AP Literature

 

Summer 2025 Reading Assignment
AP English Literature & Composition

 

Summer reading serves as an opportunity to restart your academic critical thinking skills before
school starts and to think about works of literature as carefully constructed pieces of art with
something to say. This summer, you are required to read two books: How to Read Literature Like a
Professor by Thomas C. Foster and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. You will also have
an assignment that integrates your reading of both books. Please have them read before you come
to school in August, and complete the assignment described below.

Information about the books…

How to Read Lit . . . is an introduction to the study of literature which reads quite easily and uses
numerous literary examples to make its points.

Adichie is a Nigerian writer, and Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age novel about a 15-year-old girl
named Kambili who has a complicated and abusive father. The book takes place with the
background of Nigerian political unrest of the 1990’s. It also addresses the conflict between
traditional Igbo (ee-boh) culture and Western culture in a post-colonial society. You will find it
useful to maintain a list of all the character names and relationships as you read. They’re not
difficult, but sometimes unfamiliar names are harder to remember and follow. Also, you should
write down questions you have about both books as you read so you can ask when you
return to school. Nothing is too trivial. It’s better to ask instead of let it go.


Please read How to Read Literature Like a Professor FIRST because it will be used as a
foundation for your reading and study of Purple Hibiscus. If you read either book early in the
summer, be prepared to reread or study them just before school starts. Not only will you be tested
over both books, you will also complete a close literary analysis of Purple Hibiscus within the first
two weeks of school.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact Mrs. Conely or Mrs. Jeffery by email over
the summer: kconely@usd259.net or hjeffery@usd259.net.

 

For each of the 15 Foster chapters listed below, keep a handwritten reading journal in which
you reflect on how principles from that chapter are at play in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. Each
answer should be a minimum of 5 complete sentences.