Palo Verde Valley High School
AP English 12 -- Summer Reading
Summer Reading Assignment AP English Literature and Composition (AP Eng 12)
Dear In - Coming Senior Advanced Placement English Student,
Critical reading is paramount to success in AP English. You must be a reader this summer. Your
reading will contribute to your success in class this coming year.
All students entering AP English Literature and Composition must read How to Read Literature like
a Professor by Thomas C. Foster and then choose at least two novels of greater than 250 pages to read this
summer that have not been assigned as required reading previously (for summer or during the regular school
year). I have included a list of suggested novels to aid your choice, but this is your opportunity to choose for
yourself what you would like to read.
Assignment 1: Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor (you may need to purchase this text
for yourself since very few copies are available at the local library). As you read you will write a brief
summary of the main argument presented in each chapter. This will include what symbol, theme, motif, or
context regarding analyzing literature the author presents in the chapter. Your summary should read like a
cheat sheet, for example: In Chapter One of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, the author, Thomas C.
Foster, argues that a journey in a novel is really a quest when it includes the following: .... In chapter two of
How to Read Literature like a Professor, the author, Thomas C. Foster, argues that when people sit down to
share a meal it may mean ___ if ___ also occurs… and so on until you have covered all the chapters in this
nonfiction text.
If you follow the example above, you should end up with notes that serve as test study guides and a
quick review chart for use in analyzing the other novels you will read this summer.
Assignment 2: Choose a novel or novels to read this summer. It is best if you own the novel so you
can annotate directly in it. You may choose eBooks, provided that your eBook reader allows you to annotate
within the reader. If you do choose to borrow a novel for this assignment, you will need to use post -it notes
of no more than 2 inches by 2 inches on each page that you annotate. Your annotations should include the 5
W's and How Protocol explained on the next page.
Assignment 3: Using your reading of the Foster book, analyze the novel you have read by connecting
the patterns described in the Foster book to the novel you have chosen to read. Is there a quest in it? If so,
how do you know? Are there scenes with food in them? What is the message being delivered? Be sure to cite
both the novel and the non-fiction Foster text.
Please consider reading one of the novels from the list included in this handout, you are strongly
encouraged to read more than one novel as you prepare to enter the world of AP Literature. A descritption of
the recommended novels with a second paired novel (extra credit) is included at the end of the handout. The
recommended list is: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Catcher in the RyeCatcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger,
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Billy
Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, I am Malala by
Malala Yousafzai, David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and The
Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.
If you accept the challenge to read all of these books, we will recognize you as a reading rock star. Read more. Learn
more. Ask your teacher about writing more for possible extra credit.
5 W’s and How Protocol for Annotating Your Book
Make notes in the margins that answer the following questions and suggestions:
Who? (Who are the characters and what do you learn about them? characteristics? desires? thoughts?)
What? (What happens in the plot? How does the conflict play out? What surprises you? What confuses you?)
Where? (Where is the story set [time and place]? Does the setting change?)
When? (When do you see changes in the characters? When does the story get interesting? When does the author do
something unusual with the characters or the storyline?)
Why? (Why does the author make stylistic choices? Why does the author create the characters and the conflict, etc the way
he/she does?)
How? (How does the author craft an engaging story? make the characters and events real? Create images and emotions?
play around with structure or word choice?)
Should you also mark interesting vocabulary? Of course! Consider making a list of words you do not know
inside the front or back cover of your book -- and define them.
Should you mark interesting and profound quotes? Of course! Look for quotes that particularly reveal
themes and demonstrate any of the above literary and style choices.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (NF)
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family
hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness
north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson
McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity,
abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all
the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself.
Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a
moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the
unforgettable story of Into the Wild .
Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which
he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short
life. Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he
searches for the clues to the dries and desires that propelled
McCandless. Digging deeply, he takes an inherently
compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds:
the profound pull of the American wilderness on our
imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men
of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond
between fathers and sons.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (Drama)
&
Catcher in the Rye by J. D.
Salinger (F)
Ever since it was first published in 1951, this
novel has been the coming of age story against
which all others are judged. Read and cherished
by generations, the story of Holden Caulfield is
truly one of America's literary treasures.
