Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
Dear Student:
Welcome! We are pleased that you decided to enroll in English Pre-AP/AP courses. It is a course designed to
foster independence and critical thinking. We encourage you to read frequently and widely and reflect on your
reading.
Use the following questions as a guide to enhance your understanding of the reading selection:
Essential Questions
What is the author’s purpose?
What is the intended audience?
In what ways does the author craft’s work towards that purpose?
How do I incorporate these into my own writing to make my work more effective?
Who and what defines identity?
How does one exist and define himself/herself in a society that does not recognize him/her as equal?
How does one balance personal identity within cultural and social constraints?
What happens when identities collide?
How does language shape identity?
What is the connection between the way others see us and the way we see ourselves?
How does one read a text and determine its meaning?
How does one balance personal identity with the meaning of a text?
What innocence is lost temporarily, and what innocence is lost permanently?
How do personal beliefs, ethics, or values influence decisions that a person makes?
How do the consequences of some decisions play a major role in re-examining a person’s role or purpose in
life?
What elements of society act against an individual’s search for and understanding of self?
How detrimental is conflict and alienation to the human spirit?
How do multiple opinions affect the way we view ourselves?
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the GECHS ELA Department.
Happy Reading!
GECHS ELA Teachers
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
9th Grade: Read a total of 3 books, 1 must be chosen from the following list.
Title and Author
Silent Spring by Rachel
Carson
The House on Mango
Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Skin I’m In by Sharon
G. Flake
The Hobbit by J.R.R.
Tolkein
Mockingjay by Suzanne
Collins
Ender’s Game by Orson
Scott Card
Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated
powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in
launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the
landmark books of the twentieth century.
Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, this memoir is Sandra
Cisneros's greatly admired story of a young girl's growing up in the Latino
section of Chicago.
Miss Saunders, whose skin is blotched with a rare skin condition, serves as a
mirror to Maleeka Madison's struggle against the burden of low self-esteem that
many black girls face when they're darker skinned.
Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit introduces us to the hobbit
Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middleearth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous
ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent.
Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been
destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by
the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders.
A revolution is unfolding.
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack,
government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant
young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin may just be the
the general Earth needs. But Ender is not the only result of the genetic
experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and
the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's
two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways.
Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the
world survives.
Visit www.edmodo.com and join Mr. Dwelle’s English I group using the code 26qa8j. Tell us about the book
you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it.
If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For
each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the
text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked?
Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
10h Grade: REQUIRED: Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher, plus ONE of the following.
(Note: books marked with * are found on many AP World History reading lists)
Title and Author
Synopsis from Goodreads.com
* In the Time of the Butterflies by
Julia Alvarez
Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican
Republica in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal
sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after
visiting their jailed husbands.
Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on
Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful
fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society,
traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as
modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the
destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European
missionaries. These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by
an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human
history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.
With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly
to life, this is a work that touches the heart with emotion while it
stimulates the mind with its narrative style, symbolism, and excoriating
vision of racism in America. Moving through time from the rural South to
the northern ghetto, starkly contrasting the attitudes of two generations
of an embattles family, Go Tell It On The Mountain is an unsurpassed
portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a
society confronting inevitable change.
Classic novel that has inspired generations of seekers. Blending Eastern
mysticism and psychoanalysis, Hesse presents a strikingly original view of
man and culture and the arduous process of self-discovery,
reconciliation, harmony, and peace.
This is a book about the most admirable of human virtues--courage.
These are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States
Senators and the grace with which they endured them. These heroes
include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benson, and
Robert A. Taft. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, Profiles in Courage
resounds with timeless lessons on the most cherished of virtues and is a
powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit.
Autobiographical story of his escape from life in apartheid South Africa
through education and sports. Apartheid was a political system enacted
by the white-minority-led government in South Africa in 1948 and lasted
until 1994. Although black South Africans had endured racial oppression
for almost three hundred years at the start of apartheid, this political
system was an especially virulent form of racial oppression.
