SUMMER READING BOOK
HONORS ENGLISH 11
Instructors: Gary Obrecht and Diana Fontaine

Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
--Carl Sagan

Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN#: 0-345-37918-7

Honors English 11emphasizes, among other things, developing a student’s knowledge of issues of importance (current and continuing). We begin the year, then, with Carl Sagan’s final collection of essays, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium. Although published at the brink of the millennium, these essays present issues that are still pressing and relevant in today's world.

Your assignment:
Read the entire collection of essays. Your instructors suggest spreading out the reading over a period of weeks in order to digest the ideas of each essay. They require that you keep a reading log. For each essay (there are 19 total), write
1) a couple of sentences that sum up the main point of the essay and
2) a brief paragraph that details your personal response to the issue and/or stance the author presents.

Due date for reading logs: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (August 14), no exceptions. YOU MUST ALSO BRING YOUR TEXTS TO CLASS ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.
If you are absent on the first day of school, please arrange to have your reading log assignment turned in for you or emailed to your instructor.

Any inquiries regarding summer reading should be directed to one of the instructors:

Diana Fontaine difontai@ksbe.edu
Gary Obrecht gaobrech@ksbe.edu