Independent Reading Titles and Tasks
“The call to adventure signifies that destiny has summoned
the hero.”
Joseph Campbell, American Mythologist
Our study of Joseph Campbell’s 12 stages of the journey has given us a fundamental understanding of the archetypal pattern and the concept of the hero’s journey. Among other archetypal journeys, the hero might be on a quest for knowledge, a quest to save an entire society, or even in search of his/her identity,
Though not all the novels listed here feature a journey motif or follow Campbell’s structure exactly, the protagonists are in search of something. They might be facing physical challenges and enemies as Odysseus did; they might have to suffer for the sake of others, such as Gandalf in The Hobbit, or they might be facing the possible destruction of society as in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Look over the list of titles and summaries outlined alphabetically below.
If you are interested in a title that is not on this list, send me the title, author, date published, genre, number of pages, and a brief synopsis for my approval. Young adult literature is not an option. Nor is a book you’ve already read. Search for a book of interest to you, but one of literary merit. At the very least, according to the Literary Canon, a work of literary merit should have a universal quality that transcends time and place; an innovative, artistic, and complex language style; and a superiority similar to other works of literary excellence.
Submit your title by Friday, February 28, 2019.
You can begin reading as soon as your book is approved. I will try to carve out Wednesdays in class for mindful reading time, so have your book with you.
You must finish the book with enough time to create a book jacket (details to follow) and present it at our Book Party is scheduled tentatively for Friday, April 3 (date is subject to change).
This independent reading will culminate in a book party (details to follow).
Reading and Annotating Requirements:
1. Decide how many pages you should read per week in order to complete the book on or around March 27th. This will give you time to work on your book jacket.
2. Find or create a comfy and tranquil reading space where you can read mindfully, with few or no distractions and optimum focus.
4. Annotate at least five favorite passages. (A passage can be as short as one lengthy sentence or as long as two paragraphs.) Consider passages that highlight the protagonist’s journey, ones that are rich in figurative language. You can also choose a passage simply because of the beautiful language it embodies. But always consider the author’s purpose in including it.
5. Locate five unfamiliar words. Copy down a definition, the sentence where it appears in the text, and a sentence of your own.
6. ANNOTATION DUE DATES: Friday, March 13 and Friday, March 27. 7. The following essay prompt from an AP Literature exam will help you in your
Independent Reading Annotation Rubric
Please print out this sheet, fill in the information directly below, and bring it with you on Friday, March 13, for the first of your two annotation checks.
Name _________________________________________________________ Period. _____
Book Title: Author: Pages:
Annotated through page: Number of annotations:
Essay Prompt: In many works of literature, a central role involves the main character taking a physical and/or mental journey. Choose a novel in which a journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole (theme).
_______ Score: 4 3 2 1 0
4 = Two or more thoughtful comments per chapter (or approximately every 20 pages of text) about --- main character, his/her conflicts, his/her journey, themes (based on the prompt above) appear in the margins of the text, on sticky notes, or on a computer document. Analysis is more than single words or brief phrases. You have located unfamiliar vocabulary words, earmarked them, and included definitions. You have highlighted at least two favorite passages, rich in figurative language (similes, metaphors, oxymoron’s, imagery, etc.), with an effort at explaining the possible REASON for the author's use of this device.
*NO credit will be given for summarizing or paraphrasing.
Please number each comment.
3 = Evidence is similar to a Level 4; however, there is room for growth in both analyzing and annotating.
2 – The majority of annotations are little more than summaries of the plot. Devices are identified as simile, metaphor, etc., but have shown little or no "so what" factor.
Vocabulary may be highlighted but not defined. Passages may be highlighted but not analyzed.
1 = As a student, you should expect a lesser score if you do not meet the above
Alphabetized List of Titles
Note: You can suggest to a peer the novel you read this year, but I must approve it.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Lexie
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
Beloved by Toni Morrison (324 pp.)
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened.
Black Boy by Richard Wright (448 pp.)
Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi amid poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot. Black Boy is Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (224 pp.)
Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (400 pp)
Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . .In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects the marriage proposal of the coffinmaker, a shocking series of events are set in motion–all of which lead back to Ruth and LuLing in modern San Francisco. The truth that Ruth learns from her mother’s past will forever change her perception of family, love, and forgiveness.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (584 pp.)
stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (288 pp.)
