Academics

Summer Reading

Purpose
The works of literature presented to you on the summer reading lists have been carefully selected to help prepare students for subject matter they will encounter in their history and literature courses in the fall. Summer reading encourages independent reading outside of school, provides students with a shared experience that can serve as a reference point for discussion and writing in the coming school year, and reinforces Pacifica's mission to instruct students in the Western tradition.

GRADE 9 English 9: Ancient Literature and Composition (Two texts)

The Gangs of Los Angeles, William Dunn.   ISBN#0595443575, (288 pages)

Autobiography of Madame Guyon, Jeanne Guyon. ISBN#1449575358, (184 pages)

  • Assignment:  Please read and enjoy the above literature. Then, pretend you are able to text Madame Guyon while she is in the Bastille prison; type out a transcript of your texting conversations, making sure to represent Guyon’s belief system through her response while maintaining an accurate text message tone.  It is recommended that you include references to Guyon’s life as well as actual phrases from her letters.  Your transcript should not be shorter than two typed, double-spaced, 12-size font, pages in length.  Finally, there will be a diagnostic in-class essay based on both books during the first week of school.  

Contact Mrs. Kelsey if you have any questions:  ckelsey@pacificachristian.org

English 9 H: Honors Ancient Literature and Composition (Three texts)

The Gangs of Los Angeles, William Dunn.   ISBN#0595443575, (288 pages)

Autobiography of Madame Guyon, Jeanne Guyon. ISBN#1449575358, (184 pages)  

  • Assignment:  Please read and enjoy the above literature. Then, pretend you are able to text Madame Guyon while she is in the Bastille prison; type out a transcript of your texting conversations, making sure to represent Guyon’s belief system through her responses while maintaining an accurate text message tone.  It is recommended that you include references to Guyon’s life as well as actual phrases from her letters.  Your transcript should not be shorter than two typed, double-spaced, 12-size font, pages in length.  Finally, there will be a diagnostic in-class essay based on both books during the first week of school.  

 

Iphigenia in Aulis, Euripides. Translated by Nicholas Rudall.  ISBN#156663111-4, (67 pages)

o       Assignment:  Please read and enjoy this play.  Then, select a significant passage or monologue (the recommended length is twelve to fifteen lines of text).  Memorize this passage and be prepared to recite it with confidence during the first week of school.

Contact Mrs. Kelsey if you have any questions:  ckelsey@pacificachristian.org


GRADE 10

English 10: World Literature and Composition (Two texts)

 

The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis.  ISBN#0060652934, (209 pages)

 

Love Stories, edited by Diana Secker Tesdell.  ISBN#978-0-307-27087-0, (390 pages)

o       Assignment:  Please read and enjoy the above literature. Then, select a significant passage (of no less than fifteen lines) from Screwtape; memorize this passage and be prepared to recite it with confidence during the first week of school. Also, choose a significant passage from one of the short stories in Love Stories and write your best close reading essay to be collected the first day of school.  There will be a diagnostic in-class essay based on this reading during the first week of school.

Contact Mrs. Kelsey if you have any questions:  ckelsey@pacificachristian.org

English 10 H: Honors World Literature and Composition (Three texts)

 

The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis.  ISBN#0060652934, (209 pages)

 

Love Stories, edited by Diana Secker Tesdell.  ISBN#978-0-307-27087-0, (390 pages)

 

  • Assignment:  Please read and enjoy the above literature. There will be a diagnostic in-class essay based on this reading during the first week of school.

 

The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson. ISBN#978-0380715435, (272 pages)

 

*Assignment:  Please read and enjoy this information-packed and often humorous account of the English language.  For each chapter, write a research question about a topic from that chapter that interests you.  Each question should be accompanied by a brief explanation (two to three sentences) of what raises the question and why it is worth pursuing.

 

After you have finished the book, respond to the following prompt in approximately 1000 words: How might the English language change in the next 100 years?  Include both specific aspects of the language that may change (e.g., words and their meanings, grammar, spelling, idioms, etc.) as well as the causes that may bring about these changes (including historical, cultural, practical, and other causes).   Your answer will necessarily be speculative, even imaginative—for instance, you could posit a foreign invasion or the invention or destruction of some relevant piece of technology—but it must take into account and demonstrate specific knowledge of the principles laid out in The Mother Tongue, both about the ways that languages in general change and about the ways that English has developed over the last 1500 years.  It strongly recommended that you read the book with this question in mind from the very beginning, so that you can gather ideas as you go! 

