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I'm planning a dystopian book list for my daughters next year but I want to stick to classics not modern books. My two favorite dystopians, 1984 and Brave New World, are not really appropriate for a 7 and 8th grade so I've been trying to find some others. I have Fahreinheit 451, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm. Does anyone have any other classic dystopian novels that are appropriate for middle school? I've been searching online and Time Machine popped up but that seems more Sci-Fi?

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Is there a reason you don't want "modern" books? Because even the 3 you listed were all published in the mid-20th century (so, 65-75 years ago), which seems pretty modern to me. ;) And there are some pretty brutal parts in all 3 of those books. (Protagonist in Fahrenheit 451 turns a flame thrower on his captain and incinerates him; kids kill two fellow shipwrecked kids in Lord of the Flies -- one by rolling a boulder onto a kid, and another where the group beats a boy to death; and Animal Farm becomes a police state in which the ruling pig takes a mother dog's puppies away, trains them into vicious guard dogs and turns them onto animals who disagree with the leadership to tear them apart.)

Not to nit-pick with you (lol), and it's just my opinion, but I personally don't see any of the 3 books you listed as being "pure dystopia". Lord of the Flies (1954) has a strong contemporary setting and shipwreck survival story focus, and maybe it's just me, but I see the major theme not so much being "dystopia", but more about showing how fallen man's sinful nature comes out when the controlling element of civilization is removed -- the shipwrecked boys devolve into barbarism. Themes that stand out to me in Fahrenheit 451 (1953) are loss of literacy and what happens when a society starts losing its Literature foundation, plus the book ends with a very sci-fi theme of a type of Apocalypse. For Animal Farm (1945), the author himself called it a "fable" (a moral or cautionary tale), and it's very closely connected to specific real-life figures of the Soviet Communist regime of the 1920s-1930s, plus overall condemnation of both Socialism and Capitalism... On the other hand, I guess the Wikipedia definition of dystopia as works of fiction that explore social and political structures does apply to all three works -- it just looks different than what we've come to expect dystopian works to look like from the more recent spate of dystopic novels. (:D

For the most part, the Dystopia genre is a pretty recently developed genre -- 1960s-70s and esp. the recent boom in the last 25 years -- with only a few older sci-fi titles such as Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World also overlapping and exploring dystopian ideas, so you're not going to find a lot of older books that fall squarely or only in that category. This short Wikipedia article on Utopian and Dystopian Fiction provides good background info. The Time Machine is sci-fi, but because it explores social and political structures, it is considered to have elements of dystopia. You might look at Jack London's The Iron Heel  as an early dystopia that explores a totalitarian government, or We (1921) by Yevgey Zamyatin -- but I honestly don't know how interesting they would be, esp. to middle school ages. And things like The Handmaiden's Tale (Atwood) and A Clockwork Orange (Burgess) are much more adult.

Some ideas -- although they are "modern" (1970s or more recent) and not necessarily "older classics", they are appropriate for middle school (or may want to wait till high school, as noted)

  • The Giver (Lowry) -- published in 1993 (25yo) -- very much considered a Young Adult classic and is squarely in the dystopia genre
  • Below the Root (Snyder) -- published in 1975 -- utopia/dystopia
  • When the Tripods Came (Christopher) -- published in 1988 -- strongly sci-fi, but a dystopic element of "what if the aliens from HG Wells' War of the Worlds conquered Earth"
  • House of Stairs (Sleator) -- published in 1974 -- dystopic world where teens are being experimented on with behavioral modification techniques
  • House of the Scorpion (Farmer) -- published in 2002 -- depends on your student, may need to wait for high school
  • The Hunger Games (Collins) -- published in 2008 -- depends on your student, may need to wait for high school

If you're willing to stretch your book unit parameters a bit, or explain what your goals are, I'm happy to try and suggest more books to help you achieve those goals! :) BEST of luck in putting together your unit! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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2 hours ago, Ravin said:

Parable of the Sower and its sequel, Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler.

