High School literature suggestions that aren't so dark and depressing...

[susanah4]

I'm reading the book descriptions of the most common high school lit. books and the topics are very dark.  Can you name some that are uplifting and have a more positive note especially those with guides available?   My dd is very sensitive and on the melancholy side and doesn't particularly like reading.  I would like to find books she would enjoy and not leave her feeling depressed.  I've glanced through Progeny Press and like the format of their guides, but much prefer their middle school list to their high school one.   

[Harriet Vane]

One easy resource to check is Glencoe Literature. They have free lit guides and a good list. There are some sad or dark books on that list, but not the hyper-violent, awful stuff that typifies many high school lists.

 

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/

[Lori D.]

This is always a tough question to answer... So much of classic literature IS classic because it does not shy away from difficult or painful truths. This question esp. comes up when people are pulling together a list of literature for the 20th century to contemporary literature, since so much of it reflects the culture and thinking of the times...

However, I'd like to encourage you here to not necessarily shy away from ALL literature that might seem "heavy", because the classics ARE classics because there is so much rich Truth we can learn from even the hard or dark and depressing works. So, I suggest *balance* -- don't overweight any one year with too many hard/dark works. And find a good guide to walk you through the dark and depressing works so you don't just get dragged down by those works, but can really see the "meat" and "value" and learn from even these hard classics.

Below are some ideas to help you with balance. BEST of luck in your high school Literature journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Focus on a special interest of your student. (Ideas of how to set up your own here.) Examples:
- parody/satire (Literary spoof, satire, sarcasm, anyone?)
- 19th Century Female Authors (Can I feel dumb here and ask about Victorian era, Pride & Prejudice and British Lit?)
- author study (Have you ever done an "author's study"?)
- fairytale study (Fairy Tale unit for high school; and, Need ideas... classics: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.)
- fantasy & sci-fi literature (Anybody know of a fantasy & science fiction course?)
- science fiction (Science Fiction; and, Science Fiction Unit)
- inspiring classics (High Literature which is encouraging; or, Lightning Lit: American Christian Lit; British Christian Lit)

PRE-1800 CLASSICS
- The Odyssey (Homer) -- Garlic Press Publishers Discovering Literature
- Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) -- Glencoe; Sparknotes; Novel Guide
- Beowulf -- The Great Books (worldview guide); Glencoe; Penguin Group
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- Sparknotes; Penguin Group; past thread of discussion
- Shakespeares comedies / sonnets -- Lightning Literature; Brightest Heaven of Invention: Christian Guide to 6 Shakespeare Plays
- Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan)
- Gulliver's Travels (Swift)
- Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)

19th Century Classics
- Pride and Prejudice (Austen) -- Glencoe; Pink Monkey; Sparknotes
- Jane Eyre (Bronte) -- Glencoe; past thread of discussion; Pink Monkey; Schmoop
- The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
- Treasure Island (Stevenson)
- A Christmas Carol (Dickens) -- Progeny Press; Sparknotes; Novel Guide
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Murder on the Orient Express (Christie) -- Sparknotes; Schmoop
- a murder mystery by Dorothy Sayers
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer -- Progeny Press
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Progeny Press

HUMOROUS
- The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) -- Sparknotes; Pink Monkey
- a work by PG Wodehouse -- Bookrags; Enotes
- Three Men in a Boat (Jerome) -- ENotes; Bookrags
- All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot)
- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

OTHER
- non-fiction
- biographies
- poetry
- essays

CHRISTIAN AUTHORS and/or THEMES
- The Light Princess (MacDonald) -- short story; essay by Bob Trexler
- The Golden Key (MacDonald) -- short Story; ENotes; Bookrags

- The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton) -- Kolbe Academy study guide; ENotes essay
- The Hobbit (Tolkien) -- Progeny Press; Garlic Press Publishers Discovering Literature
- Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien) -- Progeny Press; Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings; Peter Kreet audio lectures: 10 Uncommon Insights into Evil in Lord of the Rings and Language of Beauty in Lord of the Rings
- Till We Have Faces (Lewis) -- Peter Kreeft audio lecture
- Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra (Lewis) -- Progeny Press; free on line background info and essay ideas
- Screwtape Letters (Lewis) -- 1st of 6 YouTube lectures by Jerry Root; free online discussion questions
- The Great Divorce (Lewis) -- free online study guide by Pastor Jonathon Dinger; more free online resources
- Tombs of Atuan (LeGuin)
- The Hiding Place (tenBoom)

