AP Seniors
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Summer Assignment
Assignments and Grades
General Resources
Invisible Man
Heart of Darkness
Beloved
Shakespeare Resources
Poetry Resources
Literary Periods - Resources
Literary Criticism Resources
British and Irish Writers
American Writers
Women Writers
African American Writers
Gothic Writers
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AP Resources
Letter of Recommendation
Please forward completed form as an attachment. Thank you.
Novels (for fun) (not required)
This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept,
a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian
with "Chrono Displacement" disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without
warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in
his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife,
Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she'd known him
all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already
married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare's childhood and meeting
her as a 6-year-old. The book alternates between Henry and Clare's points of view, and so
does the narration. Reed ably expresses the longing of the one always left behind, the
frustrations of their unusual lifestyle, and above all, her overriding love for Henry. Likewise,
Burns evokes the fear of a man who never knows where or when he'll turn up, and his
gratitude at having Clare, whose love is his anchor.
The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation.
And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal
storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a
lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who
one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to
literally follow his dream.
Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash,
a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing,
and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their
teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive
vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers,
it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner.
Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his
emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as
deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work.
Things to Know About Journal Conferencing
Things to Know About Journal Conferencing