June 2017
Dear Parents/Students,
In order to encourage life-long reading and prepare for the upcoming school year, we have developed a
summer reading program featuring relevant selections that connect to the English curriculum. Our
summer reading program provides an opportunity for students to begin the year ready to participate in
both class discussion and a written evaluation of the works. This discussion and evaluation will be
included in the first quarter English grade.
The summer reading program works as follows:
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Students in each grade level will read an assigned book or books as listed on the MDSA website
under the Academics tab: www.mountdesales.org/academics
Some reading selections are required of all students in a given class. Additionally, in most classes,
students are also required to choose a reading selection from a short list of literary works.
Discussion questions can be downloaded from the MDSA website
Students will use the discussion questions for each work to guide them in their reading
Students do not have to write the answers to the questions, but answering the questions will help
prepare them for the written evaluation/test which will be given the first or second week of the
quarter
Limited class discussion will take place on each assigned book.
The written evaluation/test on the book(s) will be included as part of the first quarter grade.
In this way, students will have the opportunity to make the connection between their summer reading
and other literature covered in their English classes and will also be held accountable for reading the
works.
Since the summer reading selections will be used during the first few weeks at the beginning of the first
quarter, we encourage students to purchase the assigned text(s) so that they are available for the class
discussion and evaluation. All of these texts are readily available at Barnes and Noble and online sites
such as Amazon.
We genuinely hope that the program will provide an enjoyable reading and learning experience for your
daughters.
Sincerely,
Helen Hufford
English Department Chair
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SUMMER READING LIST 2017
AP English Literature (Seniors)
Required Reading: Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett, The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka,
The Stranger – Albert Camus, Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Honors Senior English – British Literature
Required Reading: 1984 – George Orwell, Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Choose one of the following selections:
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
Level 2 Senior English – British Literature
Required Reading: 1984 – George Orwell
Choose one of the following selections:
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Level 1 Senior English – British Literature
Required Reading: Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Choose one of the following selections:
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
AP Language/American Literature (Juniors)
Required Reading: Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston,
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Choose two, one from each of the following pairings:
Bartleby - Herman Melville
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
&
Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
Honors Junior English – American Literature
Required Reading: Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Choose one of the following selections:
Billy Budd – Herman Melville
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
My Antonia – Willa Cather
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
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Level 2 Junior English – American Literature
Required Reading: Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Choose one of the following selections:
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
Our Town – Thornton Wilder
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” “Big Two-Hearted River,” and “Indian
Camp” – Ernest Hemingway – (Read all three short stories, counting as one selection)
Level 1 Junior English – American Literature
Required Reading: Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Choose one of the following selections:
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
Honors Sophomore English
Required Reading: Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Choose one of the following selections:
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
A Separate Peace – John Knowles
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn –Betty Smith
Level 2 Sophomore English
Required Reading: The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Choose one of the following selections:
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
A Room with a View – E.M. Forster
Call of the Wild – Jack London
The Moviegoer –Walker Percy
Level 1 Sophomore English
Required Reading: The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Choose one of the following selections:
The Pearl –John Steinbeck
Our Town –Thornton Wilder
Honors Freshman English
Required Reading: The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Levels 1 and 2 Freshman English
Required Reading: The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
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Sophomore English - Honors
Summer Reading Questions
Required Text: Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Consider the following questions while you read the novels and be prepared to discuss them in class.
You should be able to refer to specific examples from each novel. You will also be required to either
take a quiz and/or write an essay.
1. The story opens with an unusual encounter between Pip and two escaped convicts. What kind
of relationship do the two convicts seem to have?
2. What evidence suggests that Pip’s benefactor is Miss Havisham?
3. Miss Havisham seems to encourage Estella’s haughty attitude toward Pip; she murmurs to
Estella, “Break their hearts...and have no mercy.” What do you think she means?
4. In a way, Satis House is a symbol of Miss Havisham. How has she made it reflect her own
state of mind?
5. In Dickens’ novels, it is not unusual for unexpected relationships between characters to be
revealed at the end. How does Great Expectations follow this pattern?
6. Wemmick’s tiny home in Walworth is a castle defended against the city. How does the home
life of John Wemmick resemble that of today’s suburbanite?
7. Throughout the novel, Dickens deals with the contrast between appearance and reality,
illusion and substance. Mr. Jaggers tells Pip: “Taken nothing on its looks; take everything on
evidence.” Where in the novel has Pip been influenced by “looks” rather than evidence?
8. The climax of a novel is usually the most exciting part of the plot. Which incident would you
identify as the climax? How does Dickens build suspense as he leads up to the climax?
9. Which of Dickens’ two endings do you prefer? Why? Which do you think is most faithful to the
nature of the characters involved?
10. While ill with fever, Pip realizes that “his great expectations had all dissolved, like our own
marsh mists before the sun.” How does this statement sum up all that Pip has learned? In
your own words, state what you think is the overall theme of Great Expectations.