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[Vida Winter]

I don't know if you can get away from the heavier topics in high school but can you even it out with lighter books, say throw in some James Herriot (All Things Bright and Beautiful series), Finney (Time and Again), #1 Ladies Detective series, Sherlock Holmes, David Attenborough and Gerald Durrell nature-themed books, Bill Bryson, Michael Crichton (only some of his), and others that are just plain fun to read? I have been agonizing over Sonlight cores and realized that they employ this tactic. If you're careful you can achieve a nice balance. I also don't like to over-use book guides....I only use them once in a while for more difficult works like Shakespeare. They tend to kill the enjoyment of a book, for us anyway. I'd rather spend more time reading.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

 

 

However, I'd like to encourage you here to not necessarily shy away from ALL literature that might seem "heavy", because the classics ARE classics because there is so much rich Truth we can learn from even the hard or dark and depressing works. So, I suggest *balance* -- don't overweight any one year with too many hard/dark works. And find a good guide to walk you through the dark and depressing works so you don't just get dragged down by those works, but can really see the "meat" and "value" and learn from even these hard classics.

 

 

There is a section in Who Killed Homer? by Hanson and Heath that is discussing why works of the Greeks and Romans are still worth reading.  They make the point that classics, especially epic and tragedy, are worthwhile because they assure the reader that he is not alone in struggling with the human condition. That when sorrows and hardship come, the reader knows that he is not the first person to lose a parent, or a wife, or a child; or to have a life's work come to naught.

 

I think that this is an important thing to expose teens to, since so much of teen angst seems to center on a sense that they are abnormal.  They fear that they are out of step with their peers and often feel that they are the only one who feels uncertain, insecure, or out of place.

 

On the other hand, I do think that a lot of young adult fiction is quite dark and focused on the dysfunction rather than successfully moving past it.

 

I guess I'm just trying to agree with Lori that some exposure, at the right time and in the right dose, can be strengthening.

[Twigs]

:bigear:

[flyingiguana]

So what's on the Progeny Press middle school list?

 

Sometimes books on the middle school list can be just as discussion worthy.  An older student may just read it in more depth and have more to think about with it.

 

I'm thinking of things like To Kill a Mockingbird -- which often gets put in the younger grades.  (Not that it completely shies away from the darker side of life....)

 

BTW -- I didn't find the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency to be all that light.  There's a child murder in the first one.

 

I also found Murder on the Orient Express (and everything else I've read of Christie's) to be dull beyond imagining.  The Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries are so much more engaging (although there's nearly always a dead body...)

 

Pride and Prejudice is hilarious, if your mind enjoys that sort of humor.  Jane Eyre really appeals to some people.  Yes, it's a lot of pages, but they go by fast if you get into the story. 

 

The Moonstone -- my daughters and I really liked this one -- as did my book club.  There's funny bits, a mystery, a love story, and even some things to discuss about cultures and how people are treated.  Some of it is a bit campy, but that adds to the fun.

 

I'd recommend Jeeves and Wooster, but I don't like the books as much as I do the TV series.

 

Are you looking for a particular time period?  Theme?

[Matryoshka]

Going through my grils' high school book list, here are the titles that I've included that (at least as I recall) either end on an uplifting note or are humorous or otherwise lighter fare:

 

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Scarlet Pimpernel

Till We Have Faces

Emma

Nine Tailors (Sayers)

My Antonia

The Bean Trees

Jane Eyre

The Kitchen God’s Wife

Out of Africa

West with the Night

Fried Green Tomatoes

[susanah4]

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas!  I'm sure I can pull something together from all this.  I don't mind a novel or two that are dark, but it seems like the majority of the lit classes are made up of these.   Looks like I will just be putting a list together myself.  I wasn't looking for anything particular, but just wanted to find some books she would enjoy and not get bogged down in.  She is a reluctant reader, but can read quite well when she is interested. Do you think we need to dig deep on all the lit books she reads, or can she just read some as long as we get deep into a couple a year? 

[maize]

I think Les Miserables makes a good selection for high school literature. Plenty of struggles, injustices, and insights into humanity for discussions and essays, but also themes of forgiveness and redemption.

