Summer Reading Assignments 2018
Grade 9
Reading: Upper School Summer Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Poem: "On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” by John Keats
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
*****
Grade 10
Reading: Upper School Summer Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Piece to memorize: excerpt from Henry V by William Shakespeare:
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
*****
Grade 11
Reading: Upper School Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Additional book for AP English Language and Composition: Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writings,
by Flannery O’Connor, ed. by Robert Ellsberg (book available from Mrs. Walsh)
Poem: “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
*****
Grade 12
Reading: Upper School Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Additional book for AP English Literature and Composition: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, trans. Oliver Ready (book available from Mrs. Walsh; must use this
translation)
Poem: excerpt from “Little Gidding,” The Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
Grade 12 only: “Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your
transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.” Answer this or a
Common Application prompt of your choice in a 250-500 word essay. Your essay is due to Mrs. Walsh
at the beginning of English class on the first day of school.
*****
Upper School Summer Reading Group Selections
(Students have selected their groups through Mrs. Walsh; please contact her if you don’t have a group or have questions:
[email protected].)
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
In This House of Brede is an intimate exploration of daily life in a cloistered Benedictine
community. Spanning a time period of great societal change, In This House of Brede draws out
themes of beauty, sacrifice, community, piety, and joy. The reader is invited into both the rich
interior life of women in various stages of religious life and into the impact of the closed
community on the wider world.
*********************************************************************************************
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa
Volokhonsky) and The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
These two books seek to find the meaning of life in a post-Christian world. Notes From
Underground asks the question and The Man Who Was Thursday struggles to find the answer.
*********************************************************************************************
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Howards End by E.M. Forster
*It is a truth universally acknowledged that … a Brookewood girl in possession of a summer
vacation must be in want of a book.* From its famous first line to its conclusion, Pride and
Prejudice, a keenly observed sometimes satirical story of love, family life, and society, is considered
one of the masterpieces of English literature. Howards End, like Austen’s novel, treats figures
across the strata of English society with compassion and wit, but is written roughly a hundred
years later. It can be Jane Austen Day…all summer long!
*********************************************************************************************
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton
Wilder.
North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell, tells the story of Margaret Hale, a young woman who
uproots from her idyllic life is southern England to live in an industrial northern city of cotton
mill owners and impoverished mill workers. Margaret encounters the social complexity of the
city through the relationships she forms - especially with the mill owner John Thornton - as
tension between the mill owners and workers comes to a head.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder, begins with the collapse of a bridge in Peru,
causing the death of five people. An eyewitness to the tragedy asks, “Why those five?” and sets out
to try and explain the meaning of the life and death of each person who died.
*********************************************************************************************
Nathan Coulter and Hannah Coulter are two books by Wendell Berry
Nathan Coulter is Berry's first book in the series on a fictional town called Port William, Kentucky.
The novel is through the eyes of Nathan. It is about duty, community, and his love of the land.
Hannah Coulter is Nathan's wife. In the book, Hannah Coulter, Hannah recounts the love she has
for the land and for her community and how it is threatened by 20th century technology.
The two novels look at similar experiences through the eyes of a man and woman and through
them gives us Berry's attempt to honor the place where has lived.
*********************************************************************************************
Grades 9 and 10 only
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The fantasy and mythology of Tolkien’s Middle earth are indeed marvelous and engaging but
the book is not merely fantastical. Through its story, themes about human nature and the drama
of life emerge: sin & redemption, loyalty & unfaithfulness, power, fear, and most especially
friendship. How can nine companions dare to undertake a mission so perilous that not even an
entire army could hope to succeed? Only because of their fellowship. The Fellowship of the Ring
provokes us to contemplate the real power of friendship.
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, is semi-historical fiction, set in the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s
When drought, death, and raging dust storms strike Billy Jo’s family farm, this young farm girl
longs only to run away and escape. Slowly, she learns that dust and drought do not rob her of
happiness, but rather her own bitterness does. She discovers a surprising yet simple way that life
can bear fruit, even in a drought.
