AP Lit Summer Work: The Kite Runner and How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Dear Scholars,
I can’t tell you how excited I am to teach you next fall!  This is a dream class for me, and your
reputation as hardworking, perceptive students precedes you and enhances my enthusiasm. This
summer, I hope that you take a break and relax with your family and friends…and absolutely make
time to read for pleasure. However, I also maintain very high expectations for you, and therefore I
want to challenge you with the assignment below. AP Literature students read A LOT and that is a
good thing! At first glance, it may appear daunting—but remember, this is a college class and I have
taken that seriously and modeled it after my quintessential college courses. Ultimately, this
summer work will be a diagnostic assessment for me to determine our class’ strengths and
weaknesses with literary analysis. Here are your tasks:
1. First read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. This up-front, at times
sassy and quip-quilted guide holds invaluable insights for how to do what its title claims: read texts
like a professor. While you read this book you will answer the accompanying questions for each
chapter. I would like bullet form answers—no long-winded paragraphs needed! My primary goal is
to see that you can identify what Foster discusses in texts you have read or seen. If you have any
questions as you work on this, please feel free to email me at cfrye@sjmhs.org. Be sure to have
the attached cover sheet signed and stapled to the front of your work: I want this
assignment to be YOUR WORK ONLY (no discussion with classmates please). Have integrity!
2. Next you will read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. This powerful novel continues to rivet
readers and is a modern-day classic about the horrors and hidden beauty of Afghanistan. While you
read the novel, please annotate it thoroughly: this involves “interacting” with the text via marginal
notes, character lists on the inside covers, highlighting and underlining terms and quotes, using
color-coded post-its, etc. Specifically, I would like you to highlight and label all “Fosterisms” you
find in green highlighter (we’ll see who can come up with the most—extra credit to the winner!).
I will collect and check your books for a grade for this annotation the first week of school, and you
can expect an in-class timed write about the novel within the first couple weeks. I hope you
appreciate this phenomenal bildungsroman that conveys a heart-wrenching story with deft
techniques. It haunted me.
Best of luck to you!
Happy reading and have a sensational summer!
Miss Frye 
*Please TYPE the following assignment using Size 12 Times New Roman font. Have an MLA
format for your name, period, etc., including a Works Cited for all texts you reference. Use
the same headings and order given below to structure your paper*
I,
honestly affirm that the
following work was completed independently, without the
consultation of sources such as Cliffs Notes or Spark
Notes, online resources and study guides, or fellow
classmates or other individuals. If a question has required
me to provide texts such as poems and analyze them, I
have cited those sources in MLA format within and at the
end of the assignment in a separate Works Cited page.
This work is my own original work, and I understand that
plagiarism will result in a zero grade and complete
adherence to the SJM academic dishonesty policies.
Signature
Date
Writing Assignments for How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
(tasks adapted from Donna Anglin and Fishers High School)
Chapter 1: Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in
the form used on pages 3-5.
Chapter 2: Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
Choose a meal from a literary work and apply the ideas of Chapter 2 to this literary depiction.
Chapter 3: Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
What are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply this to a literary work you have
read or viewed.
Chapter 4: If It's Square, It's a Sonnet [this is in the original edition of the book. If you
have the revised edition, it’s omitted, so you will need the provided copy from Miss Frye]
Select two sonnets, one Italian/Petrarchan and one Elizabethan/Shakespearean, and show which
form they are by marking the end rhyme scheme. Discuss how their content reflects the form [if
it’s an Italian sonnet, compare the octet and the sestet topics; if Shakespearean, assess the
development/content of each quatrain and how the final couplet shifts or wraps things up] (Submit
copies of the sonnets, marked meticulously to show your analysis/literary term findings, and cite
your sources in MLA format!).
Chapter 4/5: Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
Define intertextuality. List three examples that have helped you in reading specific works.
Chapter 5/6: When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare...
Discuss a work that you are familiar with that alludes to or reflects Shakespeare. Does it create
irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 6/7:...Or the Bible
Discuss a work that you know that invokes the Bible (consider characters’ names or story
connections). Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 7/8: Hanseldee and Greteldum
Think of a work of literature that reflects a fairy tale. Discuss the parallels. Does it create irony or
deepen appreciation?
Chapter 8/9: It's Greek to Me
Think of a work of literature that capitalizes on Greek mythology (consider character names or
story connections). Does it create irony or deepen appreciation?
Chapter 9/10: It's More Than Just Rain or Snow
Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work, not in terms of plot.
Chapter 11:...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Present examples of the two kinds of violence found in literature.
Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol?
List 3-5 symbols you can identify from various texts you have read or films you have seen, and what
they symbolize.
Chapter 13: It's All Political
Assume that Foster is right and "it is all political." Use his criteria to show that one of the major
works assigned to you as a freshman is political.
Chapter 14: Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
Apply the criteria Foster lists in this chapter to a major character in a significant literary work.
Try to choose a character that will have many matches. This is a particularly apt tool for analyzing
film -- for example, Star Wars, Cool Hand Luke, Excalibur, Malcolm X, Braveheart, Spartacus,
Gladiator and/or Ben-Hur.
Chapter 15: Flights of Fancy
Select a literary work in which flight signifies escape or freedom.
Chapter 16: It's All About Sex...
Chapter 17: ...Except the Sex
OK ...the sex chapters. The key idea from this chapter is that "scenes in which sex is coded rather
than explicit can work at multiple levels and sometimes be more intense than literal depictions"
(149). In other words, sex is often suggested with much more art and effort than it is described,
and, if the author is doing his job, it reflects and creates theme or character. Choose a novel or
movie in which sex is suggested, but not described, and discuss how the relationship is suggested
and how this implication affects the theme or develops characterization.
Chapter 18: If She Comes Up, It's Baptism
Think of a "baptism scene" from a significant literary work. How was the character different after
the experience?
Chapter 19: Geography Matters...
Discuss at least four different aspects of a (one) specific literary work that Foster would classify
under "geography."
Chapter 20:...So Does Season
Find a poem that mentions a specific season. Then discuss how the poet uses the season in a
meaningful, traditional, or unusual way. (Submit a copy of the poem with your analysis. Please cite
your sources)
Interlude: One Story
Write your own definition for archetype. Then identify an archetypal story and apply it to a literary
work with which you are familiar.
Chapter 21: Marked for Greatness
Figure out Harry Potter's scar. If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, select another character
with a physical imperfection and analyze its implications for characterization.
Chapter 22: He's Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23/24: It's Never Just Heart Disease...
...And Rarely Just Illness
Recall two characters who died of a disease in a literary work. Consider how these deaths reflect
the "principles governing the use of disease in literature" (222-224). Discuss the effectiveness of
the death as related to plot, theme, or symbolism.
Chapter 24/25: Don't Read with Your Eyes
After reading Chapter 24/25, choose a scene or episode from a novel, play or epic written before
the twentieth century. Contrast how it could be viewed by a reader from the twenty-first century
with how it might be viewed by a contemporary reader.
Chapter 26: Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Select two ironic literary works and identify the various types of irony (consider dramatic, verbal,
and situational irony).
Chapter 27: A Test Case
Read “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, the short story given in this chapter.
Complete the exercise after the story, following the directions exactly. Then compare your writing
with the three examples. How did you do? What does the essay that follows comparing Laura with
Persephone add to your appreciation of Mansfield's story?
Envoi
Choose a motif not discussed in this book (as the horse reference Foster mentions) and note its
appearance in three or four different works. What does this idea seem to signify?