José Martí MAST 6-12 Academy
High School Summer Reading List '16
Literature is a marvelous way of seeing, discovering and expanding your knowledge of the world. Through reading,
analyzing and exploring literature, you sharpen key attributes for high school and life. Reading actively remains the
greatest method for boosting performance in all academic areas. The more you travel through the worlds of different
authors, the more you improve your voice on paper and your grammatical skills. It also helps sharpen tools that are
vital to earn high ACT/SAT scores, a variety of scholarships, and admission to competitive universities.
To aid you in taking the steps toward literary journeys, below is a list of summer reading novels. All students will be
required to read at least ONE book from the list below, and be prepared to turn in your written response or creative
project to your English teacher.
Summer Reading Criteria:
1.
2.
3.
Select a novel from the next page
Read the entire novel before completing the project
The assignments are due on September 1st or September 2nd to your English teacher.
Summer Project Grading:
As a part of the Jose Marti MAST 6-12 Academy, late submissions will NOT be accepted. The project grades
will be based on creativity, neatness, appropriateness, and accuracy of information.
Resources
Below are some ways to acquire free or inexpensive copies of the required summer reading:
1. The local libraries or bookstores have copies of most of the books.
Note: If you wait until the last minute, your selection will likely be limited.
2. A list of websites (new or used copies) can be purchased at up to a 50% discount.
● EBay (www.ebay.com)
● Half.com (www.half.ebay.com)
● Amazon.com (www.amazon.com)
● Book Closets.com (www.bookclosets.com).
José Martí MAST 6-12 Academy
Incoming 9th Grade Summer Reading List’16
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked
Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The
official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a
fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents
of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las
Mariposas—“The Butterflies.”
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre is an extraordinary coming-of-age story featuring one of the most independent
and strong-willed female protagonists in all of literature. Poor and plain, Jane Eyre begins
life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression she
endures at home, and the later torture of boarding school, Jane manages to emerge with
her spirit and integrity unbroken. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she
finds herself falling in love with her employer—the dark, impassioned Mr. Rochester. But
an explosive secret tears apart their relationship, forcing Jane to face poverty and
isolation once again.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the
entire country was losing its innocence to the second world war. Set at a boys’ boarding
school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a
harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely,
introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What
happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the
innocence of these boys and their world.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life.
If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience...It is a
poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships. The
Nolans lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919.Their daughter
Francie and their son Neely knew more than their fair share of the privations and
sufferings that are the lot of a great city's poor.
9th Grade
Summer Reading Assignment
Write an analytical essay describing how the main character of the novel changes from the
beginning of the story to the end and why the character changes.
Your essay will be written in analytical form and must be 4 – 5 paragraphs. Recall that your
first paragraph is your introduction and your last paragraph is your conclusion. Your analysis
will occur in the 2 – 3 middle paragraphs (the body of your essay) and will include
transitions and supporting evidence that come strictly from the text of the novel.
José Martí MAST 6-12 Academy
Incoming 10th Grade Summer Reading List ‘16
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
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.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical
account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion
Wiesel, Elie’s wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and
spirit truest to the author’s original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on
the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the
world never forgets man’s capacity for inhumanity to man.
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
The memoir of a remarkable teenage girl who risked her life for the right to go to school.
Raised in a changing Pakistan by an enlightened father from a poor background and a beautiful,
illiterate mother from a political family, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. I
Am Malala tells her story of bravery and determination in the face of extremism, detailing the
daily challenges of growing up in a world transformed by terror.
I Will Save You by Matt De La Pena
Kidd is spending is summer at the beach. He’d do anything to get away from his group home
and the dark memories there of his past. He’s working as a caretaker at the campsite, and he’d
be blind if he didn’t notice Olivia. The prettiest girl in Cardiff. He might have a chance with her.
10th Grade
Summer Reading Assignment
Directions: Review the list of writing assignments and select ONE to complete.
A. Choose a character from the novel, and discuss how the character matures or
changes over course of the novel. How do they change the way they interact with
other characters? What lessons to they learn? Include details from the text to support
your response.
B. Discuss the central conflicts the main characters face in the novel. How are they
resolved? What does the resolution say about the author’s point of view or purpose in
writing the novel? Include details from the text to support your response.
C. Discuss some of the central ideas (or themes) in the novel and analyze how the
author develops the central ideas (or themes) over the course of the novel. Include
details from the text to support your response.
