Best Book to Teach HS Students

Hi!

A little context for my question: I am an English teacher, currently teaching 12th grade and AP Lit., and I am also the department chair of a private Christian school.

I have a question that is difficult to answer, but, regardless, one I am constantly pondering. What book impacted you the most during HS? If you could only pick two novels to include in a HS curriculum, what ones would you pick?

I'm about half-way through The Iliad. It's a real crime nobody assigned it in High School or College as it really is one of the great Western masterpieces.

Cherry pick a few of the graphically violent passages for the boys before beginning. You will have no problem motivating them to read the rest of it.

Of the books I read in HS I didnt really like reading many of the novels that were chosen, so I wont name those.

The ones that stood out that were taught : Animal Farm by George Orwell
and Diary of a young Girl by Anne Frank

One I read on my own was The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan...that has a special place in my reading memory because its about immigrant mothers and their daughters...and Cats Eye by Margaret Atwood, about growing up in Canada and child bullying amongst girls

The weird thing is books that may appeal to girls... boys dont really like if there are no boy heroes in them. But girls also just get tired of novels that only have a boys/male perspective in them, as if they dont count. So you might want to find a balance.

I was fascinated by Dickens' Tale of two Cities for both the plot and his ability to paint pictures with words. His description of the Dover Mail at the beginning got me hooked. Maybe when I was a little younger, The Yearling by Rawlings was a favorite. While I did not fully understand all the political overtones, The Grapes of Wrath was also favored. For pure adventure, all three of The Bounty Trilogy by Nordhoff and Hall was treasured, especially Men against the Sea.

Ah, yes, Homer. I taught The Odyssey to freshmen last year, and it was my favorite book of the year. I gave them a brief synopsis of The Iliad before, but it by no means did it justice.

Almost no students in my current AP Lit. class have read Homer. However, on a different note, I did have one student choose to read Crime and Punishment and discuss it with me outside of class…that may have been the highlight of my career so far.

The English department is always at odds about the cannon and disproving its validity. Have you seen the show The Chair?

Your synopsis only did it some justice if it included groin tendons being smashed by rocks and brain particulates flying through the air.

Nope, but I'm guessing it's somehow relatable after skimming wikipedia. Nothing like being Chair for a bunch of Jacobins.

The sad part is that a teacher should be a radical in the opposite direction. Especially now with the classics and their interpretive works disappearing off library shelves and all the cruddy phone apps that ruin attention spans. It is a duty to keep the torch lit so-to-speak no matter how much value one sees in the trash. Alas.

sorry what does AP stand for
and what do you mean by Freshman
I kind of figured out HS is High school.

Do you look books up in the OPAC?

You might check out The Sea-Wolf by Jack London. I didn't read this in high school; I didn't acquire a taste for the classics until much later. But I think they'd like it. It's a "good vs. evil" adventure novel.

While Shakespeare was a trudge, years later (more than 55) I still remember reading it and complaining. And, I still understand it.

Oh, you know I take any opportunity presented to talk about brain particulates flying through the air. I'm a little more selective about groin tendons being smashed by rocks. Don't want to come off as a feminist.

It is frustrating for me because it could be argued that no other subject area devalues historical and classical literature/information as antiquated and unnecessary. There is a trend in education that says we are no longer teaching the book but the skills. It is a problem when we do not have any current literature that can parallel the classics.

Side note, I have one class of seniors that almost refuse to engage with Macbeth. Any tips?

When I read that passage I thought, "Wow, if Diomedes aimed a couple more inches to the left, he could have prevented the Punic Wars."

What a paper-thin justification. I guess it isn't a surprise. It's difficult to be smart when you are trying to justify something stupid.

For Shakespeare? I would have the hams and over-achievers perform with cheap costumes. That could get the others interested. If it doesn't, well at least you reached some of them.

I've never had any interest in Reading Shakespeare because the way he writes is just annoying. Like stop speaking in riddles and just say what you mean

Haha! An ancient city's fate riding on groin tendons. Sounds about right. Most argue that Carthage would have fallen regardless.

I have a few knuckleheads who are antagonistic, but who doesn't like Shakespearean thrift store finds? Thanks for the suggestion. I'm seriously considering it. Favorite Shakespeare play in highschool or just in general?

Btw, I taught Plato's Allegory of the Cave last year as an integration to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. It was pretty amazing from my perspective.

Carthage: always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Henry V will always be my #1 because of the metal speeches. Hamlet can't be beat as a story though, and it's definitely easier to perform onstage.

Great idea. That combo and shows Bradbury's depth. Plus it exposes them to the dialogue format.

In high school , it was The Grapes of Wrath and most anything by John Steinbeck considering his books were written about people in Monterey County where I grew up . I also liked To Kill a Mockingbird. A book that I have read a few times lately is Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man who Won the War. Its about the generation of soldiers and the Enola Gay and Hiroshima. It gave me a look at the events from a different point of view. One of the best books I've read.

Of mice and men sparked many a moral questions without being patronising. Encouraged me to think. Special book

John Steinbeck. You like him too??

I was listening to a classicist podcast the other day. The question posed was "what is the American Illiad?"

The prime interlocutor claimed stories such as East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath played a huge part. I tend to disagree, but it occurred to me how large these books loom on the West Coast whereas back East and down South, they're barely on the radar. The only reason kids in my Great Lakes-area high school read Grapes of Wrath was its brevity.


I think the question itself was somewhat flawed. Homer's corpus defined a civilization, not just a particular state. For English speaking world, Shakespeare's tales are our Iliad and Odyssey. For the West more broadly, it's the Bible. This is why any teacher of literature should touch on all three at some point IMHO

The closest direct analogue to the Iliad is probably all the folklore surrounding our Civil War. Civil War Volumes 1-3 Box Set: Foote, Shelby: 9780394749136: Amazon.com: Books

Idk any other author who could quietly open the readers mind. Its like u grew up after reading him. Did u change after reading him?

Like so many moral questions in just four characters ( mice and men)
And so many strands on the 'whys' behind each characters behaviour