Dear Parents, The English teachers at Grace Christian School are committed to continuing the reading program for our students. We believe this emphasis is important in preparation for life in general and specifically for success in high school, pre-college testing, and college itself. In the next week or so, the summer reading lists can be accessed from our website - www.gcswarriors.org - under Academics Summer Reading Lists. Students will read classical literature throughout the year. These books were specifically selected to coincide with some of their other disciplines such as history, geography, and vocabulary. In order to continue our emphasis on reading, a summer reading list with a variety of books to choose from is attached. The summer reading assignment will count as a test grade in the first quarter of the following school year. All summer reading books must not have been read prior to the summer. Students must be sure they ve acquired the original, complete versions of their chosen novels; the English department will not accept abridged or condensed versions. To receive an A on this assignment, the student must read 3 books chosen from the attached list; to receive a B, 2 books; for a C, 1 book. **See requirements for English 10 and AP English on attached list. AP English students need to print out the attached Essay Prompts for their summer reading. In addition, students taking AP U.S. History (11 th and 12th grade) will also have an additional book to read for this class. A parent and the student will need to sign the statement below and return to the English teacher by the end of the first week of school. Please contact me if you have any questions. In His Service, Jason Bailey ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have read in full the following book(s) this summer. 1. 2. 3. 4. Student s Signature Parent s Signature Date
Summer Reading List for Rising 9 th Graders To earn a C read one (1) book; to earn a B read two (2) books; to earn an A read three (3) books. Safely Home, Alcorn Pilgrim s Progress, Bunyan The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper Siberian Miracle, de Bruijne Oliver Twist, Dickens The Robe, Douglas (counts as 2 books) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas (counts as 2 books) The Three Musketeers, Dumas (counts as 2 books) The Man in the Iron Mask, Dumas A Chance to Die, Elliot Passion and Purity, Elliot Rifles for Watie, Keith Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis Perelandra, Lewis That Hideous Strength, Lewis Christy, Marshall Gone With the Wind, Mitchell (counts as 2 books) Metamorphosis, Ovid Dr. Sa eed of Iran, Rasooli and Allen A Midsummer Night s Dream, Shakespeare Antigone, Sophocles The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien (any 3 in the series) Around the World in Eighty Days, Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Verne El Dorado, von Orczy
Summer Reading List for Rising 10 th graders Required reading: The Odyssey, by Homer* (must be the Fitzgerald translation), and any other 2 books on the list. To earn a C read The Odyssey To earn a B The Odyssey and one additional book To earn an A The Odyssey and 2 additional books. Emma, Austen Sense and Sensibility, Austen George Mueller (He Dared to Trust God for the Needs of Countless Orphans), Bailey The Good Earth, Buck David Copperfield, Dickens Great Expectations, Dickens Silas Marner, Eliot The Iliad, Homer (must be in verse and full-length) The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo Mere Christianity, Lewis The Screwtape Letters, Lewis Ivanhoe, Scott Julius Caesar, Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Shakespeare Henry V, Shakespeare Pygmalion, Shaw Jim Elliot, White The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde Tortured for His Faith, Popov *The rising10 th graders received their copies of The Odyssey at the end of their 9 th grade year; new students can obtain a copy from the high school office.)
Summer Reading List for Rising 11 th and 12 th Graders British Literature: Regular To earn a C read one (1) of the following books; to earn a B read two (2) books; to earn an A read three (3) books. Wuthering Heights, Bronte Villette, Bronte Bullfinch s Mythology, Bullfinch (counts as 2 books) Don Quixote, Cervantes (counts as 2 books) The Amazing Adventures of Father Brown, Chesterton Heart of Darkness, Conrad The Divine Comedy, Dante (counts as 2 books) A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens Bleak House, Dickens Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky (counts as 2 books) The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky Adam Beade, Eliot Middlemarch, Eliot Foxe s Book of Martyrs, Foxe The Return of the Native, Hardy Les Miserables, Hugo (counts as 2 books) Dubliners, Joyce Till We Have Faces, Lewis The Abolition of Man, Lewis The Great Divorce, Lewis The Communist Manifesto, Marx Paradise Lost, Milton Sovereignty of God, Pink Othello, Shakespeare Hamlet, Shakespeare As You Like It, Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare St. Joan, Shaw The Faerie Queen, Spencer Confessions, St. Augustine (counts as 2 books) Gullivers Travels, Swift (counts as 2 books) War and Peace, Tolstoy (counts as 3 books)
Summer Reading List for Rising 11 th and 12 th Graders British Literature: AP AP students are required to read Beowulf (Seamus Heaney s bilingual text) and Hamlet (Shakespeare) and write an essay on each book (essay options attached). To earn a C, read both required books (essays graded separately). To earn a B, read both required books, and read one (1) book from the following list (essays graded separately). To earn an A, read both required books, and read two (2) books from the following list (essays graded separately). Jane Eyre, Bronte Villete, Bronte Bullfinch s Mythology, Bullfinch (counts as 2 books) Don Quixote, Cervantes (counts as 2 books) The Amazing Adventures of Father Brown, Chesterton Orthodoxy, Chesterton The Divine Comedy, Dante (counts as 2 books) Bleak House, Dickens Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky (counts as 2 books) The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky Adam Beade, Eliot Middlemarch, Eliot Foxe s Book of Martyrs, Foxe The Return of the Native, Hardy Les Miserables, Hugo (counts as 2 books) Dubliners, Joyce The Abolition of Man, Lewis The Great Divorce, Lewis The Screwtape Letters, Lewis The Communist Manifesto, Marx Paradise Lost, Milton Sovereignty of God, Pink As You Like It, Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare Macbeth, Shakespeare Othello, Shakespeare St. Joan, Shaw Frankenstein, Shelley The Faerie Queen, Spencer Gulliver s Travels, Swift (counts as 2 books) War and Peace, Tolstoy (counts as 3 books)
AP British Literature: summer reading assignment Two of the four books you must read this summer are Shakespeare s Hamlet and Seamus Heaney s* translation of Beowulf. You must write an essay on each, choosing from one of the following prompts. The essays must follow the following MLA guidelines: Typed, 12 point, Times New Roman font Double spaced 1-2 pages Proofread! (I expect your paper to have minimal mechanical errors). Have a clear thesis, body, and conclusion. Use quoted textual evidence to support your points; include citations. Beowulf: 1. Is Beowulf a pagan or a Christian text? 2. Explore the role of heroism in Beowulf s culture. 3. Examine the role of revenge and feuds in the Anglo-Saxon culture as shown in Beowulf. Hamlet: 1. Explore how Shakespeare uses the classical tragic plot structure (protagonist with a tragic flaw, traditionally resolves through the death of the protagonist, etc.) in Hamlet. 2. Compare and contrast Hamlet and Laertes characters as foils. 3. Explore the portrayal of fathers in Hamlet. *Please be sure your copy of Beowulf is Seamus Heaney s translation (the bilingual edition, ISBN# 0393320979)