Enter the world of science as Bill Bryson unmasks the mysteries of the
universe. Tackling everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization,
*Things Fall Apart by Chinua
Achebe
*Go Tell it on the Mountain by
James Baldwin
* Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
* Profiles in Courage by John F.
Kennedy
*Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a
Black Youth's Coming of Age in
Apartheid South Africa by Mark
Mathabane
* A Short History of Nearly
Everything by Bill Bryson
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
Bill Bryson's inimitable storytelling skill makes the why, how, and, just as
importantly, the who of scientific discovery entertaining and accessible
for young readers.
* And the Mountains Echoed by
This work begins simply enough, with a father recounting a folktale to his
Khaled Hosseini
two young children. The tale is about a young boy who is taken by a div
(a sort of ogre), and how that fate might not be as terrible as it first
seems—a brilliant device that firmly sets the tone for the rest of this
sweeping, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel. A day after he
tells the tale of the div, the father gives away his own daughter to a
wealthy man in Kabul. What follows is a series of stories within the story,
told through multiple viewpoints, spanning more than half a century, and
shifting across continents.
Timed for release on the thirtieth anniversary of Cambodia's Khmer
Rouge takeover, Ung unflinchingly begins this memoir with her arrival in
* Lucky Child: A Daughter of
Vermont alongside her sister-in-law and brother, who, able to "borrow
Cambodia Reunites with the Sister enough gold to take only one of his siblings with him," chose his tough
She Left Behind by Loung Ung
youngest sister as the "lucky child." Ung agonized over everyone she left
behind, but especially regretted her 15-year separation from her last
surviving sister, Chou.
* The Autobiography of Eleanor
The long and eventful life of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was full of
Roosevelt by Eleanor Roosevelt
rich experiences and courageous actions. By the end of her life, Eleanor
Roosevelt was recognized throughout the world for her fortitude and
commitment to the ideals of liberty and human rights. Her
autobiography constitutes a self-portrait no biography can match for its
candor and liveliness, its wisdom, tolerance, and breadth of view—a selfportrait of one of the greatest American humanitarians of our time.
Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and
Rebel Girls explores how teenage girls construct activist identities,
Social Change Across the
rejecting and redefining girlhood and claiming political authority for
Americas by Jessica K. Taft,
youth in the process. Ultimately, Rebel Girls has substantial implications
for social movements and youth organizations, arguing that adult social
movements could learn a great deal from girl activists and making clear
the importance of increased collaboration between young people and
adults
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood
I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died
Up for Education and Was Shot by it was just after midday.
the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl
and Christina Lamb
spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her
right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was
fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price.
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
Down Garrapata Road by Anne
Estivis
Macho by Victor Villasenor
* Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of
the Battle of Thermopylae by
Steven Pressfield
* News of a Kidnapping by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
* China Men by Maxine Hong
Kingston
* Chinese Cinderella by Adeline
Yen Mah
A medley of young voices bring to life a small Mexican-American
community in South Texas during the 1940's and 1950's. In this
untouched world, young men depart for World War II, whispers of El
Chupasangre (the blood sucker) crawl across the countryside, a brother
sacrifices the little money he has for a pastel dress for his sister, and one
young girl makes a painful mistake when she disobeys her parents for a
tryst with her boyfriend
Raw, powerful, poetic, and heartbreaking, Macho! brings to life the
brutality of migrant labor, Cesar Chavez’s efforts to unionize workers,
and a vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience through the eyes of a
brave young man who bids goodbye to everything he knows to follow his
dreams.
In 480 B.C., two million Persian invaders come to the mountain pass of
Thermopylae in eastern Greece, where they are met by 300 of Sparta's
finest warriors. The Greek loyalists battle for six days in a prelude to their
ultimate victory.
In 1990, fearing extradition to the United States, Pablo Escobar – head of
the Medellín drug cartel – kidnapped ten notable Colombians to use as
bargaining chips. With the eye of a poet, García Márquez describes the
survivors’ perilous ordeal and the bizarre drama of the negotiations for
their release. He also depicts the keening ache of Colombia after nearly
forty years of rebel uprisings, right-wing death squads, currency collapse
and narco-democracy.
The lives of three generations of Chinese men in America, woven from
memory, myth and fact. Here's a storyteller's tale of what they endured
in a strange new land.
A riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese
family during the 1940s. A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to
their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots
to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and
courage in the face of despair
Visit www.edmodo.com and join Ms. Smith’s English II group using the code a62fhx. Tell us about the book
you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it.
If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For
each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the
text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked?
Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
11th Grade: REQUIRED: The Shallows by Nicholas G. Carr, plus one FICTION and one NONFICTION text to read: (Note: books marked with * are REQUIRED for AP Language)
FICTION
The Crucible by
Arthur Miller
The Things They
Carried by Tim
O’Brian
NON-FICTION
Tuesdays With
Morrie by Mitch
Albolm
Synopsis from Goodreads.com
"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest
and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about
the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on
historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community
engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing
witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl
accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and
townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the
prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly
illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.
They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated
bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a
nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The
Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of
American literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity,
and the limits, of the human heart and soul.
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and
wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound
advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie
Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago. Knowing he was dying of ALS or motor neurone disease - Morrie visited Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they
used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final class: lessons
in how to live. This is a chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares
Morrie's lasting gift with the world.
Michael J. Fox abandoned high school to pursue an acting career, but went on to
A Funny Thing
Happened on the receive honorary degrees from several universities and garner the highest accolades for
his acting, as well as for his writing. In his new book, he inspires and motivates
Way to the
graduates to recognize opportunities, maximize their abilities, and roll with the
Future by
punches--all with his trademark optimism, warmth, and humor. In A Funny Thing
Michael J. Fox
Happened on the Way to the Future, Michael draws on his own life experiences to make
a case that real learning happens when "life goes skidding sideways." He writes of
coming to Los Angeles from Canada at age eighteen and attempting to make his way as
an actor. Fox offers up a comically skewed take on how, in his own way, he fulfilled the
requirements of a college syllabus.
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
Being in high school is about a lot more than going to high school. It’s about discovering
new places, new hobbies, and new people—and opening your eyes to the world. This
book is about the stuff they don’t teach you in high school, like how to host a film
festival, plan your first road trip, make a podcast, or write a manifesto. Want to make a
time capsule? Spend a day in silence? Learn how to make beats like a DJ? Or shut down
your house party before the police do? Whatever your creative, social, or academic
inclinations, you’ll find 97 ways on these pages to amuse, educate, and interest yourself,
and your friends. Because your life doesn’t stop at 3pm each day—it just gets started.
If the law is of such a nature that it requires you to be an agent of injustice to another,
* “The Night
Thoreau Spent in then I say, break the law." So wrote the young Henry David Thoreau in 1849. Three
Jail” by Jerome years earlier, Thoreau had put his belief into action and refused to pay taxes because of
the United States government's involvement in the Mexican War, which Thoreau firmly
Lawrence and
believed was unjust. For his daring and unprecedented act of protest, he was thrown in
Robert E. Lee
jail. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is a celebrated dramatic presentation of this famous
act of civil disobedience and its consequences.
*“The American The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837,
to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge. He was invited to speak in recognition of
Scholar”
http://www.eme his groundbreaking work Nature, published a year earlier, in which he established a new
way for America's fledgling society to regard the world. Sixty years after declaring
rsoncentral.com/ independence, American culture was still heavily influenced by Europe, and Emerson,
amscholar.htm
for possibly the first time in the country's history, provided a visionary philosophical
framework for escaping "from under its iron lids" and building a new, distinctly
American cultural identity.
Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience was originally published in 1849 as Resistance
*“Civil
to Civil Government. Thoreau wrote this classic essay to advocate public resistance to
Disobedience”
the laws and acts of government that he considered unjust. The practical application of
with study
Civil Disobedience was largely ignored until the twentieth century when, at different
questions
times, Modanda Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and anti-Vietnam War activists applied
http://thoreau.e Thoreau's principles.
