Dear Incoming 9th-graders,
Welcome to Deerfield! We are so looking forward to having you on campus and getting to know you this year!
We write to you now to give you a bit of guidance as you begin your academic journey at Deerfield with your first task: your summer reading. The assignment is to read four texts from the summer reading list: three that you choose from the list, and one that is a grade-wide text. The grade-wide text for all incoming 9th-graders is a selection of three stories from Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell.
We, as ninth-grade English teachers, invite you to read these three stories from Russell’s collection: “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” “Reeling for the Empire,” and “Proving Up,” which are the first, second, and fourth stories in the collection. Be forewarned: the stories are, in a word, weird. We are excited to dig into them together when you get to campus. In the meantime, here are a few suggestions for you as you read:
● We urge you to pay close attention to what strikes you as odd or unusual, along with anything else that seems worthy of observation. Please note these elements in your book or in a notebook – someplace you will be able to access and refer back to when we begin discussions in class. (This will be the beginning of a practice of annotation. We will talk much more about annotation practices when you get to school; for now, though, just take note (in any form) whenever you notice anything remarkable in the text.)
● Try to limit distractions, especially technology, as you read. Put devices away so you can fully enter the world of the text.
● Resist the urge to go to the Internet or AI with your questions about the text. Instead, attend to your uncertainties by reading the stories themselves more closely. If you have questions, write them down! Save them, and they will be wonderful fuel for conversation when we convene as a group in the fall.
● If you choose to listen to an audiobook of Vampires in the Lemon Grove, great! Please also read the text on paper, either simultaneously or as a re-read. Listening to a book can also get in the way of annotating, so be sure, if you are listening to the text, that you are still taking time to take notes in your book or notebook.
● Bring your copy of Vampires in the Lemon Grove, with your annotations, to school with you and to our first classes. Be ready to write about the stories and to talk about them (so, if you finish them in June, maybe give them another glance in August).
Most importantly, we hope you enjoy these wonderful stories, and we look forward to discussing them with you in the fall!
With best wishes until then,
Your Ninth-Grade English Teachers