June 7, 2011

Dear Webb Students,

I’m sure that the heading of this e-mail brought great relief to all of you as you are in the early stages of mapping out your summer plans! Thank you for your patience as we have been pulling together an interdisciplinary summer reading list that will allow us to have community based conversations when you get to school in August. I’ve attached the list of choices, and would ask that you go to the following link to indicate your preference – this part of the process is very important as it will allow us to determine group sizes and assign space for the discussions in the first week of school:

2011 Summer Reading List

You will find that the list includes twenty reading selections, each with a brief description, that represent a broad spectrum of ideas -the choice is yours, so feel free to pursue a title that feeds a current interest or take a chance on developing a new one. 

As part of your summer work, you are also asked to read one grade level selection for your English classes as listed below. Ninth graders please note that , in addition to the selection below, there are two readings attached and that will be posted on the school site posted on the site.

9^th Grade –The World of Myth: An Anthology ; David Leeming ; ISBN-10: 0195074750

Part II: Myths of the Gods
Gods, Goddesses, and Lesser Spirits
Prometheus, 175
The Dying God, 146
Egyptian: Osiris and Isis, 147
Pandora, 177
Tiresias, Echo, and Narcissus, 178
The Muses, 192

Part III: Hero Myths
The Conception, Birth, and Childhood of the Hero

Native American (Tewa): Water Jar Boy, 221
Bantu: Lituolone, 234

The Journey Quest of the Hero

French: Joan of Arc, 235
Hebrew: Moses, 248
Rome: Aeneas, 258
Native American: Wunza or Hiawatha, 267
Greek: Herakles, 274
African: Wanjiru, 281
Australian Aboriginal: The Pleiades, 283
Hebrew: Abraham and Isaac, 287
Mesopotamian: Gilgamesh, 288

10^th Grade – The White Tiger ; Aravind Adiga;
ISBN-10: 9781416562597
11^th Grade – On The Road ; Jack Kerouac;
ISBN-10: 9780140283297
12^th Grade – The Bell Jar ; Sylvia Plath;
ISBN-10: 9780061148514

Any seniors enrolled in Mr. Potash’s Postmodernism will read:
Ceremony ; Leslie Marmon Silko ;
ISBN-10: 0143104918 in place of The Bell Jar.