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

 

 

Ooh, yes, Among the Hidden. :)

Is Parable of the Sower okay for tweens? Some of Octavia Butler's works include adult content...

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32 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Ooh, yes, Among the Hidden. :)

Is Parable of the Sower okay for tweens? Some of Octavia Butler's works include adult content...

 

The Parable books have much tamer content than some of her other books. I'd put it in the "YA" category. It's a dystopian novel, the protagonist has to grow up way too fast. People die.  Etc. But I don't recall any sex scenes.

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29 minutes ago, Ravin said:

 

The Parable books have much tamer content than some of her other books. I'd put it in the "YA" category. It's a dystopian novel, the protagonist has to grow up way too fast. People die.  Etc. But I don't recall any sex scenes.

Thank you for sharing more -- I've only read one Butler book (Dawn, which I enjoyed), and am looking forward to reading others, but it definitely had some adult content. ;)

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5 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Is there a reason you don't want "modern" books? Because even the 3 you listed were all published in the mid-20th century (so, 65-75 years ago), which seems pretty modern to me. ;) And there are some pretty brutal parts in all 3 of those books. (Protagonist in Fahrenheit 451 turns a flame thrower on his captain and incinerates him; kids kill two fellow shipwrecked kids in Lord of the Flies -- one by rolling a boulder onto a kid, and another where the group beats a boy to death; and Animal Farm becomes a police state in which the ruling pig takes a mother dog's puppies away, trains them into vicious guard dogs and turns them onto animals who disagree with the leadership to tear them apart.)

Not to nit-pick with you (lol), and it's just my opinion, but I personally don't see any of the 3 books you listed as being "pure dystopia". Lord of the Flies (1954) has a strong contemporary setting and shipwreck survival story focus, and maybe it's just me, but I see the major theme not so much being "dystopia", but more about showing how fallen man's sinful nature comes out when the controlling element of civilization is removed -- the shipwrecked boys devolve into barbarism. Themes that stand out to me in Fahrenheit 451 (1953) are loss of literacy and what happens when a society starts losing its Literature foundation, plus the book ends with a very sci-fi theme of a type of Apocalypse. For Animal Farm (1945), the author himself called it a "fable" (a moral or cautionary tale), and it's very closely connected to specific real-life figures of the Soviet Communist regime of the 1920s-1930s, plus overall condemnation of both Socialism and Capitalism... On the other hand, I guess the Wikipedia definition of dystopia as works of fiction that explore social and political structures does apply to all three works -- it just looks different than what we've come to expect dystopian works to look like from the more recent spate of dystopic novels. (:D

For the most part, the Dystopia genre is a pretty recently developed genre -- 1960s-70s and esp. the recent boom in the last 25 years -- with only a few older sci-fi titles such as Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World also overlapping and exploring dystopian ideas, so you're not going to find a lot of older books that fall squarely or only in that category. This short Wikipedia article on Utopian and Dystopian Fiction provides good background info. The Time Machine is sci-fi, but because it explores social and political structures, it is considered to have elements of dystopia. You might look at Jack London's The Iron Heel  as an early dystopia that explores a totalitarian government, or We (1921) by Yevgey Zamyatin -- but I honestly don't know how interesting they would be, esp. to middle school ages. And things like The Handmaiden's Tale (Atwood) and A Clockwork Orange (Burgess) are much more adult.

