Summer Reading
You might expect to hear about summer reading from the English Department, and indeed the Visiting Author program is generally their bailiwick. This year, however, our Visiting Author writes popular histories. I am pleased to announce that best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick will visit our campus on Tuesday, October 5th. In preparation for Mr. Philbrick’s visit, our entire community will read his Mayflower, A Story of Courage, Community and War this summer.
In reviewing Mayflower, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Yardley observed: “We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. But if Mayflower achieves the wide readership it deserves, perhaps a few Americans will be moved to reconsider all that.” The New York Times’ Janet Maslin adds “The author's view of [Benjamin] Church [an important figure in King Philip’s War] is one of many reasons that Mayflower is as fine a conversation piece as it is a work of scholarship. Another aspect destined to be much discussed is the mythmaking process that turned the previously unknown Plymouth Rock into a tourist attraction and turned Thanksgiving into a celebration of Pilgrim-Indian harmony. That in itself is reason to be riveted by Philbrick's retelling.” Clearly, Mayflower will provide entertaining and thought-provoking summer reading material, and knowing that you will have the opportunity to meet Mr. Philbrick in the fall should make your summer reading even more interesting.
While Mayflower is the only required Philbrick work, I highly recommend his In the Heart of the Sea, a National Book Award winning work about the whale ship Essex, which was attacked by a whale and sunk in the South Pacific, and his latest work, The Last Stand, which deals with the final campaign of a certain well-known 19th century cavalry officer. Also, the History Department will be creating a web site with links to primary source documents and other materials that will be necessary in preparing for an assessment in September. Watch for a link on avonoldfarms.com.
As you read the material at the top of the enclosed "Required Summer Reading List," (
.pdf) you will learn that you will be evaluated on your summer reading. By preparing well this summer, you will be ready to excel on the first evaluations of the school year. Here are some tips that will help you enjoy your reading and perform commendably on the tests:
- Pick out a great place to read-perhaps a local park, a lounge chair under your favorite tree, or a comfortable chair in your home.
- Determine a set time to read each day-perhaps on a lunch break at work, during that quiet hour before/after dinner, or at night when the rest of the family has quieted down.
- Savor the opportunity to learn about people, places, things, and events that are new to you.
- Slow down. Don't be in a hurry. Feel free to go back and re-read.
- Periodically, stop and jot down notes. Include in your notes a list of characters with brief descriptions, a chronology of events, your emotional responses, and what you think the author is revealing about a particular society, life in general, human relationships, or human behavior. These notes will be a saving grace when you need to review on the night before the test-after all, it is foolish to expect yourself to remember in September the details of what you read in June, July, and August.
Of course, your teachers and I encourage you to read more than the "required" summer reading. To help you choose further reading, members of the English Department have considered what books might be especially appealing to Avon boys and assembled those titles with book descriptions on three lists. Please select from the following to choose books to read from the "High Interest," "Back to Classics," and "Historical Novels" (.pdf) suggested reading lists.
I wish you many enjoyable hours of reading.
Sincerely,
Arthur Custer
History Department Chairman
Important Downloads(.pdf):
2010 Summer Reading List, High Interest Books, Back to Classics, Historical Novels
