NINTH GRADE SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
PART I. Select and analyze three (3) articles—from newspapers, magazines, or electronic
media—that address an issue attendant upon being a teenager.
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
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The adolescent and his/her cell phone/electronic media/video games
Adolescent relationships: parents vs. teenagers, teenagers vs. teenagers, teenagers vs.
legal authority
Gender issues (boys vs. girls)
Identify issues (Who am I?)
Popular Culture (Adolescents as celebrities)
The adolescent and education (academic achievement vs. social life)
Then, take a position on the issue (agree or disagree) and support your view in a 200-250 word
response that includes references and/or quotations from each of the three readings.
REQUIREMENTS:
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Responses must be accompanied by copies of each of the articles. The article must
indicate the date of publication, author(s) if available, and the original source of the
material.
Essays must be typed or legibly written.
Papers must be between 200-250 words in length.
The position/thesis/claim must be stated clearly in the introductory paragraph and be
developed fully using examples/supports from both the writer’s personal experience and
at least two of the texts.
The completed assignment is due on: Monday, September 8, 2014.
PART II. Reading.
We believe that students who read over the summer:
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Maintain or improve reading comprehension and vocabulary
Broaden their experience, knowledge, and understanding of topics that are of personal
and global interest
Experience personal and academic success by developing their literacy skills
Become lifelong readers by selecting a book and reading at their own pace.
1). Select and read one of the titles below:
The New Rochelle High School Department of English recognizes that all readers need a
variety of titles from which to choose. Some books may contain mature subject matter.
We encourage parents to have conversations with their offspring about book selections.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Catalyst (Young Adult Contemporary)
Kate’s failure to get into college sends her spinning out of control. She’d only applied to
one school—now what? Then, her father brings home a family made homeless after a fire. Teri
and Kate become friends and little Mikey melts Kate’s heart, but an accident changes their lives
forever.
Bauer, Joan. Hope was Here (Young Adult Contemporary)
When Hope and her aunt move from Brooklyn to Wisconsin to work as waitress and
cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner’s political
campaign to remove the town’s corrupt mayor.
Beddor, Frank. The Looking Glass Wars (Fantasy—for advanced readers)
When she is cast out of Wonderland by her evil aunt Redd, young Alyss Heart finds
herself living in Victorian Oxford as Alice Liddell and struggles to keep memories of her
kingdom intact until she can return and reclaim her rightful throne.
Benedict, Helen. The Opposite of Love (Young Adult Contemporary — for advanced readers)
Smart and beautiful, Madge, 17, never knew her Jamaican dad, and has had to cope with
her irresponsible white mom, an illegal alien in the United States. Madge gets support from her
aunt and from a small circle of friends, but the prejudice is ugly in her run-down white
Pennsylvanian town, and when she rescues an abandoned black foster child, four-year-old
Timmy, she wonders if she’s doing the right thing by bringing him home.
Brown, Jennifer. Hate List (Young Adult Contemporary — for advanced readers)
At the end of their junior year, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend pulls a gun in the Commons,
leaving six students and a teacher dead and many others wounded. Valerie is hit by a bullet in
the leg trying to stop him, just before he ends his own life. With the help of a patient and
insightful therapist, Valerie examines her own behavior and learns to face the challenges before
her.
Brugman, Alyssa. Walking Naked (Young Adult Contemporary)
As the most popular girl in school and leader of the clique, Megan finds it easy to pass
judgment on people she deems less worthy than she, but when Megan is given detention and
meets Perdita, she comes to realize that her simple assessments of others aren’t very accurate at
all.
Cass, Kiera. The Selection (Dystopian)
Sixteen-year-old America Singer is living in the caste-divided nation of Illea, which
formed after the war that destroyed the United States. America is chosen to compete in the
Selection—a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea’s prince—but all she really
wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her.
Coy, John. Crackback (Sports)
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach,
constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performanceenhancing drugs.
Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face. (Memoir)
At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness. When she
returned to school with one-third of her jaw removed, she was confronted by the cruel taunts of
classmates. Grealy vividly portrays the pain of peer rejection along with the guilty pleasure of
wanting to be special.
Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars (Young Adult Contemporary)
Despite the tumor-shrinking miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never
been anything but terminal—her final chapter engraved upon diagnosis. However, when a
gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears in her support group, Hazel’s
story is about to be completely re-written.
Harris, Mark. Bang the Drum Slowly (Sports)
Henry Wiggen, hero of The Southpaw and the best-known fictional baseball player in
America, is back, throwing a baseball “with his arm and his brain and his memory and his bluff
for the sake of his pocket and his family.” More than a novel about baseball, Bang the Drum
Slowly is about the friendship and the lives of a group of men as they each learn that a teammate
has a terminal illness.
