OAK RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL CONROE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Transcription

1 OAK RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL CONROE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Dear Class of 2017, At Oak Ridge High School, we expect students who enroll in English IV to complete a summer reading assignment. Summer reading assignments provide several advantages for students, including maintaining skills over the summer, fostering independent learning, understanding course expectations, creating an initial common framework for discussion and study, supporting college-readiness standards, and promoting lifelong learning. You are scheduled to take English IV for the school year. For the summer of 2016, you should carefully read one of the following novels of your choice: Rot & Ruin (by Jonathan Maberry) The Princess Bride (by William Goldman) The Hobbit (by J.R.R. Tolkien) Unbroken (by Laura Hillenbrand) American Sniper (by Chris Kyle) Crispin at the Edge of the World (by Avi) Mists of Avalon (by Marion Zimmer Bradley) Sister Light/Sister Dark (by Jane Yolen) Catch 22 (by Joseph Heller) A Farewell to Arms (by Ernest Hemingway) Lone Survivor (by Marcus Luttrell) Things Fall Apart (by Chinua Achebe) The Golden Compass (by Phillip Pullman) Flint (bu Louis L Amour) The Last Black Wizard (by N. G. Curry) You will work to understand the text by completing a reading log. During the summer months, you should annotate your reading by writing comments and questions on your reading log or in your book. For these reasons, you will need to have a copy of the book for several months in order to complete all of the assignments. Please research the novel choices, and consider each one before deciding on your book. All students enrolled in English IV for the upcoming school year should read as well as have the annotations complete prior to the first day of school, August 24, Since there will be several assignments over the summer reading text during the first weeks of school, you should come to class prepared to discuss the text using your notes and personal observations on the first day of class. Thank you for your cooperation. We are looking forward to our adventure together as you complete your journey at Oak Ridge High School! Sincerely, The English IV Team

2 Novel Summaries (from goodreads.com) Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he's committed to flying, he's trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he's sane and therefore, ineligible to be relieved. The Princess Bride by William Goldman What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams? What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex. In short, it's about everything. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the war to end all wars. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded, and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway's description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteer, and the men and women he meets in Italy with total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a novel of war. In it, Hemingway has also created a love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. Written for J.R.R. Tolkien s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. Unforgettable!

3 Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson (Contributor) This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left-blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and still breathing. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers. Unbrokern (by Laura Hillenbrand) On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe THINGS FALL APART tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a strong man of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society. The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. American Sniper by Chris Kyle From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyle's kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-shaitan ( the devil ) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time. Adrenaline-charged and deeply personal, American Sniper is a thrilling eyewitness account of war that only one man could tell. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the alethiometer. All around her children are disappearing victims of so-called "Gobblers" and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

4 Crispin at the edge of the world by Avi The more I came to know of the world, the more I knew I knew it not. He was a nameless orphan, marked for death by his masters for an unknown crime. Discovering his name -- Crispin -- only intensified the mystery. Then Crispin met Bear, who helped him learn the secret of his full identity. And in Bear -- the enormous, red-bearded juggler, sometime spy, and everyday philosopher -- Crispin also found a new father and a new world. Now Crispin and Bear have set off to live their lives as free men. But they don't get far before their past catches up with them: To find freedom and safety, they may have to travel to the edge of the world -- even if it means confronting death itself. In this riveting sequel to the Newbery-Award winning Crispin: The Cross of Lead -- the second book in a planned trilogy -- Avi explores themes of war, religion, and family as he continues the adventures of Crispin and Bear. Flint - by Louis L Amour He left the West at the age of seventeen, leaving behind a rootless past and a bloody trail of violence. In the East he became one of the wealthiest financiers in America and one of the most feared and hated. Now, suffering from incurable cancer, he has come back to New Mexico to die alone. But when an allout range war erupts, Flint chooses to help Nancy Kerrigan, a local rancher. A cold-eyed speculator is setting up the land swindle of a lifetime, and Buckdun, a notorious assassin, is there to back his play. Flint alone can help Nancy save her ranch with his cash, his connections and his gun. He still has his legendary will to fight. All he needs is time, and that s fast running out. Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley A Literary Guild Featured Alternate Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come... The Last Black Wizard by N. G. Curry An attack by an unknown assailant outside Dark Hegel's Pub leaves Rachel Sazarin shaken and confused. The following day, she receives an envelope of bequeathed items from her grandmother's will, revealing a stunning family secret. A second violent confrontation with strangers at her home makes the secret impossible to escape and pulls her into a whirlwind of danger and adventure that changes her life forever. When she meets the dark and striking Lexir Cole, a powerful, treacherous, and emotionally unstable Black Wizard, he leads her through a perilous Realm where her presence threatens the existence of his world and everyone he loves. Sister Light/Sister Dark By Jane Yolen Raised on a mountainside, Jenna learned the arts of the warrior, and from the mountain women the magic of the ancient lore. But the greatest magic of all was her ability to call forth her dark sister from the depths of the mirror of the land of light and shadow. Skada was the dark one, able to exist only when the moonlight cast a shadow or lamplight flickered in a darkened room.

5 Date Chapter ORHS Senior Summer Reading Log Name Book Title Author Genre Summary/reflection of your reading: Talk about characters, the problem, interesting events, setting, predictions, questions you have, connections to your life, etc.

6 Date Chapter(s) Summary/reflection of your reading: Talk about characters, the problem, interesting events, setting, predictions, questions you have, connections to your life, etc.

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