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Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High SchoolSummer Reading

2014-2015Dear Student:

Welcome! We are pleased that you decided to enroll in English Pre-AP/AP courses. It is a course designed to foster independence and critical thinking. We encourage you to read frequently and widely and reflect on your reading.

Use the following questions as a guide to enhance your understanding of the reading selection:

Essential Questions What is the author’s purpose? What is the intended audience? In what ways does the author craft’s work towards that purpose? How do I incorporate these into my own writing to make my work more effective? Who and what defines identity? How does one exist and define himself/herself in a society that does not recognize him/her as equal? How does one balance personal identity within cultural and social constraints? What happens when identities collide? How does language shape identity? What is the connection between the way others see us and the way we see ourselves? How does one read a text and determine its meaning? How does one balance personal identity with the meaning of a text? What innocence is lost temporarily, and what innocence is lost permanently? How do personal beliefs, ethics, or values influence decisions that a person makes? How do the consequences of some decisions play a major role in re-examining a person’s role or purpose in life? What elements of society act against an individual’s search for and understanding of self? How detrimental is conflict and alienation to the human spirit? How do multiple opinions affect the way we view ourselves?

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the GECHS ELA Department. Happy Reading!

GECHS ELA Teachers


2014-2015

9th Grade: Read a total of 3 books, 1 must be chosen from the following list.

Title and Author

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, this memoir is Sandra Cisneros's greatly admired story of a young girl's growing up in the Latino section of Chicago.

The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake

Miss Saunders, whose skin is blotched with a rare skin condition, serves as a mirror to Maleeka Madison's struggle against the burden of low self-esteem that many black girls face when they're darker skinned.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit introduces us 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.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin may just be thethe general Earth needs. But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Visit www.edmodo.com and join Mr. Dwelle’s English I group using the code 26qa8j. Tell us about the book you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it.

http://www.edmodo.com/


2014-2015If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked? Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.


2014-2015

10h Grade: REQUIRED: Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher, plus ONE of the following. (Note: books marked with * are found on many AP World History reading lists)

Title and Author Synopsis from Goodreads.com* In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republica in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.

*Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.

*Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, this is a work that touches the heart with emotion while it stimulates the mind with its narrative style, symbolism, and excoriating vision of racism in America. Moving through time from the rural South to the northern ghetto, starkly contrasting the attitudes of two generations of an embattles family, Go Tell It On The Mountain is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a society confronting inevitable change.

* Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Classic novel that has inspired generations of seekers. Blending Eastern mysticism and psychoanalysis, Hesse presents a strikingly original view of man and culture and the arduous process of self-discovery, reconciliation, harmony, and peace.

* Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

This is a book about the most admirable of human virtues--courage. These are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States Senators and the grace with which they endured them. These heroes include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benson, and Robert A. Taft. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, Profiles in Courage resounds with timeless lessons on the most cherished of virtues and is a powerful


2014-2015reminder of the strength of the human spirit.

*Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane

Autobiographical story of his escape from life in apartheid South Africa through education and sports. Apartheid was a political system enacted by the white-minority-led government in South Africa in 1948 and lasted until 1994. Although black South Africans had endured racial oppression for almost three hundred years at the start of apartheid, this political system was an especially virulent form of racial oppression.

* A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Enter the world of science as Bill Bryson unmasks the mysteries of the universe. Tackling everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bill Bryson's inimitable storytelling skill makes the why, how, and, just as importantly, the who of scientific discovery entertaining and accessible for young readers.

* And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

This work begins simply enough, with a father recounting a folktale to his two young children. The tale is about a young boy who is taken by a div (a sort of ogre), and how that fate might not be as terrible as it first seems—a brilliant device that firmly sets the tone for the rest of this sweeping, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel. A day after he tells the tale of the div, the father gives away his own daughter to a wealthy man in Kabul. What follows is a series of stories within the story, told through multiple viewpoints, spanning more than half a century, and shifting across continents.

* Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung

Timed for release on the thirtieth anniversary of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge takeover, Ung unflinchingly begins this memoir with her arrival in Vermont alongside her sister-in-law and brother, who, able to "borrow enough gold to take only one of his siblings with him," chose his tough youngest sister as the "lucky child." Ung agonized over everyone she left behind, but especially regretted her 15-year separation from her last surviving sister, Chou.

