11^th Grade Advanced American Literature Summer Reading

            Choose one book from the list to read and complete an Independent Reading Project. Novels may contain sensitive content so please discuss options with parents or guardians before choosing an option. The IRP has two parts; literary techniques and Novel Analysis Outline. Projects will be due the first Friday of school starting back.

Realistic Fiction

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

After Justyce is handcuffed when simply trying to help his girlfriend in a parking lot, he begins

keeping a journal of sorts in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When a needless shooting takes thelife of someone close to him, Justyce questions whether Martin's visions of peace are possible.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

Miles Roby, called back from college to the small town of Empire Falls in Dexter County, Maine to take care of his ailing mother, falls into a rut that keeps him trapped until years later when a series of revelations and tragedies jolts him back into an awareness of his life.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Follows nine-year-old Oskar Schell as he encounters a number of interesting characters in his search for information about his father who died in the World Trade Center and tries to find the lock that fits the mysterious key his father had.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the

summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

This National Book Award Winner is a contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment. Grace was adopted at birth. After putting her own baby up for adoption, Grace goes looking for her biological family.

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

Carver never imagined the text he sent would lead to a deadly accident. Reeling from the deaths of this three friends, Carver finds himself shunned at school and facing a possible criminal investigation. When the grandmother of one of the boys who died invites Carver to spend a “goodbye day" with her and other friends, sharing memories and engaging in an activity the boy loved, Carver finds a measure of peace.

Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp

In his senior year, high school star linebacker Hampton Greene finally begins to think for himself and discovers that he might be interested in more than just football.

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.

Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports by Alden R. Carter

A collection of stories about high school students from one end of the social spectrum to the other.

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner

On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first Twin Tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows, covered in ash, and wearing a pair of costume wings. With his mother and sister in California, and unable to reach his father, a New York City detective likely on his way to the disaster, Kyle makes the split-second decision to bring the girl home. What follows is their story, told in alternating points of view, as Kyle tries to unravel the mystery of the girl so he can return her to her family.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

This richly evocative novel, narrated by an asthmatic 11-year-old named Reuben Land, is the story of Reuben's unusual family and their journey across the frozen Badlands of the Dakotas in search of his fugitive older brother. Charged with the murder of two locals who terrorized their family, Davy has fled, understanding that the scales of justice will not weigh in his favor. But Reuben, his father, Jeremiah—a man of faith so deep he has been known to produce miracles—and Reuben's little sister, Swede, follow closely behind the fleeing Davy.

Pinned by Alfred C. Martino

Dealing with family problems, girls, and their own competitive natures, high school seniors Ivan

Korske and Bobby Zane face each other in the final match of the New Jersey State Wrestling

Championship.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace. The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him.

Turtles all the Way Down by John Green

Aza Holmes, a high school student with obsessive-compulsive disorder, becomes focused on searching for a fugitive billionaire.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father,

seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will

Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage.

Historical Fiction

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

The story follows Hetty "Handful" Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid and follows the next thirty-five years of their lives.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Forced to leave England and struggling with illness in the wake of a family tragedy, Quaker Honor Bright is forced to rely on strangers in the harsh landscape of 1850 Ohio and is compelled to join the Underground Railroad network to help runaway slaves escape to freedom.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 6 Cora a slave on a cotton plantation and an outcast among her fellow African's, escapes her bondage in pursuit of freedom via the Underground Railroad alongside a fellow slave named Caesar. But the two are ferociously hunted after Cora kills a white boy who tries to capture her, and Cora runs from state to state, in a relentless fight for freedom.

IRP Directions

            As you read you will take notes on Literary Techniques used by the author. You will correctly identify 6 Literary Techniques and write 6 reading log entries (one paragraph per log entry) describing the examples of Literary Techniques you found while reading. Each paragraph should be between 150 and 300 words.

