Where the Crawdads Sing

AP Literature and Composition Summer Reading Assignment 

Instructions: Purchase (or check out from the library) a copy of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. You can find copies at Target, Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.com. Right now, the paperback version is $9.98 on Amazon. We highly recommend you buy your own copy so that you can write in the novel, but this is by no means a requirement. Then, read the novel in its entirety. There are no due dates over the summer, but be advised that you need to read the whole novel BEFORE completing the journal. The novel is 300+ pages. Although it is long, the vocabulary is easily accessible. The lexile score is 880 which means 6-8 graders can read and understand the words in the text. Most of you will find that this reads relatively quickly. 

After finishing the novel, watch the video instructions below on how to create a digital journal. There are 10 assignments below that must be completed. There are some bonus activities for extra credit with some of these assignments, but extra credit does not mean substituting for another journal entry. This will be your journal, so make it reflect you. Choose colors, fonts, and add pictures that reflect you. Also, please use your school account so you can easily submit the final product. These will be run through a plagiarism checker when you turn them in, so please make sure you do your own work. This is NOT a partner project. 

Your digital journal will be due sometime in September. We do not usually test over the summer read, but the journal will be a hefty grade in the gradebook, so do your best work. Add as much detail with pictures, drawings, collages, etc. as you can. The last assignment on here is ONLY EXTRA CREDIT! It is by no means required. You may do ONE of the options, but NOT BOTH! And as with the bonus activities, this cannot substitute for one of the other journal entries. 

Since we do not know yet which AP teacher you will have, feel free to email either Mrs. Newberry (knewberry@cmsd12.org) or Mrs. Frisbie (mfrisbie@cmsd12.org) with any questions you may have about the assignment. 

JOURNAL ENTRY #4

"Crossing the Swamp":  Read the poem below, considering its language and themes AND how it "talks to" the novel.  Can we connect Kya and the speaker? What similarities/differences do you see in the language being used in the poem and the novel? Use direct quotations from the novel and the poem to support your thinking. Record your response your digital journal. 

***Yes, the poem is supposed to be spaced like this. Some poems have different structures, which we will discuss in class. Feel free to guess why you think it is spaced this way, and if that changes the interpretation of the poem for the reader. 

Crossing the Swamp

      By Mary Oliver

Here is the endless

   wet thick

                         cosmos, the center

                                           of everything—the nugget

of dense sap, branching

               vines, the dark burred

         faintly belching

       bogs. Here

is swamp, here

  is struggle,

    closure—

                          pathless, seamless,

peerless mud. My bones

              knock together at the pale   

joints, trying

                          for foothold, fingerhold,

mindhold over

                                such slick crossings, deep

                                  hipholes, hummocks

                                     that sink silently

into the black, slack

  earthsoup. I feel

             not wet so much as

                        painted and glittered

with the fat grassy

   mires, the rich

                        and succulent marrows

                  of earth— a poor

dry stick given

                                    one more chance by the whims

                                       of swamp water— a bough

             that still, after all these years,

could take root,

                      sprout, branch out, bud—

                                         make of its life a breathing

                                      palace of leaves.

OPTION #2: The movie for Where the Crawdads Sing premiered on July 22, 2022. You may choose to watch it (it is available to purchase/rent on Amazon Prime) and then complete a graphic essay of the novel AND the movie responding to the following prompt:

Examine both the novel and movie carefully and then create a graphic essay in which you explain what characteristics of the novel make it better than the film (or vice versa if you thought the film was better). Refer specifically to details of both the novel and the movie.

You want to ensure the pieces of your graphic essay all work towards proving the thesis you create for the essay; your thesis must reflect which version is better. Be sure your thesis answers why the version you have chosen is better. Do NOT compare and contrast or be inconsistent by saying some parts are better in one and other parts in the other. You need to look at the overall effect of BOTH and make a declaration of which is better.  The quotations you choose from Where the Crawdads Sing should represent at least three different themes/symbols of the novel and the movie. Focus on why these themes/symbols are relevant in understanding Delia Owens overall message of the novel as well as defending the argument your thesis.

***Please do NOT substitute watching the movie for reading the novel. There are major differences and changes, so you want to make sure you complete the journal based on the novel as both Mrs. Newberry and Mrs. Frisbie have read it and seen the movie. We will be assessing you on the text and not the movie.