Some ideas -- although they are "modern" (1970s or more recent) and not necessarily "older classics", they are appropriate for middle school (or may want to wait till high school, as noted)

  • The Giver (Lowry) -- published in 1993 (25yo) -- very much considered a Young Adult classic and is squarely in the dystopia genre
  • Below the Root (Snyder) -- published in 1975 -- utopia/dystopia
  • When the Tripods Came (Christopher) -- published in 1988 -- strongly sci-fi, but a dystopic element of "what if the aliens from HG Wells' War of the Worlds conquered Earth"
  • House of Stairs (Sleator) -- published in 1974 -- dystopic world where teens are being experimented on with behavioral modification techniques
  • House of the Scorpion (Farmer) -- published in 2002 -- depends on your student, may need to wait for high school
  • The Hunger Games (Collins) -- published in 2008 -- depends on your student, may need to wait for high school

If you're willing to stretch your book unit parameters a bit, or explain what your goals are, I'm happy to try and suggest more books to help you achieve those goals! :) BEST of luck in putting together your unit! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Lord of the flies is probably the lowest out of the three on the list. I'm iffy on animal farm also. One of my daughters asked me if she could read Farenheit 451 next year. She's read all of the maze runner series, hunger games and the giver so I know she likes dystopian. I also think as far as the violence, maze runner and hunger games were pretty violent so I don't know that farenheit 451 would be much worse than human eating zombies. I was fine with her reading those books on her own but if we are going to do dystopian for our literature I wanted something with a little more meat? I was planning on doing a history study on political thought and different types of gov. I am hoping to tie it into our literature studies. I'm looking for dystopian that go into goverment gone wrong I guess? I actually wish we were doing this study in high school so I could incorporate Brave New World and 1984 but I promised my girls they could actually choose there lit., science and history topics so I'm trying to go with it even if they choose topics I wouldn't have picked. I was really rooting for Anne of Green Gables but they both really want dystopian. 

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I read the Parable books in the 8th grade. They affected me in a big way, but they're not inappropriate for the average student that age. I definitely recommend them.

House of Stairs is a classic of the genre, and it's blissfully short. You definitely want to give that a read as well. (I'd also recommend, if we're advising YA books, Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes, recently republished as The Game. Judging from "can anybody remember this title for me?" forums, that book made a huge impression among a certain generation.)

Quote

1984 and Brave New World, are not really appropriate for a 7 and 8th grade so I've been trying to find some others. I have Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm.

 

One thing I notice about these books is that they're all very male-gaze-y, for lack of a better term. It's a man's world, and women are bit players, at best. (Indeed, I've heard it said that 451 was written by Bradbury because he was butthurt that a producer rejected his a play he wrote due to the fact that it had no female roles. I don't know how correct this is, but I do know that his treatment of female characters in that book is questionable, at best.)

The Parable books are a good antidote to that. Pity we never got the third one. (Handmaid's Tale is also an exception, but that's DEFINITELY not appropriate for this age group.)

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I was fine with her reading those books on her own but if we are going to do dystopian for our literature I wanted something with a little more meat?

 

Well, that's fair, but a lot of modern dystopias - even of the YA variety! - are plenty "meaty". (And some of the older ones are not as well-thought-out as all that.)

 

Edit: BTW, if she wants dystopias for free reading - not assigned reading! - suggest On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers and Blight by Alexandra Duncan. They're more well-thought-out than some that are just of the "this bad thing happened for no clear reason, and all history is a boot stamping on a human face forever for the evulz" genre. (Though Blight is hardly my favorite Alexandra Duncan book. If she likes that, suggest Salvage to her. Now that's a book to root for!) Ship Breaker isn't half bad either, nor Killer of Enemies.

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5 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

 

Well, that's fair, but a lot of modern dystopias - even of the YA variety! - are plenty "meaty". (And some of the older ones are not as well-thought-out as all that.)

 

 

I guess I should rephrase and say I want well written books. They don't need to be old but I do want idea's that are well thought out. We are incoporating some of our writing with some of the books and I wouldn't want them to base their writing assigments on badly written books. 

