Summer Reading

Okeechobee High School 2022-23 Summer Reading List for English II Honors (NOT AP Prep.) 

For students entering English II Honors (DUAL ENROLLMENT TRACK):

Students are to read one of the selections listed below, and it must be completed BEFORE the first day of their sophomore year. Students will complete a project/test on their selection within the first week of school. If you have any questions over the summer, contact Mr. Sanders at sandersp@okee.k12.fl.us.

AP Language and Composition Summer Reading
Contact: makayla.davis@okee.k12.fl.us

Welcome to AP Language and Composition! As a part of this course, students will be required to read one selection and complete an essay based on a prompt relating to one of this summer’s selections. The significance of these assignments is simple; reading over the summer keeps the students’ minds active and engaged, preparing them to come into the class next year prepared for literary analysis. Students will need to choose one of the following selections to add to the student’s repertoire of literary knowledge, increasing their awareness and understanding of major literary works - a skill that will benefit them for the AP Language Exam and future AP English courses. The selections students are to choose from, are as follows:

? The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
? The Handmaid's Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was the United States. Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state and is faced with environmental disasters and a plummeting birth rate.

? A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
? The epic story of three generations of Afghan women and their remarkable resilience, A Thousand Splendid Suns is set in the war-torn neighborhoods of 1990s Kabul. When battle upends her family, beautiful Laila must seek shelter, first in the home and then in the arms of her older neighbor.

? The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
? Life of Pi is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry who explores issues of spirituality and metaphysics from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger which raises questions about the nature of reality and how it is perceived and told.

? Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
? A memoir by David Sheff describes how his family dealt with his son Nic's methamphetamine addiction.

*While offered as a high school course, AP Language and Composition is a college-level course and students will encounter novels that contain mature content. The choices above feature violence, sexual abuse, sexual assault, terrorism, objectification, substance abuse, addiction, and mature language, among other things. (Please research the titles thoroughly before making your choice to avoid conflict.) Students are expected to handle these subjects in a mature manner and treat the topics in a scholarly manner.

Below is the Summer essay assignment that goes along with the reading of one of the above novels:
Choose one societal issue that occurs in the novel of your choice. Create a defensible thesis based on this topic. A defensible thesis is something that can be argued! Using evidence from your novel and commentary to link this evidence to your thesis in your own words, write a well-developed essay in which you take a position, use at least three pieces of evidence from the novel to support this, and tie all of your paragraphs together at the end to reach a conclusion! These will be due by the end of the first week of class next year! They should be in MLA format - 12 point, Times New Roman font, double-spaced. Be sure to cite your novel in MLA format at the end of your essay under the title of “Works Cited”. Here’s an example of how to do so:
? Collins, Madeline. Circe. Little Brown and Company, 2018.

Pre-AP Summer Reading
Contact: makayla.davis@okee.k12.fl.us

As a field of study, literature relies on the ability to draw on the reader’s knowledge of the world and its history. For this reason, many texts will make references to ancient mythologies in what is called an allusion. Allusions are stylistic devices used to add context or meaning through references to a well-known person, place, event, or literary work. In this class, we will discuss mythological allusions within the first quarter.

For this reason, for the summer reading, you will be required to read a novel by Madeline Miller, who has an MA in classics from Brown University. Here is some analysis from Anna Carrey from the Irish Times:

“Miller draws on a wide range of ancient Greek and Latin sources to tell Circe’s story. The novel is episodic like its classical source material, but this structure perfectly conveys one of the novel’s central themes. Circe is immortal, which means that any relationships she may form with humans, from Daedalus to Odysseus, can only be temporary.

The daughter of a sea nymph and the Titan sun god Helios, Circe begins her life in the halls of her father. When she was born, she tells us, “the name for what I was did not exist”. Is she a nymph? A goddess? The truth, as it turns out, is something entirely new. Despised by her divine family, Circe discovers her powers of sorcery when she turns a human fisherman into a god. When he spurns her for another nymph, Scylla, Circe transforms her rival into a horrific sea monster who becomes the scourge of all sailors – an act that will haunt Circe for the rest of her life.”

Summer Read Book:
Collins, Madeline. Circe. Little Brown and Company, 2018.

Summer Essay:
Based on your reading of Miller’s novel Circe, respond to the following prompt in a 500 word essay:

? A central theme of Homer’s Odyssey is a longing for “nostos” - homecoming. In what ways does that theme resonate with Circe’s story?