[Vida Winter]

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas!  I'm sure I can pull something together from all this.  I don't mind a novel or two that are dark, but it seems like the majority of the lit classes are made up of these.   Looks like I will just be putting a list together myself.  I wasn't looking for anything particular, but just wanted to find some books she would enjoy and not get bogged down in.  She is a reluctant reader, but can read quite well when she is interested. Do you think we need to dig deep on all the lit books she reads, or can she just read some as long as we get deep into a couple a year? 

 

Skim and discuss online lit guides in an informal way, getting most of the value out of them without bogging down in comprehension questions and busywork. You absolutely need to pre-read all the selected books in order to discuss them. If there is a particularly challenging book that she is dreading, read it aloud or listen to it  with her from a recording.

 

If you are not able to do the above, I highly recommend this class:

 

http://www.oaopp.com/HS-101

 

High School Literature Discussion with Adam and Missy Andrews

 

I am pasting the high school schedule here:

 

 

 1 Beowulf

.. September 9      2 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Alxander Solzhenitsyn September 30 3  The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne October 21  4 Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte November 11  5 Hamlet

William Shakespeare December 2  6  Dante's Inferno

  January 6   7  The Old Man and the Sea 

Ernest Hemingway January 27   8 Nicholas Nickleby

Charles Dickens February 17  9 Revelation 

Flannery O'Connor March 10   10 Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen March 31  11 'Til We Have Faces

C.S. Lewis April 21  12 That Hideous Strength

C.S. Lewis May 12 

 

     1st semester

     2nd semester

 

 

Sorry about the messed up formatting - I can't get things to line up but you get the idea, follow the link to the class page to see it in original format.

 

We enrolled in the Jr. High and the High School levels last year and it was wonderful. There is an optional (for added fee) writing portion of the course offered now that was not available last year so I can't comment on it.

 

If you do the book discussion-only, all the student needs to do is read the book and participate in a 2-hr webinar on the scheduled date. They do not assign grades. My kids loved reading the books without the pressure of having to write about them. The hard deadlines kept them on track. We are not enrolled this year only because we are doing multiple Sonlight cores and reading will already take up a large part of our days. Even reluctant readers can enjoy these books and feel the sense of accomplishment in tackling something hard and completing it.

 

ETA: take a look at the Junior high book discussion also -- it is also excellent and maybe a little more interesting to your daughter:

 1 Tuck Everlasting

Natalie Babbitt September 19 

September 23

   2 Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte October 10

October 14

  3  Macbeth

William Shakespeare October 31

November 4

   4 Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevensen November 21

November 25

   5 At the Back of the North Wind

George MacDonald December 12

December 16

   6  A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens January 16 

January 20

   7  The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn 

Mark Twain

  February 6   8 North to Freedom

Anne Holm

  February 27  9 The Fellowship of the Ring 

J.R.R. Tolkien

  March 27   10 The Prince and the Pauper

Mark Twain

  April 10  11 Watership Down

Richard Adams

  May 1  12 The Wind in the Willows

Kenneth Grahame

  May 22 

 

[Lori D.]

If you want a ready-made lit. program, there a number that have only a few, and sometimes no, heavy/dark works:

Excellence in Literature options
Full Year Programs. The great thing about this program -- if you don't like an option, there is usually a more positive honors option you could substitute:

- Intro to Literature (gr. 8-10)
(the only really heavy/dark work in this one is the optional honors novel 1984, which I *would* skip with a melancholy/sensitive teen)

- Literature and Composition (gr. 9-11)
(in the regular works, skip the dark/depressing Heart of Darkness and use the optional honors substitute Manalive; if Till We Have Faces (which is powerfully Christian and positive in the ending) isn't working for you, substitute the honors Screwtape Letters; possibly skip entirely module 6)

- American Lit (gr. 10-12)
(IMO, of the regular works only The Great Gatsby would be depressing, and you can substitute the lighter honors option My Antonia)

- British Lilt (gr. 11-12)
(possibly substitute the honors option of Oliver Twist or David Copperfield for the rather sad Great Expectations; subsitute Jane Eyre (more outright positive and Christian) for the dark/abusive Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights)

Hewitt Homeschooling Lightning Lit options:
These specific programs are all great, no heavy, dark/depressing works:
- British Medieval (gr. 10-12)
- British Early to Mid 19th Century (gr. 10-12)
(possibly Frankenstein might be considered "dark", but IMO, it's mostly a series of ethics discussions interspersed by landscape descriptions)
- British Christian Authors (gr. 11-12)
- Shakespeare Comedies & Sonnets (gr. 11-12)

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Great thoughts, Vida Winter! I had never heard of the online programs you mentioned! Those sound really good! However, can you "pick and choose" which books you participate with? (As there are a number of books I would really hesitate to do with a melancholy or sensitive teen...)

