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English 9 Honors
Honors 9th Grade Summer Reading
We are pleased you have decided to challenge yourself as you enter your freshman year at
Wood River High School. The following is the Summer Reading for the 9th Honors English
class at WRHS. These readings will better prepare you not only for your Honors English
classes, but also, future classes throughout high school.
Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, is an anchor text for the 9th grade English classes during first
semester. In order to fully understand the mythological allusions (references) in the text, we are
assigning the following sections from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology:
● In Part One: “The Titans and the Twelve Great Olympians”
● In Part Two: “Cupid and Psyche” and “Pyramus and Thisbe”
● In Part Three: “Theseus”
● In Part Four: “The Heroes of the Trojan War”
○ “The Trojan War” (intro), “The Judgement of Paris,” “The Trojan War,” and “The
Fall of Troy”
● In Part Five: Read the entire section of “The House of Atreus”
● In Part Six: “Glaucus and Scylla” and In the section titled “Brief Myths Arranged
Alphabetically,” read “The Amazons” and “The Myrmidons”
These are the required sections, but feel free to read more. The book is filled with commonly
alluded to stories, and it can only benefit you in future readings and classes. You do not need
to read The Odyssey during the summer.
Additionally, It is required that you read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men before the first
day of class. We will begin the year with a unit related to this text. There will be an assessment
and discussions the first week of school.
It is your responsibility to acquire these texts whether you check them out from a library,
purchase them, or download them (see below). If you do purchase your own copy, we
encourage you to annotate your reading (take notes in the text), which will be valuable for
in-class activities, comprehension, and retention. Although there is no written assignment over
the summer, please come prepared to discuss both readings. You may bring your
annotations/notes.
Books are available at the public libraries and Iconoclast Books in Hailey (the Meriwether
Building behind Java) as well as Amazon or other bookstores.
If you need any help or have any questions over the summer, feel free to email either teacher:
Amy McGraw: amcgraw@blaineschools.org
Sarah Allen: sallen@blaineschools.org
Electronic versions of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men can be found at either of these links:
http://www.alanreinstein.com/site/213_Of_Mice_and_Men_files/OMM.Full.Text%281%29.pdf
http://www.nhc.ac.uk/media/2840/steinbeck-john-of-mice-and-men.pdf
An electronic version/PDF of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology can be found here:
file:///C:/Users/AMcGraw/Downloads/_OceanofPDF.com_Mythology_-_Edith_Hamilton.pd