Higson, Charles. The Enemy (Science Fiction)
Everyone over 16 is dead or diseased, and the children are in constant danger of being
eaten by boil-infested adults who roam the streets like zombies. Armed with makeshift weapons,
a group of kids sets out from the uncertain safety of an abandoned supermarket to travel to
Buckingham Palace, where a young messenger promises that food, medicine, and safety are
available.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees (Young Adult Contemporary)
Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens
has shaped her entire life around one devastating, blurred memory—the afternoon her mother
was killed, when Lily was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted
Rosaleen, who acts as her “stand-in mother.” When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists
in t own, Lily knows it’s time to spring them both free.
Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob (Suspense)
Vince’s life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia
boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake (Young Adult Contemporary)
A story of the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation,
and the tangled ties between generations, this novel takes the Ganguli family from their traditionbound life in Calcutta through their transformation into Americans.
Lupica, Mike. Travel Team (Sports)
After he is cut from his travel basketball team—the very same team that his father once
led to national prominence—Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a
shot at victory.
Maynard, Joyce. The Usual Rules (Young Adult Contemporary) — for advanced readers.
After losing her mother in the September 11th attacks, young Wendy moves in with her
father in California, where she meets her father’s girlfriend and a sad bookstore owner while
missing her half-brother in New York.
McKissack, Frederick. Shooting Star (Sports) — for advanced readers
Jomo Rodgers is a talented if somewhat undersized defensive back on his high school’s
football team. Overshadowed by Jayson Caldwell, his best friend and the team’s star running
back, Jomo, after much hesitation, decides to take the steroid route to fame, with tragic results
for himself, his team, and those he loves.
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief (Mythology/Fantasy)
After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelveyear-old Percy is sent to a summer cap for demigods like himself and joins his new friends in a
quest to prevent a war between the gods.
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GLOSSARY OF TERMS
CHARACTERIZATION: Characterization refers to the methods that a writer uses to develop
characters.
 An author may describe the physical appearance of a character.
 A character’s personality may be revealed through his or her own speech, thoughts,
feelings, or actions
 The speech, thoughts, feelings, or actions of other characters may be used to develop a
character.
 The narrator may make direct comments about a character.
CONFLICT: A struggle between two opposing characters or forces. An internal conflict takes
place entirely within a character’s own mind. In an external conflict, the problem occurs
between the character and an outside force, which may be another character, nature, or society as
a whole.
THEME: The big idea about life that the author presents. This concept emerges through the
text. Themes can be directly stated in the novel or inferred.
DIRECT QUOTATIONS/TEXTUAL SUPPORT: Direct quotations are word-for-word
passages taken from the text. Using direct quotations strengthens your response to questions
about the selection. Any words or phrases that are copied from the text as part of a response
should be surrounded by quotation marks and followed by the page number(s).
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SCORING RUBRIC
Each question has a three-point value unless otherwise indicated. You will earn one point for the
correct answer and the remaining two for clear and specific explanations in each instance.
1). Character page………………………………/18
2). Conflict page……………………….………../13
3). Theme page………………………….…….…./9
TOTAL…………………………………………../40
The remaining 60 points will be earned in an in-class writing assignment administered during the
first week of school.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
The graphic organizer below will help you to gather and organize information on the main
character or protagonist. Use specific examples from the novel or memoir, including direct
quotations and page numbers
Record a direct quotation from the book that you have read that shows the protagonist’s
dominant personality trait in action. Please include the page number(s). (3 points)
Explain in two-four sentences how this example reveals the significant personality trait and why
this trait is important. (3 points)
Record a direct quotation that shows a key interaction between the protagonist and another
significant character. Include the page number(s). (3 points)
Explain what this interaction reveals about the relationship between these two characters.
Include specific ideas and examples in two-four sentences. (3 points)
Explain, in a paragraph of four-six sentences, how the main character grows, changes, or what
s/he learns during the course of the novel or memoir. If s/he does not change, explain what
keeps him/her static. Include specific references from the text. (6 points)
Total points earned for this page……………………./18
CONFLICT
This work will guide you as you uncover the conflict within the selection that you read and its
resolution.
Select a direct quotation that demonstrates the novel’s central conflict/problem. Include the page
number(s). (3 points)
In three-five sentences, explain how the conflict that you have identified develops in the text.
Identify the type of conflict as: person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. society, person vs.
nature. (4 points)
Explain, in two or three sentences, the way the conflict is resolved or why the conflict cannot be
resolved. (3 points)
In three-five sentence, indicate whether you found the novel’s resolution (the ending of the
conflict and, generally, the book itself) to be satisfying, enjoyable, disappointing, etc. and why.
(3 points)
Total points earned for this page………………………/18
ANALYZING THEME
Identify the important message about life that you think the author expresses in the novel or
memoir. (1 point)
Identify the first piece of evidence, a direct quotation from the selection, that supports the
message that you have identified. (4 points)
Evidence: Quotation #1
Interpretation of quotation #1:
Connection to the theme:
Identify a second piece of evidence. Record another direct quotation from the selection that
supports the message/theme that you have identified. (4 points)
Evidence: Quotation #2:
Interpretation #2:
Connection to the theme:
Total points earned for this page……………………./9