José Martí MAST 6-12 Academy
Incoming 11th Grade Summer Reading List ‘16
Directions: Read and select only (1) novel to complete your writing assignment.
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Corruption and destruction of one man who forfeits his life in desperate pursuit of
success. The author based his realistic and vivid study on the actual case of Chester
Gilette, who murdered Grace Brown at the Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks in July
1906.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
When it was first produced in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was awarded the New York
Drama Critics Circle Award for that season and hailed as a watershed in American
drama. A pioneering work by an African-American playwright, the play was a radically
new representation of black life. "A play that changed American theater forever."—
The New York Times.
A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
What happens when you peel back the layers of damaged lives? What do you
discover? Go Tell It on the Mountain is a young man's novel, as tightly coiled as a new
spring, yet tempered by a maturing man's confidence and empathy. It's not a long
book, and its action spans but a single day--yet the author packs in emotion, detail,
and intimate revelation. Using as a frame the spiritual and moral awakening of 14year-old John Grimes during a Saturday night service in a Harlem storefront church,
Baldwin lays bare the secrets of a tormented black family during the depression.
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
The classic story of the heroic Swedish pioneers in Nebraska in the 1880's. Alexandra
Bergson's life is a success story told with a loving affirmation of the beauty of the land
and the value of pioneer struggle. The novel also includes heartache. Alexandra's
brothers turn out to be mean-spirited materialists and her beloved younger brother
dies at the hand of a Czech farmer whose wife he has fallen in love with.
11th Grade
Summer Reading Assignment
The 11th grade English class is designed to survey American literature over the last 300
years, starting with Colonial writers like Anne Bradstreet and ending with modernists like
Tennessee Williams. To prepare for the journey, you need to read at least (1) novel penned
by American authors.
Task: Select (1) choice from the list and write an essay from topics taken from common
literary assessments:
Choice #1: Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political
attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular
attitudes or traditions that the author wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the
author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views. Avoid plot summary.
Choice #2: Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or parental
figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the
conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.
Choice #3: Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant
events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in
consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these
internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with
external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.
Choice #4: Select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay,
analyze the nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the
work. Do not merely summarize plot. Below are some suggestions of American Lit. You are
not limited to this list. It’s simply a list of “canonical” works, but you might prefer more
modern works. If the author is American, you can choose the work.
José Martí MAST 6-12 Academy
Incoming 12th Grade Summer Reading List ‘16
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
In this quintessential Shakespearean tragedy, a young prince's halting pursuit of revenge for the
murder of his father unfolds in a series of highly charged confrontations that have held
audiences spellbound for nearly four centuries. Those fateful exchanges and the anguished
soliloquies that precede and follow them, probe depths of human feeling rarely sounded in any
art. His father is dead. Has his mother married the killer?
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The story is told in a series of flashbacks. The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor
on the moors of the story. The narrative centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but
ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved
passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and
science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound,
disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the
cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each
other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of
organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more
relevant than ever.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of
tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging
together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields,
they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have
a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a
ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But
even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the
consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.
12th Grade
Summer Reading Assignment
In a booklet, create a novel element collage that demonstrates your understanding of the novel, both in words
and symbols. Demonstrate your understanding of the novel through your analysis and creativity. Make sure
your booklet contains the following components.
Main Character Analysis
(Complete for 3 characters from the novel)
– Include the following:
1. An adjective that describes the character’s tone and a textual example that supports that tone.
2. Discuss the character’s motivation (include a quote for support).
3. List the character’s conflicts.
4. Draw a symbol or image of the character.
Novel’s Structure Analysis
5. Create a timeline including at least 2 events per chapter.
Theme Analysis
6. Discuss in a paragraph the themes of the novel (8 sentences).
Novel’s Setting
Choose a significant setting in the novel.
7. Draw an illustration of it.
8. Give a quote describing it.
9. Describe a significant event that takes place in the setting.
Meaningful Quote
10. Choose a quote from the novel that is meaningful to you…discuss the quotes’ significance in the novel
and to you. (Needs to be a minimum of one paragraph)
Creativity
11. Three images from the novels.
Vocabulary
12. Find fifteen (15) words that you do not know from the novel.
Create a vocabulary list. Define each word and give the definition.
Elements can be placed anywhere in your booklet and should be titled.