Independent Reading
February
Choose one:
Re-read the book you read over winter break if it was a new book
Choose a book from the list below
Complete a MWDS
Winter Break
Choose one:
Re-read one of the novels/plays you read this semester (banned book, choice book you read in October, or Frankenstein)
Read a book from the list below that you will re-read in February
Re-read the Shakespeare play you read for AP Language last year
Then, either add to your MWDS if you chose option 1, or begin filling in a MWDS if you chose option 2 or 3.
AP Lit Open List.docxOctober 16-27
#1
193 pages
Novel
Topics – alienation, community, death, freedom, gender, identity, race, individual and society, love, rejection
“A deeply soulful novel…a lyrical writer who believes in the transformative power of storytelling, and takes risks with sentiment that few contemporary writers are prepared to make.” -Zadie Smith
Challenges – the dialogue in the book is written in dialect, use of the ‘n’ word
If you liked the memoirs Educated or The Glass Castle, you’ll like this book
If you liked the poem “When Maze and Frankie Beverly Come on in My House”, you’ll like this book
#2
171 pages
Novel
Topics – race, violence, death, identity, community, cruelty
“Extravagantly beautiful… enormously, achingly alive… A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter.” -The New York Times
Challenges – use of the ‘n’ word, difficult topics such as suicide and violence
If you liked the memoirs The Yellow House or Persepolis, you’ll like this book
If you liked the poem “Chaos Theory”, you’ll like this book
#3
166 pages
Novel
Topics – search for identity, sex, guilt/shame, violence, rejection
“He is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves, to flow and beat, advance and retreat, rise and take a bow in disappearing…” -Langston Hughes
Challenges – names and some words/phrases are in French, difficult topics such as violence
If you liked the memoirs Heavy or Naked, you’ll like this book
If you liked the poem “James Baldwin Speaks to the Protest Novel” you’ll like this book
#4
207 pages
Novel (based on a true story)
Topics – Justice, cruelty, freedom, hope, innocence and experience, race, violence
“A masterpiece squared, rooted in history and American mythology and, yet, painfully topical in its visions of justice and mercy erratically denied…A great American novel.” -NPR
Challenges – it takes several chapters to get into the story, use of the ‘n’ word, difficult topics such as abuse
If you liked the memoirs Stitches or A Child Called It, you’ll like this book
If you like the poem “what the cicada said to the black boy”, you’ll like this book
#5
150 pages
Drama (based on the author's experiences)
Topics – the American Dream, family, hope, love, oppression, race, identity, work
“A beautiful, lovable play. It is affectionately human, funny and touching… A work of theatrical magic in which the usual barrier between audience and stage disappears.” -John Chapman, New York News
Challenges – understanding the purpose and importance of stage directions, understanding the difference between genre of drama and novel
If you liked the memoirs Becoming or Born a Crime, you’ll like this play
If you liked the poem “Full-Court Press”, you’ll like this play
#6
120 pages
Drama
Topics – identity, family, love, race, futility, work, pride, fate, abandonment
“It’s tough, it’s gritty, it’s beautiful, it’s poetry and it’s pretty damn funny.” -Lester Fabian Brathwaite, Entertainment Weekly
Challenges – understanding the purpose and importance of stage directions, understanding the difference between genre of drama and novel, use of the ‘n’ word
If you liked the memoir The Other Wes Moore or the general nonfiction book Random Family, you’ll like this play
If you liked the poems “Lifeline” and “For the Hardest Days”, you’ll like this play
August 14-September 15
“Literature has features that make it possible to experience the public without coercion and without submission. Literature refuses and disrupts passive or controlled consumption of the spectacle designed to nationalize identity in order to sell us products. Literature allows us—no, demands of us—to experience ourselves as multidimensional persons. And in so doing is far more necessary than it has ever been.”
Toni Morrison
The document below includes books featured on the lists that accompany FRQ #3 on the AP Literature exam from the past ten years. Book titles that are bolded are also found on at least one banned book list.
Assignment: Choose one banned book from the list. You can choose to read the same book as a small group of friends, or you can select a title you're interested in reading even if no one else in class is reading it. If you have read one of these books previously within the past few months, you may choose to read it again for this assignment. Each Friday (August 18 (this one is just a short intro discussion), 25, September 1, 8, and 15), you will discuss your book with other students (even if they haven't read the same book). You will discuss insights you gained about character, structure, style, literary elements, and theme.
On September 15, you will turn in a completed MWDS (document below the book list).
Schedule an appointment with me by September 1 for sometime in the month of September (Sept 1-30). Come to our meeting prepared with your book talk (see document below or on Teams).
Major Works Data Sheet.docQ1 Choice Novel Book Talk - Fiction.docx