AP Literature Summer Reading
Dear Students,
Congratulations on choosing AP Literature and Composition for your senior year! I am VERY
excited to work with each of you next year. One of the goals of AP Lit is to read….a lot. This
means that you need to get a head start over the summer. You will read two books and
complete a 3 ½ part assignment, due on the first day of class. Please do not hesitate to contact
me through e-chalk if you need help or have any questions. Everything will be posted on my
class page.
The Books
Book #1: How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading
Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster
This book is a funny and entertaining way to enter the mindset of a master literary analyst. This
book is available for purchase in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats. Used copies are
available for as little as $1.99 on Amazon.com. However, you can always borrow it from the
local library. I highly recommend that you read this book FIRST.
Book #2: Book of Choice. Choose any book from the attached list. You must choose a book that
you have NOT read before. Use the internet to look up summaries and reviews before choosing.
The Assignments
Assignment Part 0.5: Annotate both books as you read. You may do this in a wide variety of
ways, including using sticky notes if you are using a borrowed copy. However, I encourage you
to purchase your own copy so that you can underline, highlight, star, circle and write, write,
write- in the margins, in between the lines, on the blank pages, inside the cover, anywhere you
can find space.
Assignment Part 1: Two-Column Journal: For How to Read Literature Like a Professor, complete
a two-column journal. You should have at least 3 entries per chapter, INCLUDING the
introduction. Do this on lined paper or in a Word document. See attached instructions.
Assignment Part 2: Novel Note Cards: The AP Literature exam requires that you have extensive
knowledge of a wide variety of books that you may refer back to for the open-response essay.
One way to cement the details of a book in your mind is to record and organize them on note
cards. For this assignment, pretend that you have been asked to write the Spark Notes for your
book of choice; read the book carefully and use note cards to record and explain the book’s
significant details. See attached instructions.
Assignment Part 3: Application Essay: In a 500-750 word essay, explain how three of the
concepts/chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor apply to your book of choice.
Use (and cite) direct quotations from your novel to illustrate your points. You may choose to
structure this as a 5-paragraph essay, focusing each of the three body paragraphs on one
concept/chapter, but you do not have to follow that exact structure. Show me your best
writing.
Further Instructions: Assignment 1 (Two-Column Journal)
A two column journal is an easy way for you to record your thoughts about any text. Create two
columns on your paper with the following headings:
What the Text Says
What I Say
In the left column, record phrases, sentences, or longer passages from How to Read Literature
Like a Professor that strike you as important in some way. In the right column, write your
response to that passage. NUMBER your entries and provide PAGE NUMBERS for all passages in
the left column.
Responses might include:
o Why you think the passage is particularly important or insightful
o Questions you have about the passage (don’t be afraid of not understanding something:
ask questions!)
o Why you strongly agree with, strongly disagree with, or feel ambivalent about the truth
of the passage
o Examples that illustrate the point of the passage
Further Instructions: Assignment 2 (Novel Notecards)
For you book of choice, complete a set of novel note cards. You should use 3”X5” cards. I
cannot assign an absolute number of note cards to complete because each book will vary, but
at minimum your note cards must include the following:
o Context- Author’s name and country of origin, year of publication, any relevant
historical information
o Characters- 1 card per major character, with a description
o Setting(s)- 1 or more cards depending on how many major settings the novel utilizes
o Symbols- 1 card per major symbol, with an explanation of what it may mean
o Motifs- recurring images, words, or ideas that add meaning or significance to the text
o Plot- 1 card per major event or plot point; depending on the structure of your book, you
may wish to do one card per chapter with a VERY short summary of that chapter
o Conflicts- what conflicts, internal or external, drive the plot? 1 per card
o Point of View/Narrator Information- how is the story told? In first person? By multiple
characters? By an omniscient narrator?
o Important Quotations- choose 5 quotations that jump off the page as significant and
meaningful. Write the quotation on one side of the card and your explanation of why it
is important on the other side.
o Theme- 1 or more cards, depending on the complexity of your book. Themes are not
just the big ideas or topics of a book but statements of what the book has to say about
those ideas. For example, The Hunger Games is at least partially about the relationship
between government and citizens. That, however, is not a theme. It is a topic. A theme
of the book might be the statement: Totalitarian governments can destroy the spirits of
the people they rule. Or, you might say the theme is: Totalitarian governments may
control all external aspects of a society, but they cannot, in the end, control the spirits of
the people they rule.
The key to good note-taking is to be simultaneously CONCISE and THOROUGH. You will get
better at this as we go. Record exactly as much as you need to be able to remember and discuss
the details of your book accurately. Remember that all of your cards should EXPLAIN, not just
identify. You should always have something on the front of the card to identify what it is and
your explanation on the back of the card.
Book of Choice List
Rudolfo Anaya- Bless Me, Ultima
Margaret Atwood- The Handmaid’s Tale
Jane Austen- Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice
James Baldwin- Go Tell it on the Mountain
Charlotte Bronte- Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte- Wuthering Heights
Albert Camus – The Fall
Kate Chopin- The Awakening
Daniel Defoe- Robinson Crusoe; Moll Flanders
Charles Dickens- Great Expectations; A Tale of Two Cities
Fyodor Dostoevsky- Crime and Punishment
George Eliot- Silas Marner
William Faulkner- The Sound and the Fury
Thomas Hardy- Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Ernest Hemingway- A Farewell to Arms
Zora Neale Hurston- Their Eyes Were Watching God
James Joyce- The Dead
Gabriel Garcia Marquez- A Thousand Years of Solitude
Aldous Huxley- Brave New World
Herman Melville- Moby Dick; Billy Budd
Toni Morrison- Beloved; The Bluest Eye
John Steinbeck- The Grapes of Wrath
Leo Tolstoy- War and Peace
Voltaire- Candide
Jonathan Swift- Gulliver’s Travels
Richard Wright- Native Son