Advanced Placement English IV- Literature and Composition

Contemporary Novel List
Choose one for your essay but feel free to read as many as you wish. I highly recommend ALL
of these novels. They are very different so I suggest you take a look at each one at a library,
bookstore or at www.amazon.com before you make your choice.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
An in-depth exploration of Afghan society in the three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban cruelty,
centered around the lives and experiences of two Afghani women.
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
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.
Old School by Tobias Wolff
A scholarship boy at a New England prep school grapples with literary ambition and insecurity in this lucid,
deceptively sedate novel, set in the early 1960s and narrated by the unnamed protagonist from the vantage point of
adulthood.
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades
in postcolonial Africa.
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
An exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a
terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Told through the eyes of "Milkman," a rare male protagonist in Morrison's wonderful catalog of unforgettable
characters, the reader discovers a century's worth of secrets, ghosts, and troubles.
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
A profound and darkly realistic chronicle of one family's hubristic heyday and its fall from grace.
All of these novels are available at your local library or at any Barnes & Noble or on amazon.com.
Feeling super motivated?
You will be required to complete “Novel Notes” for your contemporary novel and for Lord of the Flies.
You may find it best to do this while reading the novels or immediately after you finish them.
Completing these assignments before school starts will save you time during the hectic first few weeks
of the school year. The Novel Notes template can be found on our class Moodle site. Email me if you
have any questions.
And finally…how will this assignment impact your grade?
This summer assignment is your first grade in AP English Literature. The grade will be composed of
your Foster journal (50%), contemporary essay (40%) and Novel Notes (10%). In addition, you will
write an in-class essay about Lord of the Flies. All told, the summer assignments are roughly onequarter
of your first marking period grade. Make it an A! J
Want to be a better writer? Read, read and then read some more.
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