“Find the beginning.”

—The Odyssey

Dear Students,

Welcome to the Heschel High School!  We can’t wait to sit down with you and a good book to begin the four-year conversation we will have together.  

In this course, we will be embarking on a quest to explore what it means to belong, to leave home, and to return. Homer’s The Odyssey, a story about an incredible, life-changing journey, will open the year. In preparation for this text, we’d like you to brush up on your Greek mythology over the summer. Please read the following sections of Edith Hamilton’s classic work Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes: Part One  I - The Gods;  II - The Two Great Gods of Earth; Part Four I - The Trojan War; II - The Fall of Troy; III - The Adventures of Odysseus;  Part Five I - The House of Atreus.

Note: there are two editions of this book available - a paperback, ISBN 978-0446574754, and a hardcover, ISBN 978-0316438520. If you love mythology, we encourage you to get the hardcover edition; it will be a wonderful reference for your whole high school career!

In addition to the sections of Mythology, we would like you to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. This wonderful and gripping novel will set the stage for the conversations about identity and growing up we’ll have throughout the year. 

Finally, please read one of the following choice books. Check out the first few pages of each on Google Books or Amazon, and read the synopses. Choose one that excites you: 

• Born A Crime (Trevor Noah)

• Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler) 

• Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)

• Song of Achilles (Madeleine Miller)

Writing homework:   Bring the following completed assignment with you to school on the first day to submit in hard copy to your teacher.   Print out the attached sheets, linked below, to complete the assignment; you can either type it or handwrite it. 

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1. For Hamilton’s Mythology:  

Complete these two family trees, one for the Greek gods and one for the House of Atreus.   These two simple family trees will help you keep track of names and relationships and have this information at the ready in the fall. 

2. For The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time AND your choice text, in preparation for the kind of close reading that is a hallmark of a Heschel English education, please complete the tables on the attached sheet by

• Citing a passage in the text that stood out to you as beautifully written or moving, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

• Citing a passage that confused or challenged you, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it..

• Citing a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.

• Listing (at least) two questions that each book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

We look forward to meeting you and ushering you into your exciting journey through high school as scholars and lovers of English. Until then, we wish you a wonderful summer!

Happy Reading, 

Penny Ratcliffe, Michaela Krauser, Stefan Dorosz, Ally Setton and David Karpel

Dear Students,

Congratulations on completing your freshman year! In preparation for tenth grade English, please read The Prince of Los Cocuyos, a memoir by Richard Blanco. Please read this text towards the end of the summer so that it is fresh in your mind for the first day of school! Here are some questions to think about while you read: 

1. How do our relationships with our family members shape and influence our sense of self?
2. How does our relationship with the community in which we live shape our thinking and feelings about our identity?
3. How do cultural misunderstandings, biases and stereotypes impact us?
4. What happens when we find our beliefs and sense of self at odds with our family? Community? 
5. How does it feel to be an “outsider”?

In addition to reading The Prince of Los Cocuyos, please read one additional text from the following list:

• The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
• The Lies of Ajungo, Moses Ose Utomi
• Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue

These books, along with The Prince of Los Cocuyos, are books we love, which we think you will love as well. Use the guiding questions and read actively: note passages that move you, reveal a character’s nature, reflect significant themes, challenge your preconceived notions, or relate to your life in some other way. Pay attention to the point of view and write down your reactions to it. This is the kind of reading you practiced in 9th grade, and it is the sort of reading that you will use throughout high school and beyond. 

For the first day of class, please complete this assignment or use your own lined notebook paper. Bring a hard copy of your work with you to class. For The Prince of Los Cocuyos and your choice book:

• Annotate in your book and cite a passage that confused or challenged you, and write a few sentences about why you chose it. 
• Annotate in your book and cite a passage that moves you or is especially beautiful, and write a few sentences about why you chose it
• Annotate in your book and cite a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life, and write a few sentences about why you chose it. 
• List two questions that the book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

To cite a passage (a few sentences to a paragraph), cite the first four and last four words and include a page number reference. Ex: “Who was Ariel Jimenez? . . .continuously becoming something new” (229).

