Advanced Placement English IV
Summer Reading/Writing Assignment
2013
Read all instructions carefully as you complete the assignments.
The purpose of the summer reading/writing assignment is not to ruin your summer, nor is it
intended for turning you into geeks! Really! Hopefully, you will improve your vocabulary, reading skills,
and writing skills, and you will be better prepared for the rigorous demand of Advanced Placement courses.
In addition, students who read lots do better on those highly relevant tests like the A.C.T. and the S.A.T. In
conjunction with the reading, you will also be asked to do lots of writing in the AP English course. The
two go hand in hand. For your summer assignment you will be asked to complete the following:
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Read three or four books (depending on what you choose)
Complete a reading background project
Complete a book/movie or book/book comparison
Complete a reading log in preparation for your senior research project
(Note: ONLY this part is due the day you pick up your schedule. This is also the most
significant part because it is in preparation for your research paper. Make sure you like this
novel/play.)
At least ONE of the books you read this summer needs to be published before 1900. Half of the
AP exam has pre-1900 readings on it and students (nationwide) generally struggle more with this.
With these thoughts in mind, the following is your summer reading/writing assignment.
BASIC SKILL - READING
Part I – Reading Background
A. In preparation for the AP course in literature and composition, you should have read the
following books/plays to provide a common foundation for the course: Mark the ones you
have already read and studied.
A Farewell to Arms
A Raisin in the Sun
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
As I Lay Dying
As You Like It
Awakening, The
Beloved
Bleak House
Crime and Punishment
Comedy of Errors, The
David Copperfield
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Grapes of Wrath, The
Great Expectations
House of Mirth, The
Jane Eyre
Jude the Obscure
Light in August
Love’s Labours Lost
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
Mayor of Casterbridge, The
Merchant of Venice, The
Mrs. Dalloway
Much Ado about Nothing
Persuasion
Picture of Dorian Gray
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Return of the Native, The
Sense and Sensibility
Song of the Lark
Sound and the Fury, The
Sun Also Rises, The
Taming of the Shrew, The
Tender is the Night
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
To the Lighthouse
Twelfth Night
Washington Square
Woman in White
Wuthering Heights
B. Choose one of the books from the list you have NOT already read and/or studied in
class and complete Part II of the assignment.
Part II – Reading Background Project
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The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with literary classics and
review literary terms relevant to the course.
For this part of the summer assignment choose one (1) book/play from the above
list that YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY STUDIED IN CLASS. Read the book and
complete ALL THREE PARTS of the following assignment:
1. Stylistic Prose Techniques:
• As you read, notice the stylistic prose techniques that the author uses
to communicate more effectively and powerfully.
• Examples of stylistic prose techniques are point of view, tone, diction,
syntax, narrative pace, humor, satire, figurative language, imagery,
irony, selection of detail and many more.
• Select at least ten (10) examples of stylistic prose techniques from
your novel/drama.
• Define the term in your own words, cite the example from the text
(quote the passage and give the page number), and provide a brief
analysis of how the author uses the technique effectively. (Note: You
might set up a chart on Word or Excel or you can type out a list.)
• Please type this and make sure it is not longer than two pages.
2. Reader Response:
• Divide your book into fourths. After you finish each fourth, write a
reader response/reaction to that section. These responses should be
handwritten in ink and at least one page (one front of a page=one
page) in length. DO NOT WRITE A PLOT SUMMARY. Identify literary
concerns that seem particularly important to the specific work.
Examples might include autobiographical elements, philosophy of life,
plot structure, use of imagery and other symbols, or thematic
implications. (See explanation for Part IV Journal if you need further
details.)
3. Commercial:
Prepare a 1-2 minute advertisement for your book. You may present in
front of the class, create a video, or present a powerpoint. (Note: this is
an individual assignment, meaning every student needs to have a
separate presentation; however, know that if you want to have friends
“star” in your video production, you may.) The purpose of your
presentation will be to persuade/encourage others to read your book, as
well as give them a glimpse of what they might read. It should include
enough information that we know what your book is about, as well as
make us want to read it. Your presentation must be no more than two
minutes long. You must use visuals to enhance your presentation. (You
may not include already made film clips/photos from the movie versions.
