Name________________
Honors English 9: Summer Reading 2015
Requirements and Directions
Welcome to Honors English 9 at Shakopee East and West Junior Highs!
To demonstrate your commitment to a rigorous class, please read the following requirements
and directions carefully.
If you do not desire to fulfill the requirements, please re-register for English 9. Students sometimes register for honors
classes with good intentions but become frustrated with the rigor. It is the department’s goal to provide you with a
challenging and rewarding year and that begins over the summer.
Reading Requirement #1: Of Mice and Men
1. This play is required for all incoming Honors English 9 students. The book will be loaned to you by the
school, and all policies about the use of textbooks will be in effect. Replacement costs must be
charged for any book that is lost or returned in unusable condition.
2. Read the novel in its entirety.
3. Complete the media center links to find packet of questions.
a. Helpful hints:
i. Please be sure to complete all sections of the packet
ii. Please refer to literary websites if you need any assistance with the literary terms
iii. Your packet will be assessed for:
 Completion
 Accuracy of answers
 Neatness
 Timeliness (it is due on the first day of school)
4. Be prepared for a comprehension quiz on the play the first week of school.
Reading Requirement #2: Novel of your Choice
1. Please select a novel from the list provided. You may find copies of the books at your local library or
book store. (List is attached.)
2. Read the book in its entirety.
3. Prepare a media presentation for the second week of school (see attached directions for more specific
details).
If you have any questions about the course, please contact Mrs. Kuhlman (bkuhlman@shakopee.k12.mn.us) or
Mrs. Loiselle (hloisell@shakopee.k12.mn.us). We look forward to meeting you this fall. Enjoy your reading!
Reading Requirement #2 – Choices
Please read through the following list and choose ONE novel in order to complete the second part of your
required reading. Please remember, you will be completing a Life Map (directions attached) based on
whichever book you choose.
1. The Diary of Anne Frank (non-fiction)
 The word’s most well-known and translated diary of a teenage girl hiding from the Nazis.
2. The Chosen by Chaim Potok (Classic Fiction) Your teachers have copies to check out.
 In 1940s New York, an accident throws Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences the young
men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, and the crisis of faith
engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual
and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a
unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.
3. Cry of the Kalahari by Delia and Mark Owens (non-fiction)
 This is the story of the Owens' travel and life in the Kalahari Desert. Here they met and studied unique animals and were
confronted with danger from drought, fire, storms, and the animals they loved. This best-selling book is for both travelers
and animal lovers.
4. Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther (Non-fiction/ Memoir)
 This deeply moving book is a father’s memoir of his brave, intelligent, and spirited son who was seventeen years old when
he died of a brain tumor.
5. March by Geraldine Brooks (Historical Fiction but Little Women is a prerequisite)
 Brooks's luminous second novel imagines the Civil War experiences of Mr. March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's
Little Women. This novel is written from Mr. March’s perspective. An idealistic Concord cleric, March becomes a Union
chaplain and later finds himself assigned to be a teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves. Brooks's
affecting, beautifully written novel drives home the intimate horrors and ironies of the Civil War. *Winner of the Pulitzer
Prize*
6. The Mole People by Jennifer Toth (Non-Fiction/ Homelessness)
 Jennifer Toth tells the true story of the New York City homeless who have taken up residence in the subway tunnels and
sub-basements of Manhattan. In clear, eloquent prose, Toth introduces the reader to the genuinely surreal existence of
people who live out much of their lives in dark, man-made catacombs. With both the eye of a scientist and the compassion
of a concerned human being, Toth examines what has driven these people underground, and how it is they exist in such an
environment.
7. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox (Biography/ Science)
 Few know Rosalind Franklin, yet she conducted crucial research that led to one of the most significant discoveries of the
20th century the double helical structure of DNA. Until recently, Franklin was remembered only as the "dark lady"-a
stereotypically frustrated and frustrating female scientist. She shows a woman of fiery intellect and fierce independence
whom some saw as haughty, though to family and close friends she was warm and devoted.
8. The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective’s
Greatest Cases by E.J. Wagner (non-fiction/science)
 By using the immortal and well-known Sherlock Holmes stories as her starting point, forensic expert Wagner blends familiar
examples from Doyle's accounts into a history of the growth of forensic science, pointing out where fiction strayed from
fact. The author injects life into her narrative by weaving in true crime cases that either influenced Holmes's creator or may
have been influenced by a published story from the Baker Street sleuth.
9. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (classic fiction)
 Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful,
turn-of-the century Brooklyn, New York. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. Like the Tree
of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and
thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago.
10. 1984 by George Orwell (classic science fiction)
 While the totalitarian system that provoked George Orwell into writing has since passed into oblivion, his harrowing
cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance and power to disturb our
complacency seem to grow decade by decade. In Winston Smith's desperate struggle to free himself from an allencompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendencies apparent in every modern society, and made vivid the
universal predicament of the individual.
11. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Historical Fiction)
 Through the eyes and mind of a German private, the reader shares life on the battlefield during World War I.
12. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Classic Fiction)
 The orphan, Pip, and the convict, Magwitch, the beautiful Estella, and her guardian, the embittered and vengeful Miss
Havisham, the ambitious lawyer, Mr. Jaggers -- all have a part to play in the mystery.
13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (Classic Fiction)
 In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess and soon finds herself
in love with her employer who has a terrible secret.
14. The Weight of All Things by Sandra Benitez (fiction)
 Deadly shootings, explosions and massacres are a grim fact of life for a boy growing up amidst devastation in war-torn El
Salvador around 1979-1992.
15. When the Legends Die by Hal Borland (fiction)
 When his father killed another brave, Thomas Black Bull and his parents sought refuge in the wilderness. There they took up
life as it had been in the old days, but an accident claimed the father’s life and the grieving mother died shortly afterward.
Left alone, the young Indian boy vowed never to return to the white man’s world, to the alien laws that had condemned his
father.
16. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (autobio/memoir) **highly acclaimed**
 Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother
endure the ache of abandonment, prejudice, and racism of the time. **She passed May 28, 2014.
17. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (non-fiction)
 A tragedy that took the lives of experienced mountain guide and novice climbers in a raging blizzard atop Mount Everest in
1996 is chronicled with clarity, poignancy, and brutal honesty by one who witnessed the event.
18. Watership Down by Richard Adams (classic fiction)
 Bestselling saga of a maverick band of rabbits who, against all odds, seek a new home and a better society.
19. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (classic fiction)
 This tragic love story set in New England with a young farmer and his wife. Struggles with existence.
20. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (classic fiction)
 Holden Caulfield has become synonymous with a cynical adolescent. He narrates this story over the course of a couple of
days in his 16-year-old life after he has been expelled from a prep school. ** banned book lists for edgy language
21. Dune by Frank Herbert (science fiction)
 Epic science fiction series about a desert world and the immense struggle for wealth and power that is played out there.
22. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (historical fiction)
 In the four bloodiest and courageous days during Gettysburg as seen by members of the Union and Confederate armies,
they fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other a way of life. It’s unique re-creation on the battlefield.
23. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (classic drama)
 Autobiographical play about a controlling mother who was obsessed with finding a suitor for her shy daughter.
24. Copper Sun by Sharon Draper
 Amari’s life was once perfect. Engaged to the handsomest man in her tribe, adored by her family, living in a beautiful
village, she could not have imaged everything could be taken away from her in an instant. Slave traders invade her village.