Summer Reading 2009
Grade
10 Selections
Literature and Composition 10: A Separate
Peace by John Knowles click here
College Prep Lit and Comp 10: A Long Way
Gone by
Ishmael Beah click here
Honors Lit and Comp 10: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt click here
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Why We Chose: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Honors
Literature and Composition 10 kicks off the year with a unit on
different types of personal writing. Thus, I selected a memoir
for my incoming students to read: Angela's Ashes by Frank
McCourt. Angela's Ashes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that
details the childhood of McCourt in the slums of both New York City and
Limerick, Ireland. His story isn't pretty, but it's honest.
Thankfully, McCourt injects plenty of humor to make digesting his
account easy and, paradoxically, enjoyable. His writing style is
also unique and provides students with an opportunity to analyze and
determine how style, tone, and syntax can affect and shape text.
McCourt taught high-school English for thirty years, and it was his
students who encouraged him to commit his memoirs to paper for
posterity. Published in 1996, Angela's Ashes has since been
selected as required reading for honors students at countless high
schools across the country. It is bound to encourage
introspection, compassion, sympathy, empathy, and an understanding of a
time and a life that is not so distant and--as surprising as it may
seem--not so different from the lives of many children today.
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Why We Chose: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
College-Prep
Literature and Composition 10 begins with a focus on different types of
personal writing. To connect with this genre, I selected A Long
Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier for my students to read before
entering my course. Published just in 2007, this book by Ishmael
Beah has already rocketed to instant-classic status. While Beah's
story is painful, jarring, and almost unbelievable, it is the story of
over 300,000 children and teenagers around the world today.
Ultimately, A Long Way Gone is a story about redemption and hope that
proves that guidance and support can lead even the most hardened
individuals to choose a life worthy of emulation rather than repulsion.
Beah recounts his experiences as a forced boy soldier with honesty and
poignancy, in a conversational style that is both worthy of literary
merit and easily accessible to students. He speaks to the ability
of children "to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance"--a message
that is so desperately needed as war continues to ravage and upset the
lives of millions of children across the globe today.
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