Is Anne of Green Gables a high school level book?

[EKT]

Would love to hear your thoughts. 🙂 Thank you!

Bonus question: What, for you, determines whether a book is "high school level"? 

[Zoo Keeper]

Short answer: Yes, it could be.

Longer answer: I personally had read the whole series multiple (and I do mean multiple) times by the time I was 12 (small library with very limited book selection).  I've read AGG to early-ish elementary aged kids who enjoyed it very much.  I've assigned it to middle school grades who merely read and enjoyed it.  I do think a high school student could read it as part of an English credit, especially if there is some analysis/looking into the poetry or other lit that is mentioned throughout the book/series.  You could use something like this (which I haven't used) ... https://cadroncreek.com/shop/where-the-brook-and-river-meet/

 

 

Edited June 25 by Zoo Keeper

[wendyroo]

I think "high school level reading" just like a "balanced diet" is better evaluated when averaged over a longer time period.

I think there are picture books that teach high schoolers great lessons - thematically, grammatically, compositionally, etc. But I don't think I would give high school credit for a course that only read picture books...unless picture books was the theme of the course and that was explained in the course description.

So, sure, I think Anne of Green Gables could be a fantastic component of a high school literature curriculum; I would just want to also diversify with a variety of other novels, graphic novels, poems, essays, short stories, plays, and perhaps picture books.

[HomeAgain]

A few of the things I'm looking for in a high school level book is the ability to go deeper into the text and make connections outside the text.  I probably would not use Anne of Green Gables, but I would use Rilla of Ingleside as a companion to a study of WWI and a look at how characters evolve (having read Green Gables much earlier).  Green Gables would require more work from me to bring it up to a high school study.

 

[8filltheheart]

I will be teaching my 9th grader an AGG lit course this yr. She will read "along" with Anne......King Lear, Marmion, Idylls of the King, Siege of Valencia, Lady of the Lake, etc. It is a fun way to read Anne at a high school level.

(ETA: We just made a change in plans.  At her and my 8th grade granddaughter's request, we are doing a fairy tale/mythology/culture study instead.)

 

Edited June 26 by 8filltheheart

[Farrar]

I chose "no," but agreeing with the gist of other posts here.

If it was on a list with all or almost all other "children's classics" and books that are typically marketed as middle grades (think, Newbery winners) then I would be like, sigh. I have seen it so many times that parents have high schoolers reading almost entirely these sorts of books well into high school for English class and it honestly dismays me.

If it was on a list with other typical "high school" classics and other adult fiction, I'd think, great, they mixed in some books that transition from childhood to more serious literature. I think one or two "YA" sort of level books, whether more recent titles or more classic ones, are very appropriate to have on a 9th or 10th grade reading list.

So it's about the totality. 

[Roadrunner]

Having seen what my kid’s PS assigns in English…. 
 

Yet I wouldn’t consider it high school level. 

[wendyroo]

9 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Having seen what my kid’s PS assigns in English…. 
 

Yet I wouldn’t consider it high school level. 

That definitely goes into my thinking as well.

Peter spent this past spring semester at the public high school taking Advanced English 9. In that whole semester they only read one book...well, actually the teacher read it to them...and it was a picture book adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

They spent most of their time reading one-page, photocopied "mentor texts" and answering reading comprehension questions about them, playing Blooket vocabulary games, and watching videos. For the entire semester the sum of their writing was one five-paragraph "personal memoir" and one five-paragraph "research report" about recycling that required no sourcing or citation.

To be fair, during the first semester (when Peter wasn't there), the whole class buddy read To Kill a Mockingbird. We've been told it took them a full marking period to get through it and was torture for the kids who can actually fluently read.

So looked at through that lens...again, this was ADVANCED (pre-AP) English 9 in a high-performing school...the bar for counting something as a credit can be very, very low.

[freesia]

12 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

That definitely goes into my thinking as well.

Peter spent this past spring semester at the public high school taking Advanced English 9. In that whole semester they only read one book...well, actually the teacher read it to them...and it was a picture book adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

They spent most of their time reading one-page, photocopied "mentor texts" and answering reading comprehension questions about them, playing Blooket vocabulary games, and watching videos. For the entire semester the sum of their writing was one five-paragraph "personal memoir" and one five-paragraph "research report" about recycling that required no sourcing or citation.