My "proximity alert" goes off on these:
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- brutal communist dissenter camp conditions
- Scarlet Letter, Hamlet -- tragedies (people die)
- That Hideous Strength -- powerful, but very adult book; really nasty evil -- I'd save this for later
- Macbeth -- buckets o' blood -- my DSs loved this one LOL!
- At the Back of the North Wind -- the child protagonist dies -- which takes him to heaven where he wants to go, but one of the last images is his grieving parents... not gonna go over well with a sensitive teen!
- A Tale of Two Cities -- some brutal characters, plus the noble sacrifice at the end -- guy dies saving someone else
- Watership Down -- great epic quest tale with rabbits as protagonists -- but some die along the way to being able to successfully make a new home

Skimming guides in advance might also help you see what books will work and what won't work for your DD. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[susanah4]

 

This is always a tough question to answer... So much of classic literature IS classic because it does not shy away from difficult or painful truths. This question esp. comes up when people are pulling together a list of literature for the 20th century to contemporary literature, since so much of it reflects the culture and thinking of the times...

 

However, I'd like to encourage you here to not necessarily shy away from ALL literature that might seem "heavy", because the classics ARE classics because there is so much rich Truth we can learn from even the hard or dark and depressing works. So, I suggest *balance* -- don't overweight any one year with too many hard/dark works. And find a good guide to walk you through the dark and depressing works so you don't just get dragged down by those works, but can really see the "meat" and "value" and learn from even these hard classics.

 

Below are some ideas to help you with balance. BEST of luck in your high school Literature journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

Focus on a special interest of your student. (Ideas of how to set up your own here.) Examples:

- parody/satire (Literary spoof, satire, sarcasm, anyone?)

- 19th Century Female Authors (Can I feel dumb here and ask about Victorian era, Pride & Prejudice and British Lit?)

- author study (Have you ever done an "author's study"?)

- fairytale study (Fairy Tale unit for high school; and, Need ideas... classics: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.)

- fantasy & sci-fi literature (Anybody know of a fantasy & science fiction course?)

- science fiction (Science Fiction; and, Science Fiction Unit)

- inspiring classics (High Literature which is encouraging; or, Lightning Lit: American Christian Lit; British Christian Lit)

 

 

PRE-1800 CLASSICS

- The Odyssey (Homer) -- Garlic Press Publishers Discovering Literature

- Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) -- Glencoe; Sparknotes; Novel Guide

- Beowulf -- The Great Books (worldview guide); Glencoe; Penguin Group

- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- Sparknotes; Penguin Group; past thread of discussion

- Shakespeares comedies / sonnets -- Lightning Literature; Brightest Heaven of Invention: Christian Guide to 6 Shakespeare Plays

- Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan)

- Gulliver's Travels (Swift)

- Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)

 

19th Century Classics

- Pride and Prejudice (Austen) -- Glencoe; Pink Monkey; Sparknotes

- Jane Eyre (Bronte) -- Glencoe; past thread of discussion; Pink Monkey; Schmoop

- The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)

- Treasure Island (Stevenson)

- A Christmas Carol (Dickens) -- Progeny Press; Sparknotes; Novel Guide

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

- Murder on the Orient Express (Christie) -- Sparknotes; Schmoop

- a murder mystery by Dorothy Sayers

- Adventures of Tom Sawyer -- Progeny Press

- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Progeny Press

 

HUMOROUS

- The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) -- Sparknotes; Pink Monkey

- a work by PG Wodehouse -- Bookrags; Enotes

- Three Men in a Boat (Jerome) -- ENotes; Bookrags

- All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot)

- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

 

OTHER

- non-fiction

- biographies

- poetry

- essays

 

CHRISTIAN AUTHORS and/or THEMES

- The Light Princess (MacDonald) -- short story; essay by Bob Trexler

- The Golden Key (MacDonald) -- short Story; ENotes; Bookrags

- The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton) -- Kolbe Academy study guide; ENotes essay

- The Hobbit (Tolkien) -- Progeny Press; Garlic Press Publishers Discovering Literature

- Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien) -- Progeny Press; Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings; Peter Kreet audio lectures: 10 Uncommon Insights into Evil in Lord of the Rings and Language of Beauty in Lord of the Rings

- Till We Have Faces (Lewis) -- Peter Kreeft audio lecture

- Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra (Lewis) -- Progeny Press; free on line background info and essay ideas

- Screwtape Letters (Lewis) -- 1st of 6 YouTube lectures by Jerry Root; free online discussion questions

- The Great Divorce (Lewis) -- free online study guide by Pastor Jonathon Dinger; more free online resources

- Tombs of Atuan (LeGuin)

- The Hiding Place (tenBoom)

 

 

This is a great list!  I will definitely be able to use this!  Thanks!

 

[Candid]

I agree with others that there is plenty out there that isn't modern and dark.

 

Really if you would mostly read works from before the 19th Century you'd mostly be okay. The Iliad and The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Song of Roland, maybe skip Dante, but Beowulf, The Faerie Queene, Shakespeare's sonnets and commedies, even his histories, Paradise Lost, so forth.

 

Once you get to novels, you'll need to me a bit sharper, but Austen can be but a beginning.

 

And let me suggest that you not avoid dark altogether. One of the darkest novels out there, Crime and Punishment, is also one of the most uplifting. 

[Vida Winter]

Great thoughts, Vida Winter! I had never heard of the online programs you mentioned! Those sound really good! However, can you "pick and choose" which books you participate with? (As there are a number of books I would really hesitate to do with a melancholy or sensitive teen...)

 

My "proximity alert" goes off on these:

 

- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- brutal communist dissenter camp conditions

- Scarlet Letter, Hamlet -- tragedies (people die)

- That Hideous Strength -- powerful, but very adult book; really nasty evil -- I'd save this for later

- Macbeth -- buckets o' blood -- my DSs loved this one LOL!

- At the Back of the North Wind -- the child protagonist dies -- which takes him to heaven where he wants to go, but one of the last images is his grieving parents... not gonna go over well with a sensitive teen!

- A Tale of Two Cities -- some brutal characters, plus the noble sacrifice at the end -- guy dies saving someone else

- Watership Down -- great epic quest tale with rabbits as protagonists -- but some die along the way to being able to successfully make a new home

 

Skimming guides in advance might also help you see what books will work and what won't work for your DD. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

Hi Lori, you always have such good input.  I agree that these are heavy subjects. I love the class because it is very close to a book club where students are free to point out what they liked and didn't like about the book. It is a different mindset than "gotta slog through this depressing book on my own" -- it changes to "man I hated parts of this book and loved this other part - can't wait to discuss it next Tuesday". My high school dd had a hard time getting through "A Tale of Two Cities" but persevered because of the class and came out of the discussion with new perspectives and an appreciation that she was not the only one to have a hard time getting through this book and a sense of accomplishment for having done so. A few years ago I was a member of a book club and ended up reading a variety of books I would have *never* selected for myself. Some were great, others not so much, but we always had fun getting together. This class has a similar feel.

 

 

[Lori D.]

On 8/26/2013 at 9:01 AM, Vida Winter said:

 I love the class because it is very close to a book club where students are free to point out what they liked and didn't like about the book. It is a different mindset than "gotta slog through this depressing book on my own" -- it changes to "man I hated parts of this book and loved this other part - can't wait to discuss it next Tuesday". 

What a great outlook for a class! Very encouraging, I would bet, for non-readers, or those not naturally interested in / gifted in literature. 🙂 Again, thanks for mentioning this one; I will be sure to include it as a resource in future posts on literature. 🙂

Edited April 15, 2022 by Lori D.

[Mom22ns]

If you want a ready-made lit. program, there a number that have only a few, and sometimes no, heavy/dark works:

 

Excellence in Literature options

Full Year Programs. The great thing about this program -- if you don't like an option, there is usually a more positive honors option you could substitute:

 

I was going to suggest EIL. The Intro to LIt level is particularly enjoyable lit. There is very little that is dark and depressing. I think Lori does a great job of overviewing each level. We do substitute the honors options if we have already read a book or if I think my child will strongly prefer it. I don't require my kids to write the extra papers that honors level requires, but I do encourage them to read all the books.