2015 Upper School English IV Summer Reading & Assignments

July 2015:

Dear 12th Grade (English IV) Students and Families:

Welcome to BLSYW Upper School English IV ! This summer, 12th graders in English IV are required read two books: one fiction and one non-fiction. Please see the REQUIRED books on the following pages with their corresponding English IV assignments. All assignments are due on Friday, September 4, 2015. Late assignments will not be accepted. For further questions or guidance, please contact Ms. Champion, English Teacher at CLChampion@bcps.k12.md.us.

Assignment Checklist

Use the assignment checklist below to help you track your progress as you go along:

Assignment Finished Reading Book

Finished Writing Assignment

Task

Assignment 1:

Essay on Assigned Novel:

The God of Small Things OR

Atonement

⃞ ⃞ 4-Page, typed, double-spaced essay that

analyzes the conflict between a character and

his or her family/ society.

Assignment 2:

Interview with

character from

Non-Fiction

Book:

Night OR

A Long Way

Gone: Memoirs

of a Boy

Soldier

⃞ ⃞ 3-Page, typed, double-spaced, short Story that

takes place in the same setting as the book.

Part #I: Required Fiction Reading

Fiction Choices: Choose one of the two novels listed below.

Novel #1: The God of Small Things

By Arundhati Roy

OR

Novel #2: Atonement

by Ian McEwan

On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a

moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the

son of a servant and Cecilia’s childhood friend. But Briony’s incomplete grasp

of adult motives brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As the

novel follows that crime’s repercussions through the chaos and carnage of

World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages

the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it

as a genuine masterpiece.

Ian McEwan’s symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt

and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the

provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.

Equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing

political drama, The God of Small Things is the story of an affluent

Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969. The seven-

year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by

the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will

lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing

“big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward

unrest. Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an

award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career

of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.

Part #I: Required Fiction Assignment

After reading either The God of Small Things or Atonement, respond to the following essay prompt:

In both novels, conflicts arise as a result of a character’s experience with forbidden love. After reading one of

these two novels, write a 4 page typed essay about the novel in which you choose a character and analyze

how his/her family and society conflict with his/her decision to love. Describe the conflict in full, and also

analyze how this conflict shapes or changes the characters involved.

You may structure this essay however you like, but it must meet the following requirements:

• Essay must be typed and double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman Font with 1-inch margins.

• Essay must be at least 4 pages long.

• Essay must include an introduction paragraph, a conclusion paragraph, and a minimum of four body paragraphs. (Make sure to indent the beginning of each paragraph.)

• Each paragraph must be 6-8 sentences long.

• Essay must cite and explain at least 4 quotes from the text to support your claims and

observations. (That’s about 1 quote per body paragraph.)

• Essay must maintain a formal style and tone with minimal errors in spelling and grammar.

Part #II: Required Non-Fiction Reading

Non-Fiction Choices: Choose one of the two non-fiction books below.

Non-Fiction #1: Night

by Elie Wiesel

OR

Non-Fiction #2: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

by Ismael Beah

Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German

concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the

Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of

sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own

increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child

relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his

resentful teenage caregiver.

Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and

rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of

the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of

what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer?

How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists

have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-

person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at

the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered

unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government

army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible

acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and

heartbreaking honesty.

Part #II: Required Non-Fiction Assignment

After reading either Night or A Long Way Home, complete the following assignment:

Write a short story by creating a fictional character who lives in the same setting as the book you’ve

chosen. Create a plot in which your fictional character interacts with the main character of the book, and

use narrative techniques such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection to develop experiences,

events, and characters.

You may structure your story however you like, but it must meet the following requirements:

• Story must be typed and double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins.

• Story must be at least 3 pages long.

• Story must have a minimum of six paragraphs. (Make sure to indent the beginning of each

paragraph.)

• Story must make specific references to at least 3 different events from the book.

• Story must contain an interaction with the main character of the book.

• Story must be proofread and have minimal errors in spelling and grammar.