Summary of year 10 book selections
Summary of year 10 book selections
John's Holzmann's comments on year 10 forum
If you're looking for LITERARY significance, you "MUST" read the culturally significant literary works: The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Huck Finn, My Antonia, Our Town, [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn], The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible, The Chosen, and maybe The Giver.
I placed brackets around A Tree Grows in Brooklyn because it's NOT normally recognized in the same category as the other books. It simply doesn't have the name-recognition and cachet. So if you don't want to include it in the LITERARY category, then I'd include it, most definitely, in the HISTORICAL and/or THOUGHT-PROVOKING ones.
I said "maybe" The Giver because that is "only" a five-year-old book, so it, too, doesn't have the same name recognition. But if I didn't include it here, then I'd place it in the thought-provoking category.
But now, supposing you ONLY did the books I listed above, . . . you would have just sucked out virtually all the "fun" from 10th Lit, you might miss a couple of the historically significant ones, and you would have missed some of the truly SIGNIFICANT/THOUGHT-PROVOKING books as well.
Historically significant books (i.e., not only correlating with, but potentially contributing to your son's or daughter's understanding of and/or thinking about American history): [Moby-Dick], [Huckleberry Finn], A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (most definitely!--a stunning introduction to what life was like for immigrant kids in the late 1800s/early 1900s), and The Grapes of Wrath.
Then from a "fun" perspective (not only in terms of content, but in terms of literary beauty). I'd say you ought not to miss: The View from Saturday, O. Henry, Julie of the Wolves, Bud, Not Buddy, 100 Best-Loved Poems.
I can, should, and, therefore, will, differentiate these further:
O. Henry is "simply" one of the--if not THE--greatest short-story writers ever. But it's not as if any one story is so immensely significant that you've GOT to read it. (Well . . . I don't know about that. Your son or daughter HAS to know about "The Gifts of the Magi"; and the Story of "Little Red Chief" is priceless, not to mention. . . . )
Bud, Not Buddy is perhaps the most "fun" book in the program. It's generally lighthearted. But it's also thought-provoking (though not "heavy" the way the other titles I'll list in a moment are "heavy"), and it's quite easy to read. (For which--considering where it comes in the program--your son or daughter will be VERY grateful!) It's also a Newbery Award winner, and it offers a pretty good personal/historical view of the Great Depression from a Northern "black" perspective.
The View from Saturday and Julie of the Wolves? Oh! Masterpieces! And PERFECT high school literature. Your son or daughter will be SUCKED into the stories of these young people. Mesmerizing. WONDERFULLY written (though on a different level than, say, Potok's The Chosen).
And then, of course, there are the best-loved poems. (There ARE reasons these poems are and have been so well loved! . . . )
From a significant/thought-provoking perspective (i.e., books your son or daughter will think about for quite some time, or that will drive your son or daughter to think more deeply about the content of the 10th Year History program): Walden and Civil Disobedience, Belle Prater's Boy, Crazy Lady!, The Day They Came to Arrest the Book, Jacob Have I Loved, and The Giver (if you didn't include this last in the first category).
I could break these down:
Walden and Civil Disobedience: one of those perennial bestsellers among restless youth; asks "all" the questions about modernity vs. the simple life. It's also literarily/historically significant.
Belle Prater's Boy and Crazy Lady!: Both "scratch where young people itch." I'd put them in the "fun" category because they're quite easy to read, but they include deep (DEEP!) relational insights in contemporary settings. Your son or daughter will relate to these quickly, will be challenged by them, and won't want to put them down.
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book: A convincing presentation of how and why First Amendment rights are so important--and so problematic to uphold. From a literary perspective, this is probably the weakest book in the program; but it is extremely important from the perspective of what we're studying this year in the Civics/American Government program.
Jacob Have I Loved: Oh! Another heart-grabber. EXTREMELY significant for young people . . . or anyone who has struggled with wanting to understand his or her significance in the world when someone nearby seems so easily to "steal all the limelight." . . . Oh! My eyes are welling up with tears just thinking of this book. . . .
And The Giver: What would the world be like if "they" tried to make "us" all "happy"? . . . And it touches on issues like abortion. And it's a Newbery Medal winner.
That leaves two books:
The Portable Poe (Poe was the original detective story writer and a master--perhaps THE master--at horror; if your son or daughter already "knows" Poe, I'd skip him);
and
The Outsiders.
I left The Outsiders off of the four lists above because it's NOT culturally-significant great literature; it's not really about a particular historical era (though its setting is obviously mid-'50s to '60s America); it's definitely NOT "fun" (it deals with issues of bad relations between different "classes" of high school students--those who live on "the right side of the tracks" and those who don't. And though it WILL cause your son or daughter to do some thinking, it's not as deep as the other books I listed as thought-provoking. Probably because it was written by a 16-year-old. . . . Which is, actually, the reason I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it because it WAS written by a 16-year-old girl--one of your kids' peers. And considering that it's still in print some 35 (?) years after it was first published says something about its quality. I would want my son or daughter to read it so s/he might be inspired: "You, too, can write a novel. You could tell a story, a story that 'needs' to be written. . . ."