Reading: Upper School Summer Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Poem: "On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” by John Keats
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
*****
Grade 10
Reading: Upper School Summer Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Piece to memorize: excerpt from Henry V by William Shakespeare:
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
*****
Grade 11
Reading: Upper School Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Additional book for AP English Language and Composition: Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writings,
by Flannery O’Connor, ed. by Robert Ellsberg (book available from Mrs. Walsh)
Poem: “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
*****
Grade 12
Reading: Upper School Reading Groups, as assigned (see below)
Additional book for AP English Literature and Composition: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, trans. Oliver Ready (book available from Mrs. Walsh; must use this
translation)
Poem: excerpt from “Little Gidding,” The Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
Grade 12 only: “Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your
transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.” Answer this or a
Common Application prompt of your choice in a 250-500 word essay. Your essay is due to Mrs. Walsh
at the beginning of English class on the first day of school.
*****
Upper School Summer Reading Group Selections
(Students have selected their groups through Mrs. Walsh; please contact her if you don’t have a group or have questions:
[email protected].)
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
In This House of Brede is an intimate exploration of daily life in a cloistered Benedictine
community. Spanning a time period of great societal change, In This House of Brede draws out
themes of beauty, sacrifice, community, piety, and joy. The reader is invited into both the rich
interior life of women in various stages of religious life and into the impact of the closed
community on the wider world.
*********************************************************************************************
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa
Volokhonsky) and The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
These two books seek to find the meaning of life in a post-Christian world. Notes From
Underground asks the question and The Man Who Was Thursday struggles to find the answer.
*********************************************************************************************
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Howards End by E.M. Forster
*It is a truth universally acknowledged that … a Brookewood girl in possession of a summer
vacation must be in want of a book.* From its famous first line to its conclusion, Pride and
Prejudice, a keenly observed sometimes satirical story of love, family life, and society, is considered
one of the masterpieces of English literature. Howards End, like Austen’s novel, treats figures
across the strata of English society with compassion and wit, but is written roughly a hundred
years later. It can be Jane Austen Day…all summer long!
*********************************************************************************************
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton
Wilder.
North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell, tells the story of Margaret Hale, a young woman who
uproots from her idyllic life is southern England to live in an industrial northern city of cotton
mill owners and impoverished mill workers. Margaret encounters the social complexity of the
city through the relationships she forms - especially with the mill owner John Thornton - as
tension between the mill owners and workers comes to a head.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder, begins with the collapse of a bridge in Peru,
causing the death of five people. An eyewitness to the tragedy asks, “Why those five?” and sets out
to try and explain the meaning of the life and death of each person who died.
*********************************************************************************************
Nathan Coulter and Hannah Coulter are two books by Wendell Berry
Nathan Coulter is Berry's first book in the series on a fictional town called Port William, Kentucky.
The novel is through the eyes of Nathan. It is about duty, community, and his love of the land.
Hannah Coulter is Nathan's wife. In the book, Hannah Coulter, Hannah recounts the love she has
for the land and for her community and how it is threatened by 20th century technology.
The two novels look at similar experiences through the eyes of a man and woman and through
them gives us Berry's attempt to honor the place where has lived.
*********************************************************************************************
Grades 9 and 10 only
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The fantasy and mythology of Tolkien’s Middle earth are indeed marvelous and engaging but
the book is not merely fantastical. Through its story, themes about human nature and the drama
of life emerge: sin & redemption, loyalty & unfaithfulness, power, fear, and most especially
friendship. How can nine companions dare to undertake a mission so perilous that not even an
entire army could hope to succeed? Only because of their fellowship. The Fellowship of the Ring
provokes us to contemplate the real power of friendship.
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, is semi-historical fiction, set in the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s
When drought, death, and raging dust storms strike Billy Jo’s family farm, this young farm girl
longs only to run away and escape. Slowly, she learns that dust and drought do not rob her of
happiness, but rather her own bitterness does. She discovers a surprising yet simple way that life
can bear fruit, even in a drought.