To be fair, during the first semester (when Peter wasn't there), the whole class buddy read To Kill a Mockingbird. We've been told it took them a full marking period to get through it and was torture for the kids who can actually fluently read.

So looked at through that lens...again, this was ADVANCED (pre-AP) English 9 in a high-performing school...the bar for counting something as a credit can be very, very low.

This is what makes me cross-eyed when homeschool umbrella schools and advisors set honors level for homeschool as things like college level reading or 360 hours of work. I know that is not what is happening in most honors level classes and it feels like my kids need to meet a much higher standard to be seen as honors. 

[8filltheheart]

30 minutes ago, freesia said:

This is what makes me cross-eyed when homeschool umbrella schools and advisors set honors level for homeschool as things like college level reading or 360 hours of work. I know that is not what is happening in most honors level classes and it feels like my kids need to meet a much higher standard to be seen as honors. 

I got into an argument with an umbrella school when we lived in a different state.  We moved into the state and I originally "enrolled" with them and listed my dd's honors courses on her transcript.  They called me and told me I "couldn't bc they weren't college equivalent."  I told them that honors did not mean college equivalent.  Honors meant more advanced than standard high school level.  It was ridiculous.  I ended up "withdrawing" from that umbrella.  So much bureaucracy for nothing but paper pushers that have zero to do with what goes on in the actual homeschool.

[EKT]

13 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

I got into an argument with an umbrella school when we lived in a different state.  We moved into the state and I originally "enrolled" with them and listed my dd's honors courses on her transcript.  They called me and told me I "couldn't bc they weren't college equivalent."  I told them that honors did not mean college equivalent.  Honors meant more advanced than standard high school level.  It was ridiculous.  I ended up "withdrawing" from that umbrella.  So much bureaucracy for nothing but paper pushers that have zero to do with what goes on in the actual homeschool.

That sounds so frustrating. I feel very lucky to have homeschooled in states where I do not have to bother with or worry about umbrellas. 

[EKS]

One test of whether a book is high school level or not is whether you would be comfortable having it on a book list that is sent to a college admissions committee.  I would not feel comfortable putting Anne on there, but YMMV.

The Lexile level is 970L, which is means that the vocabulary and sentence structure is probably complex enough for high school, but the themes are more juvenile (themes are not factored into the Lexile algorithm).  

[8filltheheart]

13 minutes ago, EKT said:

That sounds so frustrating. I feel very lucky to have homeschooled in states where I do not have to bother with or worry about umbrellas. 

We ended up moving before 12th grade, but se almost had The Farm School listed on her transcript as her "school"  bc they left it up to me.  No way was I going to let a cover tell me what I could and could not do. Dang.....the homeschool mentality has shifted so much the past 10+ yrs.

[wendyroo]

16 minutes ago, EKS said:

One test of whether a book is high school level or not is whether you would be comfortable having it on a book list that is sent to a college admissions committee.  I would not feel comfortable putting Anne on there, but YMMV.

OTOH, not every book a student reads for a course needs to be listed on the book list.

For the first semester of ninth grade, Peter was homeschooling Honors English 9, and I gave him a wide variety of reading choices. One book he read was The Hobbit, which has a very similar lexile level to Anne, and is similarly aimed at a not-quite high school age audience.

I would have no qualms listing The Hobbit on an Honors English 9 book list along with some of his other choices such as:  Catch-22, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Grendal, and Good Omens.

Or, I would be fine leaving off The Hobbit and having the book list be a highlight reel. Peter also read a prolific amount of manga; I won't include that on the book list, but it, and his other hours and hours of diverse reading, certainly "count" in my mind toward labeling the course as solidly Honors level. Again, the local public school "Advanced" 9th graders spent that semester reading To Kill a Mockingbird aloud in class. I doubt their course description even includes a book list, because it would only have one book on it for the whole year. So I really can't get my panties in a twist about a solid book list that also includes The Hobbit or Anne.

[8filltheheart]

1 hour ago, EKS said:

One test of whether a book is high school level or not is whether you would be comfortable having it on a book list that is sent to a college admissions committee.  I would not feel comfortable putting Anne on there, but YMMV.

The Lexile level is 970L, which is means that the vocabulary and sentence structure is probably complex enough for high school, but the themes are more juvenile (themes are not factored into the Lexile algorithm).  