This needs to be original.) An overhead projector, a projector to show
powerpoint, and a TV/VCR/DVD will be provided.
BASIC SKILL – CRITICAL THINKING
Part III – Comparisons (Choose either option A or option B)
A. Directions – Novel/Movie Comparison
Choose from the options below. Read the novel and watch a movie version of that novel. (NOTE: Some of the films
below are rated R and contain violence and/or mature themes. Do pay attention to ratings and reasoning why before
you choose your book/movie.) After reading the novel/viewing the movie, complete the following assignment.
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Beloved – Toni Morrison
Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
The Hours – Michael Cunningham
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Natural – Bernard Malamud
Bee Season – Myla Goldberg
Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates
All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Write a journal response (handwritten, in ink) of three pages (3 fronts of a page) comparing the book and
the movie. Include a brief summary, personal reactions (explain “why”), and criticisms (your own).
Discuss the differences/similarities between the book and movie versions. Determine whether the
director/producer was honest to the author’s range of intentions. Explain the reasons for and the
effectiveness of any changes that were made. You may find and discuss similarities and/or differences in
the following categories:
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5.
Setting
Characters
Point of View
Imagery and/or symbolism
Themes
A thoughtful journal entry will provide notes for your formal essay.
B. Directions – Novel/Novel Comparison
Choose from the options below. Read both novels/dramas. After reading the novels/dramas, complete the following
assignment.
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Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen / Death Comes to Pemberly – P.D. James
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Wolfe / The Hours – Michael Cunningham
King Lear – William Shakespeare / A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
/ The Flight of Gemma Hardy- Margot Livesey
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem – Maryse Conde
/ Salem Falls – Jodi Picoult
Write a journal response (handwritten, in ink) of three pages (1 page = 1 front of a page) comparing the two
books. Include a brief summary, personal reactions (explain “why”), and criticisms (your own). Discuss
the differences/similarities between the books. Explain the effectiveness of the adaptations. You may find
and discuss similarities and/or differences in the following categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting
Characters
Point of View
Imagery and/or symbolism
Themes
A thoughtful journal entry will provide notes for your formal essay.
BASIC SKILL – WRITING
Part IV – Reading and Research
This part of the summer assignment is required so that you will be
prepared for the first major assignment of the year, the literary
research paper. Choose your book carefully; you will be working
with it extensively.
This assignment will be fulfilling two requirements: senior research paper and foundation for the literary
analyses and writing you will be doing the rest of the year. The following are your responsibilities for
research: Your journals must be LEGIBLY handwritten in ink. (There is a reason for this. Writing
your journals will give you practice in penmanship and the AP exam requires that you handwrite your
essays in ink.)
Directions:
Choose a novel/play of recognized literary merit (see following reading list). Choose your book
carefully. You may not use a novel/play you have studied in previous English classes, nor may you
use the novels/plays you chose for any other part of the summer assignment. For the first part of the
assignment, you will be required to keep a reading response journal. (This doesn’t necessarily need to be a
notebook; it could be stapled pages of looseleaf.) This is meant to encourage you to read carefully and
critically. Your reading response journal must include the following:
A. Identify the work. Include the title, publisher, and copyright date for your edition of
the work.
B. Responses: a minimum of six responses is required. As you read the selected work,
record your thoughts and discoveries. Each response must be at least a full page in
length. (1 page = 1 front of a page.) Ah, you may ask, “But what if I don’t have enough
to say to fill up a page?” Then I will respond, “You are not reading and thinking
enough about your topic. Do NOT give me a plot summary of the book. A plot
summary will only earn you a maximum of 60 of 100 possible points. Identify literary
concerns that seem particularly important to the specific work. Examples might
include autobiographical elements, philosophy of life, plot structure, use of
imagery and other symbols, or thematic implications.
C. Quotes – Keep a journal of favorite and/or significant passages. You must have a
minimum of five passages. Write the passage, cite the page number(s) and give a
response to why you chose that particular passage.
The reading response journals for this project (just Part IV) will be due the day you pick up your
schedule in August. You may turn it in to me in room 129. Anyone not turning in the journal that
day will receive a 10% late deduction on his/her grade for this project.
