Cleveland Heights High School Library
Summer Reading

Ninth Grade English 1 and Read 180
Summer 2010

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Expectations for Cleveland Heights High School students:
  • Summer Reading is a District Wide initiative and NOT EXTRA CREDIT.
  • Students entering the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District within seven days prior to the start of school will be given additional time to complete the required work.
  • Incomplete reader response questions will be given the score of zero.
  • Summer Reading grades will be calculated in to your first quarter grade.

Directions: All incoming ninth graders enrolled in English 1 or Read 180 will choose ONE of the following two texts:
I.
Title
Author
  The First Part Last Johnson, Angela
  The Secret Life of Bees Kidd, Sue Monk
II. Required Assignment
  All students will complete reader's response questions as they read either selection.

The written responses are due Wednesday, September 1, 2010.
  A. The First Part Last Reader's Response Questions and Tasks. Click here for a printable version of the Reader's Response Questions for The First Part Last.

Please select SIX of the following prompts. Compose at least one well developed paragraph consisting of a main idea or topic sentence and several detailed supporting sentences for each of the selected prompts.
Use evidence from the novel to support and develop your observations. Respond to each question as completely as possible and make sure to include a direct passage (using quotation marks) for each of the six responses.
These responses should reflect careful thought and use evidence from the novel to support and develop your observations.
    1. What role models did Bobby have to enable him to be so emotionally responsible?
    2. Think of one question you would like to ask Angela Johnson about the writing of this book.
    3. Explain the sequence of events that lead Feather to be placed in Bobby’s custody.
    4. What do you think makes Bobby so different from the “typical” teenage boy?
    5. What are the traits Bobby sees in Nia that make her stand out to him?
    6. Explain why that “sweet baby smell” scares Bobby.
    7. Who was “just Frank” and what impression does he make on Bobby?
    8. What are Zack’s goals? Why do Zack’s goals make Lily uncomfortable?
    9. What assumptions does Bobby make about his British Literature teacher? What do the assumptions say about Bobby?
    10. How do J.L. and K-Boy react when Bobby tells them that Nia is pregnant?
    11. What is different about Bobby’s father “Pops”?
    12. What do you think of K-Boy? Why is K-Boy friends with Bobby?
    13. What does the line “We sit at a round table, but none of us are Knights” mean?
    14. What attracts Bobby to Ohio after making his decision about Feather? What are the variables that make it tough for Bobby to figure out what “the right thing” is?
    15. What effect does the “then” and “now” structure have upon the telling of the story?
    16. How do you think Bobby feels when Nia talks about her mother’s plans for adoption and/or sending Nia to Georgia?
    17. How do you think Bobby feels when people assume Feather is his sister?
    18. Why do you think the chapter relating Bobby’s arrest for graffiti is placed right before “the fairy tale day”?
    19. Which scene stands out most in your mind about the novel? In general, were you able to create mental pictures of the action?
    20. What impact does the listing of all Feather’s baby items have upon the reader?
   
-OR-
  B. The Secret Life of Bees Reader’s Response Questions and Tasks  Click here for a printable version of the Reader's Response Questions for The Secret Life of Bees..

Select SIX of the following prompts. Compose at least one well developed paragraph consisting of a main idea or topic sentence and detailed supporting sentences for each of the selected prompts.
Use evidence from the novel to support and develop your observations. Respond to each question as completely as possible and make sure to include a direct passage (using quotation marks) for each of the six responses. These responses should reflect careful thought.
You can expect that teachers may also request additional writing, projects, quizzes, or discussion based upon your reading.
    1. How is August the “Queen Bee”?
    2. Explain how the quotes about the life of bees are designed to symbolize events in the story?
    3. What does August see in Lily to make her the apprentice “Queen Bee”?
    4. What does the image of the Black Madonna represent to Lily, May, August and June?
    5. What is the sign Lily asks May to request from her mother to prove she has loved Lily?
    6. What are some clues that August knows more about Lily’s story than she lets on?
    7. What causes May to drown herself? If you had been there that night, what would you have done?
   
8.
 What is wrong with T-Ray? Can you make a guess about why he acts as he does?
   
9.
 How would you describe what is wrong with May? What event from her past has contributed to her condition?
   
10.
 Why does June resent Lily so much? What event breaks down the wall of mistrust?
   
11.
 What causes Deborah Fontenel to abandon Lily? Is Lily able to forgive this?
   
12.
 Why does June continue to reject Neil? Why is May so against June’s rejection of Neil?
   
13.
 Explain the function of the “wailing wall” May builds. From where does the idea come?
   
14.
 What famous celebrity plans to visit Tibouron? Why do the townspeople organize to disrupt the celebrity’s activity?
   
15.
 How does T-Ray find Lily? Describe the sequence of events that causes T-Ray to allow Lily to stay.
   
16.
 Talk about an instance where literature and references to literature are used to make a point in the story.
   
17.
 How would you describe the way in which Lily, as the narrator, speaks to the reader? What sort of assumptions does Lily make about the reader?
   
18.
 Would this story have seemed different if it were set in the 90s, or in New Hampshire, or during winter? How does the story’s unique setting add to the themes?
   
19.
 Does Lily seem like a believable character to you? Find proof to support your answer.
   
20.
 Why do you think Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel became so successful? Provide one specific reason you think this novel works.
   
21.
 Is there anything about the author’s background that might have led to her writing about the topics or themes of the novel?
   
22.
 What would you have done if you were Rosaleen being “dissed” by the three racists?
   
23.
 What would you have done if you were Lily witnessing the racist incident?
       
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