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X-post: German Lit selections - help me pick.


Matryoshka
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My two seniors wanted to continue their German studies post-AP.  They're going to meet with the high school AP German teacher every other week; they'll read various things and write some essays.

 

The teacher suggested they start with something her students read in her AP class (which they didn't take - they took German elsewhere).  She said it's a YA book; I hadn't read it before.  I thought it probably wasn't a bad idea to start with something easier; they both did AP Spanish last year, so it's probably not bad to ease back into German.  Well, even my weaker German kid thought the book seemed at a pretty low level.  So, still not bad for easing in, but I'm wondering what to do next.  The AP teacher mentioned her class does Der Besuch der alten Dame, which is a play, and which I have read and I know is a standard one in many German classes, but what I really think they need is something that challenges them with longer sentences than a play and meatier themes than a middle-grades book (which is what I'd say this one is) but without being completely overwhelming and boring.  In other words, not Goethe or Schiller, for heaven's sake.  I was thinking some shorter works, and hopefully engaging and not ponderous.

 

I think I may suggest a book I read in college called Die neuen Leiden des jungen W. by Ulrich Plenzdorf - it does have a lot of slang, but I really enjoyed it.  I don't know that they'll be all that excited about existentialist things like Kafka?  But they did read lots of mind-bending magic realism in Spanish last year...  maybe Die Verwandlung wouldn't be a bad choice - it is nice and short...?  Other suggestions?

 

Any other ideas for texts that are somewhere between "lite" and "I Am A Ponderous Work of Great Literature with Sentences Two Pages Long".

I know about more fun stuff like Funke and Kai Meyer, but they don't seem right for a Lit class...

 

Anyway, I know there are some other German speakers on here... any ideas? :)

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You could look at the list they use for the Swiss matu...

 

This link is in French so it will have German literature as a second language and will therefore have weeded out the really hard stuff. If you scroll to page 5, that's where the German literature is listed.

 

Listes des œuvres littéraires, valables dès 2015

 

This link will take you to German as a first language literature list...which should come first with a much larger selection.

 

Literaturlisten im Bereich Sprachen ab 2015

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You could look at the list they use for the Swiss matu...

 

This link is in French so it will have German literature as a second language and will therefore have weeded out the really hard stuff. If you scroll to page 5, that's where the German literature is listed.

 

Listes des œuvres littéraires, valables dès 2015

 

This link will take you to German as a first language literature list...which should come first with a much larger selection.

 

Literaturlisten im Bereich Sprachen ab 2015

 

Thank You!!!!!!   :hurray:   And now I want to read about Die Entdeckung der Currywurst, 'cause I love Currywurst...   These lists are a great resource!

 

If anyone wants to point out a book or author that you've read and particularly liked, please chime in...

 

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