97 Things to Do
Before You Finish
High School by
Erika Stadler and
Steven Jenkins
server.org/civil.h
tml
Visit www.edmodo.com and join Ms. Cortina’s English III group using the code tntbxf. Tell us about the book
you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it. If you cannot join, please write out
your response and submit to Ms. Cortina at the beginning of the school year.
If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For
each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the
text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked?
Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
12th Grade: REQUIRED: The Shallows by Nicholas G. Carr , plus ONE of the books from the list below.
Title and Author
Tortilla Curtain
by T.C. Boyle
Synopsis from Goodreads.com
Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles
liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling
existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer,
she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon
desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off
starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine. And from the moment a
freak accident brings Candido and Delaney into intimate contact, these
four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a
tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.
As I Lay Dying by The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the
William Faulkner story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest and
motivations – noble or selfish – to honor her wish to be buried in the town
of Jefferson.
The Zookeeper’s
Wife: A War
Story by Diane
Ackerman
In Cold Blood by
Truman Capote
Long Day’s
Journey into the
Night by Eugene
O’Neill.
Ackerman works from the diary of Antonina Zabinski to present a dramatic
true story based on a little-known chapter from Nazi Poland. Not only was
Hitler interested in human genetics but also the purity of animal breeds. At
the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and her director husband struggle with
wartime shortages, caring for the animals, their own family's needs, and
the hundreds of Jews hidden at the zoo.
The book examines the complex psychological relationship between two
parolees who together commit a mass murder. Capote's book also
explores the lives of the victims and the effect of the crime on the
community where they lived. In Cold Blood is regarded by critics as a
pioneering work of the true crime genre.
One theme of the play is addiction and the resulting dysfunction of the
family. All three males are alcoholics and Mary is addicted to morphine. In
the play the characters conceal, blame, resent, regret, accuse and deny in
an escalating cycle of conflict with occasional desperate and sincere
attempts at affection, encouragement and consolation.
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School
Summer Reading
2014-2015
The Passage by
Justin Cronin
The Salt Eaters
by Toni Cade
Bambara
One Flew Over
the Cuckoo’s
Nest by Ken
Kesey
A Long Way
Gone: Memoirs
of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Every Day by
Levithan
In a dystopian future, a virus found in a South American jungle was used to
create a super soldier with great strength and healing abilities. The virus
becomes an epidemic, and infected people become bloodthirsty
monsters. Normal humans are hiding in fortresses trying to survive
The novel is set in a small, Southern town. Velma Henry, a long-time civil
rights activist and feminist, sits in a hospital gown on a stool listening to
the musical voice of Minnie Ransom. Old Minnie is a healer; she heals
people by contacting the points of physical or psychical pain in her
patients and relieving them. She is helped by her spirit guide, Old Wife.
Scars heal and wounds close in minutes under her touch.
The story, narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Native American inmate
"Chief" Bromden, focuses on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick
McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve out his prison sentence for
statutory rape in the hospital. The head administrative nurse, Mildred
Ratched, rules the ward with a mailed fist and with little medical oversight.
She is assisted by her three black day-shift orderlies, and her assistant
doctors. McMurphy constantly antagonizes Nurse Ratched and upsets the
routines, leading to constant power struggles between the inmate and the
nurse
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Twelve-year-old Ishmael first flees from
attacking rebels with his friends, but later he is transformed into a coldblooded soldier. This is a heartbreaking personal memoir of a boy growing
up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Alex Award 2008
Every morning, A wakes in a different person's body, in a different
person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached. Life goes
along smoothly until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love
with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.
Visit www.edmodo.com and join Mrs. Simpkin’s English IV group using the code axdssu. Tell us about the
book you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it. If you cannot join, please write
out your response and submit to Mrs. Simpkin at the beginning of the school year.
If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For
each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the
text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked?
Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.