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16 hours ago, Momto4inSoCal said:

Lord of the flies is probably the lowest out of the three on the list. I'm iffy on animal farm also. One of my daughters asked me if she could read Farenheit 451 next year. She's read all of the maze runner series, hunger games and the giver so I know she likes dystopian. I also think as far as the violence, maze runner and hunger games were pretty violent so I don't know that farenheit 451 would be much worse than human eating zombies. I was fine with her reading those books on her own but if we are going to do dystopian for our literature I wanted something with a little more meat? I was planning on doing a history study on political thought and different types of gov. I am hoping to tie it into our literature studies. I'm looking for dystopian that go into goverment gone wrong I guess? I actually wish we were doing this study in high school so I could incorporate Brave New World and 1984 but I promised my girls they could actually choose there lit., science and history topics so I'm trying to go with it even if they choose topics I wouldn't have picked. I was really rooting for Anne of Green Gables but they both really want dystopian. 

 

16 hours ago, Momto4inSoCal said:

 

I guess I should rephrase and say I want well written books. They don't need to be old but I do want idea's that are well thought out. We are incoporating some of our writing with some of the books and I wouldn't want them to base their writing assigments on badly written books. 

 

Okay, all of this helps a lot. :) However, as a result, my response is: No, I don't think you can attain ALL of those goals with this particular genre choice. lol. Sorry! Just my opinion, but while most Sci-Fi and Dystopia is competently written, it is focused on philosophy and ideas -- which makes it very "discussionable", but you don't often also get an author who writes with beauty and creativity of language. But I think that's true whenever we are building a Literature unit around a particular topic. Again, just my opinion! :)

Agreeing with Tanaqui that you can get a lot of worthy discussion out of YA dystopian works, even if they are not the best-written works. Of the YA titles I suggested above, IMO, House of the Scorpion dances on the edge of poorly-written but the setting, characters, and premise are so unique, and the questions it raises are also unusual and new, that it makes a worthwhile inclusion to a Literature study. The other YA titles I suggested range from competently-written to better-than-average in writing, and again, they are worth including in a Literature study for discussion about topic, theme, and creativity -- not necessarily for a high writing style. You can certainly get some great prompt questions for writing assignments out of this literature, whether it is "well-written" or just "competently written". ;)

But, if you want to do writing imitation from well-written literature, then go ahead and do Anne of Green Gables or other classics known for their beautiful writing style. You don't have to make ALL the literature for the ENTIRE year revolve around a single theme or genre ;) -- for example, you could alternate a dystopian book with a beautifully-written work that you want to make sure you cover in middle school. You could even try  doing the year-long study on Anne of Green Gables (Where the River and Brook Meet Anne of Green Gables) and intersperse dystopia for lit. discussions... Just a thought! :) (That's also a good idea to mix in lighter or positive-themed works when doing Dystopia, as that is typically a very dark and brutal focus for an entire year.)

For a history study on political thought and different types of government, some Literature that would tie in:

  • Animal Farm (Orwell) -- Soviet Communism & western Capitalism
  • The Time Machine (Wells) -- starts with Victorian monarchy; the Time Traveler sees how the future went towards Socialism, which ultimately failed and, coupled with Evolution, the far future results in two primitive "devolved" groups of peoples -- the underground Troglydite people (descendents of laborers) and Eloi people (descendents of the soft, pampered wealthy)
  • Watership Down (Adams) -- shows several different types of societies/gov't types
  • Below the Root (Snyder) -- utopia (although, it becomes apparent that it is utopia for one group at a cost to another group of people)
  • The Giver (Lowry) -- dystopia
  • The Pushcart War (Merrill) -- how wars start; humorous book
  • The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff) -- censorship
  • possibly even The Book Thief (Zusak), although the focus is not explicitly on Nazi-ism you do see the results
  • possibly even The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien) -- although the major themes in the book are not about politics or gov't, you do see self-governing Hobbits with an elected Mayor (the Shire), several "city-states" with Lords (Rivendale and Lorien), monarchies with Kings & Queens (Rohan and Gondor), semi-orderly/semi-chaotic gangs with "boss" leaders (orcs), a "libertarian" (lol) very minimal gov't (Fangorn Forest), and a totalitarian dictator (Sauron the Dark Lord of Mordor) -- your students are at a great age for doing the year-long Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings study, and the trilogy is beautifully-written, which would give you loads of opportunities to incorporate some of your writing with the trilogy

