G.W. Hewlett High School
English Department
Summer Reading 2010
11th Grade

11R: Select at least one of the following texts and read it/them, and be prepared for a discussion in English class on the first day of school in September.  Teacher guided discussion will take place before a subsequent writing assignment is given in class.

11H: Select one text from the list and see the additional sheet.

11AP:  See the separate sheet and complete the assignment, which is required for entrance to the course.

As You Like It  by William Shakespeare

Fire From Heaven  by Mary Renault

Alexander the Great died at the age of thirtythree, leaving behind an empire that stretched from Greece and Egypt to India and a new cosmopolitan model for western civilization.  In this stunning work of historical fiction, Mary Renault vividly imagines the world of this charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend.

Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee
When Jasmine is suddenly widowed at seventeen, she seems fated to a life a quiet isolation in the small Indian village where she was born.  But the force of Jasmine's desires propels her explosively into a larger, more dangerous, and ultimately more life-giving world.  In just a few years, Jasmine becomes Jane Ripplemeyer, happily prenant by a middle-aged Iowa banker and a adoptive mother of a Vietnamese refugee.

Just Don’t Fall  by Josh Sundquist
Josh Sundquist was an energetic and inquisitive nine-year-old when he was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a virulent cancer that eventually claimed his left leg. His extraordinary journey takes him from his small southern town--with his father, an aspiring pastor questioning his faith, and his mother, a rigidly conservative homeschool teacher--through a dizzying array of hospitals, on to high school, and then to the mountains, where Josh learns to ski. On the slopes, Josh's world bursts wide open and he finds within him the drive to become a champion skier, despite his disability. While he navigates the dramas of high school and an unstable home life, Josh keeps his eyes on the prize--the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, Italy. Just Don't Fall isn't just the story of a boy becoming a man, but of a champion realizing his greatest aspiration.

The Lovely Bones  by Alice Sebold
This is the tale of family, memory, love, and living told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon, who is already in heaven. Through the voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and builds out of her family's grief a hopeful and joyful story.

Nineteen Minutes  by Jodi Picoult
The daughter of a judge in a New Hampshire school shooting case witnessed the events, but cannot remember the last several minutes of the attack.

Say You’re One of Them  by Uwem Akpan

This collection of five stories set in various African countries reveals the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five is one of the world's great anti-war books.  Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

The Color of Water  by James McBride

As a boy in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects, James McBride knew his mother was different.  But when he asked it, she'd simply say, "I'm light-skinned." Later he wondered if he was different, too, and asked his mother if he was black or white.  "You're a human being," she snapped.  "Educate yourself aor you'll be a nobody!" And when James asked what color God was, she said, "God is the water ." ...As an adult, McBride finally persauded his mother to tell her story -- the story of a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist church, and put twelve children through college.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Aibileen is a black maid, raising her 17th white child, but with a bitter heart after the death of her son. Minny is the sassiest woman in Mississippi. Skeeter is a white woman with a degree but no ring on her finger. Seemingly as different as can be, these women will come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle  by David Wroblewski
A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.

Wolf Hall  by Hilary Mantel
Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price.

5/10