The specter of World War II, with its themes of totalitarianism, social fragmentation, mass surveillance, and the decline of individual freedom, looms over many of the novels. dystopian novels form an important category: orwell’s animal farm, william golding’s lord of the flies allegory, aldous huxley’s brave new world, kurt vonnegut’s absurdist comedy slaughterhouse five, the handmaid’s tale of Margaret Atwood and the McCarthy Road Join 1984 here. Thinking back to my days as a high school English teacher, I feel like I missed out on teaching dystopia as a topic. there is a lot of material to draw from, and it is of high quality and accessible to a wide range of high school readers.
A recurring pedagogical issue arose when teachers joined the conversation: how should educators balance challenging books (Shakespeare’s plays, for example) with students’ desire for choice? How can teachers ensure rich, shared learning opportunities without driving their students away from reading forever? these are not idle concerns. if your goal is to foster a lifelong love of reading, a dogmatic reliance on the classics seems catastrophic.
You are reading: Books you read in high school
You can read some devastating comments from students about choiceless classrooms in the edutopia post “starting a reading revolution”. And as literacy educator Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide, recently tweeted: “For the third year in a row, over 90% of my seniors have admitted to false reading through 12th grade. schools must change!” I asked a similar question in my freshman English classes many years ago and got the same discouraging answer. hardly any of my freshmen had finished a book in the previous three years. For an approach to balancing student choice with selected texts, read Brian Sztabnik’s recent Edutopia post “Ignite a Passion for Reading.”
the list of essential books
1. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s seminal coming-of-age story set in the fictional southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. main topics of interest to high school students: racial injustice, moral and spiritual growth, courage and integrity, innocence and experience.
2. 1984 George Orwell’s vision of a totalitarian future, not long after the atomic wars have reduced the geopolitical map to three superstates: Eurasia, Oceania, and East Asia. Major topics of interest to high school students: totalitarianism and state power, surveillance, individual liberty, the nature of truth, the power of propaganda.
3. Lord of the Flies, William Golding’s story of shipwrecked children who establish a violent social order on a desert island. Major topics of interest to high school students: civilization and government, social and moral order, savagery and primitiveness, cruelty, leadership, injustice.
4. animal farm allegory by george orwell on the formation of soviet russia. primary topics of interest to high school students: totalitarianism and state power, individual freedom, the mutability of historical truth, the power of propaganda, the cult of personality.
5. catcher in the rye the lonely j.d. Salinger’s most popular novel, told through the eyes of notoriously irreverent teenager Holden Caulfield. main topics of interest to high school students: unreliable narrators, individuality and identity, social alienation and rebellion, customs and social rules.
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6. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck’s Depression-era classic, which follows the travels of impoverished Dust Bowl refugees as they flee west to California. main topics of interest to high school students: wealth and poverty, injustice, social policy and politics and government, biblical themes such as judgment and redemption.
7. the invisible man ralph ellison’s meditation on the effects of race, told from the perspective of an African-American narrator made invisible by the color of his skin. Major topics of interest to high school students: race and racial injustice, identity, ideology, and belief systems.
8. alchemist paulo coelho’s story about a spanish shepherd who hopes to meet his fate on a trip to egypt. main themes of interest to high school students: adventure and courage, hope, destiny.
9. Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist dark comedy centers on the devastating firebombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II. Major topics of interest to high school students: non-linear narratives, unreliable narrators, existentialism and absurdism, the true nature of war.
10. the handmaid’s tale a dystopian novel by margaret atwood that describes the rise, in the united states, of a theocratic government dedicated to the oppression of women. Top topics of interest to high school students: totalitarianism, patriarchy and misogyny, surveillance, politics and governance, gender roles.
11. the great gatsby f. Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz age lyrical novel about the idealistic James Gatsby and the nature of the American dream. Top topics of interest to high school students: The Jazz Age, The American Dream, Wealth and Class, Idealism.
12. The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison’s story of Pecola Breedlove, a young, often abused African American woman who dreams of having blue eyes, a tangible sign of acceptance in a world dominated by white conceptions of beauty and belonging. main topics of interest to high school students: identity, race and racial injustice, the effects of abuse, beauty and ugliness, madness.
13. Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck’s story of an unlikely and tragically fated friendship between two men of remarkably different intellectual abilities. main topics of interest to high school students: friendship and loyalty, character, cruelty and mercy.
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14. Macbeth Shakespeare’s portrayal of an ambitious Scottish warrior who wants to be king and is goaded into murder to achieve his goal. main topics of interest to high school students: the nature of evil, power and ambition, madness, chaos and disorder.
15. brave new world aldous huxley’s skinny novel that imagines a future “utopia” with wicked qualities, as the human race succumbs to an overdose of pleasure, fun and hedonism. Major topics of interest to high school students: genetic manipulation, state power, drug use, individualism, and society.
16. the road Cormac McCarthy’s bleak novel about a boy and his father seeking safety in a post-apocalyptic world. main topics of interest for high school students: good and evil, death, apocalypse, cruelty, hope and despair.
17. Her eyes were on God’s strongly vernacular Zora Neale Hurston novel that depicts the life of Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in the Jim Crow South in the early 20th century. Main topics of interest to high school students: gender roles, race and racial injustice, the effects of abuse, the representation of American dialects, the nature of love.
18. The Perks of Being an Outcast Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary coming-of-age novel about an emotionally scarred and introverted high school freshman named Charlie. Top topics of interest to high school students: introverts and extroverts, teen romance, alcohol and drug use, the effects of abuse.
19. persepolis, the graphic novel by marjane satrapi, an autobiography describing growing up in tehran, iran, during the era of the 1979 iranian revolution. main topics of interest to high school students: graphic novels, iranian culture, politics and religion, war.
20. night elie wiesel’s memoir novel based on her experiences in the concentration camps during the holocaust. Main topics of interest to high school students: good and evil, the holocaust, faith and infidelity, the Jewish experience.
Feel free to suggest more high school must-reads; we would love to add them to the list. after all, more choice can only help teachers committed to the essential and never-ending work of helping students master literacy. and let us know if we should start lists for elementary and middle school as well. . .the author of this article is the content director of edutopia. you can follow him on twitter @smerrill777.
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