Year 10 Literature Wide reading task

EmeraldSC

During this Semester, you are to read two novels from the Wide reading list.

  • You may not choose 2 novels from the same category, nor any that you’ve read before
  • You will have some class time to read, but most of the reading will be done for homework and over the holidays
  • You must complete a reading journal for each novel and submit it to the teacher by the due date. This journal is part of your assessment for the subject.

 

 

AUSTRALIAN CONTEMPORARY:

  • Thea Astley ‘Hunting the Wild Pineapple’
  • Murray Bail ‘The Drover’s Wife’ or ‘Eucalyptus’
  • Peter Carey ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’, ‘Oscar and Lucinda’
  • Kate Grenville ‘Lilian’s Story’ ‘The Idea of Perfection’
  • Sonya Hartnett – many titles in the library to choose from
  • MH Hyland – Carry Me Down..
  • Thomas Keneally
  • David Malouf ‘ Remembering Babylon’ ‘Fly Away Peter’
  • Tim Winton ‘ In the Winter Dark’ ‘Cloudstreet’ ‘The Riders’ ‘Dirt Music’

MAGICAL REALISM

  • Isabelle Allende ‘ The House of the Spirits’
  • Louis De Berniere ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez ‘ Love in the Time of Cholera’
  • Jostein Gardner ‘ Sophie’s World’
  • Yann Martel ‘Life of Pi’
  • Alice Sebold ‘The Lovely Bones’

 

‘PERIOD” English

  • Jane Austen ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Sense and Sensibility’
  • Northanger Abbey
  • Bronte – Wuthering Heights
  • Dickens ‘ Great Expectations’ ‘Oliver’
  • Carroll ‘Alice in Wonderland’

 

American Classics

  • Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
  • The Great Gatsby  (F Scott Fitzgerald)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
  • Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
  • The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
  • Catch 22 (Joseph Keller)

 

Mystery

  • Henning Mankell (Swedish)
  • Peter Temple (Australian)
  • PD James
  • Ngaio Marsh
  • Agatha Christie
  • Shane Maloney (Australian)

 

MEMOIR

  • Romulus, My Father
  • The Happiest Refugee (Anh Do)
  • Unpolished Gem (Alice Pung)
  • Shark Net (Robert Drewe)
  • The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
  • Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
  • The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
  • Freedom Writers’ Diary (references Anne Frank)
  • Boy – Tales of Childhood (Roald Dahl)
  • Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X)

 

Historical setting

  • Geraldine Brookes: March
  • Thomas Keneally ‘Schindler’s List
  • I am David
  • Plague Child
  • Night of the Burning
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • Victorian Workhouse

 

Dystopias

  • Tomorrow when the War Began (John Marsden)
  • Children of Men – PD James
  • 1984 – George Orwell
  • The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
  • Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
  • John Wyndham
  • Uglies – Scott Westerfield
  • V is for Vendetta (graphic novel by Alan Moore ad David Lloyd
  • Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

FANTASY

  • The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
  • A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin
  • Something Wicked this Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
  • American Gods – Neil Gaiman
  • The Talisman – Stephen King and Peter Straub
  • The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
  • Deadhouse Gates – Steven Erikson

 

  1. Book (or story) title, Author, first published
  2. Brief plot summary
  3. a) Identify and briefly describe one major character

b) Identify and briefly describe another character

c) Whom did you like best of the characters? Why?

  1. What is the conflict (internal, external?) that drives the protagonist? How is this conflict resolved?
  2. Major theme(s)
- and what is the author’s perspective on these themes? (Remember that the protagonist’s perspective is not necessarily the same as the author’s perspective!)
  3. How would you describe the ‘narrative voice’ ( the personality, if you like, of the storyteller – this is not the same thing as the personality of the protagonist.)
  4.  Include at least 5 quotes that seem important, and 5 passages that are striking for some aspect of their written expression
  5.  Did you enjoy reading this? Why/why not? What kind of reader would you recommend it to?
  6.  Now that you have finished the text, how appropriate does the cover (or title) seem to you?

 

Tips: write your responses in full and complete sentences. It’s good to practice sentence construction and writing fluency wherever you can.

You will probably need to write a paragraph (at least) for most of these questions. One-word responses will not suffice.

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