British Literature recommended age range is 15-18 [updated 4.27.06]

The choosing chart on page 13 says British Lit is only usable even with modification for 15 and up, the catalog (pages 95-97) says ages 14 – 18. The age range for British Literature should be 15 to 18.

I talked with Amy (the Brit Lit author and the Holzmann's eldest dd) about British Lit and thought I'd share her comments. I am considering Brit Lit for my dd who will be in 10th grade next year (mostly because the history and bible of 400 are too hard for a 10th grader and the stuff in 300 is too dark for this child - we'll do that level in her senior year). We recommend Brit Lit for 15 - 18 yo, on the chart we say challenging for 10th grade and part of 11th. This info may help you counsel the next person! ;-)

I think you could do Brit lit. The catalog says ages 14-18 [this is an error in the catalog Rhonda], so she is on the young end. I just went through the catalog and looked again at the books. I would say probably 70-80% of them will be accessible to her now (at least, thinking about what I was reading at her age, while I was in public school). A few of them I don’t know if I really “got” even in college, but I think good literature grows with a person, too. I remember a VERY bright university professor telling us that he wouldn’t want to write a book about Canterbury Tales until he was over 50—it was just too rich. He could get the stories, but from a life experience stand-point, it gets better with age. *A Passage to India* is probably the book most like that in the course, though *Dubliners* is up there on the challenging scale, as is *Paradise Lost*. I think, though, of all the books, the notes are really outstanding for those works (my Dad worked on the notes for *Passage* after I was done, and he added a lot of cultural literacy things that I missed. I think, again, that’s a maturity issue—he could tell when he wasn’t understanding something, whereas I tended to read over it).

I think, too, compared with 20th Century, the books are not NEARLY so heavy. Definitely some adult themes, but not so much death and destruction. I read all the 20th Century books in the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year of college—phew! What a heavy few months.

All of which is to say, go for it!

Amy