Summer Reading-2016

Eighth Grade into Ninth Grade

Summer reading affords students the opportunity to enjoy books in a relaxed and leisurely setting
while fostering the continued application of the valuable reading strategies and skills they have learned
during the school year. To avoid the summer slide, all students entering ninth grade in Hamilton
Township Schools are asked to read a minimum of two books (Honors students are asked to read
three); we are hopeful that the expanded list we have provided will encourage students to read even
more! The Hamilton Township Public Library and local booksellers have been asked to stock these
books.

Assignment 1: Text Analysis/Essay

All incoming ninth graders must read John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men. Be sure to read the text
carefully over the summer and take good notes, keeping in mind literary elements such as theme,
characterization, symbolism, and conflict. When you return to school, your teacher will ask you to
complete an in-class assignment: You will either analyze an excerpt from the text and answer
questions or write an essay (Honors students).
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men

http://tinyurl.com/jp7wvgy

Assignment 2: Reading Response

All incoming ninth graders must read one selection from the book list on the following page and
complete the below-listed assignment. Please hand this in to your 9th grade English teacher during the
first week of school.
Choose three (3) of the following prompts and provide a detailed response for each. Each response
should be approximately one page in length. Using a separate sheet of paper for each response, write
your name, the title of the book, and the authors name at the top.

Who tells the story (who is the narrator)? Is this the best person to tell it? Why or why not?
Provide examples from the text to support your thinking.
How does the text begin? Describe the events that start the story. Is this an effective way to
start the book? Why or why not?
How does the author provide information or details to make the story seem realistic? Provide
examples from the text to support your thinking.
Explain the basic information that is being presented in terms of the 5W's: Who? What? When?
Where? Why?
Examine, in detail, one person/characters personality. How is this character acting and why do
you think the character is acting that way?
What was the authors purpose for creating this text? Do you think the text accomplished
his/her goal? Why or why not?
What is the most important sentence/passage in this text? Why do you think so?
Describe the authors writing style. Include examples from the text.

EIGHTH GRADE INTO NINTH GRADE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

(Select a book in order to complete Assignment #2)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This is the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined
to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the reservation to attend an allwhite high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
In this Coretta Scott King Honor Awardwinning novel, two teensone black, one whitegrapple with the
repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country
bitterly divided by racial tension.
Chasing Lincolns Killer by James Swanson
Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives, this is a fastpaced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the
streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia.
Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War 2 by Joseph Bruchac
Throughout World War II, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the U.S. effort, sending messages back
and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. While they saved countless American lives,
their stories remained classified for more than twenty years; they now come to life through the riveting
fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy.
First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung
One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the
Cambodian capital until the age of five. Then, in April, 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the
city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work
camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be
reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play
mahjong, and talk. Forty years later, the stories and history continue. The narrative voice moves among
seven characters who alternate with stories of their lives. The mothers, all born in China, tell about grueling
hardship and misery. The daughters try to reconcile their personalities, shaped by American standards, with
seemingly irrational maternal expectations.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Lily is a 14 year-old white girl, neglected by her father and living on a peach farm in South Carolina. When
Lilys fierce-hearted, stand-in mother, Rosaleen, insults three of the towns most vicious racists, Lily decides
they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolinaa town that holds the secret to her mothers past. There
they are taken in by an eccentric trio of sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey,
and the Black Madonna who presides over their household.
Timebound by Rysa Walker
When Kate Pierce-Kellers grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel,
sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a
murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kates present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the
only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.

Assignment 3 (9 Honors only):

In addition to Assignments 1 and 2, incoming ninth grade Honors students must read Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Fully narrated in the first person, Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age
novel. It is a classic work of Victorian literature that depicts the growth and personal development
of an orphan named Pip.
Read free online:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Great_Expectations.html?id=fhUXAAAAYAAJ

Be sure to read the text carefully over the summer and take good notes. In addition, please complete
the following assignment. Please hand this in to your 9th grade English teacher during the first week of
school.
1.

Create three text-dependent questions about Great Expectations:

--one question about a character (characterization, motivation, conflict)
--one question about an event
--one question about how this story relates to 2016/modern times.