Summer+Assignment

REQUIRED SUMMER READING FOR **ENGLISH HONORS STUDENTS** CHOOSE ONE In February, 2003, the Sudanese Liberation Army in Darfur (the western region of Sudan) after years of oppression took up arms against the Sudanese government. The government and allied militias answered the rebellion with mass murder, rape and the wholesale destruction of villages and livelihood, resulting in one of the world’s largest humanitarian and political crises. Up to 2 million people were displaced; 400,000 people killed…. Refugees and displaced peoples, civilians and fighters resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children and community leaders provide the heart of Darfur Diaries. Their stories and testimonies, woven together through the personal experience of the filmmakers, and conveyed with political and historical context, provide a much-needed account to help understand Darfur. These are people whose lives, homes, safety and rights deserve to be protected as vigilantly as those of peoples all over the world.
 * Or** **Extra Credit Reading** for Senior English
 * Option 1. __Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival__ by Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain, Adam Shapiro, and Paul Rusesabagina**

Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood," writes Frank McCourt in //Angela's Ashes//. "Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old country either--not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting cliches about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty and frequent death and illness and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's able hands it also has all the makings for a compelling memoir.
 * Option 2. __Angela’s Ashes__ by Frank McCourt**

After depicting the humble discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in the 19th century, Yeomans shows how it became the dominant force in diplomacy. Oil played a factor in both world wars, and since then, it's become even more prominent. Giant American oil companies saw great profit in the Arab world, and this helped feed, perhaps even create, the growth in American consumer culture after WWII. Then the Arab world realized that its oil was power and began to turn against Western megacompanies and the West itself.
 * Option 4. __Oil__[|: Anatomy of an Industry] by Matthew Yeomans**

In this potentially explosive book, investigative journalist Unger, who has written for the New Yorker, Esquire and Vanity Fair, pieces together the highly unusual and close personal and financial relationships between the Bush family and the ruling family of Saudi Arabia—and questions the implications for Bush's preparedness, or possible lack thereof, for September 11.
 * Option 5. __House of Bush House of Saud__ by Craig Unger**

Although it's getting too big to be a microcosm, Wal-Mart is a fair representation of many of the most troubling aspects of the American economy, according to this lively and insightful profile of the big-box retail leviathan. Former //Colorado Springs Independent// staff writer Dicker admirably sums up the conventional complaints against Wal-Mart, detailing poverty-level wages, skimpy benefits, scorched-earth antiunion policies, shuttered smalltown Main Streets, suburban sprawl abetment and rampant outsourcing.
 * Option 6. __The United States of Wal-Mart__** **by [|John Dicker]**

Note: Descriptions taken from Amazon.com

Do you want a greater challenge in Reading and Writing? Are you willing to do extra reading, writing & projects for Senior English? Are you willing to attend a once a month English Honors Students meeting (one hour)? Are you willing to engage in online discussions regarding your reading? Do you feel that you can have independent initiative and discipline?
 * Interested in __English Honors__?**

If you are able to answer yes to the questions above, let Yumeris know you are interested and **//choose one of the books above to read over the summer//**. Borrow it from the public library or purchase it from a book store. Before the first day of English class, **//write a three page essay//** detailing the salient ideas engaged in the book you chose. Remember, **//CRITICALLY READ//** IT, ASK QUESTION & INCLUDE THIS IN YOUR ESSAY!