1. Take notes in a notebook dedicated for summer reading.
2. Write several sentences about the different features of the books you chose to read. Also keep a list of other books and magazines and newspapers that you read over the summer vacation -- What are your reading habits?
3. Consider reading all titles on the list.
1. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Marie Remarque
2. Animal Farm, George Orwell
Map of the Animal Farm
Animal Farm (1945) - satirical allegory directed against Stalin's Russia. Led by the pigs, the Animals on Mr Jones's farm revolt against their human masters. After their victory they decide to run the farm themselves on egalitarian principles. The pigs become corrupted by power and a new tyranny is established under Napoleon (Stalin). Snowball (Trotsky), an idealist, is driven out. The final betrayal is made when the pigs engineer a rapproachement with Mr Jones. The book was originally rejected for publication by T.S. Eliot in 1944, but has gained since its appearance in 1945 a status of a classic. - Film adaptation from 1955 was a faithful rendition of Orwell's original work, but watered in the end the satire, and presented a socialist viewpoint: the system is good, but the individuals are corruptible.
3. Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
Discovery channel online notes - look at discussion questions, vocabulary
4. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
online notes - questions, vocabulary
Herman Melville homepage
5. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
6. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
7. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
8. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austin
9. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
notes on Steinbeck
notes on Grapes of Wrath
links to more information about Steinbeck
10. Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
text online
11. Great Tales and Poems, Edgar Allen Poe
Poe's poems
12. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Biography of Aldous Huxley (Learn about his life from this site from Finland)
13. The Jungle (required for Social Studies),Upton Sinclair
online text
Read The Jungle and Four (4) other books from the list.
Time Out for a Little Math? Math Tutorials and Practice
http://www.homeworkcentral.com/Top8/highschool1.htp?sectionid=11646
Divided into practice problems & exercises and games & puzzles, this showcase Homework Central section provides a summer's worth of math skill drills, using the latest interactive techniques. There is simple practice for beginners, and much more.
1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Read online text of Mark Twain's classic story of boyhood in the American South.
online notes about Huck Finn
Mark Twain's masterpiece is a picaresque romp, a series of outlandish episodes involving the boy who would become literature's favorite runaway. Yet it also grapples with one of the most powerful themes in our nation's history-slavery.
2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
3. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
4. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
online notes about the story - see questions, vocabulary
Part fairy tale and part horror story, Great Expectations is a harsh tableau of London's stratified Victorian society. We follow the life of the boy called Pip, whose dreams begin to unravel as he learns the true cost of becoming a "gentleman." Dickens was one of the few of his time who grew up in poverty and achieved wealth and status, Dickens possessed a unique perspective that helped him give depth to his characters.
5. Julie of the Wolves, Jean C. George
6. The Yearling, Marjorie Rawlings
7. Old Yeller, Fred Gipson
8. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
9. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Notes about the story
National Portrait exhibit of Hemingway
Picturing Hemingway
10. The Pearl, Steinbeck
online notes on Steinbeck
links to more information about Steinbeck
Read THREE (3) books from this list.
Keep notes in a notebook dedicated to summer reading.
Features to write about in your summer reading notebook
CHARACTERS: characters are the people in the story.
What to write about in your notebook:
1. Identify your favorite or least favorite character.
2. How does a main character change as the story moves along?
3. Why is a character believable or unbelievable?
4. Can you identify a protagonist and an antagonist in the story?
SETTING: setting of a story is the time and place of the action.
What to write about in your notebook:
1. How does the setting play an important part in what happens to the characters in the story?
2. Tell why you would (or would not) like to live at the time and place of the story.
3. How well is the setting described?
4. Does the author use vivid language to create imagery? (cite examples from the text)
PLOT: the plot is the order of incidents in a story.
It is often centered on a conflict that builds up to a high point, or a climax.
What to write about in your notebook:
1. Which incident is the most memorable in the book?
2. How interesting is the plot?
3. Does the action in the story move along in a logical way?
4. Are there any complicating incidents that interfere with a quick resolution of the conflict?
5. How does the author create suspense in an incident?
6. Can you identify the techniques the author uses to create imaginative sentences?
THEME: A theme is a central idea or general truth about life.
It is the meaning, or point, of the story.
What to write about in your notebook:
1. Something important that a character learns about himself or herself through the events in the story.
2. How the book has changed your mind about something or made you see something in a new way.
3. Why you agree or disagree with the view of life expressed by the story.
EVALUATION: Give reasons for your opinion of the book.
Make sure your opinion is based on the strengths or weaknesses of the book itself.
Did the story seem realistic, was the action believable, characters confusing?
POINT OF VIEW: From whose perspective is the story being told?
(1st person, 3rd person?)
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT:
Always copy new words and their definitions into your notebook. Keep a good dictionary and thesaurus by your side.
More Suggestions for reporting about Summer Reading
1. Give the title, author and type of book (for example - mystery, biography, adventure, novel).
2. Take notes as you read. List and identify characters, outline the plot, state the setting and include a brief summary of the entire story in your notes.
3. Find out about the author(biographical information).
4. Record direct quotations from the book (note chapter and page) that are significant to the story.
5. Consistently use the present or the past tense to describe the story.
6. Arrange your ideas in a logical order.
I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I write and I understand.
Chinese Proverb
TEACHER HAS GONE FISHING 'TIL SEPTEMBER