25 Classics All Kids Should Read Before They Go to College
Here is an older Stir article but still a good discussion piece about 'must reads'.
25 Classics All Kids Should Read Before They Go to College
My
daughter sticks an invisible dagger in my heart every time she declares
that she doesn’t like to read. I have no idea how it happened. When I
was holed up in the house all big and bulky during my pregnancy, I ate
books. Classic books, trash lit, how-to guides, anything I could get my
hands on.
When she was a baby, even up until she was a fourth,
maybe fifth grader, we read together every night. She loved the Junie
B. Jones series, and I even passed down books I used to adore when I was
a budding gal like her, like my Sweet Valley High and Fabulous Five
collections. In mint condition, if I do say so myself.
Alas,
the love of the written word just hasn’t been passed on to Young Harris
(insert long, baleful moan from her writer/editor mother). That she can
recite every word to “We Found Love” but gives me a long, blank stare
when I quote a line from Charles Dickens, even A Christmas Story, makes me feel like I failed the child.
I
don’t think her school is helping the situation, either. I remember
reading books together as a class and discussing them and that was back
in the ancient 80s and 90s. Not once, ever, never, has that child come
home with anything that she was instructed to read chapter by chapter
and be prepared to talk about the next day. I’m glad it’s her last year
at this school and keeping my fingers crossed for the high school she’s
gearing up to go to.
Ever the drum major for education — and the do-it-yourself go-getter — I stopped by the library and brought home Little Women,
thinking maybe, just maybe if I sold it hard enough, it would resonate
with her like it did with me at that age. Unfortunately, it became a
door stop, a lap desk when she needed something to bear on when she was
writing, I think it even held a bum window open at one point. Getting her to actually read it was like pulling teeth; getting her to enjoy it proved completely impossible.
But like it or not, there are just some books that she has to, has to, has to read before she leaves my house, one way or another. I don’t care if she downloads them to her iPod and relishes in the convenience of audio books. It ain’t reading, but hey — I’ll take it. Heck, I think there are certain classics that all kids need to have scratched off their lists before they can call themselves ready to graduate:
25. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
24. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
23. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
22. Call of the Wild by Jack London
21. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
20. Art of War by Sun Tzu
19. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
18. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
17. Something, anything by Edgar Allan Poe
16. Fences by August Wilson
15. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
13. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
12. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
11. The Bible (you don’t have to believe in its teachings to glean
historical and sociological perspective from it, so calm down)
10. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
9. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
8. Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
3. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
What would you add to the list of must-reads for kids?
I disagree with a few. For one anyone who doesn't follow Christianity would probably not believe in any of its 'historical perspective' ...and I've never even heard of 'Their Eyes Were Watching God
Meh. It's a pretty white man list there. I totally agree with giving a list of authors, but I would not presume to give exact books. Kids should be exposed to the authors listed along with many others. I mean where's Faulkner, Flannery Connor, Phillis Wheatley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ZitKala-Sa, Amy Tan, Virginia Wolfe, Sylvia Plath?
Quoting KickButtMama:I disagree with a few. For one anyone who doesn't follow Christianity would probably not believe in any of its 'historical perspective' ...and I've never even heard of 'Their Eyes Were Watching God
ZN Hurston is One of just a few females listed and one that IMO is not appropriate for kids before college level.
I agree with knowing the authors but choosing the books themselves. I also think George Orwell is an interesting author to read.
Quoting bluerooffarm:Meh. It's a pretty white man list there. I totally agree with giving a list of authors, but I would not presume to give exact books. Kids should be exposed to the authors listed along with many others. I mean where's Faulkner, Flannery Connor, Phillis Wheatley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ZitKala-Sa, Amy Tan, Virginia Wolfe, Sylvia Plath?
Oh yeah! Orwell too. There are just so very many good books and good authors.
I guess I'm for introducing all of these but not forcing it. There are too many books and too many authors that are "with" you, IMO you won't be worse for wear if you don't read the ones that aren't with you. I would seriously throw a fit if someone made me read Walden. I hate Thoreau with a passion! LOL
Quoting usmom3:I agree with knowing the authors but choosing the books themselves. I also think George Orwell is an interesting author to read.
Quoting bluerooffarm:Meh. It's a pretty white man list there. I totally agree with giving a list of authors, but I would not presume to give exact books. Kids should be exposed to the authors listed along with many others. I mean where's Faulkner, Flannery Connor, Phillis Wheatley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ZitKala-Sa, Amy Tan, Virginia Wolfe, Sylvia Plath?
I agree! There are so many great books & Authors that you don't have to read them all & you should never be forced to read them (it takes so much away from the book itself when forced).
I hated reading Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame& I chose to read it the year that the Disney Cartoon came out! I can't immagine being forced to read it!
Quoting bluerooffarm:Oh yeah! Orwell too. There are just so very many good books and good authors.
I guess I'm for introducing all of these but not forcing it. There are too many books and too many authors that are "with" you, IMO you won't be worse for wear if you don't read the ones that aren't with you. I would seriously throw a fit if someone made me read Walden. I hate Thoreau with a passion! LOL
Quoting usmom3:I agree with knowing the authors but choosing the books themselves. I also think George Orwell is an interesting author to read.
Quoting bluerooffarm:Meh. It's a pretty white man list there. I totally agree with giving a list of authors, but I would not presume to give exact books. Kids should be exposed to the authors listed along with many others. I mean where's Faulkner, Flannery Connor, Phillis Wheatley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ZitKala-Sa, Amy Tan, Virginia Wolfe, Sylvia Plath?
Quoting PinkButterfly66:Fitzgerald is positively boring and whiney and Steinbeck is depressing. I had to read more than one of their books in High School. Ugh!
I know, right?
Quoting TidewaterClan: I wanted to holler 'move on buddy!' the whole time I was reading "The Great Gaysby." :)
Quoting PinkButterfly66:Fitzgerald is positively boring and whiney and Steinbeck is depressing. I had to read more than one of their books in High School. Ugh!
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- Cafe MichelleP
on Jan. 29, 2014 at 4:17 PM