Salinger's classic coming of age story portrays
one young man's funny and poignant experiences
with life, love, and sex.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya
Angelou (NF)
When it was first produced in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun
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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.
&
This award winning drama about the hopes and aspirations
of a struggling, working class family living on the South
Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of
black America and changed American theater forever. The
play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem
"Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry
up/like a raisin in the sun."
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
(F)
Three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare
with Iraqi insurgents has transformed the eight surviving
men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought after
heroes. Now they're on a media-intensive nationwide tour
to reinvigorate support for the war. On this rainy
Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of the Dallas
Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show alongside
Destiny's Child.
Among the Bravos is Specialist Billy Lynn. Surrounded by
patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and Support Our
Troops bumper stickers, he is thrust into the company of
the Cowboys' owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues;
a Born again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood
producer; and supersized players eager for a vicarious taste
of war. Over the course of this day, Billy will drink and
brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a
heart wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a
bitter wisdom far beyond his years.
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (NF)
Be sure to get the original version, not the one for young
readers.
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one
girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced
and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday
October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price.
When she was shot in the head at point blank range
while riding the bus home from school, few expected her
to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on
an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in
Northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in
New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol
Sent by their mother to live with their devout,
self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern
town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the
ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the
local “po white trash.” At eight years old and
back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is
attacked by a man many times her age–and has to
live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years
later, in San Francisco, Maya learns about love
for herself and the kindness of others, her own
strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I
met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”)
will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
Poetic and powerful.
The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien
(F)
&
A classic work of American literature that has not
stopped changing minds and lives since it burst
onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried
is a groundbreaking meditation on war, memory,
imagination, and the redemptive power of
storytelling.
The Things They Carried depicts the men of
Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins,
Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker,
Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has
survived his tour in
Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age
of forty-three.
O’Brien challenges readers in their perceptions of
fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear
and longing.
David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
(NF)
Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in
ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a
mighty warrior with nothing more than a
pebble and a sling and ever since, the names
of David and Goliath have stood for battles
between underdogs and giants. David's
victory was improbable and miraculous. He
shouldn't have won.
Or should he?
In DAVID AND GOLIATH , Malcolm
Gladwell challenges how we think about
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of peaceful protest and the youngest ever nominee for
the Nobel Peace Prize.
obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new
interpretation of what it means to be
discriminated against, suffer from a
disability, lose a parent, attend a mediocre
school, or endure any number of other
apparent setbacks.
I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family
uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls'
education, and of Malala's parents' fierce love for their
daughter in a society that prizes sons. It will make you
believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire
change in the world.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle
Tzemach Lemmon.
The life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight
when the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul.
After receiving a teaching degree during the civil war—
a rare achievement for any Afghan woman—Kamila
was subsequently banned from school and confined to
her home. When her father and brother were forced to
flee the city, Kamila became the sole breadwinner for
her five siblings. Armed only with grit and
determination, she picked up a needle and thread and
created a thriving business of her own.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the incredible true
story of this unlikely entrepreneur who mobilized her
community under the Taliban. Former ABC News
reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the
ground reporting Kamila's story, and the result is an
unusually intimate and unsanitized look at the daily lives
of women in Afghanistan. These women are not victims;
they are the glue that holds families together; they are
the backbone and the heart of their nation. Afghanistan's
future remains uncertain as debates over withdrawal
timelines dominate the news.
&
The Kite Runner by Khaled
Hosseini
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of
the unlikely friendship between a wealthy
boy and the son of his father's servant, The
Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel
set in a country that is in the process of
being destroyed. It is about the power of
reading, the price of betrayal, and the
possibility of redemption; and an
exploration of the power of fathers over
sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and
friendship told against the devastating
backdrop of the history of Afghanistan
over the last thirty years, The Kite
Runner is an unusual and powerful novel
that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind
classic.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana moves beyond the
headlines to transport you to an Afghanistan you have
never seen before. This is a story of war, but it is also a
story of sisterhood and resilience in the face of despair.
Kamila Sidiqi's journey will inspire you, but it will also
change the way you think about one of the most
important political and humanitarian issues of our time.
We will have discussions about these books the first week of school. Please read and be prepared to enter the
complex and exciting world of Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition.
Happy Reading,
PVHS AP English Teachers
“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy
reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.” - Pablo Neruda
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