Dear Incoming Senior,
Because summer reading is an effective way to maintain your reading and thinking skills, we want to give YOU the opportunity to excel
next school year with the aide of a few great novels. In addition to a “thinking” practice, this fun-filled assignment will develop your
reading comprehension and vocabulary as well as promoting intellectual growth. You will be exposed to other cultures and perspectives
and learn to discuss what you have read with others.
We have selected the following books for next year’s seniors to read before the beginning of school in August:
Required
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Choose one of the following
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Kindred by Octavia Butler
You will need to have your own copy of the books so that you may fully participate in class discussions. When you come to school in the
fall, your teacher will incorporate your summer reading novels into your senior class. We encourage you to read the books near the end of
the summer so they are fresh in your memory.
When you come to school in the fall, be prepared to be assessed by the 2nd class day. Your teacher will incorporate your summer reading
novels into your senior class through two major assignments:
Assignment #1: Reading Test on Choice Novel: During the first two weeks of school the student will take an objective test on either
Kindred or The Handmaid’s Tale. The student will also be required to participate in a small group discussion with others who have chosen
her same novel. This small group discussion will serve as “practice” for Assignment #2: The Socratic Seminar.
Assignment #2: The Socratic Seminar: During the first few weeks of school, all students will be required to participate in a large group
discussion called a Socratic Seminar about the required novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. In this discussion format, a group of students is
given an open ended-response question. The group then discusses the question together using support from the novel. Students will
receive participation points for their contributions to the discussion. Possible questions that may be discussed are listed below. As you
read A Thousand Splendid Suns, take notes on your responses to these questions:
1. The phrase “a thousand splendid suns,” from the poem by Saib-e-Tabrizi, is quoted twice in the novel – once as Laila’s family prepares to
leave Kabul, and again when she decides to return there from Pakistan. It is also echoed in one of the final lines: “Miriam is in Laila’s own
heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns.” Why do you think this phrase is important, and why is it quoted in
these sections?
2. Mariam’s mother tells her: “Women like us. We endure. It’s all we have.” How do these words affect Mariam, and how do they relate to
the larger themes of the novel?
3. By the time Laila is rescued from the rubble of her home by Rasheed and Mariam, Mariam’s marriage has become a miserable existence
of neglect and abuse. Yet when she realizes that Rasheed intends to marry Laila, she reacts with outrage. Why do you think this is?
4. Laila’s friendship with Mariam begins when she defends Mariam from a beating by Rasheed. Why does Laila do this despite the face
that Mariam has never been particularly kind towards her?
5. Growing up, Laila feels that her mother’s love is reserved for her two brothers. “People,” she decides, “shouldn’t be allowed to have new
children if they’d already given away all their love to their old ones.” What lessons from her childhood does Laila apply in raising her own
children?
6. At several points in the story, Mariam and Laila pass themselves off as mother and daughter. What is the symbolic importance of this?
In what ways is Mariam’s and Laila’s relationship with each other formed by their relationships with their own mothers?
7. One of the Taliban judges at Mariam’s trial tells her, “God has made us different, you women and us men. Our brains are different. You
are not able to think like we can. Western doctors and their science have proven this.” What is the irony in this statement? How is irony
employed throughout the novel?
8. Laila’s father tells her, “You’re a very, very bright girl. Truly you are. You can be anything that you want.” Consider Laila’s relationship
with her father. What aspects of his character does she inherit? In what ways is she different?
9. Mariam refuses to see visitors while she is imprisoned, and she calls no witnesses at her trial. Why does she make these decisions?
10. The driver who takes Babi, Laila, and Tariq to the giant stone Buddhas above the Bamiyan Valley describes the crumbling fortress of
Shahr-e-Zohak as “the story of our country, one invader after another… we’re like those walls up there. Battered, and nothing pretty to
look at, but still standing.” In what ways does their story reflect the larger story of Afghanistan’s troubled history?
11. Among other things, the Taliban forbid “writing books, watching films, and painting pictures.” Yet despite this edict, the film Titanic
becomes a sensation on the black market. Why would people risk the Taliban’s violent attacks for simple entertainment? What do the
Taliban’s restrictions on such material say about the power of artistic expression and the threat it poses to repressive political regimes?
12. While the first three parts of the novel are written in the past tense, the final part is written in present tense. What do you think was the
author’s intent in making this shift? How does it change the effect of this final section?
Taken from http://www.khaledhosseini.com/hosseini-books-splendidsuns.html
Each student is also encouraged to actively read her choice novel.
Active Reading Helpful Tips:
Taking notes not only will help you interact more closely with the text, but it will allow you to remember the novel when we discuss it in
August. It will be helpful if you have some notes to look back on to help you prepare.
Your notes could include the following:
1. Chapter summaries: On the last page of each chapter, write a 2-3 sentence summary of the main plot events for that chapter.
2. Character notes: As you read each chapter, you might underline/highlight any descriptions or details that provide information about
characters to help you remember important details about them.
3. Questions: As you read, write any questions you have in the margins.
Sincerely,
The Senior English Teachers
Required:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahaled 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 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.
Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable
chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heartwrenching novel of
an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love -- a stunning accomplishment.
Choose one of the following:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
In a startling departure from her previous novels ( Lady Oracle , Surfacing ), respected Canadian poet and novelist Atwood presents here a
fable of the near future. In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right Schlafly/Falwell-type ideals have been carried to
extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have
jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids,
who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. The tale is told by Offred (read: "of Fred"), a Handmaid who recalls the past and
tells how the chilling society came to be. -–amazon.com
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her
home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been
summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back again and again for Rufus, yet each time the stay grows longer and more dangerous until it is
uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has even begun.