 

Warning: Chapter 14, “Swearing,” lives up to its name.  The obscenities it contains are not bandied about gratuitously, but, rather, in order to make an argument about the development and idiosyncrasies of the English language; however, you are not required to read this chapter and will not be held responsible for the information it presents.  All of the written portions of the summer reading assignment must be typed and must employ MLA format.

 

Contact Mr. Bailey if you have any questions:  jbailey@pacificachristian.org


GRADE 11 

 

English 11: American Literature (Two texts)

 

Choose two of the following coming of age tales to read during the summer:

 

Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger.  ISBN#0316769487

A Separate Peace, John Knowles.  ISBN#0743253973

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou.  ISBN#0553279378

To Kill a Mockingbird,  Harper Lee.  ISBN#0446310786

 

            Assignment:

  • Keep a Reading Journal* to be turned in on the first day of class.
  • Memorize a quote from one of the books that’s at least 15 lines long (must be PG    

            rated) – to be recited in front of the class the first days of school

Contact Ms. Kemble if you have any questions:  fkemble@pacificachristian.org

*Ms Kemble will provide a detailed explanation of her expectations of the Reading Journal via email.

English 11AP: Advanced Placement Language and Composition (Three texts)

 

Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger.  ISBN#0316769487

Letters to a Young Poet,  Ranier Maria Rilke.   ISBN#0486422453

Selected Poems, Langston Hughes.  ISBN#067972818X

 

            Assignment:

  • Keep a Reading Journal* to be turned in on the first day of class.
  • Memorize one long or two short poems by Langston Hughes (total of at least 20 lines) to be recited in front of the class the first days of school.

Contact Ms. Kemble if you have any questions:  fkemble@pacificachristian.org

*Ms Kemble will provide a detailed explanation of her expectations of the Reading Journal via email.

GRADE 12

 

English 12: Great Books  (Three texts)

 

Choose one book from each genre to read during the summer.

 

Sci-Fi:              Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman.  ISBN#0060557818

                        Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick.  ISBN#0345404475

                        Brave New World , Aldous Huxley.  ISBN#0060850523

 

Detective:        Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler.  ISBN#0394758277

                        The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett.  ISBN#0752847643

                        An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, P.D. James.  ISBN#0743219554

 

Memoir:           Girl, Interrupted , Susanna Kaysen.  ISBN#0679746048

                        Fat Girl, Judith Moore.  ISBN#0452285852

                        Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi.  ISBN#0684826801

 

Assignment:

  • Keep a Reading Journal* to be turned in on the first day of class.
  • Memorize a quotation from one of the books that is at least fifteen lines long (must be PG rated) – to be recited in front of the class the first days of school.

Contact Ms. Kemble if you have any questions:  fkemble@pacificachristian.org

*Ms Kemble will provide a detailed explanation of her expectations of the Reading Journal via email.

 

English 12 AP: Advanced Placement Literature and Composition (Three texts)

 

The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and other Poets, Sam Hamill. ISBN#1570620199, (152 pages)

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand.  ISBN#0451158237, (695 pages)

  • Assignment:  Please read and enjoy the above literature.  Select one Haiku to be memorized and recited with aplomb.  Then, select one substantial passage from Fountainhead and write a detailed literary analysis as you have been taught to do by Miss Kemble; this analysis is due on the first day of class.  Be advised: There will be an AP-style timed essay and an AP-style Multiple Choice section based on this novel during the first week of school. 

 

Conquering the College Admissions Essay in 10 Steps, Alan Gelb. ISBN#9781580089104, (150 pages)

 

  • Assignment:  While reading Gelb’s text, follow his guidelines and please write three consecutive drafts of your college admissions essay*.  You will turn in each draft, and, in order to earn full credit, each draft must have been adequately proofread by a respected peer or adult.  (Evidence of a solid editing job consists of either “track changes” in MS Word or good old fashioned red ink.) Each subsequent draft should reflect substantial growth.  I will be collecting all three drafts on the first day of class, and we will be refining them for you to use for your college applications.

Contact Mrs. Kelsey if you have any questions:  ckelsey@pacificachristian.org

*Students in Ms. Kemble’s Great Books class will be writing their college essays under her direction during the first few months of school.