Walt Whitman High School
Summer Reading List
9th Grade 2015 – 2016
The English Department welcomes you to high school and congratulates you on reaching this
milestone in your academic journey. These summer reading texts help prepare you for the rigors
of high school. We encourage you to read with others and to discuss themes, characters, and
language. Have fun and come prepared!
Honors
On-Level

Read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Read one biography (or autobiography) of
a famous American of the 1920s or 1930s*.

Read “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer
Adler.

Read “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer
Adler.


Read and annotate these two essays
about writing:
“Why I Write” by George Orwell
Read and annotate these two essays
about writing:
“Why I Write” by George Orwell
“Why I Write” by Joan Didion
“Why I Write” by Joan Didion
Where to find the texts:
 The full text Of Mice and Men can be found in local libraries, in bookstores, and online.
 Essays are available on Whitman English Department website at:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/whitmanhs/academics/english/
*Suggestions for the biography/autobiography (Honors Only):
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Margaret Burke-White
Al Capone
Coco Chanel
Walt Disney
Albert Einstein
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
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Langston Hughes
Dorothea Lange
Charles Lindbergh
Jesse Owens
Eleanor Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Orson Welles
Directions for Both Honors and On-level:
1) Respond to the following questions/prompts as you read. Type your answers into a Word
document, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font, Letter Size 12. Develop your ideas
fully in 5-10 sentences per response.
2) Mark up and annotate the essays, using “How to Mark a Book” as your guide.
3) You will submit your answers stapled together and with your name, your teacher’s name, the
period number, and the date clearly labeled in the upper left corner of the first page, during
the first week of school. Your teacher will explain to you how to upload your document to
Turnitin.com in the first week of school.
On-level Of Mice and Men Questions:
1. What effect does the opening of Of Mice and Men achieve? Review definitions for tone, diction,
and setting, and then apply these concepts to the opening paragraphs of the story.
2. In Of Mice and Men, what does Steinbeck try to convey about life or human nature (theme)?
3. What is the major conflict? Consider person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. self or
person vs. society. Provide an example from the text.
4. Describe the climax of the plot and explain what makes it the climax.
5. Who is your favorite character from Of Mice and Men? Why? Provide an example from the
text.
Honors Of Mice and Men and Biography Questions:
1. What effect does the opening of Of Mice and Men achieve? Review definitions for tone, diction,
and setting, and then apply these concepts to the opening paragraphs of the story.
2. In Of Mice and Men, what does Steinbeck try to convey about life or human nature (theme)?
3. What is the major conflict? Consider person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. self or
person vs. society. Provide an example from the text.
4. Describe the climax of the plot and explain what makes it the climax.
5. Who is your favorite character from Of Mice and Men? Why? Provide an example from the
text.
6. What impact did the subject of the biography have on the general public?
7. Describe the subject’s childhood. What seemed most interesting or difficult about his/her
formative years?
8. Identify the motivating factor(s) of the subject’s life.
9. For either Of Mice and Men or the biography you read: Who would you most like to meet in
Starbucks? Why? What would you like to tell or ask him or her?