“The name of the wind”
It will teach them to deal with frustration and disappointment.
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
1984
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Animal farm
Personally one of my favorite books
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
I gonna add one that I actually read in school and actually Am very grateful I read it.
Its “Der gute Mensch von Sezuan” (The good human from Sezuan) by Berthold Brecht.
The story is, that the gods try to fund a good human in the town Sezuan and disguise themselves as humans seeking shelter. No one wants to give them shelter except a prostitute name Shen-Te. As a reward for being a good person they give her gold in return, which she uses to open her own shop. However, her buisness is not very succesfull, since she wants to help as many people as possible which means a big financial burden. To help her out of this she invents her cousin (?) Shui-Ta who is cold and regularly saves the buisness by not helping people and demanding things. This way the buisness stays open and Shen-Te can continue to help her community.
Basically the book is an analogism for why capitalism can not work, since the force to make a profit forces you to fuck over other people and it is not possible to not take part in this system on an individual level. I hated all other books we had to read in school, but I Am quite great I read that one. It also definitely played a role in my path towards becoming a communist.
Another upside of it is, that its rather short and can be easily read in about 2-3h.
Promethea by Alan Moore
I’d actually add the bible. A lot of people would be more atheist if they actually read through it. It would also be hilarious to see teenagers struggle with that long ass boring shit
Lmao, are you gonna be tested on the genealogy in Genesis 5
I dunno that adding a book would be helpful. I don’t know that it is, but it feels like media literacy is at a bit of a low right now.
I don’t really know how to teach someone to identify the themes in a book, not this specific book but any book. Do you just read a lot and contrast and compare until you’re doing it subconsciously all the time with all books.
I think the main flaw is our actual way we teach literature in schools. I personally hated reading up until doing a “journal club” in college which was more like a book club that we would all read some assigned peer reviewed journals and then discuss them in an open environment. It made it where you couldn’t really participate unless you read the articles and the professor would facilitate the conversation so we would discuss certain things if no one else naturally brought it up. I don’t think that would really be possible in a 30 person class of high schoolers but if you took a smaller group of maybe 10 kids and instead of them just writing about the book had them talk in a group setting about a book like animal farm and which sections they found interesting or what sorts of parallels they see in modern times I think could engage students much more
Anne Frank’s diary. There is the historic relevance, but apart from that it is the inner world of a teen girl. I read it as a teen as well, and I remember it greatly resonated with me. She was of course in a unique and threatening situation, bit she also was just a teen, struggeling with typical teen issues. You know how it ends, but over the book you learn so much about her, her family and how they are trying to make tge mkst of it. You start rooting for her. And despite you knowing how it ends I felt quite empty when it did.
Also, a well written sex ed book. I have no specific one in mind, but a medicly accurate book explaining the female and male hormone cycles, menstruation, pregnancy (control including abortion) and menopause! And yeah, goes into how to actually have sex, that it’s important to talk about boundaries etc.
Make sure to get the uncensored version where she goes into great detail about masturbation.
Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank, was required reading where I lived in the US, in the mid-90s. I was in Arkansas. My daughter went to school in Missouri and California (2010s) and I don’t remember her having to read it. Not sure if it’s regional or if the decade made the difference.
I can speak to my experience in the Midwest during the 2010s. Had to read it in 8th grade.
Just because someone reads a book, doesn’t mean that they understand it, and if they’re forced to read something they probably won’t enjoy it.
I think catcher in the rye is a good book for boys of that age to read. The main character is insufferable because he holds views similar to incel culture. Problem is some people identify with Holden.
I was forced to read Animal Farm in early high school and didn’t like it or really try to understand it. I re-read it as an adult just because I wanted to and I loved it. Any time there was a reading project with a list of books to choose from rather than a single forced choice, I enjoyed it way more. The choice really does make a difference
Catcher in the rye was a forced book for me and I didnt like it because I thought Holden was insufferable lol. Why do you think it’s a good book to read?
Passion and Reason, by Richard and Bernice Lazarus. It’s a very accessible book about the connections between thoughts and emotions. Understanding what’s covered in it would save a lot of people a ton of confusion and social hardship in life.
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
"One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
“The other, of course, involves orcs.”
[John Rogers, Kung Fu Monkey – Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]
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I can see you re-read it after. Hope you had a chuckle.
Yeah, it was stupid and I immediately deleted it.
