10th_Summer Reading_2009 - Friends' Central School

these stories? What influence does the choice of form (documentary/participant vs.
fictional re-creation) have on the impact of the stories themselves?
7. There is a Quaker saying, “Let your life speak.” What do the lives Ehrenreich and
Steinbeck depict in these texts “speak” to us? What do these stories in particular reveal
about the nature and value of storytelling?
FRIENDS’ CENTRAL SCHOOL 2009 OPTIONAL SUMMER READING
Many teachers, not just English teachers, like to read and talk about books—and many different
kinds of books, not just the kind that occur to English teachers to select, are stimulating and
enjoyable. You’ll find 28 books listed below, each with the name of a recommending teacher
attached. We’re confident that we’ve come up with something for everyone. Choose one of
these books and read it. When we come back to school in the fall, we’ll organize book
discussion groups—about a class block in length—where you can talk about the book with the
teacher who recommended it and the other students in 10 th , 11 th , and 12 th grade who chose to
read it. Make sure you have a few things to say about the book when your group meets—and
have a great summer, both while you’re reading and while you’re not!
This year’s choices (select one):
Please choose a new book—do not read a book you read for this project in previous years.
1. Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller Mme.
Ostroff-Weinberg
From books.google.com:
In Vichy France in 1942, eight men and a boy are seized by the collaborationist authorities and
made to wait in a building that may be a police station. Some of them are Jews. All of them have
something to hide-- if not from the Nazis, then from their fellow detainees and, inevitably, from
themselves. For in this claustrophobic antechamber to the death camps, everyone is guilty. And
perhaps none more so than those who can walk away alive. In Incident at Vichy, Arthur Miller
re-creates Dante's hell inside the gaping pit that is our history and populates it with sinners
whose crimes are all the more fearful because they are so recognizable.
2. Q & A by Vikas Swarup
Dr. Patterson
The novel that inspired the 2008 Best Picture, “Slumdog Millionaire.” The hero, Ram
Mohammad Thomas, poor and ill-educated, becomes the winner on an Indian version of "Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire" and is catapulted to fame. He is also accused of cheating, since it