• 12th Grade Global Literature CP and Honors

    1 book; 1 writing assignment

     

    1. REQUIRED: Read any age-appropriate book by a non-American author that you have not been assigned to read before. See the Masconomet High School Library's summer reading page for Global Lit suggested titles. **Be prepared for an assessment on your book during the first week of school.**

     

    2. OPTIONAL: College/Personal Essay Brainstorming

    One of the best methods of brainstorming for your college essay is to begin with a grand list of potential topics and slowly let the best rise to the top. Here is a worksheet to help you generate a laundry list of important people, events, accomplishments, and activities in your life. 

    Click here to access the Brainstorming Worksheet 

     

    Stop by or email the High School Library to pick up your book.

    The Public Libraries have some Masco-owned books that you can keep for as long as you need them. They also have access to the news on their website. Give them a call and support your local library! 

    Topsfield Public Library 978-887-1528

    Boxford Public Library 978-887-6352

    Middleton Public Library 978-774-8132

     

     

     

     
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       Little Bee

     

    Little Bee by Chris Cleave

    We don’t want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn’t. And it’s what happens afterward that is most important. Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

     

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    The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

    The White Tiger of this novel is Balram Halwai, a poor Indian villager whose great ambition leads him to the zenith of Indian business culture, the world of the Bangalore entrepreneur. On the occasion of the president of China’s impending trip to Bangalore, Balram writes a letter to him describing his transformation and his experience as driver and servant to a wealthy Indian family, which he thinks exemplifies the contradictions and complications of Indian society.

    The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation—and a startling, provocative debut. 

     

    Reviews:

    "Compelling, angry, and darkly humorous, The White Tiger is an unexpected journey into a new India. Aravind Adiga is a talent to watch."
    —Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist

     

    "An exhilarating, side-splitting account of India today, as well as an eloquent howl at her many injustices. Adiga enters the literary scene resplendent in battle dress and ready to conquer. Let us bow to him."
    —Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante's Handbook

     

    "The perfect antidote to lyrical India."
    Publishers Weekly

     

    Reading Level Rating: 

    Least to most challenging 

     
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    Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

    This stunning first novel, set in colonial Rhodesia during the 1960s, centers on the coming of age of a teenage girl, Tambu, and her relationship with her British-educated cousin Nyasha. Tambu, who yearns to be free of the constraints of her rural village, especially the circumscribed lives of the women, thinks her dreams have come true when her wealthy uncle offers to sponsor her education. But she soon learns that the education she receives at his mission school comes with a price. At the school she meets the worldly and rebellious Nyasha, who is chafing under her father's authority. Raised in England, Nyasha is so much a stranger among her own people that she can no longer speak her native language. Tambu can only watch as her cousin, caught between two cultures, pays the full cost of alienation.

     

    Reviews:

    “Nervous Conditions is an absorbing page-turner that will delight the reader.”
    Bloomsbury Review


    “Dangarembga's characters are fascinating, and the issue of freedom is examined dispassionately and firmly. A unique and valuable book.”
    Booklist

     

    Reading Level Rating: 

    Least to most challenging 

     
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    Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    Thing Fall Apart tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economical beauty it provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society. 

    The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within. 

     

    Reviews:

    “Things Fall Apart may well be Africa's best loved novel. . . . For so many readers around the world, it is Chinua Achebe who opened up the magic casements of African fiction.” 
    —Kwame Anthony Appiah

     

    “Achebe is gloriously gifted with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent.” 
    —Nadine Gordimer, The New York Times Book Review

     

    "A vivid imagination illuminates every page. . . . This novel genuinely succeeds in penetrating tribal life from the inside." 
    Times Literary Supplement 

     

    Reading Level Rating: 

    Least to most challenging