Here's the "required summer reading" for The Harpist this summer. Before you marvel at what she has before her, let me just explain at it is an AP (Advanced Placement) Literature class. And that she has a week of linguistics, a week of PreCalc review, a mission trip to Mexico for 10 days, and family vacation on her plate. We are wondering how she is going to fit all of these books into her summer.
(and yes... she is upside down with a snake on her head.)
This is the assignment, quoted from the school's English home page:
2008 Summer Reading List -- A.P. Literature 12
Because a second reading so much enriches the reader’s understanding, the AP literature teachers would like for you to read all of the following texts from their 2007-08 syllabi preparatory to an in-depth examination during the fall and spring semesters. If, however, you cannot get to all of the texts, make sure that you read a minimum of three of those asterisked as your first writing assignment for the course will be a general essay in which you will use plot and characterization details from one of them.
Emma – Jane Austen *
Beowulf - Seamus Heaney translation (preferably the dual-language edition)*
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen*
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte*
The Stranger – Albert Camus *
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad*
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky* (Sidney Monas translation)
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston *
Beloved – Toni Morrison*
Hamlet – Shakespeare*
Othello - Shakespeare
King Lear – Shakespeare
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Tom Stoppard
Fortunately she has already read Pride and Prejudice. And Hamlet. The rest will take some focused effort on her part to fit in... A little light reading, eh? Dostoyevsky? Ugh.
Deb
Who wants her Calvin and Hobbes... (comic books, not theology!)
Posts
6 comments:
This reading list brings me way way back to Catholic High School....there was always a summer reading list similar to this one...it was a given that you would do the assigned reading....but when my children were in high school there was no such thing and I think their lives are less rich because of it....
(i would like to see a larger selection of non-European writers on the list- diversity in thought is a very good thing!
wow that is some list, I remember my daughter bringing home a list like this- now she is at University she makes her own lists!!!
Wow, what grade is this poor child in. As a child, I was a reader, and summer was for what I wanted to read!
She's going to be a senior in high school and is taking a college level class. She's an avid reader. I think she can handle the reading. And yeah, it not a diverse list... but it is "English" literature not "world" literature.
I think it's better than the blinkin movie list.
d
I don't think that anyone should have to read Toni Morrison during the summer, or at any time for that matter. She's just a writer that I can't get my brain around...
I'm not a fan of Toni either... but I would rather her read it and try to process it with us than with no one other than an English teacher who makes up movie lists... just sayin.
Post a Comment