Your questions and observations will enrich and guide our class discussions upon returning to school in September. We hope that your summer is filled with relaxation and self-discovery. 

Happy reading!

Jodi Posner, Ally Setton, David Karpel

Dear Students,

We can’t wait to  continue our exploration of great literature with you next year! Junior year, which focuses on American literature, includes writers who rank among the best and most inspiring our country has produced.   These are texts we never tire of reading and rereading, and we are greatly looking forward to sharing them with you! 

There are two required reads this summer:

1. There There, by Tommy Orange

This is a brilliant and powerful novel that chronicles the lives and experiences of a wonderfully engaging set of characters from native communities.  Please read it towards the end of the summer so that it will be fresh in your mind when we discuss it.

2. One of the books listed below:

• Americanah; - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  
• The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen  
• The Round House - Louise Erdrich
• Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
• How Much of These Hills Are Gold - C Pam Zhang

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Writing homework - bring the following completed assignment with you to school on the first day to submit in hard copy to your teacher.

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For There There:  Use this sheet to complete the assignment; either typed and printed or handwritten

1. Complete the web of relationships between the characters in the text - how does each relate to others?
2. Why do you think Orange connects his characters in these ways?
3. What connections can you draw between There There and a text or texts you read in 10th grade?

 

For BOTH texts, There There and your choice, in preparation for the kind of close reading that is a hallmark of a Heschel English education, please complete the tables on the attached sheet by

• Citing a passage in the text that stood out to you as beautifully written or moving, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.
• Citing a passage that confused or challenged you, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it..
• Citing a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life, and writing a few sentences about why you chose it.
• Listing (at least) two questions that each book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

 

We hope, of course, that you will read more than these two required books. If you are at a loss for what else to get your teeth into in those long summer months, you may want to browse the English department’s suggested reading list at this link. We invite you to stop by and chat with us about the recommendations!   And we also invite you to…Enjoy your summer! Take time to connect, to relax, and to read.  We look forward to seeing you in the fall.

Penny Ratcliffe, Michaela Krauser, and Stefan Dorosz

Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, Vintage Books, 2011

You can purchase this book through Barnes & Noble or Amazon. We recommend that you order a copy as soon as possible. You may also want to search for a used copy through other vendors listed on Amazon, eBay, etc. 

NOTE: We will often refer to specific pages, so reading the book on a device like a Kindle could be problematic. 

 

 

Dear Rising Eleventh-Graders:

Your reading this summer, and the subject of your first essay in the fall, will be Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.

Trapped in poverty, subjected to daily humiliations, often terror, and denied a political voice guaranteed to them in the Constitution, more than five million African-Americans voted with their feet between 1910 and 1970. They left the Jim Crow South for uncertain futures in the cities of the North and West, thereby profoundly changing the country’s demographics and culture. Much of our subsequent history, including the tragic killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis two years ago—and the rage that propelled protests in response to it—makes little sense without understanding this exodus. Wilkerson narrates the Great Migration through close study of three people: Ida Mae Gladney, who settled in Chicago; George Starling, who found his way to Harlem; and Robert Forster, who lit out for Los Angeles.

We highly recommend that you read the entirety of this Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, but, given the length of the book, you MAY choose to skip the story of Robert Foster. The pages about Foster are listed on the next page. 

As you read, be attentive to these broad questions; highlight or annotate relevant material so you can easily access it during class discussions. In addition, as you read, create a timeline of key events from the lives of these individuals to be turned into your teacher at the beginning of classes.

