Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Inspired by recent higher education posts by Rob and Claire, as well as by a long ago one by Peter regarding appropriate and entertaining books for teens, I wonder if Ricochet can come up with books that American middle and high school students must read in school? We can assume there would be a decent teacher, but not a great one. We should assume students of all backgrounds and of average intelligence.
For starters, I wonder if I’m the only dolt on here who had the following problem: I was asked to read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before I knew anything about slavery, Animal Farm without grasping the most basic forms of government, TheScarlet Letter without really “getting” adultery, and Romeo and Juliet with only a modicum of understanding of my own English, much less that from 400 years earlier.
I was supposed to have digested these, among too many others, before high school. I read them as an adult, so I can appreciate their “classic” status. But I have also had to teach these same works to 12- and 13-year-old students of all abilities, and I feel that these choices for this age quite simply – and quite quickly -- turn students away from reading.
How can we solve this puzzle? What are 5-10 books we should expect middle and high school students to 1) understand, 2) learn some useful history from, and 3) learn a life lesson from?
As Claire might say, please justify your choices.
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May '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
If you miss <em>Cathcer in the Rye</em> while in your teens, you've miised something important. I tried to read it again years later and couldn't get into it.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
In Cold Blood, Slaughterhouse 5, Dr. Zhivago....
May '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I would agree that "Catcher in the Rye" is a good start. It's easy to understand, entertaining, and it is still able to connect with teenagers (such as myself) all these years later.
When I was a a freshman in high school, they made us read "Great Expectations," which at the time seemed boring, arcane, and pointless. I've gone back and read it, and now I enjoy it greatly. But perhaps it's not a good choice for a freshman in high school.
The best bet to get teens to read would be to assign shorter books, like "Fahrenheit 451" and maybe "1984." However, some shorter book should be avoided. Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is very short (about a hundred pages long, if memory serves), but incredibly boring and tedious. I had to read that one in either sophomore or junior year, and have resented Hemingway ever since.
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I might disagree with the premise. I'm not sure it's important fully to understand what you're reading to get something out of it. Case in point: I read Animal Farm at the age of five. No, of course I didn't understand it. I really liked it, though, because it was about talking animals, and what five-year-old (especially me) doesn't like talking animals? My father explained that in fact it was about something called "Revolution," I accepted this pleasantly as five-year-olds do. But somehow enough of that book's real message got into my head that later, when I began to understand the word "Revolution," I was able to match it, emotionally, with Boxer's fate--quite an important association, I'd say. And still later, when I returned to the book and read it through adult eyes, it had the feeling of an old friend. It was already a part of me. The greatest works of literature can be appreciated on many levels. You don't necessarily need to have committed adultery to appreciate The Scarlet Letter, literature can also be the means by which we learn about adultery.
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Although I myself learned about adultery by reading a purloined copy of Valley of the Dolls, at the age of eleven. I learned a lot from that book, actually.
May '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Catcher in the Rye, Huck Finn, Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men didn't turn me away from reading at all (and most of them came between 13 and 15). The trick is to not only tell the kid to read the book but also to teach the context of the language and social history. I don't think I really had a complete grasp on the history of slavery in the US when I read Huck Finn (14?), but it helped encourage me to learn more on the subject.
Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter, on the other hand, tried mightily to make me hate the written word. Moby Dick for its cumbersome prose and the Scarlet Letter for its equally cumbersome and heavy-handed symbolism. I know it's heresy, but I might ditch those for something more contemporary. Or maybe just more Shakespeare.
If you want to teach kids to love reading, though, there should be a second list of things that are good and insightful but chosen mostly because they encourage the kid simply to enjoy reading. The geek in me reaches for his Heinlein collection at a moment like this...
May '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Claire, around the time you were reading Valley of the Dolls, I had pinched a copy of The Prince from one of my dad's friends. I have to admit, if I had a kid that age, I'm pretty sure I would prefer they read Valley of the Dolls...
May '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Oh, I forgot: I commented the second time to agree that I think the premise is flawed. If you teach kids to love reading--and, miraculously, my parents did just that with me--then what they read will lead them to discover and understand new things.
I had (and have) a voratious appetite for the written word and I've learned more from reading everything from your own Victor Davis Hansen to Paul Theroux to Sean Stewart to Fareed Zakaria. Understanding everything isn't a prerequisite and never was--reading always included an aspect of exploration to me.
