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Posted

I have a master list of American literature that I am going to be picking/choosing from for her next year. I sat down today to analyze my list a bit and discovered that I have no authors born after 1926, Harper Lee. To Kill A Mockingbird is the last book on the list.

Thinking back on my middle/ high school experience, I came up with a couple more titles: A Separate Peace (Knowles b. 1926, I hated it); The House On Mango Street (Cisneros b. 1954, I may add this one); The Things They Carried (I don't think she'll like it); The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven (I don't remember very well, but feel like it might not be appropriate); The Color Purple (not appropriate yet). Thinking about American writers still living, I came up with Marilynne Robinson (my DD would hate her writing style, although I love her) and then was just stumped. The only other thing I could think of was the memoir The Glass Castle, which we did as a read-aloud a couple years ago.

My other big idea was that maybe we could use To Kill a Mockingbird as a segue into a film unit and watch 1-2 films per decade. I dunno. Anybody have any recommendations for modern-ish American lit? That you'd allow your 13/14yo to read?

Posted (edited)

Well, it looks like you're doing high school/adult works, so I don't know if my suggestion of some meaty, discussion-able YA (young adult) would work, but here are some ideas, with the publishing date also the time-setting of the book (with a few exceptions), plus the year the author was born:

1957 - A Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry) -- play; not YA -- author born in 1930
1967 - The Outsiders (Hinton) -- author born 1948 -- wrote the book when she was 16yo
1989 - The Joy Luck Club (Tan) -- not YA -- author born 1952
1990 - Jurassic Park (Crichton) -- not YA -- author born 1942
1993 - The Giver (Lowry) -- dystopia; author born 1937
2001 - Peace Like a River (Enger) -- not YA; setting of the book is early 1960s -- author born 1961
2005 - Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close (Foer) -- author born 1977
2006 - American-Born Chinese (Yang) -- graphic novel; author born 1973
2007 - Auralia's Colors (Oversetreet) -- fantasy; first of a quadrilogy; not YA -- Christian author born in early 1970s
2008 - The Hunger Games (Collins) -- dystopia; author born 1962

2008 - Anathem (Stephenson) -- sci-fi with future setting; not YA -- author born 1959
2009 - The Help (Stockett) -- setting of the book is 1960s; not YA -- author born 1969
2012 - Night Circus (Morgenstern) -- fantastical/romance; not YA, but not at all s*xual/graphic -- author born 1978
2016 - The Sun is Also a Star (Yoon) -- author born in 1975

2017 - The Hate U Give (Thomas) -- author born 1988
2017 - Dear Martin (Stone) -- author born 1985
2017 - The Astonishing Color of After (Pan) -- can't find a date, but author likely born late 1980s/1990-ish


ETA -- Most classic American lit -- and a lot of these YA works -- are heavy and about hard or depressing subjects. So I'd also recommend including a good dose of humorous short stories and some lighter YA works throughout your year to lighten the mood. While they may not be as "literary" or "deep" for discussion, but they can be interspersed with works you're more heavily studying to help keep your chins off the ground, lol...

Examples:

20th century setting, YA lighter reads:
- The View from Saturday
- Wednesday Wars (Schmidt)
A Year Down Yonder (Peck)

20th century setting, lighter short stories:
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Thurber)
- The Catbird Seat (Thurber)
- The Ransom of Red Chief (Henry)

Edited by Lori D.
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Posted (edited)

Age-appropriate books that are written by modern authors are usually going to be labeled as children's literature or YA.  I think that you could find a lot of good books by looking at the Newbery award winners and runners-up.

Some books that I (and/or my children) enjoyed:

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

El Deafo by Cece Bell

Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Dragonwings by Laurence Yep

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

Li Lun, Lad of Courage

 

 

Edited by Junie
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