• Wilkerson writes of the “absurdities” of the caste system in the South while fully understanding the brutal logic that underlay it. What social functions(s) did that caste system serve?
• The book stresses the “push” factors that forced African-Americans out of the South. What factors also “pulled” them to destinations outside of it?
• How did life, whether in the North or the West, both fulfill, and profoundly disappoint, these migrants?
• How did the de jure [legally mandated] segregation of the South differ from the de facto [not legally mandated but existing in fact] segregation of cities like New York?
• How did the life paths of the migrants and their children differ from those of the families and neighbors they left behind?
• How does the Great Migration help to explain race relations today?

IF you choose to skip Foster’s life story, you may jump over these pages. 

Robert Joseph Pershing Foster: 113–22; 139–48; 157–60; 160–4; 172–6; 177–9; 186–9; 193-6; 199–213; 215–6; 216–221; 230–7; 238–41; 253–9; 260–7; 280–4; 297–301; 309–14; 327–31; 345–8; 348–50; 361–3; 364–70; 381–4; 401–5; 407–19; 422–31; 441–7; 451–4; 460–4; 471–3; 477–80; 488–90; 494–506; 527–38; 539–43.

Dear Incoming 12th Graders,

Welcome to our senior elective, The Silenced Speak. I am so looking forward to a wonderful and exciting year of learning together. To get us started, this summer, please read Circe by Madeline Miller. You may remember Circe, a beautiful witch goddess with great powers whom Odysseus meets on his travels home (and who turns men into pigs, the animal they most resemble in their boorish behavior). In The Odyssey, Circe is the enemy, threatening Odysseus’ return to his loving family. Miller retells this myth from Circe’s perspective as an assertive woman in a male dominated world.  

As  you read, consider the following questions:

• The novel begins, “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Why might this be?

• Circe needs to create a voice for herself. Note the various ways Miller describes Circe’s voice. Why might Miller imbue Circe’s voice with these particular qualities?
• We also hear from Circe’s mother, Perse; rival nymph Scylla; Odysseus’ wife, Penelope; the goddess Athena; Circe’s sister Pasiphae; and our favorite “barbarian” Medea. Are these women successful in creating a voice for themselves outside the shadow of men? Do they give us new insight into characters who did not have much of a voice in the dominant narrative?
• What central challenge does Circe grapple with in the novel?
• Consider the appearance of witchcraft in the novel. What do the powers displayed by Helios’ children reflect about human nature? Society’s fascination with witches and witchcraft? Sexuality and power?
• In the original myth, it seems that it is men’s right to exercise control over women and their bodies. How does Miller respond to this misogynistic fantasy? 
• How does Miller’s perspective shed light on what it must have felt like to be a woman in antiquity?
• Do women still face any of Circe’s challenges?

 

In addition to Circe, I would like you to choose one of the following books:

• The Mercies (Kiran Millwood Hargrave); 
• How Beautiful We Were (Imbolo Mbue); 
• Girl Meets Boy (Ali Smith). 

Please read Circe and your choice book actively. Note passages that move you, reveal a character’s nature, reflect significant themes, relate to your life, or push you to rethink your preconceived notions. Ask questions about the text while and after reading. Pay attention to the point of view, and write down your reactions and feelings to it. Consider how each text challenges societal norms and offers us a new or overlooked perspective and why it matters.  I encourage you to complete your summer reading in August, so it is fresh in your minds.

Here is a worksheet that you need to complete and bring to our first day of class. Your questions and observations will enrich and guide our class discussions upon returning to school in September.

Enjoy a summer filled with relaxation and self-discovery.

Jodi

To do justice is what God demands of every man: it is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.

-Rabbi Heschel

Dear Seniors, 

Welcome! I  am so looking forward to meeting you in the fall, digging into the rich material that awaits us, and exploring, through literature, the concept of justice together. 

Here are some of the essential questions we will consider in this course: 

• What exactly IS justice? 
• What are the characteristics of a “just” society? 
• How should mercy temper justice?  
• Do we believe in “an eye for an eye” punitive justice, or restorative justice that seeks to rehabilitate offenders? 
• What do we do about injustice, both current and historical, political and personal? 
• How do we navigate situations in which we witness or experience unjust treatment of ourselves or others?

