World Lit Summer Reading

SELECTIONS
(Click here for Requirements and Assignment sheets)

Required Bible Reading: John, Acts

Required Reading: Life of Pi, Yann Martel

Required Assignment:
1. Vocabulary Log: Students should keep a vocabulary log of words they are unfamiliar with. Each new word should be
defined with the best definition for how it is used in the book. Type this list up and place with your answers to the
discussion questions below in a folder with a clear cover and cover sheet

2. Discussion Questions: Type your answers to the following questions, place them in a folder with a clear cover and
cover sheet, and have them ready for class discussion on the first week of school.

• a. How do the human beings in your word reflect the animal behavior observed by Pi? What do Pi’s strategies for dealing with Richard Parker teach us about confronting the fearsome creatures in our lives?
• b. Besides the loss of his family and possessions, what else did Pi lose when the Tsimtsum sank? What did he gain?
• c. How do Mr. Patel’s zoo-keeping abilities compare to his parenting skills? Discuss the scene in which he tries to teach his children a lesson in survival by arranging for them to watch a tiger devour a goat. Did this in any way
  prepare Pi for the most dangerous experience of his life?

• d. Why did Pi at first try so hard to save Richard Parker?
• e. Pi imagines that his brother would have teasingly called him Noah. How does Pi’s voyage compare to the biblical story of Noah, who was spared from the flood while God washed away the sinners?
• f. Is Life of Pi a tragedy, romance, or a comedy?
• g. How did you react to Pi’s interview by the Japanese transport ministers? Did you ever believe that Pi’s mother, along with a sailor and a cannibalistic cook, had perhaps been in the lifeboat with him instead of the animals?
• How does Yann Martel achieve such believability in his surprising plots?
• h. Pi had a very different take on religion than those around him. From the Christian perspective, what does he get right, and what does he get wrong?

Personal Choice Reading Assignment (Read for enjoyment!)
1. This book must be brought to school the first week of school and a 2-3 minute oral report will be given. This report
should include the author’s name, title of the book, year published, summary of the story, and personal reflection.
Personal Choice book will count as a project grade.
 

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers
E.M. Forster, Howard’s End
Alan Paton Cry, the Beloved Country
Elie Wiesel, Night
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
T.H. White, The Once and Future King
Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

2. Parent signature is required verifying the completion of this reading. Please fill out and return to the Language Arts
teacher the first week of school.