* The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt by Eleanor Roosevelt

The long and eventful life of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was full of rich experiences and courageous actions. By the end of her life, Eleanor Roosevelt was recognized throughout the world for her fortitude and commitment to the ideals of liberty and human rights. Her autobiography constitutes a self-portrait no biography can match for its candor and liveliness, its wisdom, tolerance, and breadth of view—a self-portrait of one of the greatest American humanitarians of our time.

Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across

Rebel Girls explores how teenage girls construct activist identities, rejecting and redefining girlhood and claiming


2014-2015the Americas by Jessica K. Taft,

political authority for youth in the process. Ultimately, Rebel Girls has substantial implications for social movements and youth organizations, arguing that adult social movements could learn a great deal from girl activists and making clear the importance of increased collaboration between young people and adults

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

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price.


2014-2015Down Garrapata Road by Anne Estivis

A medley of young voices bring to life a small Mexican-American community in South Texas during the 1940's and 1950's. In this untouched world, young men depart for World War II, whispers of El Chupasangre (the blood sucker) crawl across the countryside, a brother sacrifices the little money he has for a pastel dress for his sister, and one young girl makes a painful mistake when she disobeys her parents for a tryst with her boyfriend

Macho by Victor Villasenor Raw, powerful, poetic, and heartbreaking, Macho! brings to life the brutality of migrant labor, Cesar Chavez’s efforts to unionize workers, and a vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience through the eyes of a brave young man who bids goodbye to everything he knows to follow his dreams.

* Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield

In 480 B.C., two million Persian invaders come to the mountain pass of Thermopylae in eastern Greece, where they are met by 300 of Sparta's finest warriors. The Greek loyalists battle for six days in a prelude to their ultimate victory.

* News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In 1990, fearing extradition to the United States, Pablo Escobar – head of the Medellín drug cartel – kidnapped ten notable Colombians to use as bargaining chips. With the eye of a poet, García Márquez describes the survivors’ perilous ordeal and the bizarre drama of the negotiations for their release. He also depicts the keening ache of Colombia after nearly forty years of rebel uprisings, right-wing death squads, currency collapse and narco-democracy.

* China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston

The lives of three generations of Chinese men in America, woven from memory, myth and fact. Here's a storyteller's tale of what they endured in a strange new land.

* Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

A riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s. A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair

Visit www.edmodo.com and join Ms. Smith’s English II group using the code a62fhx. Tell us about the book you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it. If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the text that illustrate what you enjoyed or



2014-2015did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked? Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.

11th Grade: REQUIRED: The Shallows by Nicholas G. Carr, plus one FICTION and one NON-FICTION text to read: (Note: books marked with * are REQUIRED for AP Language)

FICTION Synopsis from Goodreads.comThe Crucible by Arthur Miller

"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.

NON-FICTION

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albolm

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly 20 years ago. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Morrie visited Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final class: lessons in how to live. This is a chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.

A Funny Michael J. Fox abandoned high school to pursue an acting career, but went on to receive honorary degrees from several universities and


2014-2015

Thing Happened on the Way to the Future by Michael J. Fox

garner the highest accolades for his acting, as well as for his writing. In his new book, he inspires and motivates graduates to recognize opportunities, maximize their abilities, and roll with the punches--all with his trademark optimism, warmth, and humor. In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, Michael draws on his own life experiences to make a case that real learning happens when "life goes skidding sideways." He writes of coming to Los Angeles from Canada at age eighteen and attempting to make his way as an actor. Fox offers up a comically skewed take on how, in his own way, he fulfilled the requirements of a college syllabus.

97 Things to Do Before You Finish High School by Erika Stadler and Steven Jenkins

Being in high school is about a lot more than going to high school. It’s about discovering new places, new hobbies, and new people—and opening your eyes to the world. This book is about the stuff they don’t teach you in high school, like how to host a film festival, plan your first road trip, make a podcast, or write a manifesto. Want to make a time capsule? Spend a day in silence? Learn how to make beats like a DJ? Or shut down your house party before the police do? Whatever your creative, social, or academic inclinations, you’ll find 97 ways on these pages to amuse, educate, and interest yourself, and your friends. Because your life doesn’t stop at 3pm each day—it just gets started.

