Honors 9th Grade Literature Parallel Reading Assignment
This semester you will read an additional novel outside of class with an accompanying blog assignment. This assignment is designed
to expose the honors-level student to another novel of literary merit and the critical analysis of texts.
I highly recommend that you choose a book that interests you. Once you start the assignment, it will be difficult change novels – as
this blog assignment is a semester long project. I also recommend reading a novel you have not read in the past. The more novels you
are familiar with, the higher your chances are to succeed on the AP tests (as a Junior and Senior).
Blog assignment:
While you are not required to annotate your novel, it is still strongly recommended to keep track of your thoughts and analysis of the
novel. In order to help improve how you critically look at a piece of literature you will be required to keep a reading journal for this
novel. The reading journal will in the form of a blog (wordpress.com).
You are to divide your book into 5 sections. (You can either divide your book by page number, chapters, sections, etc. – it doesn’t
matter how you divide up your book, as long as you have 5 semi-equal sections). Each blog post will be due at the end of each section
(due date calendar after instructions).
Blog post requirements:
1. Please start with a 100-200 word, thorough summary of the section (can be longer)
2. Quotes – Pick at least 3 important quotes in the section. Please explain (for each quote) - Why is it important? What does it add to
the piece of literature? Why did it stand out to you? What does it foreshadow? What does it reveal?
3. Imagery/Symbolism - Describe an image from the piece of literature in detail. Why does this image strike you? Why is it important
or significant? How does it add to the text? What does this image symbolize? Why?
4. Style and Rhetorical Devices – Look at the tone, use of metaphor, simile, allusions, point of view, allegory, motifs, etc. How do
they enhance the meaning? Why do you think the author placed them in this particular location? How would the meaning of the text
change without this device? In this section, please discuss at least 5 style and/or rhetorical devices.
5. Theme – What theme(s) pop out of the text? Why is this important? How does it connect to the rest of the text or what is currently
taking place? For each entry, themes may develop or change – I expect to see growth in understanding as you progress in the novel.
6. Personal Response - How does the text make you feel – in the heart, in the spirit, in the mind, on the senses? Why? What windows
or doors does it open for you? Why? Does it close anything down for you? What makes this text unique? Why? How did the piece of
literature make you speculate about life or find a connection to another text or academic discipline?
Technology Integration and Community:
We will be using wordpress.com as our blogging website. We will have mini lessons on linking, hyper-texts, etc. during class. You
will be required to comment (meaningful and insightful) on other class member’s blogs. At least 2 comments per due date. (CAN
NOT be 2 comments on the same person’s blog!!)
Blog assignment due dates:
Blog Entry #1 – Friday, September 5
Blog Entry #2 – Friday, September 26
Blog Entry #3 – Monday, October 20
Blog Entry #4 – Friday, November 21
Blog Entry #5 – Friday, December 12
These are the dates I will be checking/grading your blog entries and poetry connection pages. You may complete blog entries earlier
if you like and I will grade them on the assigned due date. Once the due date has passed, points will be deducted each day the blog
post is late. Once the next due date rolls around, you will no longer be able to receive credit for the previous entry.
You are to choose one book from the following list:
1984 by George Orwell
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Ann of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Antigone by Sophocles
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dune by Frank Herbert
Emma by Jane Austen
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Farewell to Manzanar by J.W. Houston & J. D. Houston
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
My Antonia by Willa Cather
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by F.
Douglass
Night by Elie Wiesel
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansbury
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuscka Orczy
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Watership Down by Richard Adams
When the Legends Die by Hal Borland
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte