Summer Reading for Incoming Seniors

Summer Reading Book Assignments

for Incoming 12^th Graders

Hull High School is committed to preparing all students for success in college and career.  We believe that strategic reading is an essential skill for all students, and one that must be practiced in order to be improved on.  Research shows that “summer reading programs can be effective in lessening summer learning loss and increasing reading achievement” (www.cslpreads.org).  To that end, all HHS students are required to read over the summer in preparation of the upcoming school year. 

** Honors students will be required to read two books: the primary text and one choice from the secondary choice list.

** College Prep students will be required to read the primary text.  CP students also have the option to read one choice from the secondary choice list for extra credit.

Incoming 12^th Grade – “World Perspectives: Beyond the Rotary”

Required primary text: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

                --Goodreads.com

Assignment:

College Prep students must read the required text assigned for their grade.  Honors students must read both the required text and one choice from the secondary text list below.  While reading, students will take notes in two-column note format (template is attached).  Notes will be collected on the first day of school and will be used for an in-class writing assessment during the first week of school.

College Prep students may choose to read a text from the secondary list below to receive extra credit.  If the extra credit option is chosen, students should also fill out the set of two-column notes for the secondary text.

Secondary text choices:

Kitchen God’s Wife – Amy Tan

Girl in Translation – Jean Kwok

All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

The Alchemist -  Paulo Coelho

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 12 Summer Reading Notes

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman                                              

 Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe the use of repetition within the text.	What is the purpose of this repetition?
Describe the details and imagery within the text.	What is the purpose of the details and imagery
Describe the speaker’s point of view.	What is your reaction to the speaker’s point of view?
Describe the tone of the text.	What is your reaction to the tone of this excerpt?
Identify one theme of the text and provide evidence showing that theme.	Describe how the author’s tone contributes to theme.
Identify and provide examples of four other literary devices used in the novel.  1.	2.
3.	4.

 

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 12 Summer Reading Notes

Secondary Text (Required for Honors / Extra Credit for CP)                            

 Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe the use of repetition within the text.	What is the purpose of this repetition?
Describe the details and imagery within the text.	What is the purpose of the details and imagery
Describe the speaker’s point of view.	What is your reaction to the speaker’s point of view?
Describe the tone of the text.	What is your reaction to the tone of this excerpt?
Identify one theme of the text and provide evidence showing that theme.	Describe how the author’s tone contributes to theme.
Identify and provide examples of four other literary devices used in the novel.  1.	2.
3.	4.

Summer Reading for Incoming Juniors

Summer Reading Book Assignments

for Incoming 11^th Graders

Hull High School is committed to preparing all students for success in college and career.  We believe that strategic reading is an essential skill for all students, and one that must be practiced in order to be improved on.  Research shows that “summer reading programs can be effective in lessening summer learning loss and increasing reading achievement” (www.cslpreads.org).  To that end, all HHS students are required to read over the summer in preparation of the upcoming school year. 

** Honors students will be required to read two books: the primary text and one choice from the secondary choice list.

** College Prep students will be required to read the primary text.  CP students also have the option to read one choice from the secondary choice list for extra credit.

Incoming 11^th Grade – “The American Experience”

Required primary text: Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.

Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.

The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.                --Goodreads.com

Assignment:

College Prep students must read the required text assigned for their grade.  Honors students must read both the required text and one choice from the secondary text list below.  While reading, students will take notes in two-column note format (template is attached).  Notes will be collected on the first day of school and will be used for an in-class writing assessment during the first week of school.

College Prep students may choose to read a text from the secondary list below to receive extra credit.  If the extra credit option is chosen, students should also fill out the set of two-column notes for the secondary text.

Secondary text choices:

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot

Zeitoun – Dave Eggers

Devil in the White City -  Erik Larsen

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 11 Summer Reading Notes

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline                                                    

 Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe the protagonist’s psychological or moral development throughout the novel.	Reactions to this character’s development throughout the novel.
Describe the protagonist’s understanding of his/her place in the world.	Reactions to this character’s understanding or even revelation.
Describe a scenario or pivotal moment that causes the protagonist to develop either psychologically or morally.	Reactions to this scenario or pivotal moment.
Describe the outcome of the novel based on this character’s change in point of view.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s change in point of view.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the scenario or pivotal moment.	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the novel that highlights a shift in the protagonist’s point of view due to the aforementioned pivotal moment.	Reactions to this character’s shift in point of view.

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 11 Summer Reading Notes

Secondary Text (Required for Honors / Extra Credit for CP)                                        

 Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe the protagonist’s psychological or moral development throughout the novel.	Reactions to this character’s development throughout the novel.
Describe the protagonist’s understanding of his/her place in the world.	Reactions to this character’s understanding or even revelation.
Describe a scenario or pivotal moment that causes the protagonist to develop either psychologically or morally.	Reactions to this scenario or pivotal moment.
Describe the outcome of the novel based on this character’s change in point of view.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s change in point of view.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the scenario or pivotal moment.	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the novel that highlights a shift in the protagonist’s point of view due to the aforementioned pivotal moment.	Reactions to this character’s shift in point of view.

Summer Reading for Incoming Sophomores

Summer Reading Book Assignments

for Incoming 10^th Graders

Hull High School is committed to preparing all students for success in college and career.  We believe that strategic reading is an essential skill for all students, and one that must be practiced in order to be improved on.  Research shows that “summer reading programs can be effective in lessening summer learning loss and increasing reading achievement” (www.cslpreads.org).  To that end, all HHS students are required to read over the summer in preparation of the upcoming school year. 

** Honors students will be required to read two books: the primary text and one choice from the secondary choice list.

** College Prep students will be required to read the primary text.  CP students also have the option to read one choice from the secondary choice list for extra credit.

Incoming 10^th Grade – “The Hero’s Journey”

Required primary text: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favorite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally.                           

--Goodreads.com

Assignment:

College Prep students must read the required text assigned for their grade.  Honors students must read both the required text and one choice from the secondary text list below.  While reading, students will take notes in two-column note format (template is attached).  Notes will be collected on the first day of school and will be used for an in-class writing assessment during the first week of school.

College Prep students may choose to read a text from the secondary list below to receive extra credit.  If the extra credit option is chosen, students should also fill out the set of two-column notes for the secondary text.

Secondary text choices:

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban -  Malala Yousafzai

Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman – Jon Krakauer

Monster -  Walter Dean Myers

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian – Sherman Alexie

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 10 Summer Reading Notes

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe a character who learns an important truth.	Reactions to this character’s important truth.
Describe the important truth and its importance within the novel.	Reactions to the truth’s importance within the novel.
How does the character persevere and uncover this important truth?	Reactions to the character’s perseverance and the important truth he/she uncovers?
Describe the outcome in the novel based on this character’s realization of an important truth.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s realization of an important truth.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the character’s perseverance and realization of an important truth. .	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the lesson and outcome of this realization.	Reactions to this specific evidence.

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 10 Summer Reading Notes

Secondary Text (Required for Honors / Extra Credit for CP)  

Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe a character who learns an important truth.	Reactions to this character’s important truth.
Describe the important truth and its importance within the novel.	Reactions to the truth’s importance within the novel.
How does the character persevere and uncover this important truth?	Reactions to the character’s perseverance and the important truth he/she uncovers?
Describe the outcome in the novel based on this character’s realization of an important truth.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s realization of an important truth.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the character’s perseverance and realization of an important truth. .	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the lesson and outcome of this realization.	Reactions to this specific evidence.

Summer Reading for Incoming Freshman

Summer Reading Book Assignments

for Incoming 9^th Graders

Hull High School is committed to preparing all students for success in college and career.  We believe that strategic reading is an essential skill for all students, and one that must be practiced in order to be improved on.  Research shows that “summer reading programs can be effective in lessening summer learning loss and increasing reading achievement” (www.cslpreads.org).  To that end, all HHS students are required to read over the summer in preparation of the upcoming school year. 

** Honors students will be required to read two books: the primary text and one choice from the secondary choice list.

** College Prep students will be required to read the primary text.  CP students also have the option to read one choice from the secondary choice list for extra credit.

Incoming 9^th Grade – “Overcoming Obstacles”

Required primary text: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

                --Goodreads.com

Assignment:

College Prep students must read the required text assigned for their grade.  Honors students must read both the required text and one choice from the secondary text list below.  While reading, students will take notes in two-column note format (template is attached).  Notes will be collected on the first day of school and will be used for an in-class writing assessment during the first week of school.

College Prep students may choose to read a text from the secondary list below to receive extra credit.  If the extra credit option is chosen, students should also fill out the set of two-column notes for the secondary text.

Secondary text choices:

Thirteen Reasons Why -  Jay Asher

Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson

Keep Quiet – Lisa Scottoline

The Book of Lost Things – John Connolly

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 9 Summer Reading Notes

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls                                              

 Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe a character who deals with conflict.	Reactions to this character’s conflict.
Describe the type of conflict the character deals with. (internal, external, both)	Reactions to this character’s type of conflict.
Describe the repercussions (consequences) associated with the character’s conflict.	Reactions to the repercussions (consequences).
Describe the outcome in the novel based on this character’s conflict.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s conflict.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the conflict.	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the repercussions (consequences) of the character’s conflict.	Reactions to this specific evidence.

Name__________________________________________              Date____________________

Grade 9 Summer Reading Notes

Secondary Text (Required for Honors / Extra Credit for CP)                                                    

 Note taking on the summer reading will help you do the following:

●     become intimately familiar with the content of the source

●     modify your own thoughts on the topic

●     create a shortened version of the source material suitable for study

●     personalize the information provided in the source by making personal connections; Record your thinking about the content – don’t just copy

●     practice note-taking in preparation for note-taking during lectures and presentations as well as during research in all subjects

●     practice using abbreviations that allow you to record ideas efficiently

Task:	Reactions:
Describe a character who deals with conflict.	Reactions to this character’s conflict.
Describe the type of conflict the character deals with. (internal, external, both)	Reactions to this character’s type of conflict.
Describe the repercussions (consequences) associated with the character’s conflict.	Reactions to the repercussions (consequences).
Describe the outcome in the novel based on this character’s conflict.	Reactions to the outcome of the novel based on the character’s conflict.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the conflict.	Reaction to this specific evidence.
Evidence from the novel. Find 1-3 lines from the text that describe/support the repercussions (consequences) of the character’s conflict.	Reactions to this specific evidence.