Within each paragraph, complete all of the following steps: 

1) Define the literary technique 

2) Provide an example (using a direct quote with an MLA citation) 

3) Background information of where & when the quote is taking place in the plot 

4) Explain in the quote how it is an example of the identified technique 

5) Explain why the author may have used this technique 

Rubric

 ______ Entire document & citations in MLA Format (25 pts)

______ 6 reading log entries (25 pts each/total of 150 pts)

              Each entry must …

• • • • Define the literary technique 
      • Provide at least 1 example (using a direct quote with an MLA citation) 
      • Give brief background information of where & when the quote is taking place in the plot 
      • Explain how the quote is an example of the identified technique 
      • Explain why the author may have used this technique 
      • Label the word count

______ Total (175 pts)

PARAGRAPH EXAMPLE FOR LITERARY TECHNIQUES

Dramatic irony is when a character is ignorant of something that is crucial to the story while the audience is aware. In the play, dramatic irony is used by the author to create tension and suspense especially in the scene where Oedipus has called on the blind prophet Teiresias in hopes of learning something about the killer of the former king. This tension and suspense happens when Teiresias says, “Let me go home; prevent me not; ‘twere best that thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine” (Sophocles 1147). In this quote, Teiresias begs to let things be and explains that Oedipus does not really want the burden of the truth. This is dramatic irony because the reader knows Teiresias sees that Oedipus is the killer he seeks; the reader has knowledge that Oedipus does not have yet. The author may have included this technique to create increasing tension in the reader as they wait to find out what will happen when and if Oedipus finds out what Teiresias already knows.  (171 words)

Novel Analysis Outline

As part of your IRP you must pick three (3) of the sections from below and complete them to be submitted with your essay.

I. First Reactions

A. Immediately after finishing the novel, write your reactions.

B. Try to relate the action or outcome of the story to your own life or reading experience.

1. Did you see yourself?

2. Did you learn a lesson?

3. Did you remember something from your past that you had forgotten?

4. Were you inspired? If so, how?

5. What did you learn that you didn’t know before?

II. Plot and Other Mechanics

A. Setting

1. Time, place, situation.

2. Actual geographic location (you may include a map here.)

3. Time period, history or season (as appropriate) in which the action takes place.

4. General environment of the characters (for example, the religious, mental, moral, social and/or economic conditions.)

B. Character List the major characters and include the following for each:

1. Conflicts (internal or external) that motivate and shape the character.

2. 2 or 3 words – key personality traits – that characterize each person (for example, ambitious, lonely, overprotected.)

C. Point of View. Which is used? (For example, first person objective/subjective, third person

omniscient/limited omniscient.)

D. Plot.

1. Summary VERY SHORT (50 words or less) plot line.

2. Identify where the major climax is, what conflict it solved, and the reactions of the people in the book to this solution.

3. List any parallel or recurring events you see.

4. Ending – purpose?

E. Opening. Summarize first few pages (beginning scene.) Is there a memorable opening line?

III. Commentary on Plot and Structure

A. What is the significance of the title to the work?

B. What effect is created by the opening pages?

C. For each character identify the following. What values do they hold? What purpose do they

have in the book? How does the society of the story influence each character?

D. Was the conclusion a satisfactory ending to the work? Why/ why not? If not, then how would

you have ended the work, and why?

E. How do each of the settings make the work more interesting?

F. Describe the society of the book (the fictional one created by the author.)

IV. Theme and Other Abstract Ideas

A. What are the major themes (short phrases for each) of the work

B. How is each of these themes portrayed in the work?

C. What are the moral and ethical problems explored in the story?

D. Archetypal themes or motif and patterns? Describe.

E. List 3 cause/effect relationships found in the story.

F. How does the author use imagery, symbolism, allusions, etc. to develop his themes?

V. Memorable Lines, Scenes

A. Write down any memorable lines from the book that you liked or that illustrated important

ideas in the work

B. Write a commentary for each set of lines in A. Why is each memorable and how does it

enhance the meaning of the work?

C. Paraphrase each quotation in A. Memorize two sets.

D. Find quotations that illustrate the author’s skill in establishing mood/tone, imagery,

symbolism, characterization.

VI. Style

A. Describe the author’s overall style and pick several examples that illustrate it.

B. How do the author’s diction, grammar, sentence structure, organization, point of view, detail,

syntax and irony enhance the meaning of the work and show his attitudes?

VIII. Personal Relevance of the Work to You (4 of these minimum.)

A. Write a different ending to the book. Tell why you changed it

B. Tell 5 ways in which the main character is like you.

C. How is this work relevant to our time?

D. Did this book remind you of anything that has happened to you? What?

E. Did this book give you any new ideas about yourself? What?

F. Write a letter to a friend recommending this book.

G. Tell about a time when something similar in the story happened to you or someone you know.

H. Pretend you are one of the characters in the book. Write a diary about the happenings in your

life covering one week.

I. What changes would have to be made if the book occurred 300 years ago?

J. What difference did it make to you (in your life) that you read this book? What do you think

you will remember about this book in the future?