Independent Reading: 3rd Marking Period - Winter 2009 (200 points)

DUE Friday, March 13, 2009

You may choose one of the following books below to use for your independent reading paper for the third marking period (or run the title of your choice by me for approval - no middle school books, please! You are too grown for that stuff…):

The Odyssey by Homer
Full text can be found at http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.mb.txt

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Full text can be found at http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/canterbury/

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Full text can be found at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/131/131-h/131-h.htm

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
You may borrow Ms. Kingsbury’s copy of this book if you are interested in reading about a group of African American boys who end up fighting in the Vietnam War.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Full text can be found at http://ia331330.us.archive.org/0/items/grapesofwrath030650mbp/
grapesofwrath030650mbp_djvu.txt - this is a beautifully moving novel about migrant workers of the Great Depression - highly recommended and extremely useful for the AP Exam!

Gulliver’s Travels by Johnathan Swift
Full text can be found at http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/50/93/frameset.html

On the Road by Jack Kerouac
This book will change your life!! It changed mine. Get a taste of it at http://books.google.com/books?id=4w1vQRkAVxYC&pg=PR32&dq=kerouac+on+the+road+full+text&client=firefox-a#PPA1,M1

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Awesome book! Get a preview of it at http://books.google.com/books?id=zx4PL3- NAiQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+things+they+carried&client=firefox-a#PPA6,M1

Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
This is my most favorite book in the whole entire world. If you ask really nicely, I may let you borrow my treasured copy. Get a preview at http://books.google.com/books?id=O-Z1-eAQzPIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=still+life+with+woodpecker&client=firefox-a#PPA19,M1

YOUR PAPER TOPICS: Choose one from below OR do both for double the points:

From the 1997 AP Exam: Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit. AVOID MERE PLOT SUMMARY.

From the 1991 AP Exam: Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work. AVOID MERE PLOT SUMMARY.

Remember! Meaning of the work = theme!!!