[Tigermoth]

I disagree that Ender's Game is too hefty for them. Most students that age (and younger) feel they can relate to Ender. I think this is a good choice.

The Things They Carried is excellent literature, but I don't know that a single reading of it in high school does it justice. It was required reading for a couple university courses of mine, and I appreciated it more and more with every reading. When I read it for the first time at 18 or so, I just didn't see the beauty of it. Did you get the rave reviews from teacher/adults or from students?

What about some poetry? Paul Muldoon has done some remarkable stuff that could well turn kids on to poetry. Plus, he's still alive and writing.

Your list seems to have a bunch of dead white guys. Talented dead white guys, but you should try to diversify a bit more.

For dystopian literature, I'd go for We over Animal Farm or Brave New World.

What about Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer? A lot of history, it's excellently written, it's new, and there's a great movie made from it.

My advice to you: Teach things they wouldn't otherwise pick up. Try to go for new authors, female authors, foreign authors, but not any one book just because it satisfies one of those criteria. Pick things that are short and easy to read, but that can be picked apart on different levels. Don't make them read Romeo and Juliet. Don't underestimate their intelligence. Challenge them.

I wanted to go to UC-Irvine just because Ngugi wa Thiongo taught there. Maybe learning about Paul Muldoon will motivate some kids to try to go to Princeton? I almost accepted a place at Breadloaf (summer Master's program in Lit) because Muldoon was there. I really like the idea of having kids read current authors, especially ones that are teaching.

As a side note, I'm a big fan of post-colonialist literature, especially in the classroom. It makes students think about where they come from in entirely new ways, while introducing them to foreign authors.


I leave you with "Symposium" by Paul Muldoon.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it hold
its nose to the grindstone and hunt with the hounds.
Every dog has a stitch in time. Two heads? You've been
sold
one good turn. One good turn deserves a bird in the hand.

A bird in the hand is better than no bread.
To have your cake is to pay Paul.
Make hay while you can still hit the nail on the head.
For want of a nail the sky might fall.

People in glass houses can't see the wood
for the new broom. Rome wasn't built between two stools.
Empty vessels wait for no man.

A hair of the dog is a friend indeed.
There's no fool like the fool
who's shot his bolt. There's no smoke after the horse is
gone.


Edited to make it ramble less. Most likely a failure [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]