11th Grade LCA’s Summer Reading Requirement 2016-17
Purpose
The works of literature on the summer reading lists have been carefully selected to help prepare students for
subject matter they will encounter in their history and literature courses in the fall. Summer reading requires
independent reading outside of school, provides students with a shared experience that can serve as a reference
point for discussion and writing in the coming school year, and reinforces Lighthouse Christian Academy’s
mission to promote academic excellence.
Reading Materials
Each reading list has been designed to coincide with the history and literature curriculum of the indicated grade
level and to avoid overlap with literature that students may be assigned during the school year or may have
encountered in previous school years.
Incoming students in grades 9 through 12 will be required to read two books during the
summer: one book assigned by the faculty and one book of their choice from the reading list below. This
system allows students both structure and flexibility. Students should read unabridged, unedited editions.
Assessment/Grading
Students will be accountable for their summer reading according to teachers’ instructions. Assessments for
summer reading may include written assignments and/or oral presentations. You are required to have finished
reading before the first day of classes, but you are not required to write anything UNTIL the first week of class,
which is when we will discuss your WORKS READ and your assignments. The writing assignments will be due
about three weeks after school begins.
Fiction: (1) Character map with character descriptions (we will discuss in class the first week). (2) Plot
analysis, using Freytag’s pyramid as a reference. (3) Character analysis in relation to the roles they play and
how that helps advance the plot, theme, motifs, and lessons learned. (4) quizlet questions/test.
Nonfiction: (1) If memoir, the emotional truthfulness (2) If a biography or autobiography, the rhetorical
situation, and what was the experience, what was learned in relation to the worldview of the source? (3) If war
experiences or high-risk adventure, what were the external and internal conflicts, what were the “plot elements,”
what were the traumatic events, and what made the difference in a character’s survival? Chance, power,
intelligence, or luck? (4) Significance, Relevance according to the source.
Historical Fiction: (1) Rhetorical situation (2) How the rhetorical situation confines or liberates the writer’s
experience, voice, and tone (3) The primary conflicts and the degree to which they can or cannot be overcome.
(4) The short and long-term effects, significance, relevance, and implications for society at that time and
lingering effects or lessons for contemporary society. (5) If alternate views of history, how were things changed
as to the way they actually played out?
Policy for late enrollees
Students who enroll after August 1 are required to read one book.
11TH GRADE: All students must read Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and at least one book from the list below:
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letters from Jail
Iaian Murray, Jonathan Edwards
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Willa Cather, My Antonia
Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography
Laura Hillenbrand, UNBROKEN
Charles Colson, Born Again
William R Forstchen, One Second After
Doug Stanton, The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Prince and the Pauper
Plot summary: Killer Angels by Michael Shaara As the story begins, an eccentric, Shakespeare-quoting
Confederate spy named Harrison brings news to Generals Longstreet and Lee: the Union Army is close by.
They're totally taken by surprise, since their devil-may-care cavalry officer, Jeb Stuart, has left them in the dark.
Lee's troops, particularly a division led by a general named Harry Heth, accidentally get into a fight with Union
cavalry near the town of Gettysburg. The leader of that cavalry, John Buford, decides to try to hold the
Confederates off and buy time for the rest of the Union Army to arrive.
1. Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Plot summary: Having run up large debts, a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby faces the prospect
of losing everything he owns. Though he and his wife, Emily Shelby, have a kindhearted and
affectionate relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise money by selling two of his slaves to
Mr. Haley, a coarse slave trader. The slaves in question are Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife
and children on the farm, and Harry, the young son of Mrs. Shelby’s maid Eliza. When Shelby tells his
wife about his agreement with Haley, she is appalled because she has promised Eliza that Shelby would
not sell her son.
2. John F. Kennedy,
Profiles in Courage
Plot summary: "This is a book about that most admirable of human virtues-- courage. 'Grace under
pressure,' Ernest Hemingway defined it. And these are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight
United States Senators and the grace with which they endured them."-- John F. Kennedy
During 1954-1955, John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator, chose eight of his historical colleagues to
profile for their acts of astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. These heroes
include John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, and Robert A. Taft.
