SUMMER SENIOR

READING/RESEARCH
PROJECTS
Despite protestations to the contrary, your brain does not shut down between May and August.
It needs foodstimulation. And this summer you will give your brain that food. You will read
1. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
2. a long way gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
As one of our focuses next year will be world literature, these books will introduce you to two
authors, two cultures, and two parts of the world.
In order to give these books, one set in Poland during WW II and the other an autobiography
whose teller lived in Sierra Leone, Africa, you will research the countries and the time periods of
these books. Have in hand, on the first day of class, research on these two books.
Possible sources for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas include Holocaust Education & Archive
Research Team http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/toc.html, Children during the
Holocaust from the Holocaust Encyclopedia http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?
ModuleId=10005142, and others.
Sources for Sierra Leone include the CIA Factbook http://www.factbook.org/factbook/dr.shtml,
the United Nations UNICEF website, Child Soldiers - Children in Conflict www.child-soldier.org,
etc.

No WIKIPEDIA!!
Your documented research will include the following:
Handwritten research notes (NO printed web pages)
Proper MLA documentation of your site
Three instances from each book that are reflected in your research.
When researching the Holocaust, an additional fact little known by either your classmates
or me. Document this fact.
Come to first day of class with your novels and your research. Coming to class with all of the
above will start your semester in the plus column. Empty hands will place you in the minus
column, not a good start to your senior year.
Also have in hand, the first day, the following book:
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
by Malala Yousafzai, with Christina Lamb
(available in paperback June 2)
HAVE A GREAT AND SAFE SUMMER!!!!!