BEST of luck in finding the balance of Lit. that you want and that your students want this year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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6 hours ago, Lori D. said:

 

 

Okay, all of this helps a lot. :) However, as a result, my response is: No, I don't think you can attain ALL of those goals with this particular genre choice. lol. Sorry! Just my opinion, but while most Sci-Fi and Dystopia is competently written, it is focused on philosophy and ideas -- which makes it very "discussionable", but you don't often also get an author who writes with beauty and creativity of language. But I think that's true whenever we are building a Literature unit around a particular topic. Again, just my opinion! :)

Agreeing with Tanaqui that you can get a lot of worthy discussion out of YA dystopian works, even if they are not the best-written works. Of the YA titles I suggested above, IMO, House of the Scorpion dances on the edge of poorly-written but the setting, characters, and premise are so unique, and the questions it raises are also unusual and new, that it makes a worthwhile inclusion to a Literature study. The other YA titles I suggested range from competently-written to better-than-average in writing, and again, they are worth including in a Literature study for discussion about topic, theme, and creativity -- not necessarily for a high writing style. You can certainly get some great prompt questions for writing assignments out of this literature, whether it is "well-written" or just "competently written". ;)

But, if you want to do writing imitation from well-written literature, then go ahead and do Anne of Green Gables or other classics known for their beautiful writing style. You don't have to make ALL the literature for the ENTIRE year revolve around a single theme or genre ;) -- for example, you could alternate a dystopian book with a beautifully-written work that you want to make sure you cover in middle school. You could even try  doing the year-long study on Anne of Green Gables (Where the River and Brook Meet Anne of Green Gables) and intersperse dystopia for lit. discussions... Just a thought! :) (That's also a good idea to mix in lighter or positive-themed works when doing Dystopia, as that is typically a very dark and brutal focus for an entire year.)

For a history study on political thought and different types of government, some Literature that would tie in:

  • Animal Farm (Orwell) -- Soviet Communism & western Capitalism
  • The Time Machine (Wells) -- starts with Victorian monarchy; the Time Traveler sees how the future went towards Socialism, which ultimately failed and, coupled with Evolution, the far future results in two primitive "devolved" groups of peoples -- the underground Troglydite people (descendents of laborers) and Eloi people (descendents of the soft, pampered wealthy)
  • Watership Down (Adams) -- shows several different types of societies/gov't types
  • Below the Root (Snyder) -- utopia (although, it becomes apparent that it is utopia for one group at a cost to another group of people)
  • The Giver (Lowry) -- dystopia
  • The Pushcart War (Merrill) -- how wars start; humorous book
  • The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff) -- censorship
  • possibly even The Book Thief (Zusak), although the focus is not explicitly on Nazi-ism you do see the results
  • possibly even The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien) -- although the major themes in the book are not about politics or gov't, you do see self-governing Hobbits with an elected Mayor (the Shire), several "city-states" with Lords (Rivendale and Lorien), monarchies with Kings & Queens (Rohan and Gondor), semi-orderly/semi-chaotic gangs with "boss" leaders (orcs), a "libertarian" (lol) very minimal gov't (Fangorn Forest), and a totalitarian dictator (Sauron the Dark Lord of Mordor) -- your students are at a great age for doing the year-long Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings study, and the trilogy is beautifully-written, which would give you loads of opportunities to incorporate some of your writing with the trilogy

BEST of luck in finding the balance of Lit. that you want and that your students want this year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Thanks so much for the list! We actually are only doing dystopian for the first semester and we will finish off the year with Lord of the Rings. Or we will flip flop that. I'm still in the begining stages of planning so nothing is really set but I was having a hard time finding books that I thought would work. I'm currently reading the time machine and I like it! We might use that one.We won't use all of the books for writing assigments but so maybe some can be used more for discussion and some for writing. My oldest is 8th grade so I really want to make the most of her last year before high school when we loose a little bit of freedom. I would LOVE to do all our lit around Anne but she's not intersted in the least. 