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Sophomore English - Honors
Summer Reading Questions (continued)
You are required to choose one text from these selections:
 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
o Symbolism - Why does the conch shell change colors? Explore the meaning of repetition of the
colors red/pink or blue/white in Lord of the Flies. What might the colors symbolize? What, if
anything, might the dead parachutist symbolize? How is the fire significant? How is the setting
symbolic? What role do the littluns play in the novel?
o Power & Leadership - Is Ralph a good leader? Would Jack be a better leader than Ralph? What
makes Jack a powerful leader? The sow’s head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of
power over the boys. In what ways do these objects’ powers differ? In what way is Lord of the
Flies a novel about power? About the power of symbols? About the power of a person to use
symbols to control a group?
o Human Nature - “Fear is the enemy for civilization; fear prevents construction and progress."
Discuss the fragility of civilization against the destructive powers of fear. Are people innately
savage, civil, both, or neither? What evidence do we have that Ralph was losing his mind toward
the end? Describe what is happening to the boys’ appearance as the novel progresses and how is
that symbolic.
o Piggy - Of all the characters, it is Piggy who most often has useful ideas and sees the correct way
for the boys to organize themselves. Yet the other boys rarely listen to him and frequently abuse
him. Why do you think this is the case? In what ways does Piggy to advance the novel’s themes?
What events foreshadow Piggy’s fate?
o The Ending - How would the book have been different if Simon had lived? How would the
book have been different if Jack never caught a pig? When there were only four of them, Ralph
still blew the conch to start the final assembly. Why did he do this? What weapons did Ralph and
Jack use in their fight at the end and how is the choice of weapon symbolic? Describe the ironic
nature of the rescue.
Who is to blame for what happened on the island? Why does Ralph cry at the end of the novel?
Why had he never cried before?
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A Separate Peace - John Knowles
1. Ironically, it seems as though Gene and Finny’s friendship improves after the accident. Why
does knocking Finny out of the tree seem to benefit their friendship? Who would be the better
friend, Gene or Finny? How might their friendship be different if Finny had never fallen out of
the tree?
2. How has Gene changed? How has Finny changed? Are they still in “competition” with each
other? Does Gene still envy Finny? Can friends compete against each other without sacrificing
their relationship? Explain.
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Sophomore English - Honors
Summer Reading Questions (continued)
3. Gene wants to tell Finny the truth about his actions in the tree. Why is this important to him and
who will it help more, Gene or Finny? How is Leper Lepellier’s reaction to leaping from the tree
different from that of the others?
4. How and why do real life traumatic experiences have the ability to change Gene and Finny, and
his or her relationships with others?
5. Colors. Pick one of the following colors and explain how it can represent a bigger idea: white,
grey, green (olive or army), or blue?
6. Why after 15 years, does Gene return to the school?
7. A novel’s theme gives insight into the meaning of events. Tell how Gene’s statement that “peace
had deserted Devon” illuminates the theme of the novel.
8. What does Mr. Ludsbury have to say about Gene training for the 1944 Olympics?
9. In an allegory, characters stand for other people or for abstract ideas and qualities. What
qualities do Gene and Finny respectively represent?
10. What was ironic about Gene’s part in the war? How do the other boys react to this decision?
11. When and why did Finny start believing wars were real? Then what happened that made him
confirm his belief?
12. What about the novel’s conclusion was satisfying? Disappointing?
13. A Separate Peace belongs to the genre of Bildungsroman, in which the main character matures
over times. Choose another story of this genre and compare and contrast the two. Perhaps, Jane
Eyre?
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
1. Francie observes more than once that women seem to hate other women ("they stuck together for
only one thing: to trample on some other woman"), while men, even if they hate each other, stick
together against the world. Do you find this to be an accurate portrayal of society? Why do you
think this to be true? By including this in her novel, what commentary do you think Smith is
making on the differences between men and women and how they behave socially?
2. “Those were the Rommely women ...They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes
and soft fluttery voices. But they were made out of thin visible steel.” Explain truth/falsity of this
passage.
3. Katie is a very practical and intelligent mother. Explain the truth/falsity of this statement.
4. Characterize the relationships between women. How are they different for the relationships
between men and men? Or men and women
5. The women in the Nolan/Rommely clan exhibit most of the strength and, whenever humanly
possible, control the family's destiny. In what ways does Francie continue this legacy?
6. Could it be argued that the main character of the book is not Francie but, in fact, Brooklyn itself?
What case could be made for this? What is the Tree of Heaven and how is it described? What do
we know about it? Why is it special?
7. How do you define “Sacrifice”? In this novel, who sacrifices and how?
8. What are the examples of faith? How is the faith challenged? What role does religion play in
the lives of the characters?
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Sophomore English - Honors
Summer Reading Questions (continued)
9. How does poverty impact the characters?
10. Having studied bildungsroman novels during your academic career, how can A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn be categorized as such? What about this story and its protagonist make it a “Coming of
Age” tale? What choices/experiences help Francie to grow up and see the world differently than
she had before?
11. How has Francie changed from the beginning of the book? How is it apparent? Do you think that
Francie notices the change(s)?
12. What in the world changes over the course of the novel? How does it impact the characters?
Which characters have become cynical? How? Why?
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