Aldous Huxley is rightly considered a prophetic genius and one of the most important literary and philosophical voices of the 20th Century, and Brave New World is his masterpiece. Brave New World remains absolutely relevant to this day as both a cautionary dystopian tale in the vein of the George Orwell classic 1984, and as thought-provoking, thoroughly satisfying entertainment.
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah (224 pp.)
In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (347 pp.)
Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters—one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South—who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.
Emmaby Jane Austen (419 pp)
Of all Austen's novels, Emma is the most consistently comic in tone. It centers on Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy, pretty, self-satisfied young woman who indulges herself
with meddlesome and unsuccessful attempts at matchmaking among her friends and neighbors.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan (259 pp.)
Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico--she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (280 pp.)
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who through a strangely unorthodox experiment creates a grotesque yet sentient being. Victor, repulsed by the thing that he has created, abandons the monster. The creature in turn saddened by this rejection, departs as well. What follows is a series of tragic events. In this novel Sh,elley draws upon the universal human themes of creation, the nature of existence, and the need for acceptance.
Go Tell it On the Mountain by John Grimes (240 pp.)
Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (354 pp.)
In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris. In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing from and meeting the demands of battle, Going After Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (356 pp.)
Wang Lung, a poor farmer in rural China, has recently reached the age for marrying. His father wants to find him a suitable wife and approaches the prosperous Hwang family to ask whether they can spare a slave for Wang Lung. Wang Lung's father insists that the woman be unattractive.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (464 pp.)
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression
chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of
California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.
The Hobbit by J.R. R. Tolkien (300 pp.)
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a
company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (304 pp.)
Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (448 pp.)
Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an
indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. However, there is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors.
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan (352 pp.)
in the 1920s, and other places in China during World War II, and traces the happy and desperate events that led to Winnie's coming to America in 1949.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards (401 pp.)
On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down?s Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever.
Memoirs of a Geisha (448 pp.)
Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it.
Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell (279 pp.)
"Thought Police." "Big Brother." "Orwellian." These words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man's nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.
Persuasionby Jane Austen(192 pp.)
Persuasion was written in 1815-1816, while Jane Austen was suffering from her fatal illness. She was still working on some revisions at the time of her death in 1817. The main character of the novel, Anne Elliot, is a 27-year-old 'spinster' who is intelligent and warm. Her father, Sir Walter Elliot, is a very vain man who, though a baronet, holder of a hereditary title, finds himself in dire financial straits and in risk of losing their home. Persuasion is a novel of second chances,
expectations of society, and the constancy of love.
A Prayer for Owen Meanie by John Irving (637 pp.)
This is the story of John Wheelwright's relationship with his childhood friend Owen Meany, a midget with a high, squeaky voice, whose life and death move John to have faith in God. Despite his size, Owen has a commanding presence that directs John's life.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (432 pp.)
A romantic and humorous love story, published anonymously, it centers on the turbulent relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman, and Fitzilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic landowner.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (320 pp.)
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, published on 25 April 1719. Robinson Crusoe lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America. Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, all the men perish but Crusoe. A castaway who spends years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, Crusoe encounters cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.
Gene Forrester is a quiet, intellectual student at the Devon School in New Hampshire. During the summer session of 1942, he becomes close friends with his daredevil roommate Finny, whose innate charisma consistently allows him to get away with mischief.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (215 pp.)
Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
Something Wicked This Way Comes – by Ray Bradbury - a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town one October, and how the boys learn about combatting fear.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (337 pp.)
Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (472 pp.)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” so begins Charles Dickens’s famous novel concerning the contentious time leading up to and during the French Revolution. In these first words Dickens exemplifies the dichotomous relationship that existed between the aristocracy and the lower classes of the time. It concerns the lives of Dr. Alexandre Manette, his daughter Lucie, who marries a French nobleman, Charles Darnay, and their close family friend, barrister Sydney Carton. Despite the union of Lucie and Darnay, Carton confesses his love to Lucie, declaring to “embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you,”
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (224 pp.)
Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
H.G. Wells, a pioneer in the science fiction genre, produced awesomely imaginative novels whose technologies seem impossibly sophisticated for a writer living in an era before automobiles and the widespread application of electricity. In this novel, Wells Time Traveler, a gentleman inventor living in England, traverses first thousands of years and then millions into the future, before bringing back the knowledge of the grave degeneration of the human race and the planet..
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (384 pp.)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (296 pp.)
Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a
Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (391 pp.)
This anti-slavery novel published in 1852, "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (278 pp.)
Esmeralda Santiago's story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby's soul to heaven. As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (272 pp.)