Honors English 11 – American Literature
Summer Reading and Writing Assignment

To prepare for the academic rigor of the Honors English class, students are required to complete summer reading and writing assignments. Completion of summer work is a prerequisite for enrollment in the fall; failure to submit your essay on the first day of school (August 27th) will result in reassignment to Intensive English 11 or English 11, depending on enrollment availability. If you elect not to enter the course, please let Ms. Ferejohn know BEFORE JUNE 12 so that the Counseling office can change your schedule and put a wait-listed student in the class.

1. Read any unabridged version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain). This is an elementary/middle school level text, and I encourage you to read it for pure enjoyment of both the story and Mark Twain’s inventiveness. You will not have to write an essay about it, but there will be a test on the text during the first week of school.

2. Read the following texts:

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa, the African

3. Write a structured essay in which you identify, compare, and contrast at least two moral values that Equiano and Rowlandson address and/or critique in their narratives. Rowlandson both writes of her own values and comments on the values of the Wampanoag tribe. Equiano both writes of his own values and comments on the values of slave traders and owners. In your essay, you may address any combination of values, but you must address and cite material from both texts.

Format for Essay: 600-800 words
Times New Roman, 12 pt font
1” margins (adjust margins slightly if necessary to avoid single sentences on final page)
MLA format: student ID number, teacher name, course name, and date in upper left corner

IMPORTANT: These texts are available through a variety of publishers and in a variety of formats. The most reliably acquired and inexpensive versions are published by Dover Publications (under $6.00 each). Local bookstores may stock Dover or other versions of the books, but if they do not, they will order them for you. Purchasing directly from doverpublications.com or through amazon.com (either new or used) may be the easiest route for those with Internet connection and purchasing ability. In addition, the texts may be available for online reading. (Just make sure you read the original authors’ texts, not summarized or abridged versions.) Finally, college-level American literature anthologies often contain both of these texts, so if your older siblings or parents still have their literature anthologies from college, you may be able to read the texts via that medium.

Here is ISBN information about the texts:

The Account of Mary Rowlandson and Other Indian Captivity Narratives. (Dover ISBN: 0486445208)

The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustava Vassa, the African. (Dover ISBN: 048640661X)

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. (Chapman Billies ISBN:0939218208)

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. (Kessinger ISBN: 1419136631)

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson (Digital Format: Adobe PDF Reader)

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or, Gustavus Vassa, the African. (Modern Library ISBN: 0375761152)

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Page last updated 6/08 by Madeline Britton, Librarian