AP12: English Literature and Composition
Senior AP English Literature
Summer Reading Assignment
During the summer, you must read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa and another book from the list below. Be prepared to take an objective test and write an in-class essay on both novels during the first two days of school. If you read the books early in the summer, be sure to review and study for the objective test before you return to school. It is not acceptable to argue that you are not prepared for the test/did not do well on the test because you “read the books so long ago.” It is great that you read the books early in the summer, but you must be prepared to demonstrate your understanding of the texts during in-class discussions and on written assessments.
Suggestions for critical reading:
- What is the author’s/text’s message? What does the author/text want the reader to discover about society or individuals?
- Look at the style of the text. Think about how the style helps convey the message of the work.
- Find examples of symbolism, allusion, and other literary techniques. Think about why the author uses these. How do they help convey the meaning of the work as a whole?
- Look at the narrative structure. Is the text linear/chronological? Is the story told using flashbacks? Think about how narrative structure informs meaning.
- Look at the minor and major characters. What is their purpose in the novel? How are their names significant?
- Look at the narration. Who is telling the story? Is a character in the novel or a third party telling the story? Is the narrator reliable; if not, how does the unreliability of the narrator contribute to the meaning of the work?
Please chose one of the following novels for your second text:
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Never Let Me Go or Remains of the Day by Kazua Ishiguro
- The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri
- Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
- Waiting by Ha Jin
- A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Saturday by Ian McEwan
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
- The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
