Summer Assignment for Professor Avril’s incoming 8th Graders
Note: Parents/guardians must approve of the text that you choose. Please come to the
first day of class with a signed note from your parent/guardian that shows approval for
the book you chose.
Assignment: Select one book from the fiction section of the 8th grade independent
reading list provided below and answer one of the following questions in a response of
around one typed page, double spaced, 12 font. Please write the question number and
question itself on the top of your page.
1)What is an important theme in this work of literature, and how is this theme
developed? Think of a theme in this case as a message, moral, lesson or insight about
life.
2)How does a specific setting in the story add to the meaning of the story?
3)How does situational or dramatic irony play a role in the story?
4)How can the point of the view of the narrator of the story be contrasted with the
point of view of another main character in the story?
4)What might the author’s purpose have been in writing this work of literature?
5)What is the author’s viewpoint on a particular issue that arises in the story, and how
does this viewpoint get expressed through the narrative?
6)How does one of the main characters in the story change/evolve as the story unfolds?
7)How are females represented in this text? Are they represented positively, negatively,
or in complex ways?
8)How is a character that is not traditional/conventional represented in this text? Does
the author of the text have a positive or negative attitude towards this character? What
makes you think so?
9)What problems in society does this text illuminate? For instance, how does this text
demonstrate racial inequality or classism? How might the author seek to make
commentary on injustices that should be addressed?
10)Would you recommend that another 8th grade student at CSS reads this text for the
independent reading initiative this year? Why or why not?
Fiction Choices
*1984 by George Orwell
*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
*All the Time in the World by E.L Doctorow
*Any book by Kurt Vonnegut
*As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
*Black Boy by Richard Wright
*Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
*Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
*Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
*Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
*Go Ask Alice (Anonymous)
*How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
*In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
*Life of Pi by Yann Martel
*Light in August by William Faulkner
*Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
*Looking for Alaska by John Green
*Lord of the Flies by William Golding
*Night by Elie Wiesel
*Of Mice and Men by George Steinbeck
*One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*Paper Towns by John Green
*Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
*Siddartha by Herman Hesse
*The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
*The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
*The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
*The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
*The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
*The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
*The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger
*The Color Purple by Alice Walker
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
*The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets by Kathleen Alcott
*The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
*The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
*The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and Eoin Colfer
*The Hobbit by J.R Tolkien
*The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
*The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
*The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
*The Lord of the Rings by J.R Tolkien
*The People of Forever are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjui
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
*The Road by Cormac McCarthy
*Trevor: A Novella by James Lecense
*Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
*When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
*Zombie by J.R Angelina