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5 minutes ago, Momto4inSoCal said:

Thanks so much for the list! We actually are only doing dystopian for the first semester and we will finish off the year with Lord of the Rings...I'm currently reading the time machine and I like it! We might use that one.We won't use all of the books for writing assigments but so maybe some can be used more for discussion and some for writing. My oldest is 8th grade so I really want to make the most of her last year before high school when we loose a little bit of freedom...

Happy to help! I love helping to make booklists. (:D

And just to encourage you, unless DD is heading off to a high school, you can actually have more fun and flexibility in making your own Lit. in homeschooling high school. We made our own  Lit. for each year of high school and it was super! :)

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I was planning on doing a history study on political thought and different types of gov. I am hoping to tie it into our literature studies. I'm looking for dystopian that go into goverment gone wrong I guess? 

The Iron Heel by Jack London definitely fits this description.  In fact, it is one of my all time favorite books.

Ruth in NZ

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Their curriculum isn't quite what you're looking for, but OM English 8 includes these novels. Just mentioning because some of the books or authors are on your potential list. It wasn't a good fit for us so we stopped, but lots of folks seem to like it.

  • Giver
  • Hitchhiker's Guide
  • The Hobbit
  • Lord of the Flies
  • Wrinkle in Time
  • Call of the Wild
  • Tom Sawyer
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I would like Dd to read dystopian books, but her tastes in books differ from mine. She never asked for anything of the same vein after Hunger Games, so I'm thinking Red Rising series is out. The latter reminds me of Hunger Games, so there’s violence. I'm still on book 3, and though I don't always preread, these novels happen to be in my favorite genre. Ready Player One is another one that I just started, but after a few pages into it, I already know it's not appropriate for DD; she doesn’t like reading curse words. 

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I'm going to plug our recent favorite read aloud even though it's not really dystopian -- Poison by Chris Wooding. I'm not a fan of some of his other books, but this one stands out from his others.  It is fantasy - a hero's quest story of a girl who leaves the human world to go to the fairy world to retrieve her kidnapped baby sister. The descriptions of the various settings are just beautifully written, plenty of interesting vocabulary to discuss (they had to look up words like cogitate, phantasmagoria, littoral, susurrus) and it provoked a lot of discussion about free will, what we know about reality, ties to many other fairytales (cinderella, Baba Yaga, tales of selkies, etc) and race relations (between humans and fairies).  And it is just darn cool, with an awesome plot twist. Spoiler - highlight to read:  Poison finds out during her quest that she is actually a character in a novel that is being written by someone else , and that everyone else is just a character as well. She has to grapple with this knowledge and find a will to go on even when she thinks that it has all become meaningless

I particularly love this book because on my first reading years ago I was grappling with my oldest daughter, who is nearly as strong willed and obstinate as Poison is. It made me understand my daughter's strong need for independence and autonomy a little bit more:-) 

 

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On 4/24/2018 at 4:58 PM, Momto4inSoCal said:

I'm planning a dystopian book list for my daughters next year but I want to stick to classics not modern books. My two favorite dystopians, 1984 and Brave New World, are not really appropriate for a 7 and 8th grade so I've been trying to find some others. I have Fahreinheit 451, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm. Does anyone have any other classic dystopian novels that are appropriate for middle school? I've been searching online and Time Machine popped up but that seems more Sci-Fi?

 

I read both of those books (1984 and Brave New World) in a utopia/dystopian theme unit in 7th grade with a public school teacher (back in the 1980s).  (one of the Utopia books was Lost Horizon -- REALLY good though I keep forgetting the title) Why do you think they are not appropriate? We also did Lord of The Flies and Animal Farm, as I recall.