* “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

If the law is of such a nature that it requires you to be an agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law." So wrote the young Henry David Thoreau in 1849. Three years earlier, Thoreau had put his belief into action and refused to pay taxes because of the United States government's involvement in the Mexican War, which Thoreau firmly believed was unjust. For his daring and unprecedented act of protest, he was thrown in jail. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is a celebrated dramatic presentation of this famous act of civil disobedience and its consequences.

*“The American Scholar”http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm

The American Scholar was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge. He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundbreaking work Nature, published a year earlier, in which he established a new way for America's fledgling society to regard the world. Sixty years after declaring independence, American culture was still heavily influenced by Europe, and Emerson, for possibly the first time in the country's history, provided a visionary philosophical framework for escaping "from under its iron lids" and building a new, distinctly American cultural identity.

*“Civil Disobedience” with study questions

Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience was originally published in 1849 as Resistance to Civil Government. Thoreau wrote this classic essay to advocate public resistance to the laws and acts of government that he considered unjust. The practical application of Civil Disobedience was largely ignored until the twentieth century


2014-2015

http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil.html

when, at different times, Modanda Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and anti-Vietnam War activists applied Thoreau's principles.

Visit www.edmodo.com and join Ms. Cortina’s English III group using the code tntbxf. Tell us about the book you read and discuss why others should or should not consider reading it. If you cannot join, please write out your response and submit to Ms. Cortina at the beginning of the school year. If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked? Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.

12th Grade: REQUIRED: The Shallows by Nicholas G. Carr , plus ONE of the books from the list below.

Title and Author

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle

Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine. And from the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delaney into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest and motivations – noble or selfish – to honor her wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson.

The Zookeeper’s

Ackerman works from the diary of Antonina Zabinski to present a dramatic true story based on a little-known



2014-2015

Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

chapter from Nazi Poland. Not only was Hitler interested in human genetics but also the purity of animal breeds. At the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and her director husband struggle with wartime shortages, caring for the animals, their own family's needs, and the hundreds of Jews hidden at the zoo.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The book examines the complex psychological relationship between two parolees who together commit a mass murder. Capote's book also explores the lives of the victims and the effect of the crime on the community where they lived. In Cold Blood is regarded by critics as a pioneering work of the true crime genre.

Long Day’s Journey into the Night by Eugene O’Neill.

One theme of the play is addiction and the resulting dysfunction of the family. All three males are alcoholics and Mary is addicted to morphine. In the play the characters conceal, blame, resent, regret, accuse and deny in an escalating cycle of conflict with occasional desperate and sincere attempts at affection, encouragement and consolation.


2014-2015

The Passage by Justin Cronin

In a dystopian future, a virus found in a South American jungle was used to create a super soldier with great strength and healing abilities. The virus becomes an epidemic, and infected people become bloodthirsty monsters. Normal humans are hiding in fortresses trying to survive

The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara

The novel is set in a small, Southern town. Velma Henry, a long-time civil rights activist and feminist, sits in a hospital gown on a stool listening to the musical voice of Minnie Ransom. Old Minnie is a healer; she heals people by contacting the points of physical or psychical pain in her patients and relieving them. She is helped by her spirit guide, Old Wife. Scars heal and wounds close in minutes under her touch.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

The story, narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Native American inmate "Chief" Bromden, focuses on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve out his prison sentence for statutory rape in the hospital. The head administrative nurse, Mildred Ratched, rules the ward with a mailed fist and with little medical oversight. She is assisted by her three black day-shift orderlies, and her assistant doctors. McMurphy constantly antagonizes Nurse Ratched and upsets the routines, leading to constant power struggles between the inmate and the nurse

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Twelve-year-old Ishmael first flees from attacking rebels with his friends, but later he is transformed into a cold-blooded soldier. This is a heartbreaking personal memoir of a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Alex Award 2008

Every Day by Levithan

Every morning, A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached. Life goes along smoothly until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.

Visit www.edmodo.com and join Mrs. Simpkin’s English IV group using the code axdssu. Tell us about the book you read and discuss why others should or should not



2014-2015

consider reading it. If you cannot join, please write out your response and submit to Mrs. Simpkin at the beginning of the school year. If you do not wish to participate in the Edmodo discussions, you may instead complete the following tasks. For each book that you read, write about the following: Did you like the text? Why? Show three examples from the text that illustrate what you enjoyed or did not enjoy. How do those examples show what you liked or disliked? Bring the three completed assignments on the first day of class.

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