Next yr (since I am moving it to 10th now instead of 9th) I will have zero qualms including it on the reading list.  My course description will state reading along with Anne.  I can pretty much guarantee that the reading list is far beyond anything that any contemporary high schooler is reading.  Shakespeare is pretty much eliminated.  Sir Walter Scott and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.....I'm sure most high schoolers would be along the lines of "who the heck are they?" Or dismiss as dead white guys.  I doubt 99.9% of Americans can state where, "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive," comes from.  I suspect most people would answer Shakespeare.  It comes from Marmion (which is on my reading list for AGG.)

[wendyroo]

1 hour ago, 8filltheheart said:

Shakespeare is pretty much eliminated. 

Yep. Peter was at the public school when they did their Shakespeare unit in 9th grade. They spent one day learning about Shakespeare, the types of plays he wrote, and the Globe. They spent one day listening to the teacher read a picture book version of Romeo and Juliet and learning about theater vocabulary (dialogue, stage direction, prop, etc.). And they spent the rest of the week watching a movie version of Romeo and Juliet...not a video recording of a play being preformed, but the Zeffirelli movie. I guess I should just be glad they didn't choose Baz Luhrmann's version.

However, realistically, that isn't much less Shakespeare than I would have done with Peter at home. I mean, we covered all the "who is Shakespeare" and "what is theater" information in elementary and middle school, and also read all of Bruce Coville's picture book versions of the plays. And, I would have chosen A Midsummer Night's Dream to focus on instead of Romeo and Juliet. And I would have exposed Peter to the actual text of the play, though probably not read the whole thing, and certainly not forced him to read lines aloud or choose parts or anything. But, we wouldn't have gone any deeper than that.

Honestly, I don't think English 9, or even Honors English 9, necessarily needs more Shakespeare than that. What it does need is more something and deeper something...which clearly could be Shakespeare, but doesn't have to be. For Peter that something isn't Shakespeare or Sir Walter Scott or Alfred, Lord Tennyson. For Peter that something is high level academic and mathematical writing. It is reading enough non-fiction "popular" math books to earn an entire literature credit themed around that. It is exploring fictional protagonists, antagonists, and world building through the lens of Dungeons and Dragons. It is reading, analyzing, discussing and critiquing tons of novels...even if that comes in the guise of him having heated debates with friends and siblings about various manga series.

So, yes, I agree that the public schools have pretty much eliminated Shakespeare, but what I really fault them for is pretty much eliminating everything challenging and engaging and interesting. (And from Peter's tenure at the public school, that held for all core classes, not just ELA.)

Edited June 26 by wendyroo

[luuknam]

13 hours ago, wendyroo said:

Yep. Peter was at the public school when they did their Shakespeare unit in 9th grade. They spent one day learning about Shakespeare, the types of plays he wrote, and the Globe. They spent one day listening to the teacher read a picture book version of Romeo and Juliet and learning about theater vocabulary (dialogue, stage direction, prop, etc.). And they spent the rest of the week watching a movie version of Romeo and Juliet...not a video recording of a play being preformed, but the Zeffirelli movie. 

Your local public school sounds terrible. In my 10th or 11th grade English class the teacher read/discussed a few pages of the Canterbury Tales (in the original, side-by-side with either modern English or a translation, not sure), we took turns reading part of MacBeth out loud and then watched a televised version of the play, we read Death of a Salesman (as homework) and then the entire class took a field trip and watched the play in person, and we read a bunch of other books too (like the Scarlet Letter as homework and then had to write book reports and such, though I think we had some choice of which books we picked off the reading list). Yes, that was the pre-university track that only the top 15% or so of students take, but English is also a foreign language that wasn't really introduced until 7th grade*, so...

Back to the original topic, I agree with you, HomeAgain, etc that children's books can be part of a high school course. I have college credit for a children's and young adult literature course, so we read everything from picture books to Y/A, but, it needs to be covered in a high school/college level way to count as high school/college level. That course was a library science elective, so we needed to discuss which children's books would make worthy selections for libraries etc and why (and of course there's always the debate about whether/how much quality lit vs smut, but anyhow). 

I'm personally planning on including a Y/A book in my Literature as Propaganda course we'll be doing this coming year (haven't fully decided on the reading list yet though), but the kids will need to discuss why it might've been effective propaganda. I could see many ways that children's and Y/A books could be discussed in high school/college level ways, so, so long as *something* is done along those lines, seems fine by me. Generally I'd want to see more traditional literature included too for a high school English credit (but in the end, whatever works best depends by kid etc... though I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around doing an easier English course for college-bound native speakers than I had as a second-language course). 

