'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings'
oneSummer Reading/Writing Assignment Due August 17, 2010
Directions: From the list below, choose two books to read over the summer. In all of the following novels and autobiographies, the protagonists are struggling to find their place in the world. They want to understand their role and their purpose as human beings as they prepare to enter the adult world. (Note: If you decide to choose a graphic novel from the list, the other selection should be a novel or autobiography.)
Write a well-developed, multi-paragraph response to literature essay in which you compare and contrast the two works you’ve chosen to read. Remember, when you compare two things, you tell how they are alike. When you contrast them, you tell how they are different. …show more content…
On her first day of high school, Melinda Sordino finds herself excluded from every clique in school due to the events of the previous summer- the details of which she only reveals slowly to the reader.
*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou.
Written at the end of American Civil Rights movement, this autobiography explores the isolation and loneliness faced by Angelou, and the attributes of her character that helped her cope with the prejudices of society.
*Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous.
This book claims to be the actual diary of an anonymous teenage girl who died of a drug overdose in the late 1960s.
*Very Le Freak, by Rachel Cohn.
Very Le Freak is a party girl, gadget geek, and totally self-absorbed. When sent to rehab to overcome her destructive behaviors, she begins to realize who she really is.
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky.
This story takes place in a suburb of Pittsburgh during the 1991-1992 school year, when Charlie is a high school freshman. Charlie is the wallflower of the novel. He is an nconventional thinker, and as the story begins he is shy and unpopular.
*The Chocolate War, by Robert …show more content…
*By the Time You Read This I’ll be Dead, by Julie Anne Peters.
Determined to get her death right this time, Daelyn Rice logs onto a website for “completers” and starts the countdown of the last 23 days of her life. *The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.
The novel is semi-autobiographical detailing protagonist's descent into mental illness paralleling Plath's own experiences with what may have been either bipolar disorder or clinical depression. Plath committed suicide a month after its first publication.
*King Dork, by Frank Portman.
The storyline follows a disillusioned teenager named Tom Henderson as he attempts to survive the daily sadism of high school, understand the opposite sex, start a band, and find some answers about his father's mysterious death.
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok.
This is a classic novel about two teenage Jewish boys who form a friendship, though they come from very different worlds.
The Book of Khalid, by Ameen Rihani.
The novel, which is intensely autobiographical as Rihani himself immigrated as a child, tells the story of two boys, named Khalid and Shakib, from Lebanon who migrate together to the United
Directions: From the list below, choose two books to read over the summer. In all of the following novels and autobiographies, the protagonists are struggling to find their place in the world. They want to understand their role and their purpose as human beings as they prepare to enter the adult world. (Note: If you decide to choose a graphic novel from the list, the other selection should be a novel or autobiography.)
Write a well-developed, multi-paragraph response to literature essay in which you compare and contrast the two works you’ve chosen to read. Remember, when you compare two things, you tell how they are alike. When you contrast them, you tell how they are different. …show more content…
On her first day of high school, Melinda Sordino finds herself excluded from every clique in school due to the events of the previous summer- the details of which she only reveals slowly to the reader.
*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou.
Written at the end of American Civil Rights movement, this autobiography explores the isolation and loneliness faced by Angelou, and the attributes of her character that helped her cope with the prejudices of society.
*Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous.
This book claims to be the actual diary of an anonymous teenage girl who died of a drug overdose in the late 1960s.
*Very Le Freak, by Rachel Cohn.
Very Le Freak is a party girl, gadget geek, and totally self-absorbed. When sent to rehab to overcome her destructive behaviors, she begins to realize who she really is.
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky.
This story takes place in a suburb of Pittsburgh during the 1991-1992 school year, when Charlie is a high school freshman. Charlie is the wallflower of the novel. He is an nconventional thinker, and as the story begins he is shy and unpopular.
*The Chocolate War, by Robert …show more content…
*By the Time You Read This I’ll be Dead, by Julie Anne Peters.
Determined to get her death right this time, Daelyn Rice logs onto a website for “completers” and starts the countdown of the last 23 days of her life. *The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.
The novel is semi-autobiographical detailing protagonist's descent into mental illness paralleling Plath's own experiences with what may have been either bipolar disorder or clinical depression. Plath committed suicide a month after its first publication.
*King Dork, by Frank Portman.
The storyline follows a disillusioned teenager named Tom Henderson as he attempts to survive the daily sadism of high school, understand the opposite sex, start a band, and find some answers about his father's mysterious death.
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok.
This is a classic novel about two teenage Jewish boys who form a friendship, though they come from very different worlds.
The Book of Khalid, by Ameen Rihani.
The novel, which is intensely autobiographical as Rihani himself immigrated as a child, tells the story of two boys, named Khalid and Shakib, from Lebanon who migrate together to the United