In preparation for our dive into these complicated discussions, please read Truman Capote’s famous and beautifully written “true-crime” novel In Cold Blood (we might call it creative non-fiction). It’s best to read it towards the end of the summer, so that it is fresh in your mind.  The book explores a chilling case of murder in a small Kansas town and its aftermath.   Consider the following questions as you read, make some notes about each question in a new notebook, and list two or three more that you would like to address when we talk about the novel in class: bring these notes to class to submit on the first day.

1. The novel’s epigraph is a quote from the medieval French poet François Villon’s poem Ballade des pendus (Ballad of the Hanged Men), written - it is believed - as he awaited his execution.  Here is a translation:

Brothers in humanity who live after us,
Do not harden your hearts against us,
For, if you take pity on us poor men,
God will sooner have mercy on you.

Why do you think Capote chose this as the epigraph for In Cold Blood?

2. How does the structure of this novel, switching back and forth between the Clutter family, the investigation, and the murderers, suit Capote’s purposes here?

3. How did (a) the autobiographical statements and (b) the psychiatric evaluations of Smith and Hickock affect your view of them? Were they sane? Should they have been held accountable? 

4. Do a bit of research into the M’Naghten Rule  (and here’ another link) that prevented the psychiatric evaluations being used by the defense in court.  Should they have been admitted in your view? Why/not?

 

As we consider issues of social justice in our own country, we also want you to engage books from writers whose work directly addresses these issues. 

Please choose at least ONE of the following books to read: 

• The Central Park Five - Sarah Burns
• The Other Wes Moore - Wes Moore
• Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System - Chris Fabricant
• A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest P Gaines

In addition to these, as you prepare for the rigor of a senior English elective, we strongly recommend that you read (at least!) one other book of your choosing this summer.  Browse the English Department goodreads website in making your choice.  I have a few suggestions that would fit well with the elective, but you are welcome to pick anything you fancy.  Here are my suggestions: anything by Scott Turow; John Grisham: The Pelican Brief, The Client, or The Runaway Jury; Kamila Shamsie: Home Fire; Colm Tóibίn: House of Names; Asim et al: Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life; William B. Crawford: Justice Perverted 

Can’t wait to see you all - in the meantime, enjoy the summer!

Penny

Dear Seniors,

Welcome to our friendship elective! Throughout our year together, we will consider the place that friendship holds in our personal lives as well as in our greater society. We will explore the ways in which social structures, such as class and race, affect the people we choose to be friends with. And finally, we will attempt to define what it means to be a true friend. 

To prepare for our discussions next year, please read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend over the summer. The novel takes place in a poor town on the outskirts of Naples, Italy, and follows the close friendship of Elena and Lila through their childhood and adolescence. 

As you read, consider the following questions; make notes in a new notebook, and come to class ready to discuss them:

1. Why does Elena continue to be fascinated and enthralled by her friend, Lila, even as Lila is cold or disinterested? How does her regard for Lila impact the way she sees herself?
2. Note the power dynamic between the girls throughout the novel: in what ways does one girl outshine the other? What aspects of a woman in this time and place hold the most social capital? 
3. Note the power dynamic between men and women throughout the novel: how do Elena and Lila assert their power of choice? Are they successful?
4. What role does each girl’s family play in their direction in life? What other factors determine the direction each girl takes?
5. What does Lila mean when she recounts a sense of “dissolving margins” to Elena?
6. What is it about the friendship between Lila and Elena that keeps the two girls coming back to each other, even as their lives diverge?

 

*In addition to the questions above, please come to class with 1-2 questions of your own that remain with you after reading.

Please also choose ONE of the following books to read, in addition to My Brilliant Friend:

Marlena (Julie Buntin); The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan); The Best Minds (Jonathan Rosen); All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr).

I look forward to meeting you and I hope you have a wonderful summer!

