fiction book by
American author David Grann. It tells the story of the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett who, in
1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon while looking for an ancient lost city. For decades,
explorers and scientists have tried to find evidence of his party and the Lost City of Z. Perhaps as many
as 100 people perished or disappeared searching for Fawcett over the years. Grann made his own
journey into the Amazon, revealing new evidence about how Fawcett died and showing that Z may have
really existed right under his feet.