 

With the number of books I remember reading, I'm pretty sure we spent more than 6 weeks on it. Maybe a whole semester? I remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull (the poem) from that year too though it does not seem to match the utopia pattern

 

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1 hour ago, vonfirmath said:

 

I read both of those books (1984 and Brave New World) in a utopia/dystopian theme unit in 7th grade with a public school teacher (back in the 1980s).  (one of the Utopia books was Lost Horizon -- REALLY good though I keep forgetting the title) Why do you think they are not appropriate? We also did Lord of The Flies and Animal Farm, as I recall.

Not the original poster, but, just my opinion: it really comes down to knowing your student and knowing what your goals are for the literature. :)

If a student is advanced, has good background knowledge of history, political systems, and philosophy, then 7th-8th could absolutely be an appropriate time for doing those works. My experience with my own average/slightly-above average DSs, and now with a number of gr. 7-12 students at the Lit. co-op classes I've been teaching for the past 6 years, has been that the majority of students (again, just talking about the average students I've worked with) are just not going to get much out of some of these works until they're older. For example, the year our lit. class did Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, Ender's Game, and some other classic Sci-Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction works, the 7th & 8th graders read the books, and while I think they found the books interesting, the middle schoolers didn't have much to contribute to the discussion, and the books didn't seem to make as much of an impression on them as they did on the older high school students who were really able to think about and talk about the books. Even some of older high school students needed a fair amount of hand-holding at the start of covering a new book (a LOT of background information and explanations from me) to get a handle on these books. All of the students were taking the class as an elective out of personal interest in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, so I know that it was the works themselves, and not that the students weren't used to these genres. :)

I did 1984, Brave New World, and Lord of the Flies with DSs when they were in high school, and I know they got a LOT more out of those works by waiting. By that time, we had studied 20th century history and some philosophy/worldviews, and we'd had several years of "doing literature" under our belts, so that they were able to dig deeper into the novels and really discuss. And, just my personal opinion again, but as far as 1984, I wanted that book to pack the full punch that it was intended to. It is a brutal, psychological book, with very strong real-life basis to author Orwell's experiences with Soviet Russia, and I think that has a tendency to fly over the heads of tweens/young teens who have been reading a lot of dystopia and their reaction tends to be a little bit "Ho hum, another dystopia" -- whereas by waiting until later in high school and seeing the realities of current events coupled with their history studies of the 20th century, I think the book is able to have more of its full power.

Finally, there are quite a few solid Young Adult Dystopic or "think-piece" Sci-Fi works that have been published in the past 20 years, so there are a lot of good books out there that will get missed or passed over in order to jump straight to the meaty classics like 1984 and Brave New World. Why not have your cake and eat it too (lol) by enjoying BOTH -- the YA Dystopias and Sci-Fi in middle school and then the older classics in high school, when students will have laid a foundation to fully appreciate these works. :) Again, just my particular experiences and thoughts as to why wait. :)

Wishing you the BEST in your family's Literature journeys! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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3 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

...I remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull (the poem) from that year too though it does not seem to match the utopia pattern

lol. That is a very interesting choice on the part of your teacher to go with a dystopian unit. (:D

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I consulted with my young man, and the following is what he has to say on the subject, from one middle-schooler to another... 

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   With respect to The Lord of the Flies, I thought it was one of the worst books I have ever read. I truly don't understand why it is considered such an amazing book, as it seems there isn't really a beginning or end. It just picks up at what feels like a random point and ends in the same way, leaving you wondering for days about what happens after the last page. I maintain a similar view on Fahrenheit 451, which itself actually holds the number-one slot for "Worst Book I've ever Read." This book incites no investment or even mere interest in the characters, who themselves are hardly described or put into context and are largely left to the imagination of the reader. The same goes with the scenery and surroundings. It left me feeling like I had been shoved, without reason, into the house and life of a random man with absolutely no information of what I was getting into, then shortly after, while still yearning to know more (or even anything) about what's going on, being plucked back out with no warning. The whole book all-in-all seemed the literary equivalent of living an interesting event, while at the same time having on a blindfold, nose and ear-plugs, and duct tape across the mouth while your hands are tied. [A bit of comedy there. ?]