*Technically when I was in 5th grade the state passed a law saying all elementary schools had to do 2 years of English starting right away at (half?) an hour a week, but my teacher just complained about not being qualified (can't really blame him there) and had us watch some videos and do the occasional worksheet... I learned just about no English those two years and I'm pretty sure that was true for most other kids my age). 

Edited June 27 by luuknam

[wendyroo]

13 hours ago, luuknam said:

Your local public school sounds terrible.

I have spoken to principals in our district at the middle and high school level, and they all say that our district has very consciously adopted the philosophy of "only ask kids to do what they will willingly do" aka "done is better than undone" aka "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".

I can see both sides of the issue.

On one hand, I know that even 30 years ago when I was in high school, a lot of kids did not care about grades, did not pay attention in class, did not do any homework, and therefore did not actually get educated. And it is easy to think, well, the joke will be on them when they can't get a job. But, unskilled, unemployable or under-employable adults are a huge strain on society. And, as we have often discussed on the boards, having kids graduate able to add simple fractions and estimate percentages for a tip is way more valuable than flunking them out of Algebra 2, even if we think they could have learned the higher math if they had applied themselves.

So I truly do understand the philosophy of: if we assign a three page paper, they won't write anything and will get no practice whatsoever...so let's try assigning a five paragraph essay and having them write it during class time. I have four kids with autism and two with ODD, so I know about picking my battles.

On the other hand, ugh, that philosophy leads to a very, very low bar. And not just a low bar, but a low ceiling too because even Advanced and AP courses follow this pedagogy...though, for AP courses they do say to expect 30-60 minutes of homework a week, as opposed to no homework whatsoever in any other classes at any other levels. Peter found that the only courses that were "allowed" to be interesting and challenging were the electives because kids didn't have to take them. So, in Peter's Advanced English 9 class, 81% of students ended up earning an A, 12% B and 3% C. So, on paper, low standards for the win there because most students were clearly "excelling" at the tasks they were being given. Same with AP Calc: 68% A, 20% B and 3% C. But the electives Forensic Science (34% A, 31% B, 14% C, and 10% D) and Game Design (55% A, 3% B, 6% C, and 21% D), actually required Peter to learn and think and work. He liked those better and got A's in both.

[Roadrunner]

Kids are reading local newspaper articles in honors 9 at our school. These articles are lower quality than a school newspaper. The only book the honors 9th grade read was To Kill the Mockingbird.” I am grateful for that. They used to read Odyssey and Shakespeare as well, but those were dropped (too many white men) and not really replaced with anything comparable. 
 

More I think about it, do as you see right. If your kids are interested, assign them. 
 

My kid was told that philosophy class doesn’t read anything because those texts are too hard to understand but instead discusses modern topics. As a future philosophy major, he is refusing to take this class now. 

[8filltheheart]

We are a society of useful idiots.

[Dmmetler]

I took graduate classes in Children's literature which were a heavier, more intense load than many of the others (due to needing to read and analyze and write about multiple books every single week).  AGG could absolutely be used in a high school level class that really dove deep into the text and supporting information and texts. 

 

It could also be used in a way that is absolutely not high school level. 

[luuknam]

16 hours ago, wendyroo said:

So I truly do understand the philosophy of: if we assign a three page paper, they won't write anything and will get no practice whatsoever...so let's try assigning a five paragraph essay and having them write it during class time. I have four kids with autism and two with ODD, so I know about picking my battles.

Same with AP Calc: 68% A, 20% B and 3% C. 

Yeah, I think we're in agreement here. I get that stuff that gets done is better than stuff that doesn't get done... but nobody *needs* to be in an advanced/honors/AP class if they're unwilling to do *any* work. What is their pass rate on the AP exams? Not convinced many colleges are impressed with kids getting As on APs but then failing to get a passing score on the exam, but what do I know?

[Eilonwy]

Yes, I think it is. All of my kids read it earlier, but it is complex enough in its language (along with a few others like Wind in the Willows) that when I first tried them, thinking of them as children’s stories, it was too early and we had to stop & come back a few years later. I think of it as a crossover book - appealing to a wide range of people, but needing a minimum level of proficiency to be able to enjoy it. 

Obviously it needs to have other appropriate books with it and be included in an appropriate way. No one would consider Hamlet, on its own, to be a complete high school English sequence, so considering a book in isolation isn’t that helpful. 

