Summer Reading for Junior IB English

Assignment for students intending to take Junior IB English

Reading: House of the Spirits, by Isabelle Allende

Check out from the bookroom (or preferably purchase)

before leaving for the summer.

Journal: please complete your entries in pocketed, college-ruled spiral journal to be used with

this text and other books during the school year.

Journal Requirements: to be completed for House of the Spirits during the

summer:

• Six text entries plus an art project (entry #11)

• Your final text entry will be #12 (a review of your journal entries and reflection of the

novel)

• Entries will represent the entire length of the text

• Entries will be completed in the journal preferably in blue or black ink.

• Label each entry with the option number and the range of pages read (where appropriate).

• Expected length of a journal entry is one page.

• Do NOT summarize the plot in your entry. Assume the reader knows the story. Instead,

analyze, critique the text, react to the story and the author’s intent.

Options for Entries:

1. Write a character sketch of any character. Incorporate quotations that represent the breadth of the

text. Consider how that character sees him or herself, how others see that character.

2. Write an entry based on a quote from the text. Write down a chunky quote (5 lines or more use

an ellipses), page number, and interpret and analyze.

3. Find two short passages that express sensory elements (taste, smell, touch, sound, sight) and

explain how they contribute to tone, mood or theme.

4. Write a letter from one character to another then write the response letter.

5. Review an essay/website/article about the author (or by the author) and respond. In clued the

article (or an excerpt) with your journals.

6. Link a theme, character, setting or any literary aspect of the novel to any other text you have read.

7. Compose a personal response to a whole chapter. A personal response might relate to your life:

people you know, events witnessed, travels, or personal journeys.

8. Make a photocopy of a page from the Allende text and circle 10 key words. Write about the

circled words and how the language contributes to the tone (author’s emotive voice), mood or

author’s style.

9. Take a scene from the text and re-write it from a different character’s perspective.

10. Select the single most important paragraph or sentence in the text and write your defense of that

choice.

11. Create a thoughtful piece of art that portrays your vision of a scene in the story.

Examples from past projects: acrylic painting, watercolor painting, chalk pastel,

colored pencil illustrations, collage images, photographic collage, quilted art piece

with fabric. Show off and use your imagination.

12. Review your journal entries and reflect on the novel as a whole. Avoid a

“thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” but thoughtfully comment on the text, state

what you learned, critique from a literary perspective.

Journal is due the first week of school. Welcome to IB!