  While it is more of a dystopianesque/apocalyptic story, I recommend the One Second After trilogy by William R. Forstchen. These books are centered around John Matherson, a History professor at his local college in Black Mountain, South Carolina, as he and his family live through the years following an EMP burst over the United States, which completely destroys not only our power grid, but our entire infrastructure. As his community struggles to survive, they have to band together to get through the hardships of a world "plunged back into the nineteenth century." In the following two novels, the more "evil government" dystopian type story line appears. (Thank you to SanDiegoMom in VA for giving me the following idea.) Spoiler – highlight to read:  Government figures from before the war set up a new "Central Government" in Bluemont, Virginia, and the people of Black Mountain end up battling this scheming, cruel government when they try to force their will upon the survivors and "punish" those who don't "follow the law."

   Forstchen did a brilliant job of setting the entire story, as David Hagberg from the New York Times says, "...the people were so real that I felt as if I had known them for a very long time after just the first few pages." He gets you so invested in his characters that it's near impossible to put these books down at all, otherwise you will spend every waking minute worrying about them and what's going to happen on the next page. It is good to keep in mind however, that at times this series is very sad, as so many people die due to the disasters that take place all around them, but at other times you just can't help but smile at the victories and the firm patriotic stance of Matherson and his colleagues, who refuse to violate the Constitution and become like the many terrible people around them. These novels legitimately make me proud to be an American. The National Anthem is sung at many (often quite emotional) occasions, and the people never lose sight of their morals. They don't ever give up or give in and make that well-known claim "you do what you have to do to survive."

   A few months before it was published, One Second After was cited on the floor of Congress by Newt Gingrich as a book that all Americans should read, as it, terrifyingly, can come true. 

   Another series I recommend would be the Rule of Three trilogy by Eric Walters. These books are also about an EMP nocking out America's power grid, but they are more aimed towards a younger audience and are subsequently quite "watered down." They are definitely not as realistic in the dangers of what the world would become, and are not necessarily the best-written books that I have read, but they were recommended by Recoil's OFFGRID Magazine, and I found them quite entertaining.

   Finally, the Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear was one of my favorites. It is actually based on the universe of Halo (owned by Microsoft, it was originally created by Bungie Studios and is now continued by 343 Studios since Bungie split to be independent), a series of shooter Science Fiction games for the Xbox consoles. It is set decades before the beginning of the first game and the first two novels, Halo: First Strike and Halo: The Flood (which is the companion novel for the first game), and chronicles the story of the Forerunners, a mysteriously disappeared, technologically-powerful race that have left remnants and pieces of itself scattered around the galaxy. More specifically, it tells the story of the final months of the Forerunners before they lose the war against the SPOILER ALERT: parasitic Flood. The first two novels tell of the betrayals and conspiracies that lead to the Forerunner downfall and the losing of the war to the rapidly spreading Flood.

   This Saga is very Sci-Fi, and it may not be what you are looking for, as it is more an "end of an era" type story and less dystopian, especially after the first two books. These books can be a little bit of a thriller at points (though not nearly as much as the sequels) and they lead into a massive universe of people and their stories without any prior knowledge of the games needed. Some of the far sequels are a little dystopian as well, and they all tie in to each other. Due to the different authors employed to take different parts of the story, there are also books for pretty much any interest that are nested inside the main genre of Science Fiction, from who-dunnit mysteries to political battles. Each of these books are, in my opinion—except for the possible omission of the Rule of Three—extremely well written and worth looking into.

 

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