2016 Summer Reading
Pope John Paul II High School
English 10
World Voices, Extraordinary Choices
Summer Reading Assignment
No sources, other than the sources listed on this assignment
handout, may be consulted for this assignment.
1. Choose one memoir to read. You may choose
either of the books below.
2. Read the memoir. As you read, complete the
annotation assignment to the right.
3. Be prepared to participate in discussions and to
write an in-class essay on the summer reading
during the first week of school.
Questions?
English 10 Summer Reading Contact:
Mrs. Smith ([email protected])
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in
Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be
silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she
almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at
point-blank range while riding the bus home from school,
and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an
extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern
Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At
sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest
and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.
I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted
by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a
father who, himself a school owner, championed and
encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of
brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a
society that prizes sons.
I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one
person's voice to inspire change in the world.
Annotation Assignment
For the text, students should read and annotate,
focusing their annotations on the following
concepts:
•
Setting
•
Characterization (of the
narrator/protagonist)
•
Characterization (other characters)
•
Conflicts/types
•
Symbolism
•
Author’s Purpose/Message
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
This gripping story by a children's-rights advocate recounts
his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the
1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars
in recent history. Beah, a boy equally thrilled by causing
mischief as by memorizing passages from Shakespeare and
dance moves from hip-hop videos, was a typical precocious
12-year-old. But rebel forces destroyed his childhood
innocence when they hit his village, driving him to leave his
home and travel the arid deserts and jungles of Africa.
After several months of struggle, he was recruited by the
national army, made a full soldier and learned to shoot an
AK-47, and hated everyone who came up against the
rebels. The first two thirds of his memoir are frightening:
how easy it is for a normal boy to transform into someone
as addicted to killing as he is to the cocaine that the army
makes readily available. But an abrupt change occurred a
few years later when agents from the United Nations pulled
him out of the army and placed him in a rehabilitation
center. Anger and hate slowly faded away, and readers see
the first glimmers of Beah's work as an advocate. Told in a
conversational, accessible style, this powerful record of war
ends as a beacon to all teens experiencing violence around
them by showing them that there are other ways to survive
than by adding to the chaos.
—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA