Dear Students and Parents –

Welcome to 9^th Grade Honors English. 9^th grade typically shows a huge jump in academic difficulty and responsibility, but this is true even more so at the honors level. Students will read eight full-length novels, study poetry, conduct research, master 400 college-level vocabulary words, and conduct a 20-minute oral presentation. Students will be expected to turn in assignments consistently and on time, understand rather than memorize important concepts, and participate in meaningful class discussions.

The following REQUIRED summer reading assignment has been designed with the 9^th-grade curriculum in mind. While it is not necessarily difficult, it does require some time and effort.

1. Select two books from the list below. These books can be found in any of the school libraries, the public library, or any local bookstore.

2. Take handwritten notes about the books on the included handouts. Read closely and take notes carefully. We ask that you approach each novel thoughtfully and openly. Upon return, you will be asked to make connections between your life and the experiences of the characters in the novel. For example, think about hardships you or someone you know has faced that might be similar to the challenges in the novel. These could be based on race, religion, wealth, politics, disabilities, etc. Consider characters or themes that reflect goals or values similar to yours – or the opposite of yours.

3. Come to school in September prepared to hand in your notes and write an essay about the novels.

Thank you and enjoy your summer!

Sincerely,

Dora Myers, Kathryn McTiernan and Margaret Trolio

Emma – Jane Austen

Emma loves to play matchmaker. She thinks she always knows the perfect match for each of her neighbors and friends, but each time she tries, something ends up wrong. Plus, as hard as she tries to make a match for everyone else, she tries just as hard to deny her own feelings for a certain gentleman…

The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

Wang Lung is a hardworking Chinese farmer who very luckily marries a wife who is also very hardworking. However, life is not perfect for the two. Soon they must battle flooding, drought, revolution, greedy relatives and more.

A Lesson Before Dying – Ernest Gaines

Even as he tries hard to shake off his roots, the novel’s main character, Grant, is continually sucked in. He returns to his hometown to teach, and is asked to teach a young mentally disabled man on death row who is falsely accused of murder. In the process, each learns lessons about what it means to be a man.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

This is the story of a group of patients in a mental institution. It is told from the perspective of Chief Bromden, a very large Native-American man who most people think is mute. He gives the account of the relationship between the men, and the heroic/rebellious attempts by Randle Patrick McMurphy to make the guys feel like "real" men, instead of inmates.

Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer

In 1992, a wealthy young man gave everything he owned away and hitchhiked into Alaska, desperate to make a new life for himself. Four months later his dead body was found by a moose hunter. Krakauer tells the intense true story of Chris McCandless’s daring decision and unfortunate death.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

In this story, the central figure is a deaf mute working in a Georgia mill. When his companion of ten years goes insane, he is left alone and isolated. He moves in with a local family, and suddenly, he begins to be visited by various "misfits" in town; individuals struggling to fit in despite their race, religion, political viewpoint or other disability. Despite the hindrances to his abilities to communicate, he still has a profound impact on each of his visitors.

The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy

Set during the time of the French Revolution, this story traces the adventures of Sir Percy and Lady Marguerite Blakeney, a wealthy couple trying to avoid being the next victims of the guillotine. Their one chance is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a mysterious figure who leaves a calling card bearing a single red flower in his wake. As the police get closer to figuring out who it is, the connection between the figure and the Blakeneys gets more intense, until the two must choose between loyalty and love.

Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw

Mr. Higgins, a specialist in language, and his friend Mr. Pickering, conduct an experiment to see if they can take a common, ordinary street girl and teach her the language and mannerisms of an upper class socialite. This play follows both their successes, and their failures, as they learn just as much from their ordinary street girl as she learns from them.

Exodus – Leon Uris

This story captures the struggle for power between an Israeli freedom fighter and his enemies, as he defends his nation. It presents the social history leading to the foundation of the modern state of Israel.

The Wedding: A Novel – Dorothy West

A Post-Harlem Renaissance novel set in Martha’s Vineyard, this follows the rise of one black family to wealth and society, and the struggles they face in the process.

The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde

A Victorian comedy about manners, this play abounds in hilarious misunderstandings between two friends who use visiting their "imaginary friends" to get out of responsibilities.

The Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk

The story of life and of mutiny, on a Navy ship out in the Pacific Ocean after WWII. This novel was awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.