favorite novel for group discussion?

[mom@shiloh]

I need one more book with a study guide to round out my high school coop class.  So many choices!!!  I need help narrowing it down.  I know that I won't be able to please everyone with my choice, but I'd like it to be something that they might not pick up on their own.  Help?

 

 

[Faithr]

Is this Christian?  I run a small teen book club and we recently had a fantastic time discussing The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis.    With my older kids, a few years ago, we had excellent discussions on both The Great Gatsby and Heart of Darkness.  I remember they were highlights of those years.  You can easily find study guides on line for free for all of those.

 

Also, my son (now 20, so this was his Sophomore year in high school) read the Inferno with another teen and they loved it, but we supplemented with watching a Great Courses series on Dante and frankly the course stimulated a lot of the discussion.

[Lori D.]

Oo! Oo! I *love* to play this game of recommending book ideas!  :w00t:

 

However… to give you my best shot of things that might really work for your class, can you provide a little detail about the class?

 

- title of the class and overall goal or "mission"

- list the other works you'll be covering the the "big idea" you're hoping to discuss for each book

- does the book need to be a certain genre, or from a certain country or time period

- do you want Christian, secular, or other worldview

[mom@shiloh]

Oo! Oo! I *love* to play this game of recommending book ideas!  :w00t:

 

However… to give you my best shot of things that might really work for your class, can you provide a little detail about the class?

 

- title of the class and overall goal or "mission"

- list the other works you'll be covering the the "big idea" you're hoping to discuss for each book

- does the book need to be a certain genre, or from a certain country or time period

- do you want Christian, secular, or other worldview

 

The course is really a creative writing course, but I'd like to include some literature to round it out.  The co-op is Christian, but the book doesn't need to be overtly Christian.  

 

It may be that I'm expecting too much of this book!!  I'd really like it to be something that everyone enjoys reading, something they might not pick up on their own, and something that generates relevant discussion.  

 

Heart of Darkness

To Kill a Mockingbird

Cry, the Beloved Country

The Giver  

Great Expectations

 

are some I've considered.  What do you think?

[elegantlion]

My son and I read Lord of the Flies in high school. It's an easy read at that level, and we used it as a intro into discussing power and greed. He wasn't in a coop, but we had lots of interesting discussions. 

 

The Chosen  might also create some good conversations. 

[creekland]

The #1 book I enjoyed reading in high school was The Count of Monte Cristo.  Second would be The Grapes of Wrath.  Third was Flowers for Algernon.  They're totally different, of course, but all prompted a bit of thought and discussion without the "Why in the world are we reading this???" mental issues that I usually got with selections from English teachers of my past.