Suggested Reading List
The reading list is arranged by major themes
Search for Identity
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Juneteenth
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Isabel Allende, Daughter of Fortune
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone
Willa Cather, My Antonia
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Dorris, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Richard Ford, The Sportswriter
William Falkner, Light in August
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Henry James, Portrait of a Lady
Giah Jen, Typical American
Charles Johnson, Middle Passage
James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Joy Kogawa, Obasan
Nella Larsen, Quicksand
Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker
Toni Morrison, Sula
Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place
Joyce Carol Oates, Wonderland; We Were the Mulvaneys
Kenzaburo Oe, The Silent Cry
Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Edmund Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
Frances Sherwood, Vindication
Agnes Smedley, Daughter of Earth
Zadie Smith, White Teeth
Henri-Beyle Stendahl, The Red and the Black
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club; Bonesetter’s Daughter
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Narrative Traditions; Illusion and Reality
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale; Alias Grace
George Orwell, 1984
William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Martin Amis, Time’s Arrow
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Louis DeBernieres, Corelli’s Mandolin
Don DeLillo, Libra
D.L Doctorow, Ragtime
John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman; The Magus
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Myla Goldberg, Bee Season
Robert Grudin, Book: A Novel
Jane Hamilton, A Map of the World, The Book of Ruth
Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck
Ha Jin, Waiting
Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
D.H. Lawrence, The Fox
Jonathan Lethem, As She Climbed Across the Table
Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country
Joyce Carol Oates, Expensive People
Tim O’Brien, Going After Cacciato; In the Lake of the Woods
Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost
Richard Powers, The Gold Bug Variations
Mark Salzman, Lying Awake
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
D.M. Thomas, The White Hotel
Jean Toomer, Cane
John Updike, Gertrude and Claudius
Kirt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
The Nature of Good and Evil
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground
James Joyce, A Portrain of the Artist as a Young Man
Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Charles Baxter, Shadow Play
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie
Gustav Flaubert, Madame Bovary
E.M. Forester, A Passage to India
Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Joseph Heller, God Knows
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Henry James, The Aspen Papers
Archibald Macleish, JB
Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Billy Budd
Brian Moore, No Other Life
Alan Paton. Cry the Beloved Country
Richard Powers, Gain
Mary Dora Russell, The Sparrow; The Children of God
Bernhardt Schlink, The Reader
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein
Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities; A Man in Full
Richard Wright, Native Son
Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road
Finding Purpose
Joseph Heller, Catch 22
Albert Camus, The Plague
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
Margaret Atwood, Surfacing
James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter
Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees
Albert Camus, The Stranger
Michael Cunningham, The Hours
Annie Dillard, The Living
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
David James Duncan, The Brothers K
Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
Kent Haruf, Plainsong
John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible; Prodigal Summer
Norman Maclean, A River Runs through It
Bernard Malamud, The Fixer
W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge
Gloria Naylor, Bailey’s Café
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Reynolds Price, Kate Vaiden; The Promise of Rest
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Jose Saramago, Blindness
Jean-Paul Sarte, No Exit
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One
If you have any questions about the summer assignment, e-mail me through Ryle’s
web site. If you feel overwhelmed by the number of choices, e-mail a list of books
you have liked in the past or a genre you enjoy. I can give you suggestions. I will
answer your questions ASAP. Enjoy your summer. I look forward to meeting you
in August. 
Ms. Schwartz
[email protected]
supporting
supporting
supporting
Larry A Ryle
High School
Larry A Ryle
High School
Larry A Ryle
High School
May 25 & 26, 2013
May 25 & 26, 2013
May 25 & 26, 2013
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
7663 Mall Road
7663 Mall Road
7663 Mall Road
Bookfair ID Number 11112588
Bookfair ID Number 11112588
Bookfair ID Number 11112588
supporting
supporting
supporting
Larry A Ryle
High School
Larry A Ryle
High School
Larry A Ryle
High School
May 25 & 26, 2013
May 25 & 26, 2013
May 25 & 26, 2013
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
7663 Mall Road
7663 Mall Road
7663 Mall Road
Bookfair ID Number 11112588
Bookfair ID Number 11112588
Bookfair ID Number 11112588