3. Margaret Mitchell,
Gone with the Wind
Plot summary: Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and one of the
most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and
its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the
Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their
words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, the whiteshouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only
conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the
most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.
4. Dee Brown,
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Plot Summary: Dee Brown’s history of the Indians in the American West. Brown presents a factual as
well as an emotional account of the relationship among the Indians, the American settlers, and the U.S.
government. The massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, provides
the backdrop for the narrative. In his introduction, Brown states the reason for his work. Thousands of
accounts about life in the American West of the late nineteenth century were written. Stories are told of
the traders, ranchers, wagon trains, gunfighters, and gold-seekers. Rarely is the voice of the Indian
heard. The pre-European occupant of the land was classified only as a hindrance to the spreading of
American civilization to the West Coast. In this book, Brown seeks to remedy the historical injustice
done to the Native American.
5. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Letters from Jail
Plot Summary: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is addressed to several clergymen who had written an
open letter criticizing the actions of Dr. Kingand the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
during their protests in Birmingham. Dr. King tells the clergymen that he was upset about their
criticisms, and that he wishes to address their concerns. First, he notes their claim that he is an
“outsider” who has come to Birmingham to cause trouble (170). He defends his right to be there in a
straightforward, unemotional tone, explaining that the SCLC is based in Atlanta but operates throughout
the South. One of its affiliates had invited the organization to Birmingham, which is why they came.
However, he then provides a moral reason for his presence, saying that he came to Birmingham to battle
“injustice.” Because he believes that “all communities and states” are interrelated, he feels compelled to
work for justice anywhere that injustice is being practiced. Dr. King believes the clergymen have erred
in criticizing the protestors without equally exploring the racist causes of the injustice that is being
protested (170-171).
6. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography
Plot Summary: Born 1706 in Boston, Benjamin Franklin was the 15th of his father's 17 children. He
went to school as a child with the intent of becoming a minister, as his father, Josiah, intended.
However, that idea was dropped after Franklin showed a keen interest in reading and writing. He was
apprenticed to his brother, James at a young age, but after fighting with his brother he quit the job and
moved to Philadelphia, where he worked for a man named Samuel Keimer. After befriending some
prominent political figures, including the royal Governor, Franklin left for England, where he spent 18
months working for a printer with his friend James Ralph, with whom he later became estranged.
Shortly after returning to America in 1726, Franklin formed a debating club called the Junto. Two years
later, he took over The Pennsylvania Gazette from Keimer and turned it into a successful publication
with tools from London.
7. Henry David Thoreau,
Walden
Plot Summary: In March, 1845, Thoreau decides to build a cabin by Walden Pond, near Concord,
Massachusetts, thus beginning his so-called “personal experiment.” His goal is to discover everything he
can about human nature; he thinks he can do this best when he doesn’t have to deal with normal worldly
concerns, like material goods and human society. The book is largely structured around seasonal
changes that Thoreau observes during his two years at Walden Pond.
8. Frederick Douglass,
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Plot Summary: Douglass’s life on this plantation is not as hard as that of most of the other slaves.
Being a child, he serves in the household instead of in the fields. At the age of seven, he is given to
Captain Anthony’s son-in-law’s brother, Hugh Auld, who lives in Baltimore.
9. Laura Hillenbrand,
UNBROKEN
Plot Summary: On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific
Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on
the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was
struggling to a life raft. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War. The
lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini.
10. Doug Stanton,
In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
Plot Summary: For many younger Americans, the story of the USS Indianapolis is a gruesome sidebar
in the film Jaws (1975), related by a grizzled sea captain to his fellow shark hunters to describe for them
the horrors of a shark attack. For older Americans, those whose memories include the waning days of
World War II, the sinking of the Indianapolis and the loss of over nine hundred men serves as a
cautionary tale and an indictment of the Navy’s standard operating procedures in the Pacific. In Harm’s
Way: The Sinking of the USS “Indianapolis” and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors, by
experienced journalist Doug Stanton, recounts the story in graphic, readable fashion for a new
generation.
11. William R. Forstchen,
One Second After.
Plot Summary: New York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which
can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small
North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the
Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).