Welcome to the Advanced Placement English 12 program! I look forward to a
remarkable journey with you throughout your senior year. Summer reading is just what
it says – summer reading! It should be fun and relaxing, but at the same time,
meaningful. Please select a summer read below that would be enjoyable, and read your
summer essay assignment carefully. Each book has its own essay that mimics the AP
free-response questions. I also listed two optional summer reads that would be
beneficial to AP English 12.
*Choose one of the following books for your summer reading assignment. Read the
book carefully, annotating throughout; then answer the prompt in a two-page, typed,
size 12 Times New Roman essay. Directions on annotating can be found in the
following link:
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/197454.html
A theme is a lesson about life that the author wants the reader to understand. Two
examples are as follows: Money is not always the key to happiness; True love may
trump family loyalty.
1. The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) “The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad and his family
are forced from their farm in the Depression-era Oklahoma Dust Bowl and set out for
California along with thousands of others in search of jobs, land, and hope for a
brighter future. Considered John Steinbeck's masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath is a
story of human unity and love as well as the need for cooperative rather than
individualistic ideals during hard times.”
Essay: The meaning of some literary works is often enhanced by sustained allusions to
myths, the Bible, or other works of literature. The Grapes of Wrath makes use of such a
sustained reference. Write a well organized essay in which you explain the allusion that
predominates in the work and analyze how it enhances the theme of the novel. Avoid
plot summary.
2. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) “The Great Gatsby, follows Jay Gatsby, a man who
orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with Daisy Buchannan, the love he lost
five years earlier. Gatsby's quest leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his
beloved, and eventually to death. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is a classic piece
of American fiction. It is a novel of triumph and tragedy, noted for the remarkable way
Fitzgerald captured a cross-section of American society.”
Essay: In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. From The Great
Gatsby, explain how the scene or scenes of violence contribute to the theme. Avoid plot
summary.
3.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Edwards)S “Award-winning writer Kim
Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted family drama that
explores every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she
grew up without you? On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard
to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter
is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need
to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their
lives forever.”
Essay: Many works of literature deal with political or social issues. Write an essay in
which you analyze how the author explores this issue and explain how the issue
contributes to the theme. Do not use plot summary.
4.
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hosseini) “A Thousand Splendid Suns is a
breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from
the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts
the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale
of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war,
where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are
inextricable from the history playing out around them. It is a striking, heart-wrenching
novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love—a
stunning accomplishment.
Essay: In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for
justice.” A Thousand Splendid Suns deals with a character’s search for justice. In a welldeveloped essay analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which
the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search in
relation to the theme of the novel. Do not summarize the plot.
5.
The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver) The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by
the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his
family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they
believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to
Scripture—is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful
epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of
three decades in postcolonial Africa
Essay: Sonsyrea Tate suggests that “home” may be conceived of as a dwelling, a place,
or a state of mind. It may have positive or negative associations, but in either case, it
may have a considerable influence on an individual. In The Poisonwood Bible a central
character leaves home yet finds that home remains significant. Write a well-developed
essay in which you analyze the importance of “home” to this character and the reasons
for its continuing influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home illuminates the
theme of the novel. Do not summarize plot.
6.
The Shipping News (Proulx) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book
Award, The Shipping News is a celebration of Annie Proulx's genius for storytelling and
her vigorous contribution to the art of the novel. Quoyle, a third-rate newspaper hack,
with a "head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair...features as bunched as
kissed fingertips," is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing
wife meets her just deserts. An aunt convinces Quoyle and his two emotionally
disturbed daughters to return with her to the starkly beautiful coastal landscape of their
ancestral home in Newfoundland. Here, on desolate Quoyle's Point, in a house empty
except for a few mementos of the family's unsavory past, the battered members of
three generations try to cobble up new lives.
Essay: Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other
social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in
which they live. In a well-focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to
the theme of the novel. Do not summarize the plot.
Highly Recommended Additional Summer Reading
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
The Odyssey (Homer)
Books that will be read during the year: (You may want to get ahead with your
reading ) The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne); Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston);
Frankenstein (Shelley); The Metamorphosis (Kafka); The Awakening (Chopin); Macbeth
or A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
Our county library probably has each of these books but you are highly advised to
purchase your own copy for annotation purposes. For help with understanding how to
annotate, see the hyperlink above. If you purchase your own book, you can mark
important or meaningful passages throughout it while reading. You already know the
essay you will need to write upon completion of reading, so look for details that will
support your persuasive writing. This is an essay that will make you think; therefore, I
am looking for meaningful ideas that are your own. This assignment is due the first day
of class in August and it needs to be typed. Daily computer accessibility is a
requirement for AP English 12. Late work will not be accepted! During the first week of
school, you will take a test on your choice of book so be ready! This assignment will be
heavily weighted on the first nine weeks’ grade that you receive, so do a fabulous job!
“A formula for success in AP Literature and Composition does exist. The formula is
simply to make sure that you READ the entire assigned work, whether novel, drama or
poem. Use of outside summary sources (i.e. spark notes and cliff notes, etc.) seem like
an easy out, but please understand these are SUMMARY/SUPPLEMENTARY items. This
course focuses on the HOW not the WHAT, WHERE or WHY. These materials do not
help with the HOW. Save money and time and just read what you are supposed to
read! Regardless of the gossip and rumor you may have heard, students who did not do
well throughout the year in class DID NOT READ! What has worked for you in the past
may not be the formula for success next August. You must be willing to push yourself
outside of your comfort zones and be willing to stay motivated.”
Enjoy your summer and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me
via e-mail: sunnymorgan@yahoo.com or pugheh@ccps.k12.va.us. I look forward to
seeing you in August and hearing your thoughts on the book you chose. Happy reading!