Baltimore City College High School

Summer Reading

MYP English I and MYP Humanities

Welcome to City and your first chance to show that you’re ready to be a City Knight! All 9^th grade students entering City College must complete summer reading. Read the assigned texts carefully and complete the assignments described below. During Summer Bridge, you will be required to submit these assignments and complete additional activities. Then, at the beginning of the school year, you will turn in projects based on your summer reading to your English and Humanities teachers.

The assignments below reflect both active reading and attention to the five Areas of Interactions that are central to the IB Middle Years Program: Approaches to Learning, Health and Social Education, Environments, Community, and Human Ingenuity. Each book below has been carefully selected to connect to course themes and skills, as well as be a text that can be enjoyed and analyzed by students independently. We encourage parents and adult mentors to read along and discuss summer works with students. We also encourage students to read for pleasure beyond the assigned works.

Remember, reading throughout the year is critical for students’ development as readers and thinkers, with results that can be reflected in everything from vocabulary development to improved performance on standardized tests like the SAT. Therefore, summer reading is mandatory and an integral component of the City curriculum. Should you have any questions, please direct them to Mr. Miazga (English) at mr.miazga@gmail.com or Mr. Hirsch (Humanities) at PeterHirsch99@yahoo.com.

1. All Subjects: All entering 9^th grade students must read this book

Book	Description	Assignment (Due at the beginning of Summer Bridge)
A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey by Ron Suskind	As an honor student walking the gauntlet of sneers and threats at his crime-infested high school in Washington, D.C., Cedric Jennings achieved the impossible: a 4.02 grade-point average and acceptance into Brown University. Suskind won a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for his stories about Jennings and now expands them into this full-length, nonfiction narrative. This is also the “One State, One Book” selection for the state of Maryland in 2008!	As you read, keep a reading journal that addresses the following topics. Make sure to address all the questions and proofread. Each journal entry should be 2-3 pages, typed and double-spaced in Times New Roman font. Topic #1: Approaches to Learning Throughout their lives, people learn both in school and out of school. As you read, take notes about how Cedric approaches his education, in terms of strategies, attitudes, and motivations. How must he adjust once he goes to college? How do your own strategies, attitudes, and motivations to learn compare to Cedric’s and how do you think they might change (or have to change) once you begin high school? Topic #2: The Importance of Sacrifice in a Person’s Health and Social Education Cedric, as well as his mother, make numerous sacrifices throughout the book. Do you think they were worth it? Would you have done the same things? How do Cedric’s sacrifices compare to the sacrifices made in your life? What sacrifices are you willing to make in high school to achieve your goals later in life?

2. MYP English I: All students must choose ONE book from the following international selections:

Book	Description	Assignment (Due at the beginning of Summer Bridge)
Chanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton (Africa)	The statistics of the millions infected with HIV/AIDS in southern Africa find a human face in this gripping story of one teenager, Chanda Kabele, who sees the disease threaten her family and community.	During Summer Bridge, you will engage in activities and discussions based on your chosen book. To prepare, come to Summer Bridge with a reading journal with a list of all important characters and descriptions, plus the following three journal entries: 1. After you have read about half of the novel, write one page explaining what you are learning about the cultural setting of the novel. Describe what has surprised, intrigued, confused, or upset you. How is the setting similar to that of Baltimore; what connections can you make between the setting of the novel and your own? 2. After you finish the book, write one page explaining what you think the theme, or central idea, of the book might be. What was the most important lesson that you learned from this book? Would you recommend this lesson to others? Explain your answers. 3. Choose one of the following questions, based on the Areas of Interaction: A) How do the characters’ environment (the physical things that surround them) affect their lives and behavior? B) How do the characters’ community (the people that surround them) influence their lives and behavior? C) How do the characters’ ingenuity (creativeness, resourcefulness) shape their lives? Are there any man-made creations that affect the lives of the characters? Do these creations have a positive or negative effect? During Summer Bridge, you will receive another assignment based on your book that will be due on the first day of school, so be sure to keep your assignments and bring your books!
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (China)	This exciting novella tracks the lives of two teens, childhood friends who have been sent to a small Chinese village for "re-education" during Mao's Cultural Revolution.
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti)	After twelve years of being raised in Haiti by her aunt, young Sophie Caco has been summoned by her mother to join her in New York. A haunting coming-of-age story.
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (Australia)	Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands.

3. MYP Humanities: All students must choose ONE book from the following selections

Book	Description	Assignment (Due at the beginning of Summer Bridge)
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card	Science fiction classic about a child genius living in a futuristic society who is burdened with the task of saving the Earth from a race of marauding aliens. Unfortunately, the more he learns about humanity and the alien race, the more he begins to think that destruction may be inevitable.	During Summer Bridge, you will engage in activities and discussions based on your chosen book. To prepare, come to Summer Bridge with a reading journal with a list of all important characters and descriptions, plus the following two journal entries: 1. A 250-400 word summary of the novel. This should be written in your own words and should NOT be based upon any other summary that you may find on the novel. Please include a word count at the end. 2. A 300-500 word essay that compares and contrasts a character in the novel you chose and a character in A Hope of the Unseen. Compare and contrast how each character solves problems. Compare and contrast the cultural expectations of success in each character’s environment and each character’s effort to achieve his/ her own goals. During Summer Bridge you will receive additional work that will be due on the first day of school so be sure to keep your assignments and to bring your books!
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo	A young shepherd is sent on a quest to find treasure. To follow this quest he has to give up everything he values and cares about in the hopes of attaining a treasure of surprising content.
When I was a Soldier By Valerie Zenatti	In this right of passage memoir, Valerie Zenatti chronicles two years of compulsory military service in the Israeli army.