1. Required Summer Reading and Writing
Humanities 10 – English and History
Summer 2012
On this page you will find the information about the required summer reading and assignments for the 10th grade.
Please buy the required books and have the required reading and work done by the time school begins.
Tenth Grade Humanities History and English:
For both the English and History portions of Humanities 10, you are to read Poisonwood Bible by Barbara
Kingsolver. Try to get the normal paperback edition, not the smaller "mass market" edition—it will be easier for
us to stay on the same page in class that way. Please obtain a copy with no previous markings or annotations on it.
It must be hard copy; an e-book reader copy will not be permitted.
Your assignment is to carefully read and annotate the text of the novel. When you return in August, you will
take an objective test over the novel (you will also discuss and write about it), and your annotations will prepare
you for these assessments.
Your annotations need to represent your interaction with and interpretation of the novel. Here are some
guidelines:
• Actively read, underline, and highlight the text.
• Respond to the author and to the characters.
• Identify important literary devices such as diction, symbol, imagery, and metaphor.
• Evaluate the different points of view that Kingsolver employs.
• Ask questions about the text. What statements does the author make through her characters? What is
important about the setting and historical context of the novel? What is important about gender,
identity, and culture?
• Develop a system for your annotations that fits your personal preferences. For instance, you may want
to highlight important passages about character, star important details, circle key words, underline
important literary devices, etc.
• Use post-it notes for longer observations.
Please bring your novel with you on the first day of class and be prepared to show your annotations and
post-it notes.
In addition, identify five key passages that you found significant to the work as a whole. Be prepared to
share the passages you selected and explain why you think they are particularly relevant.
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The following is a list of suggested (optional) summer reading:
Fiction Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice George Orwell, 1984
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre Jean Rhys, Wide Saragasso Sea
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea Stories
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Roddy Doyle, The Commitments Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Dave Eggers, What Is the What
E.M. Forster, Room with a View Drama
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa
Cholera William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and
Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day Guildenstern are Dead
James Joyce, Dubliners Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies