Our Goal: Build a required reading list target for HIgh Schoolers

[LynneSin]

You're to put together a reading list specifically for High Schoolers - what books would you put on your list.

My list would start with:

• Margeret Atwood's "The Handmaid Tale"
  
• George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm"
  
• Malcom X Autobiography
  

Ok, what else should we add?

[maine_raptor]

1. Sinclar Lewis - "It Can't Happen Here"

[taterguy]

2. nothing worthwhile

. . . because requiring a high school student to do something will just make him or her resent it and not appreciate it.

[LynneSin]

8. I wasn't like that - I loved to read

We did 1984 and Farhenheit 451 in High School. Oddly enough I graduated in 1984

And welcome to DU :hi:

[taterguy]

13. on second thought

I like to read too. I just hated being told what to read so I missed out on a lot of great stuff. Steinbeck is great but I didn't get into him until about 15 years after I blew off a requirement to read Grapes of Wrath.

So the only thing I would require high school students to read is a lot of material about how to be safe drivers so they don't injure me while I'm riding around on my bike.

[Giant Robot]

3. I may get this title wrong

but Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States"

"Lies My Teacher Told Me" Sorry I forget the author's name.

"Frankenstein" And please make sure its the Mary Shelley version.

"A Christmas Carol" And make sure they read the damn book, not just watch some dreck on TV.

And most anything by Shakespeare will do, although I was more fond of his poetry than anything else.

[LynneSin]

5. Welcome to DU

:hi:

My preference is always Hamlet or Julius Caesar. Please - no Romeo&Juliet!!

[Giant Robot]

12. Thanks Lynne

I'd also like to add "Moby Dick" to the list.

[LynneSin]

15. Oh that book bored me to tears

It was about a whale - right!!!

Geez, let's just give our kids Ivanhoe (another 'sleeper') to read. I read half of Ivanhoe in 5th grade (hated it)

[Giant Robot]

33. It is boring and dull

but I liked some of the points being made. I especially the warnings about obsessions and not being able to change one's way of thinking.

[Zomby Woof]

23. James Loewen

He also wrote "Lies Across America: What Our Historic Monuments Get Wrong". Great stuff.

[Giant Robot]

34. Thanks!

But it was another example of my laziness in action.

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

4. Catch-22 (Heller)

the pitch perfect chronicle of one man against war and the system

[meganmonkey]

7. I'll second that one

One of my all time faves :thumbsup:

[xmas74]

6. Huckleberry Finn

since it's being banned all over the place. Stones From the River is an excellent book by Ursula Hegi about a woman living through WWII in Germany.
The Rapture of Cannan by Sheri Reynolds is also a great choice. It's about teen pregnancy, evangelicals and isolation. A great read that many teens will appreciate.

[fizzgig]

9. j.d. salinger -- "catcher in the rye"

aldous huxley -- "brave new world"
edward abbey -- "desert solitaire"
joseph heller -- "catch-22"

[LynneSin]

10. Another relatively new poster - WElcome to DU

:hi:

[malta blue]

11. Here are a few more interesting ones...

"The Wretched of the Earth" Franz Fanon
"The Metamorphosis" Kafka
"The Catcher in the Rye" J.D. Salinger
"The Good Earth" Pearl S. Buck


I agree wholeheartedly on the Orwell and Malcolm X. I have not read Atwood's "The Handmaid Tale".

[cssmall]

14. I have a lot of books for this!

The Dystopia Triology:

"We" by Yegevny Zamajtin
"1984" by Orwell
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Atwood

Regular reading:

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickins
"St. Petersburg" by Andreij Bely
"The Man with the Black Coat" by Daniil Kharms
"The Overcoat and Other Short Stories" by Nikolai Gogel
"The Nutcracker" by E.T.A. Hoffman


Poetry:
Phillip Larkin's Collected Works
W.B Yeats' Collected Works

Short Stories
Anything whatsoever by Alice Walker
"The Ones That Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula Le Guin


Anthropology readings
"Culture as given, Culture as choice" by Dirk Van Der Elst
"Piled Higher and Deeper, culture of college" (author forgotten)
"Birth in Four Cultures" by LeAnn Jordan
"Creating Freedom" by Laura Wilkie

[LynneSin]

16. You have to through the Shakespeare Sonnets in with Poetry

:D

[cssmall]

18. I was just adding. You guys all ready mentioned other good stuff.

[no name no slogan]

17. Upton Sinclair -- "The Jungle" & F. Scott Fitzgerald -- "The Great Gatsby"

and if you want another Orwell book, don't forget "Homage To Catalonia"-- a great story about how factionalism and infighting can reek havoc with even the most righteous of fights.

[Zomby Woof]

28. I once posted an essay in GD

I once used "Homage" as a reference point to the infighting in GD and the larger question on why can't the Left ever be united. The lessons are all there in Orwell's memoir.

I wouldn't recommend it for high school English though... maybe the AP History class or a college level History class.

[ikri]

19. I know it's not a normal book per se

But I'd include Arthur Miller's The Crucible

I think my high school english lit teacher had very strong left-wing views. For my GCSE (UK exams sat ages 14-16) English Lit we read Orwell's 1984 & Animal Farm, Miller's The Crucible and a book about the Chilean dictatorship that I cannot remember the title of :(

Get an impressionable teenager reading (and understanding) those and you'll have a radical lefty forever.

[LynneSin]

25. I read The Crucible in high school

In our English class we would read certain passages just like the play and then discuss the scene afterwards!

[nickgutierrez]

20. Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury. n/t

[ohiosmith]

21. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Stupid White Men,

Steal This Book

[terrya]

22. "To Kill a Mockingbird" has to be on that list.

[Zomby Woof]

24. All The King's Men

Robert Penn Warren's masterpiece. Read it in 10th grade (required reading) and again about 12 years later. It takes on new depth after experiencing life and learning about politics.

A brilliant book, and I recommend it to ALL DUers who have never read it.

[DebinTx]

26. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

in fact, my high school daughter had to read this for her honors history class. I'm reading it too!

[jojog]

27. Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut

[swimboy]

29. Invisible Man by Ellison

[Politically_Wrong]

30. "The Chocolate War"

I'm an eleventh grade student and last year, my sophomore year, we read "The Chocolate War" and I LOVED it...I went out and bought ten other Robert Cormier books...he is a great young-adult writer!

[MountainLaurel]

31. Black Like Me

To Kill a Mockingbird, A People's History of the United States.

[sasquatch]

32. How About "Lord of the Flies" for eighth graders

And as a History major I'd like to bring back paddling for public school students.
;)
If I had to put up with that shit then so should they.
;)

[Texasgal]

35. Tales of the city

By Maupin.

Teaches tolerence.