A tiger standing in a small boat on the open ocean
The Pacific
227 days. One boat. One tiger.
Keep your feet in the boat.
The tiger read it twice. Senior year starts on a boat. The tiger didn’t skim. Neither should you. Lifeboat rule one: keep reading. Don’t watch the movie first. The tiger knows. “My greatest wish — other than salvation — was to have a book.”
— Pi Patel, Life of Pi
Your book this summer

Life of Pi

by Yann Martel
Seriously — start here
The PDF is the full assignment

This page is only the short version. Download the PDF below and read the whole thing — every direction, example, and requirement is in there.

⬇  Download the 12th Grade Assignment (PDF)
PDF · 2 pages
Start early. Oceans are slow.

The short version full details in the PDF

  • Read the novel, and leave notes in each half as you go — they get checked, and they earn you points. No copy? Mrs. or Dr. Hume will lend you one.
  • Optional Book Chats with your teachers: Wednesday, July 22 and Wednesday, August 12, 1–2 pm. Show up, speak, have your notes checked — you can bank first-quarter points and up to a 10% bonus.
  • Can’t make the chats? You can still earn those points once the school year starts.
  • One more acquisition: How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Thomas C. Foster, 3rd edition). Don’t read it yet — just have it in hand by the second week of school.
Your notes have a fan. He’s got stripes.
July
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August
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September
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Gold = Book Chats — 1–2 pm, Marina Room 130.
Blue ring = first day of school.

When school starts

  • Day 2 (September 3): show what you noticed — a close-reading check. The questions are pointed and specific; skimming won’t survive it.
  • Day 3 (September 4): you’ll write about the novel, in class — your first argument of senior year.
  • First-semester books (buy, borrow, or ask to be lent a copy): How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Life of Pi, Beowulf, Hamlet, Richard III.
“The sea asks hard questions. So does this book.”
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Your teachers: Mrs. Hume  ·  Dr. Hume
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