I love the idea of reading the literature that it references at the same time.  

Edited June 28 by Eilonwy

[ktgrok]

On 6/24/2024 at 11:48 AM, wendyroo said:

I think "high school level reading" just like a "balanced diet" is better evaluated when averaged over a longer time period.

 

So, sure, I think Anne of Green Gables could be a fantastic component of a high school literature curriculum; I would just want to also diversify with a variety of other novels, graphic novels, poems, essays, short stories, plays, and perhaps picture books.

This

On 6/26/2024 at 8:00 AM, wendyroo said:

That definitely goes into my thinking as well.

Peter spent this past spring semester at the public high school taking Advanced English 9. In that whole semester they only read one book...well, actually the teacher read it to them...and it was a picture book adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

They spent most of their time reading one-page, photocopied "mentor texts" and answering reading comprehension questions about them, playing Blooket vocabulary games, and watching videos. For the entire semester the sum of their writing was one five-paragraph "personal memoir" and one five-paragraph "research report" about recycling that required no sourcing or citation.

To be fair, during the first semester (when Peter wasn't there), the whole class buddy read To Kill a Mockingbird. We've been told it took them a full marking period to get through it and was torture for the kids who can actually fluently read.

So looked at through that lens...again, this was ADVANCED (pre-AP) English 9 in a high-performing school...the bar for counting something as a credit can be very, very low.

Ok, I'm sorry for your son and those kids, but you just relieved a bunch of anxiety I have over doing "enough". My son did a semester of 9th grade honors english and it was similarly terrible, but it was nearly a decade ago so I wasn't sure that was still the case. Gotta love the public system that tries to have 3rd graders write research reports but in highschool thinks teaching citations is too hard. 

On 6/26/2024 at 8:15 AM, freesia said:

This is what makes me cross-eyed when homeschool umbrella schools and advisors set honors level for homeschool as things like college level reading or 360 hours of work. I know that is not what is happening in most honors level classes and it feels like my kids need to meet a much higher standard to be seen as honors. 

THIS. I've been looking at outsourced classes, and even some curricula, that are very obviously more AP level than 9th grade advanced/honors level and it drives me crazy. Not just in LA but also science, etc. Lots of college level, but not much for a normal 9th grade year. 

On 6/26/2024 at 9:19 AM, EKS said:

The Lexile level is 970L, which is means that the vocabulary and sentence structure is probably complex enough for high school, but the themes are more juvenile (themes are not factored into the Lexile algorithm).  

Not sure what it says about me that I still find the themes relatable and compelling as an adult, lol...but i reread the series every few years. 

On 6/26/2024 at 8:42 PM, luuknam said:

 

I'm personally planning on including a Y/A book in my Literature as Propaganda course we'll be doing this coming year (haven't fully decided on the reading list yet though), but the kids will need to discuss why it might've been effective propaganda.

Interesting!!! I hope you post your list when you know what you are using. Oh, and you might find it interesting to listen to the episode of the Wilder podcast that talked about how The Long Winter was exported to Japan by the USA as propaganda after World War II. 

Edited July 2 by ktgrok

[freesia]

20 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

This

Ok, I'm sorry for your son and those kids, but you just relieved a bunch of anxiety I have over doing "enough". My son did a semester of 9th grade honors english and it was similarly terrible, but it was nearly a decade ago so I wasn't sure that was still the case. Gotta love the public system that tries to have 3rd graders write research reports but in highschool thinks teaching citations is too hard. 

THIS. I've been looking at outsourced classes, and even some curricula, that are very obviously more AP level than 9th grade advanced/honors level and it drives me crazy. Not just in LA but also science, etc. Lots of college level, but not much for a normal 9th grade year. 

Not sure what it says about me that I still find the themes relatable and compelling as an adult, lol...but i reread the series every few years. 

Interesting!!! I hope you post your list when you know what you are using. Oh, and you might find it interesting to listen to the episode of the Wilder podcast that talked about how The Long Winter was exported to Japan by the USA as propaganda after World War II. 

I reread it every few years, too. So whatever it says about you, I am your sister 😂 

[EKS]

32 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Not sure what it says about me that I still find the themes relatable and compelling as an adult, lol...but i reread the series every few years.

I have children's books like that, so I understand.  That said, I wouldn't argue that A Wrinkle in Time or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, are necessarily appropriate for high school. 

