Summer, time to kick back, relax, read some total junk while lying around the pool… Or at least that’s what most adults get to enjoy. For high school students it often means a summer slogging through assigned reading and turning in a paper the week they return, or facing a quiz the first day of school. For booksellers it means stocking up on copies of whatever the local schools have assigned.
It used to be that schools assigned the same books year after year, but with the advent of computers, its far to easy for unscrupulous students to take an old paper from a previous year, change a few lines, and claim its their own. Thus many school change their lists annually and focus on newer texts to cut down on plagarism. Books also go in and out of fashion.
This is a compilation of several different schools lists in Connecticut. I’ve only listed it here if multiple schools have assigned it. From the list, it looks like the theme for this year is “It Could Be Worse!” It’s a mix of books by minority authors, on economic disaster, illness, and basically why suburban teens have it VERY good. At least you’re not dying, in jail, being oppressed, homeless, or in the middle of a natural disaster! The surge in books by African American authors probably also reflects an interest in President Obama.
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Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath
This is by far the runaway winner for reading assignments. Big surprise with it being about the Great Depression. East of Eden and Of Mice and Men also made it onto the list this year. Several years ago, the only Steinbeck to make it onto the lists was Travels With Charlie
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Ellison- Invisible Man
A classic on race and how looks can be deceiving. Most school always try to include some literature by or about African-Americans, but there seems to have been an absolute EXPLOSION in the number of these making it onto the lists year. The election of a black president seems to have judged many schools into including more than a token book on race.
Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
A contemporary book that’s been widely assigned here for several years in a row, plus is frequently requested by regular customers. An autistic 15 year old is falsely accused of killing his neighbor’s dog and sets out to discover the real killer. With autism being diagnosed in roughly one in every 166 americans, it’s not hard to see how this made the list. Most school will have at least a few kids with autism or the related Asperger’s Syndrome.
John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany
Set in New England, it centers around a weird boy that believes he’s an instrument of God’s will. The other book commonly assigned is The World According the Garp. The two seem to swap positions as the “popular” assigned book every few years.
Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen seems to be a hot topic of late, spawning various modern… variations. The most bizarre of these is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I did actually see on one reading list.
Friedman: The World is Flat
Most schools opt to include one or two nonfiction titles every year. This year it’s “The World is Flat” which is about how all these crazy web 2.0 things like blogs, podcasts, social networking and how they’ll affect the skills needed to succeed in the business world in the next few decades. A few schools also assigned Friedman’s “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” in tandem with this book.
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Alvarez- In the Time of the Butterflies
Four sisters becomes revolutionaries fighting against the brutal dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. This books has only been suggested for those who are entering junior or senior year of high school due to the subject matter. Her other book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, appeared on one or two lists as well.
Larson: The Devil in the White City
A true crime yarn set in Chicago. This seems to have displaced In Cold Blood and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which were used in previous years. That its a history of Chicago probably also helped secure it a place on the list due to the upswing in interest in Chicago with the change in administration.
Martel: The Life of Pi
An Indian boy trapped in a life raft with a tiger. This one seems to be waning on popularity. It was a top pick a few years ago. India as a topic hasn’t fallen completely off the radar, but schools don’t seem to have selected a succesor to Pi yet. Mistry’s A Fine Balance and Foster’s A Passage to Indiea” appeared on some lists and may be the eventual successor.
Sinclair: The Jungle
More on Chicago! And meat packing. This one seems to be declining in popularity. However, food origins are a hot topic and some other schools picked Fast Food Nation and Omnivores’ Dilema.
Picoult: My Sister’s Keeper
A teen sues her parents to avoid undergoing a kidney transplant to save her older sister, who she’s already donated blood and bone marrow to for her entire life. This one has finally tumbled from its top spot as most assigned book around here. The upcoming movie is probably to blame for the slide in popularity as kids may cheat and watch the film instead.
Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
Talk about obscure! I haven’t seen an Hardy on a list in five years, and now this title is suddenly on multiple lists! The theme of losing an education due to premarital sex is probably what suddenly landed it on the list.
Albom: Tuesdays with Morie
A tale of the power of a mentors… and terminal illness. This books has been on multiple schools lists for the last five years, along with The Five People You Meet In Heaven. It’s tumbled in popularity and no school assigned Five People this year.
Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying
A young black man is the only survivor of a liquor store shootout and is sent to death row. This has appeared on a few lists before, but was never popular. This is the first year it is on multiple lists.
Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods
Well we need something to counter all the gloom and doom… This book chronicles a trip down the Appalachian Trail and all the wacky people Bryson meets on the way. This seems to fill the role of a “bone for the boys” being an adventure book with a bit more serious content.
Baker: Growing Up
Also new
Kite Runner
This has slid from popularity. It was on virtually every list a few years ago. One local school included it on its optional list along with a half dozen other books labeled “learn about Afghanistan”.
Angelou “I Know why the Caged Bird sings”
Wilder – Our Town
Rand- Anthem, The Fountainhead, & Atlas Shrugged
Somehow Rand has gotten wildly popular this year. I’ve had many, many requests for Atlas Shrugged by regular customers. Rand seems to have totally pushed Karl Marx off the list. There was one or two schools in the area that routinely assigned the Communist Manifesto, but they seemed to have dropped it this year in favor of Atlas Shrugged, a complete 180.
Golding- Lord of the Flies
Orwell- 1984
Adams- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Another amusing book clearly meant to keep kids from sliding into a depressive funk after reading about all about death, oppression, and how we’re all going to die horribly from food poisoning and global warming.
Brown: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Guterson: Snow Falling on Cedars
This seems to have pushed Farewell to Manzar, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan off people’s list as the representative “asian culture” book.
Hugo: Hunchback of Notre Dame
Junger: The Perfect Storm
This seems to have displaced Into the Wild, which was on every reading list for several years in a row and now appears on none of them.
McCourt: Angela’s Ashes
McEwan: Atonement
Morrison: The Bluest Eye
Some schools opted for Beloved or Song of Soloman instead. Sula seems to have dropped off lists after being popular for several years.
Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
This seems to be the new “war” book that gets assigned and is displacing Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato, which were widely assigned in previous years. One school also opted for Trumbo’s “Johnny Got His Gun”, which I’ve never seen on a list before.
Stoker: Dracula
With the success of Twilight, this is a bit of a no brainer that it showed up. Frankenstein was popular on many schools lists for several years and Dracula seems to have displaced it. Apparently there can be only one monster on the list at a time, even if they have totally different themes.
Walker: The Color Purple
Plath: The Bell Jar
Courtenay: The Power of One
There’s always a sports book of some sort. This one is doing double duty in talking about apatheid AND boxing. It seems to have taken the place of In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle (about women’s basketball, which Connecticut is totally obsessed with), Friday Nigt Lights, and The Last Amateurs.
I’m jealous. The majority of the books posted are ones that I have read and sincerely enjoyed. I hope the kids reading them realize how lucky they are. I had to plow through Moby Dick, Tale of Two Cities and Les Miserable when I was a teenager (not to discredit these books, I value their importance in the literary canon now, not so much when I was 13).
The reading list given above is a wonderful mix of the classics as well as the contemporary. It covers everything-action, romance, mystery, drama and humor. I hope these kids make the most of their school years!
The unproportional interest in minorities for reading material is nothing new. At my midwestern, suburban, 95% white high school, we read many of the same books. We spent four out of six years of history between middle and high school focusing on the civil war and civil rights movement. By the end, we were all downright sick of it.
Pleased to see Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time on that list. I heartily enjoyed the book (wolfed it down in a day) and it’s a good peek into the mind of an autistic child. Might be useful to help children understand the ‘special needs’ kids, who are sometimes ruthlessly tormented.
Interesting to see a lot of contemporary books on this list, such as Curious Incident… and Life of Pi. My school would only ever assign books more than 40 years old, until AP English when we got a chance to read Margaret Atwood.
I am with you Nicole. The novels that we had to read in high school were torture. Now that I am older I appreciate them, but I had better things to do in high school than trying to figure out how to finish Moby Dick so I could pass english 1!
This list is a great representation of what we’ve been carrying this summer for the summer reading in the schools in the area (in Middle Georgia). Of course the kids don’t realize what a great selection they have–many of them still complain about having to read during the summer!
Hi – Thanks for mentioning Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, even if it struck you as a little strange! I’m with Quirk Books, the publisher. I’m not sure if you’ve already heard, but we just announced the next title in the Quirk Classics series – another Austen title – Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
If you’re feeling adventurous and you’d like a review copy, just email us at QuirkClassics@gmail.com
Thanks, and happy reading!
I read Pride and Prejudice one summer along with a friend of mine. We loved it and it quickly became one of my favorites. I think I have read it five or six times over the years. I do enjoy going back and rereading a lot of the books I read back in school. I may not have appreciated them as much then, but when you read them as an adult you are able to see things that you didn’t see before.