What to do with summer reading?

I teach 10th grade American Lit for reference. Our summer reading books are "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou and "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles.

Let me start off by saying that I do NOT like teaching summer reading. I do not teach honors/AP classes and I know for a fact that the majority of my students have not read the books (hell, when I was in high school I remember reading SparkNotes the night before school started and wondering if the teacher would be able to tell).

Some students will straight up admit they didn't read, most give it away by their faces or comments to friends, the rest give it away with their resistance to participate or straight up cluelessness. Very few actually read to the point they can discuss the novel and contribute in a meaningful way.

The school as a whole has discussed giving up summer reading and implementing some other system. Most teachers know the situation and, in all honesty, it starts us off on a bad foot with the students-- students start off the year at a (albeit self-inflicted) disadvantage and teachers start by viewing many students as lazy and/or dishonest and sneaky.

Last year I did group blogs on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings CHAPTER by CHAPTER. It was awful. I was getting terrible work and the work that was at an acceptable level was either copied directly or loosely paraphrased from Sparknotes. I wasted a ton of time on this book and I think I made students dislike it even more.

A Separate Peace was better. We quickly discussed it and then I gave an in-class essay exam (the results were still poor but, whatever, at least it wasn't day-by-day torture). I think I will repeat this part again, but I'm still unsure of what to do with Maya Angelou.

I would REALLY love something creative. Something that the kids can actually learn from and not just some "Gotcha! You didn't READ!" game. Any ideas? Input? Lesson activities? I'll take anything I can get at this point!