[ktgrok]

5 minutes ago, EKS said:

I have children's books like that, so I understand.  That said, I wouldn't argue that A Wrinkle in Time or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, are necessarily appropriate for high school. 

Ok, see, I'd say CS Lewis is appropriate for anyone, at any level, just depends how much you discuss and what else you bring into it. But other books, as well. 

That said, i think a LOT of books that get read in highschool would be better understood later in life. Looking at you, The Awakening! (No one will fully get that book until they have kids, in my opinion)

[HomeAgain]

59 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

 

That said, i think a LOT of books that get read in highschool would be better understood later in life. Looking at you, The Awakening! (No one will fully get that book until they have kids, in my opinion)

OH, YES.  I just sat in a book discussion last year about this.  3 of us were over 40 with kids, the rest around 19-20yo.  The conclusions the younger ones came to were so astoundingly opposite of the older ones, and cloaked in today's values.

There are books that I think everyone should reread over and over (like C.S. Lewis), and ones I have asked my children not to read until they are as old as the main character (like Go Set a Watchman) because they would not begin to comprehend the internal wrestling and multifasceted humans when they are still young enough to believe in black and white.

[EKS]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Ok, see, I'd say CS Lewis is appropriate for anyone, at any level, just depends how much you discuss and what else you bring into it. But other books, as well. 

How about Winnie the Pooh?  Just naming children's books that I've reread many times as an adult.

With regard to LWW, I think if you went with the religious angle, that aspect could easily be done at a high school level.  But the rest of it, not so much.  I am not a Christian, and I would have never done such a study in our homeschool.

[8filltheheart]

47 minutes ago, EKS said:

How about Winnie the Pooh?  Just naming children's books that I've reread many times as an adult.

With regard to LWW, I think if you went with the religious angle, that aspect could easily be done at a high school level.  But the rest of it, not so much.  I am not a Christian, and I would have never done such a study in our homeschool.

Winnie the Pooh has no higher value than enjoying as a simple children's story. The allegorical themes of Narnia, otoh, can be understood on many different levels.  I personally wouldn't do Narnia at a high school level, but we have done it in depth in 6th.  I could easily see doing a deep dive into the Last Battle in conjunction with a study of Revelation.   All of his other fiction (since it was just Lewis mentioned and not strictly Narnia)......absolutely.  Our high school reading lists include several......Till We Have Faces, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, Pilgrim's Progress Revisited, the Space Trilogy......I love all of them.  But, we read Tolkien for high school, too, even though my kids read them younger as well.

Eta: this yr for 9th, my dd is going to read fairy tales.  It is going to be great....and I guess some would question the titles. But, I have done this study before and the level is actually quite high in terms of analysis.

Edited July 2 by 8filltheheart

[ktgrok]

15 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

Winnie the Pooh has no higher value than enjoying as a simple children's story. The allegorical themes of Narnia, otoh, can be understood on many different levels.  I personally wouldn't do Narnia at a high school level, but we have done it in depth in 6th.  I could easily see doing a deep dive into the Last Battle in conjunction with a study of Revelation.   All of his other fiction (since it was just Lewis mentioned and not strictly Narnia)......absolutely.  Our high school reading lists include several......Till We Have Faces, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, Pilgrim's Progress Revisited, the Space Trilogy......I love all of them.  But, we read Tolkien for high school, too, even though my kids read them younger as well.

I read till We Have Faces in my late thirties and I still don't think I was quite mature enough to truly get everything out of it, lol. 

 

[Dmmetler]

One of my hobbies is reading and reviewing books, and honestly, there's a lot of MG and YA books I get that I wonder if they'd actually be understood by their intended audience. Not that they're too hard to read, but that there's a level that probably is missed by kids and would probably be better understood by someone who is past the developmental stage the main characters are in. (For example, I just reviewed The Frindle Files, and while I think kids who love other Andrew Clements books will enjoy it, I think kids will miss pieces of it until they reread it with their kids as adults.) 

Conversely, there's a lot of books which are now fairly commonly studied in schools that, honestly, don't need to be because they're about a subtle as a ton of bricks. They're good, they're impactful, but they aren't subtle and don't have a lot of layers to them. 

 

I tend to think a good Children's lit class, doing a lot of literary analysis, would be an excellent high school class for a kid who has already done a solid English and lit curriculum. It's also a good college class.  I don't think it should be a substitute for doing said good English and lit curriculum, and, if done right, is not a "light" credit.