Hello!

Welcome to Honors English 9! I am looking forward to meeting all of you and having a great year! For your summer reading, you are to read the following books:

The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Please take notes and annotate the novels and come to our first class prepared to discuss these novels. You will have a test on both novels during the first week of class. In addition, to allow you to interact more fully with the novels, I ask that you please complete the following tasks in relation to each novel:

1. The Memory of Things -- Interview three people about their experience on the morning of 9/11 and in the weeks that followed. Try to choose people of different generations--someone who was in middle or high school (born approximately 1982-1988), someone who was an adult (born approximately 1970), and someone who is now an older adult (over the age of sixty-five). Record the interviews and then organize their experiences into a report that compares and contrasts the effect of 9/11 on your interviewees. Please have this report typed and ready to turn in on the first day of school.

2. The Illustrated Man -- complete the following tasks for this novel comprised of short stories: ● The following are themes that the various stories address: Pitfalls of Technology, Complexities of Human Psychology, Morality and Amorality, Fate, Faith, Revenge. Choose THREE of these themes and identify which stories in the novel embody this theme. Write a short paragraph on each theme and story you choose. Please have this typed and ready to turn in on the first day of school. ● Complete the attached handout, The Illustrated Man--Characterization Project. Have these ready for submission on the first day of school.

If you have any questions about these assignments, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. I look forward to meeting you all and I hope that you enjoy these novels as an introduction to our class.

Best, Mrs. Traver CHARACTERIZATION PROJECT Step 1: choose your character- choose any character from “The Illustrated Man” that you believe Bradbury used to develop the theme of the short story.

Using the diagram below, fully label the character traits (all 6) you saw within the character of your choice. Remember, you can learn about a character through the words and actions of other characters. You must include a supporting quote from the book along with the page number. Decorate your character in a way that represents them.

CHARACTER NAME:______STORY:______