English Summer Reading for Rising 10th-Graders in Enriched English
Please read Elie Wiesel’s Dawn. All 10th-graders will take a test on Dawn on Thursday, August 13. You should be prepared to identify characters, explain quotations from the text and answer short questions.
If you are taking Enriched English, read the book of your choice from the list below in addition. You may, of course, read more.
Write an affective/cognitive response to this one work of your own choosing (to be clear: not Dawn, but the other one). Be prepared to turn in your affective/cognitive response on Thursday, August 13. Do not consult any outside sources on your text or your author; just read the book and respond to it by yourself.
The descriptions of the first seven literary works listed below were written, selected, and edited by previous 10th-grade classes. All are intended to help you choose reading that you will enjoy.
No one book on this list is required reading. If you or your parents find any of these selections objectionable for any reason, please choose something else. Please feel free to contact either Dr. Marschall at amarschall@raleighcharterhs.org or Dr. Busonik at sbusonik@raleighcharterhs.org if you have any further questions about any of these books. We will be in and out over the summer, so we may not respond immediately, but we will get back to you.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
[Please consult with your parents before choosing this book.]
Allende’s The House of the Spirits is a compelling novel intertwining Chile’s culture with the political revolution. It depicts Chilean culture through the eyes of various members of a wealthy family over several generations. The novel explores the political revolution as well as romance, betrayal, and supernatural beliefs. This book captures the essence of Chile and the complexity of day-to-day human struggles.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (abridged versions are acceptable!)
This sixteenth-century picaresque tale by Cervantes is considered to be the world’s first novel. As our hero gallops off on numerous eccentric adventures, donning a cardboard helmet tied with a green ribbon, we sense that chivalry is not dead—it is just buried in the pages of this book. Note: you may read an abridgement of this work if you would prefer to.
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Chang chronicles her own life as well as the lives of her mother and grandmother, which, together, offer a personal and political account of life in twentieth-century China. A great way to learn about China’s history and experience life vicariously in this troubled land.
The Inferno by Dante
Although a trek through hell may not sound terribly enticing, we nevertheless recommend a foray of this sort into the hell created by Dante Alighieri. Guided through the nether world by Virgil, the symbol of human reason, Dante observes the various levels of hell, which are stratified according to the magnitude of the sin. A compelling work of fiction, combining Christian beliefs and classical mythology, Dante’s Inferno is a highly recommended read.
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
[Please consult with your parents before choosing this book.]
In Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, Tita has two loves in her life: Pedro and cooking. Because her mother, Mama Elena, refuses to let her marry Pedro, Tita must communicate her love, as well as all of her other emotions, through her cooking. Tita’s feeling are so vivid that they often cause exciting and amusing adventures you will never forget. This book is irresistible, full of romance, recipes, culture and passion. Take a sensual glimpse into the Mexican world!
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
[Please consult with your parents before choosing this book.]
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of one family’s century of struggle and accomplishment. It is the most popular work of one of the world’s greatest living authors. The novel treats themes such as loyalty, rebellion, revenge, and love.
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, Les Misérables is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed. --Publisher's description. Note: you can read either the complete version (published by Signet and translated by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee) or the abridged version (Ballantine Books).
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (there are other transliterations of the name).
Recommended by Professor of Middle Eastern Studies Edward Said on National Public Radio, Palace Walk offers an intimate glimpse into the life of a family in Cairo just prior to Egypt’s independence from Britain. While the treatment that Amina, the wife and mother, submits to will shock you, the portrait of the family is beautifully wrought and tender, and the descriptive passages will bring the setting to life before your eyes. (Although this novel does not carry the warning that some of the others on this list do, you should be advised that extramarital affairs are a way of life for the husband in this family.)
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country is a moving and tragic story of a Christian pastor’s search for his son and for faith in turbulent South Africa during the era of apartheid. Through Paton’s beautiful descriptive passages, the passionate story—of social activism, hatred, crime and punishment, and, ultimately, love—unfolds.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
[Please consult with your parents before choosing this book.]
In her first novel, award-winning Indian screenwriter Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language. --Amazon.com