American LITERATURE

Summer Reading ASSIGNMENT

American Literature is a course where the literary canon of our country is studied from colonial to contemporary times. The focus of the course will be to understand how our shared history has influenced the development and scope of our literature. In order to start the journey through the course, students will have two options for summer reading; each will have a distinct tie to the history of our nation. The choices are outlined below. Students should choose the book that best matches their interests. They are required to read ONE book, but they are welcome to read the other as well. Along with the reading, students are expected to answer four questions about their book. Question sheets should be PRINTED and answers hand written in paragraphs of six to eight sentences. These question sheets should be ready to turn in the first day of school.

Supplemental Materials

-Below, you will find links to vendors to purchase the book. The purchase links are simply provided for your convenience. Books can be purchased anywhere, as long as they are the same edition (ISBN number) as the one on the link.

-You will also see summaries of each book, so you can choose the book that best fits your interests.

-Finally, there is a link to the Questions Sheets which students can PRINT and complete before the first day of school.

Summer Reading Questions Sheet

Links to Purchase Books for American Literature

Amazon Link (The Secret Life of Bees)

Amazon Link (A Painted House)

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk-Kidd

Set in South Carolina in 1964, the year the Voting Rights Act of 1964 was passed, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted, Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There, Lily not only finds information about her mother; she also comes to understand herself.

*Source: Amazon.com

A Painted House

John Grisham

Until September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers — and two very dangerous men — came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world. As mysteries unfold, someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly, bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. As young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives — and change his family and his town forever.