11th GRADE HONORS SUMMER READING LIST 2012
This summer, all faculty and students are required to read Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier. We will discuss the book as
a community during the first days of the new school year, and several of our opening activities are planned around this novel.
The other books you read will be used in your English class during the first few weeks of the first trimester.
As you read, we urge you to remember that the art of reading is a creative act, a collaboration between reader and writer. In
order to foster this collaboration, each novel that you read has an accompanying assignment or project that must be completed
for the first day of class. Please write these assignments in a journal or notebook dedicated to your summer reading.
All-School Read:
 Remarkable Creatures, Tracey Chevalier
All juniors in honors English classes MUST read:
 Shark Dialogues, Kiana Davenport
 When Broken Glass Floats, Chanrithy Him
Complete the following assignment in your Reading Journal:
1. Select four passages from throughout the novel based on the following concepts (one passage per element). Write a 11 ½ page response about each element, specifically quoting from the passage as you discuss it.
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Explore the use of figurative language in a passage and its effect (metaphor, simile, hyperbole,
personification among other types of figurative language)
Discuss a part of the book in which the character is struggling with internal conflict (man versus
self). Discuss the conflict, how you relate to the situation, and how it will likely affect the book.
Examine the use of a symbol to represent something important in the story and its connection with
the story’s themes. Explain the impact of a passage on the story’s theme.
Examine the effect of point-of-view in a passage. How does it expand or limit the way the reader
sees the situation? What is the effect that is created by it?
All juniors in honors level English classes MUST also read ONE novel from the list below and complete the
following assignment:
choose four “key” passages from the novel – passages should be “meaty” enough for extended analysis and important to the
overall text (typically 100-200 words);
 create a well-written analysis that makes a clear attempt to illuminate meaning within the passage. Additionally, this
analysis connects the significance of the passage with key themes (or bigger ideas/issues) of the overall text – attempts
to answer “So What”?
 set up your written responses in dialectical journal style: a dialectical journal simply means dialoguing with or talking to
your text. (See the illustration below.)
 assignment will be hand-written and proofread/edited: writing should be error-free (or close to it.)
Sept 19, 2008
Dialectical Journal
Example:
Dialectical Journal ~
Analysis:
A Tale of Two Cities
In the left-hand column,
copy down quotes from
the book. Be sure to cite
the page (pg. 12).
1/3
of
pg.
2/3 of
pg.
In the right-hand column,
write your response to the
quote. Why is it significant
and how does it fit into the
overall work? What language,
ideas, or images stand out as
particularly significant? Why?
11th GRADE HONORS SUMMER READING LIST 2012
Sample Passage->Analysis
IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it
was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it
was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it
was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it
was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we
had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we
were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way- in short, the period was so far like the
present period, that some of its noisiest authorities
insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the
superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a
plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king
with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the
throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than
crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and
fishes, that things in general were settled for ever (1).
from A Tale of Two Cities ~ Charles Dickens
THE AMERICAN DREAM
Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
Main Street , Sinclair Lewis
THE HUMAN CONDITION
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
COMING OF AGE
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
The Cider House Rules, John Irving
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
While it may be too early to say with any certainty that Dickens wishes for his
readers to view the kings and queens of France and England as Christ figures,
the allusion to “loaves and fishes” (an oft-alluded to passage from the New
Testament) certainly alerts readers to the religious nature of the topics being
discussed. Including a reference to Christ’s miracles seems to suggest a
number of things: 1) Dickens would like for his readers to associate the
strength and wealth of France and England’s monarchies with the sort of
spiritual strength and wealth of Jesus as described in the New Testament. This
may end up proving significant. Perhaps the kings and queens offer the
peasants some kind of salvation, as Jesus did his followers; 2) Dickens would
also like to alert us to the miraculous quality of royalty generally; its seeming
ability to produce food, shelter, and luxury—things the common people of the
time had no guarantee of attaining—out of thin air; 3) Or Dickens might be
pointing out that, since both royal families have “State preserves of loaves and
fishes” and therefore both seem to be subject to the same God and rules of
morality (and are clearly being rewarded for their faith), actually there is no
significant difference between the two royal houses, despite whatever conflicts
may have previously existed, and peace will reign indefinitely.
DEALING WITH INJUSTICE
The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The Color of Water, James McBride
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
CREEPY STORIES
Turn of the Screw, Henry James
The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Beloved, Toni Morrison
GREAT BEACH READS
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver
Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie