Literature List Help

[ABQmom]

I am working on a literature list for my girls who will be entering 10th and 12th grades this fall. They will be reading these in a co-op setting so there's no rhyme or reason to which books we are looking at---just that we need books the kids will read but haven't read before.

 

I need opinions and input because I have read only a couple of the books I'm thinking of using. The kids don't like "gross" stories, yet they don't want to be bored. I'm trying to balance the list out between uplifting stories/depressing ones and hard to read/easier to read. What do you think? What would you change? Eliminate? Keep?

 

These books are the ones I'm leaning more heavily on using:

1. Watership Down

2. Til We Have Faces

3. Huck Finn

4. The Yearling

5. Tale of Two Cities

 

These books I really know nothing about:

6. Farenheit 451

7. Heart of Darkness

8. Murder at the Cathedral

9. Out of the Silent Planet

[swimmermom3]

I am working on a literature list for my girls who will be entering 10th and 12th grades this fall. They will be reading these in a co-op setting so there's no rhyme or reason to which books we are looking at---just that we need books the kids will read but haven't read before.

 

I need opinions and input because I have read only a couple of the books I'm thinking of using. The kids don't like "gross" stories, yet they don't want to be bored. I'm trying to balance the list out between uplifting stories/depressing ones and hard to read/easier to read. What do you think? What would you change? Eliminate? Keep?

 

These books are the ones I'm leaning more heavily on using:

1. Watership Down

2. Til We Have Faces

3. Huck Finn

4. The Yearling

5. Tale of Two Cities

 

These books I really know nothing about:

6. Farenheit 451

7. Heart of Darkness

8. Murder at the Cathedral

9. Out of the Silent Planet

 

 

For the age of your girls, I would be inclined to replace The Yearling and probably Watership Down with Heart of Darkness and Farenheit 451, but then I don't know their reading levels, their goals for after high school and what type of expectations your co-op has. Even in a public school setting, I would expect to add numerous short stories, essays, and poetry to the list, otherwise it is a bit on the light side, especially for the twelfth grader. Both Fahrenheit 451 and Heart of Darkness should be pre-read by you if you or the co-op have content concerns. They are both standard classics that I would expect a high school student to have read.

[Lori D.]

Looks like a great list to me! All can be analyzed from a Christian perspective. :) While there are sad moments, and some sacrifices, nothing TOO graphic, violent or depressing here... And certainly accessible for grades 9 and up. Below are my thumbnail reviews, FWIW. Have a great co-op! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

Watership Down

Great quest, search for a homeland (echoes of The Aeneid), and you'll be able to have some good discussions about different types of government along the way. There are some tense parts, and not all the characters make it -- but that makes the goal all the more worthy when some lay down their lives for the good of the group. Not difficult to read. Some sad bits, but ends positively.

 

Till We Have Faces

IMO, C.S. Lewis finest work. A power work that I have re-read multiple times, that is rich with meaning. A retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. Get the most out of this fabulous work (and understand the Christian themes in it) by first listening to the Peter Kreeft lecture on it. Somewhat difficult to read -- that will be reduced by listening to the Kreeft lecture first, and possibly using a lit. guide like the one from the Center for Learning, or. Reason & Imagination in C.S. Lewis

 

Huckleberry Finn

A "must read"; probably in the top five most read works in high school. No reason NOT to read it. Our DSs really enjoyed us reading The Day They Came to Arrest the Book alongside Huck Finn, as it is a great series of arguments from all sides about censorship, set in a modern setting.

 

The Yearling

Not personally familiar with this one. A coming-of-age story through loss / death of the fawn rescued and raised to adulthood by the young teen main character. I think this book is more typically read in middle school... (?) Read the synopsis here. Free online guide from Glencoe Literature Library here.

 

Tale of Two Cities

A "not to be missed" work. Persevere through the first 6 chapters or so, which are a bit thick. After that, wonderful Dickens' characters, insight into the madness of the French Revolution, and the powerful theme of becoming selfless through sacrifice in order to give meaning to a failed life. So, yes, a sad ending -- but one that gives value, purpose and meaning to the characters -- a meaningful sacrifice, in other words. Glencoe Literature Library guide (secular), or Progeny Press guide (Christian).

 

Farenheit 451

Another "not to be missed" work. Bradbury has a very visual writing style, and the theme of loss of literacy in favor of images really resonates with today's culture. While some sad/bad things happen, I personally feel the book ends on a hopeful note, that, while the culture is in great disarray at the ending of the book, the main character looks forward to keeping literature alive for the future generation that will appreciate it and value it. Progeny Press guide (Christian).

 

Heart of Darkness

Not personally familiar with this one. A journey into the darkness of the human heart. The very powerful film Apocalypse Now is based on this novel. See the book summary here.

 

Murder at the Cathedral

Not personally familiar with this one. Choice to do what is right despite the consequences. Based on the lives of Thomas Becket and King Henry V, who were good friends, but Becket chooses to "do the right thing" in defiance of Henry's wishes that Becket support Henry's power play, leading to Becket's assassination at Henry's command. See the play summary here.

 

Out of the Silent Planet

First book of C.S. Lewis' "space trilogy". Most straight forward of the three, with Lewis introducing the theme of moral awakening upon exposure to alien races. Very much a science fiction adventure, but with the addition of Christian themes and ideas.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

For Heart of Darkness you might skim the history King Leopold's Ghost War for background.

[Candid]

Is this all they are reading for 11th grade? If so, I'm not jumping up and down about it. It doesn't strike me as a very substantial list for 11th graders. Nor am I jumping up and down about it as a list to send them off into the world with a better understanding of life or others.

 

I guess it depends on what the goals are for these girls, where they are now. But even if they were slower readers who aren't going to college, I'm not sure I'd spend time on the books you have. I know some of them are very popular, but they mostly leave me cold and bored.

 

If you want substantial then you keep Heart of Darkness, Huck Finn, and A Tale of Two Cities. If you want to learn about others keep Heart and Huck.

[Harriet Vane]

I am working on a literature list for my girls who will be entering 10th and 12th grades this fall. They will be reading these in a co-op setting so there's no rhyme or reason to which books we are looking at---just that we need books the kids will read but haven't read before.

 

I need opinions and input because I have read only a couple of the books I'm thinking of using. The kids don't like "gross" stories, yet they don't want to be bored. I'm trying to balance the list out between uplifting stories/depressing ones and hard to read/easier to read. What do you think? What would you change? Eliminate? Keep?

 

These books are the ones I'm leaning more heavily on using:

1. Watership Down Excellent book but more suited to junior high. I might consider it a good supplement to modern history study though.

2. Til We Have Faces Excellent book. One of Lewis' finest. Definitely do this, also studying the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

3. Huck Finn Good choice. Make sure to give this a solid historical and cultural background.

4. The Yearling Not meaty enough for high school.

5. Tale of Two Cities This is Dickens' finest work, in my opinion. Well worth studying and enjoying. Push through the first several chapters--the book becomes enjoyable and the pace quickens as you read on.

 

These books I really know nothing about:

6. Farenheit 451 I think it's poorly written. However, it is an easy, quick read and is one that most American students read. I say go ahead and read it because American students will run into references to this work repeatedly. My own dd will be reading this book this summer.

7. Heart of Darkness Poorly written, dark, unhappy, and confusing. Also wildly inaccurate to African culture, though it does present an accurate picture of white imperialism. Truly hate this book and see little literary merit in it. This one should only be read with a good study guide to walk you through it.

8. Murder at the Cathedral Personally unfamiliar with this book.

9. Out of the Silent Planet I adore Lewis' space trilogy. Good story, nifty philosophical discussion. Enjoy.

 

 

Former English major here. My comments on your choices above.

 

I have been teaching this era to a group of high schoolers this year. I have one freshman, four sophomores and five seniors. I typically assign up to 125 pages per week, less if the work is complex. Students should take notes on the text as they read, and they should be writing in response. So, for example, if a book took two weeks to read, then the third week they will write only OR write a paper and have a short story or poetry assignment as well.

 

I think your list is a bit thin. You should fill it out with a few more novels, as well as some short stories and poetry.

 

Here is what we did:

 

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau (selections)

O Pioneers, by Willa Cather

Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

short stories by Tolstoy and GK Chesterton

poetry by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Stranger, by Albert Camus

The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton

The Old Man and the Sea, by Earnest Hemingway

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare (not from the era, but I do a Shakespeare every year)

"Leaf, by Niggle," by J. R. R. Tolkein

Flannery O'Connor--short stories

poetry by Audre Lorde and Robert Frost

 

Recommended:

 

All Rivers Run to the Sea, by Elie Wiesel

 

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding (Dark, depressing, awful, but something American students definitely need a working knowledge of)

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

[Julie in MN]

7. Heart of Darkness Poorly written, dark, unhappy, and confusing. Also wildly inaccurate to African culture, though it does present an accurate picture of white imperialism. Truly hate this book and see little literary merit in it. This one should only be read with a good study guide to walk you through it.

I'm going to agree with this fully. Preread or preview by watching Apocolypse. For a more complex and more hopeful read, use Cry, The Beloved Country. Or better yet, listen to a melodic South African tell the story using the audiobook by Maggie Soboil.

[ABQmom]

Is this all they are reading for 11th grade? If so, I'm not jumping up and down about it. It doesn't strike me as a very substantial list for 11th graders. Nor am I jumping up and down about it as a list to send them off into the world with a better understanding of life or others.

 

I guess it depends on what the goals are for these girls, where they are now. But even if they were slower readers who aren't going to college, I'm not sure I'd spend time on the books you have. I know some of them are very popular, but they mostly leave me cold and bored.

 

If you want substantial then you keep Heart of Darkness, Huck Finn, and A Tale of Two Cities. If you want to learn about others keep Heart and Huck.

 

My list is just the books we are considering so far--very much in the working stage and not a final one by any means. If you have time, I would love to have more specifics on why you would be left "cold and bored". Definitely don't want the kids feeling that about our lit year! Others aren't liking Heart of Darkness--what do you find appealing about it? If you have time...

[Harriet Vane]

I'm going to agree with this fully. Preread or preview by watching Apocolypse. For a more complex and more hopeful read, use Cry, The Beloved Country. Or better yet, listen to a melodic South African tell the story using the audiobook by Maggie Soboil.

 

 

This was one of my favorite books this year. Beautifully written. So poignant, so life affirming.

[Harriet Vane]

My list is just the books we are considering so far--very much in the working stage and not a final one by any means. If you have time, I would love to have more specifics on why you would be left "cold and bored". Definitely don't want the kids feeling that about our lit year! Others aren't liking Heart of Darkness--what do you find appealing about it? If you have time...

 

Not the poster you are addressing, but I'll take a stab at this anyway . . .

 

Heart of Darkness is considered a classic and is on a LOT of high school literature lists. For that reason, some level of familiarity with it is a good idea. However, a LOT of what is currently recommended on the lists is chosen because of the way it shows the darkness of the human spirit, or the way it exposes the truth about ugly historical events/trends. To some extent these are worthy goals--it is genuinely important to understand the mistakes of the past, and it is genuinely important to understand the possibility for depravity that lies within each of us (as well as the possibility for hope and growth). However, the ugliness of the world/human spirit is vastly overemphasized on the current lists. A lot of bad writing is being embraced, and a lot of gratuitously ugly or graphic writing is being embraced simply because of the issues they expose.

 

There are a couple books that many would consider indispensable for an American student that I consider to be an unnecessarily ugly journey into darkness. Four that I particularly loathe are:

 

Heart of Darkness--dark, inaccurate to African culture, confusing and really badly written, but it does show the evils of white imperialism

Fahrenheit 451--poorly written ranting, boring

Lord of the Flies--At least the writing is better, but the story is sooooooo violent, ugly, fearful, and dark

The Stranger

 

I think that American students must have a working familiarity with these titles just because they are frequently referenced in many settings. However, I have no desire to spend any real time with them. My answer has been to have my dd quickly read The Stranger and Fahrenheit 451 as both are quick and easy. She will read a summary of Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness but not the real thing because I would rather she spend her time on other (happier) things. (When I read Lord of the Flies in high school I felt like I needed a long shower afterwards and remained really, really grossed out for a looooooong time.)

[Candid]

 

My list is just the books we are considering so far--very much in the working stage and not a final one by any means. If you have time, I would love to have more specifics on why you would be left "cold and bored". Definitely don't want the kids feeling that about our lit year! Others aren't liking Heart of Darkness--what do you find appealing about it? If you have time...

 

 

I didn't say Heart of Darkness was a favorite; in honesty, it is not. But it is substantial and real lit. Much of what is on your list is not hard core lit as much as novels. Whether they are good or not is not the point at this age. They need to read real works of lit. I'd be happier picking out books based on your goals for this course. Is it American lit? British? World? I've been doodling around in my head with a 12 novels course that would follow the rise of the novel. But in honesty we follow a classical pattern and read lit by time period.

 

I would come up with a goal and let that guide you. Don't worry about "oh they've already read that." Instead let the goal be the driver. Students can read a work more than once, especially if they have not studied it.

 

Oh, and whatever you do skip Apocalypse it is bloody, bloody, bloody, and at least in that respect nothing like the novel. The novel, a product of its time, instead hints at darkness but never quite faces it (I once gave up on a volume of Lovecraft because everything was "unspeakable" I got tired of that, but he's the same time period. It's how they wrote.)

 

Oh, and I am definitely with Harriet on Fahrenheit which I think is awful and sad that it is so often read. It is a terrible, stupid 1950s scifi novel. As someone who used to read a ton of scifi, it is not even good for its time period. BUT worse yet is that if you must read Bradbury, his short stories are so much better. They are what he made his name on (as did all the science fiction writers of the golden age). If you want to read about censorship read The Martian Chronicle's "Usher II" which has a much more satisfying ending.

[swimmermom3]

Is this all they are reading for 11th grade? If so, I'm not jumping up and down about it. It doesn't strike me as a very substantial list for 11th graders. Nor am I jumping up and down about it as a list to send them off into the world with a better understanding of life or others.

 

I guess it depends on what the goals are for these girls, where they are now. But even if they were slower readers who aren't going to college, I'm not sure I'd spend time on the books you have. I know some of them are very popular, but they mostly leave me cold and bored.

 

If you want substantial then you keep Heart of Darkness, Huck Finn, and A Tale of Two Cities. If you want to learn about others keep Heart and Huck.

 

Thanks, Candid. I wasn't quite sure how to say the above. It's not a list I would expect to help a senior transition to college-level literature (if that is a goal).

[swimmermom3]

 

 

Former English major here. My comments on your choices above.

 

I have been teaching this era to a group of high schoolers this year. I have one freshman, four sophomores and five seniors. I typically assign up to 125 pages per week, less if the work is complex. Students should take notes on the text as they read, and they should be writing in response. So, for example, if a book took two weeks to read, then the third week they will write only OR write a paper and have a short story or poetry assignment as well.

 

I think your list is a bit thin. You should fill it out with a few more novels, as well as some short stories and poetry.

 

Here is what we did:

 

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau (selections)

O Pioneers, by Willa Cather

Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

short stories by Tolstoy and GK Chesterton

poetry by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Stranger, by Albert Camus

The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams

Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton

The Old Man and the Sea, by Earnest Hemingway

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare (not from the era, but I do a Shakespeare every year)

"Leaf, by Niggle," by J. R. R. Tolkein

Flannery O'Connor--short stories

poetry by Audre Lorde and Robert Frost

 

Recommended:

 

All Rivers Run to the Sea, by Elie Wiesel

 

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding (Dark, depressing, awful, but something American students definitely need a working knowledge of)

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

 

This is a great list, Harriet. Sometimes I find that when literature is arranged chronologically or by theme, that the similarities among works can diminish an individual work's uniqueness and the student views them as all running together. You have avoided that in this list.