For that matter, agreeing is entirely optional. The writing that has challenged my beliefs and assumptions, even when I don't end up agreeing with the author, will always be my favorite. This isn't something that I learned as an adult; I've carried this with me since my real addiction to reading started when I was around 10.
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
How about Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey? If we're talking about middle school students, they'll identify with and learn from Dorian's obsession with looks. They'll learn about Victorian society. And they'll learn that decadence and excess lead to tragedy and death.
PLUS it can't hurt to have them internalize some of Wilde's brilliant wit.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Lowry's The Giver is a good, brief, understandable story. So is the fast-paced Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Both are about dystopias in which the family has been intentionally undermined as a competing source of authority. Both are quite fun.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I raised five children, and none of them ever complained about To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, although I didn't read it until I was an adult, My Antonia is a beautiful book that some teens will take to.
For fun, there is no better funny writing going on today than in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. And there won't be many more as Pratchett has been diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimers.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
On the negative side, don't even let Moby Dick in your house or your kids may never read again. About every ten years or so, I give Moby another try. I haven't made it yet even though I've now read War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov. I think maybe Mellville wrote Moby Dick for octogenarians.
Two more positive recommendations: Gulliver's Travels works on different levels. And if you want your kids to read stories that are good on their own, but which are also filled with Christian symoblism, have them read The Chronicles of Narnia.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I think most of Dickens would be enjoyed by young people (including boys.)
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I try to introduce literature to my students as part my history curriculum. We read The Good Earth with Chinese history, for example. When I teach American history, I usually introduce The Red Badge of Courage with the Civil War, and Grapes of Wrath for the Great Depression. For government and economics I insist on Atlas Shrugged. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse fits nicely into a unit on comparative religion.
I have found that a significant number of today's kids are simply non-readers, and it distresses me. I've had 9th grade students ask me for definitions of simple words like "infantry" and "pilfer." My response is usually to indicate the row of dictionaries at the back of my classroom. The kids on the other hand who constantly carry a book of their choosing for pleasure reading tend to be the ones who score highest on the SAT's.
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Claire, do you really think you were/are the typical American 5YO or teen? I realize I am a dolt, as I said, compared to you. No doubt about that. I'm asking us all to think about a bright 12-year-old from, say, the South Bronx. An ESL student. What might reach them?
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Did I say that?
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I really enjoyed reading Rousseau's Emile as a sophomore in high school. It's an introduction to the big nature vs. nurture questions of life, and really pushes readers to consider the essence of human nature (i.e. are we in essence good, or are we flawed and fallen creatures?). The writing is on the dense-ish end of the spectrum, but because the main character is a child (and eventually a teenager and young adult) it's manageable for high school aged students.
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
I guess, as a former teacher of middle school boys on all parts of the spectrum -- inner city, privileged, neglected, coddled, dyslexic, ADD -- I know that these "traditional" books, and others like them, are turn offs. Perhaps the top third of the class, at most, gets something from them, if not everything. True, for you and me, David, our stable, educated, and involved parents prevented us from giving up on books altogether. But many, many American parents don't like reading themselves. What books can we choose to convince their children, often in the middle and bottom groupings, that reading is worth pursuing?
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
What books can we choose to convince their children, often in the middle and bottom groupings, that reading is worth pursuing?
As much as I hate them, I prefer "graphic novels" to nothing at all.
Re: Ricochet Book List, Teen Edition
Ursula Hennessey
Claire, do you really think you were/are the typical American 5YO or teen? I realize I am a dolt, as I said, compared to you. No doubt about that. I'm asking us all to think about a bright 12-year-old from, say, the South Bronx. An ESL student. What might reach them? · Jul 27 at 3:29pm
No, not typical, but not so precocious that Animal Farm seemed to me anything other than a cute book about talking animals. My point is that you can appreciate a book on many levels, and don't necessarily need to understand it to enjoy it or profit from it. Anyway: The surest way to get anyone of that age to read any book with fascination is to forbid it. Insist that the themes are too adult and that there's far too much sex and violence in it. Give them the boring copy of To KIll a Mockingbird (has that book ever been read with pleasure?) and tell them they may not under any circumstances read anything by Roald Dahl until they're 18. Hide the Dahl. They'll find it.