[knowledgeORbust]

Let me preface this by noting that I'm 21 and in college now. I'm only going to comment on the one's I've read. I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I'm somewhat close to the high school age and still act like a little kid - so maybe I can help you get in their heads a little.

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The Great Gatsby

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Gatsby worked great in my 11th grade class. Everyone seemed to like it and was pretty involved. As you mention, it's practical stuff for HSer's. I re-read it post-HS as I'd only read 1/2 in school, liked it, and allllmost sent an annotated copy of it to my former English teacher as a nice gesture/sign of respect, but thought it was too weird [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

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(3) Hamlet

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As you say, kids tend to hate reading Shakespeare in high school. You'll only get involvement out of the most avid readers/students. Shakespeare is among the absolute best in literature, kids should get some exposure to it, but I agree that you should keep it limited. FWIW, I both respected and disliked all of the Shakespeare I read in high school, and probably read 1/5 of the plays we were assigned and 0/15 sonnets.

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(6) 1984 / Brave New World

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I was supposed to read 1984 in 10th grade English but I'm a massive slacker and did not. It was, however, one of the few books that my classmates seemed to thoroughly enjoy/talk about.
I just read Brave New World a couple of months ago and found it to be great. I think it's a good choice and will provide some serious perspective about what the "real world" is like. Obviously when you're in high school, you don't know much or anything about the real world or society in general; and this book offers some excellent commentary on society, general conditioning, authority, drugs, and other stuff that high schoolers can benefit from. It's a short, fun read and I wish I'd have gotten to it earlier.

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(8) Glance through the Odyssey and watch O Brother Where Art Thou

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Fun idea. Such a good film. You know 90% of students won't even open the book, but I still think like this idea. Also, students will dig you for assigning them a movie.

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(9a) The Things They Carried

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Ugh. I cracked this one in 9th grade and couldn't get passed the first few pages. As great as the book is, you will not get a very good response from a typical high school class. I'd personally stick to practical learning material - expanding students' perspectives is great, but this book is really hard to relate to or even get involved in at all as a HSer.

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(10) Freakonomics

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Excellent idea. I read this one as a Sophomore in college and really learned a lot. As silly as it seems, this pop-culture book really enhanced the way I looked at the world. It's based in reality, is somewhat fun, and there's a lot HSer's can get out of it. I bet this one will get a very good response.


Gonna' browse through some other responses now [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]