2015 Summer Reading
Grade Literature and Composition
Greenk3@fultonschools.org
Greetings future Seminoles,
It is with great enthusiasm that I welcome you and your child to 9th Grade Literature
and Composition. I look forward to meeting you both in August and exploring the
world of literature. Ninth Grade Literature and Composition is a yearlong course
designed to provide opportunities for students to develop and expand their knowledge
of literature and language and demonstrate their mastery level of new learning through
performance tasks and assessments. This is an accelerated course; therefore, students
are expected to perform at an exceptional level.
Because Language Arts is a rigorous course-- designed to challenge and motivate your
child-- Creekside High School’s English Department believes that the Summer Reading
Assignment is a valuable pursuit for the student for several reasons. Colleges expect
students to have read widely in the classics of literature, and we school teachers
believe that students need to exercise their independent reading skills over the summer
months. In addition, familiarity with specific pieces of literature allows the student to
start the school year with a literary foundation on which to reflect and compose.
Consequently, teachers at every grade level base their summer reading choices on
college English department book lists that should prove interesting and valuable. For
these reasons, rising freshmen read mythology and works with a tragic theme or heroic
archetype.
During the first six weeks of school, assignments will be based on the summer reading
works. At least three evaluations of the works will occur, including objective, subjective,
and creative assessments. These evaluations will be factored as a portion of the
student’s first six-week grade in English.
Edith Hamilton’s Mythology- Everyone reads this selection
Below are the six sections of Mythology by Edith Hamilton that you are to read. If your
page numbers do not correspond to those listed below, follow the titles of the parts and
chapters listed below.
Part One: The Gods, the Creation, and the Earliest Heroes
Chapter 1: The Gods pgs. 21-44
Chapter 2: The Two Great Gods of Earth
Demeter pgs. 57-64
Chapter 3: How the World and Mankind Were Created pgs. 77-94
Chapter 4: The Earliest Heroes
The Cyclops Polyphemus pgs. 105-111
Part Two: Stories of Love and Adventure
Chapter 1: Cupid and Psyche pgs. 121-134
Chapter 2: Eight Brief Tales of Lovers
Pyramus and Thisbe pgs.135-138
Pygmalion and Galatea pgs.145-150
Part Three: The Great Heroes before the Trojan War
Chapter 1: Perseus pgs.197-208
Chapter 2: Theseus:209-223
Chapter 3: Hercules pgs. 224-243
Part Four: The Heroes of the Trojan War
Chapter 1: The Trojan War pg. 255
Prologue: The Judgment of Paris pgs. 256-259
Part Five: The Great Families of Mythology
Chapter 2: The Royal House of Thebes
Oedipus pgs. 375-382
Part Six: The Less Important Myths
Chapter 1: Midas and Others
Midas pgs. 411-413
Glaucus and Scylla pgs. 417-418
Chapter 2: Brief Myths Arranged Alphabetically
Arachne pg. 426
Ender’s Game-Orson Scott Card-On Level Only
Andrew Wiggin, aka Ender, is a six-year-old boy born into a future that has suffered two
devastating invasions from an alien hive-mind species commonly called the buggers.
Human population controls are now strictly in place, and Ender is the third child born to
his family. The International Fleet, whose task it is to prepare for the next bugger
invasion, monitors children through devices implanted on their necks, to determine who
can be trained from a very young age to be the next generation of soldiers defending
Earth from these marauding beasts. The I.F. originally had its sights set on Ender's big
brother Peter. But when it became clear Peter was not exactly what they were looking
for, the Wiggins were authorized to have Ender, their Third. This is usually a stigma, but
Ender shakes it off by excelling in every way.
The Life of Pi- Yann Martel- Honors Only
Life of Pi is a hero’s journey, a quest for faith, and a tale of survival. It is also, like all
survival stories, a quest for meaning. Pi seeks to understand the world around him and
his place in it. This makes Pi’s journey a relevant one for students who are preparing to
find their place in the adult world, and key to the study of literature which teaches us
what it means to be human.