Best,

Ally

The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him the silence of snow.
—Snow, Orhan Pamuk
 

In a murderous time
the heart breaks and breaks
and lives by breaking.
—“The Testing Tree,” Stanley Kunitz

Dear Incoming 12th Graders, 

I am delighted to welcome you to our senior elective, Out of Time: History in the Novel. I can’t wait to get to know you (or continue getting to know you!) as thinkers and writers. It’s going to be a thrilling year of learning together. 

To get us started, please read the Nobel Prize-winning novel, Snow by Orhan Pamuk (translated from Turkish by Maureen Freely). The novel is set in modern Turkey and depicts the pressures of a society undergoing rapid modernization: clashes of tradition, change, extremism, religion, and personal freedom. It’s also a love story. 

In order to get the most out of your reading, please take a look at these handouts. They include: 1) brief background on the political situation of modern Turkey and 2) an overview of terms and characters. Above all, I encourage you to read actively and with curiosity: if you encounter a term or reference you don’t know, look it up! Note passages that move you, reveal a character’s nature, reflect significant themes, relate to your life, or push you to rethink your preconceived notions. Ask questions of the text while and after reading. 

In addition to Snow, please read one of the books listed below. Check out the first few pages of each on Google Books or Amazon, and read the synopses. Choose one that excites you: 

• One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez)
• There There (Tommy Orange)
• Kindred (Octavia Butler)
• White Noise (Don DeLillo)
• The Book Thief (Marcus Zusak)

After you finish each text, record favorite or notable passages on this linked worksheet. If you prefer, you are also welcome to write your responses to the prompts on a separate sheet of lined paper: 

• Copy out a passage that stood out to you as beautifully written or moving.
• Copy out a passage that confused or challenged you.
• Copy out a passage that offers a point of connection to your own life.
• List two questions that the book raises for you that you would like to discuss.

I am so excited to get started learning with you! But first: relax, play, enjoy your summer. 

Warmly,

Michaela 

Dear Incoming 12th Graders,

I'm delighted to welcome you to our senior elective, Moral Dilemmas in Literature, and I look forward to exploring some of the deep moral questions that great literature offers.  To get us started, please read over the summer Kamila Shamsie's 2017 novel Home Fire.  I encourage you to read it in August, so that it is fresh in your mind.

Read the book actively.  Note passages that move you, reveal a character's nature, reflect significant themes, relate to your life, or push you to rethink your preconceived notions.  Ask questions of the text during and after reading.  In a fresh notebook (this will be the notebook you use for the elective throughout the year), answer the following questions:

• Characters in the novel make life-altering decisions that have consequences both for themselves and for others whom they love. Consider the competing demands of family loyalty and political action; is there ever a way to navigate both successfully?
   
• Isma's sister Aneeka asks, "What would you stop at to help the people you love most?"  Is there a limit to the actions you should take to help a loved one?  What do you make of the actions Aneeka takes to help her brother?
   
• Shamsie dedicates her novel to Gillian Slovo, a writer whose parents were active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa; her mother was assassinated by South African forces in 1982.  The 1987 film A World Apart is a memoir of the family's journey, and Slovo also wrote a memoir called Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, published in 1997.  Shamsie's novel in part explores the responsibilities of a parent to their children if called by what seems a greater vocation.  Once you have read the novel, where do you think Shamsie lands in her view of these responsibilities?

You should write at least a paragraph in response to each question.  Please also make a list of 2–3 additional questions that you would like to discuss when we talk about the novel in class.

In addition to Home Fire, please read one (or more!) of the books listed below:

• The Children Act (Ian McEwan)
• An American Marriage (Tayari Jones)
• Reunion (Fred Uhlman)

As with Home Fire, read your choice book actively.  In your notebook, please copy out a passage that moves you, a passage that challenges or confuses you, and a passage that relates in some way to your life or your world.  (Make sure to note the page numbers for each passage.)  Finally, note two questions you'd like to discuss.  I will collect your notebooks on the first day of class.

I hope you have a summer filled with relaxation and self-discovery.
Stefan