# Books that should have been read in high school **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [September 4, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741 "2025-09-04T11:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/41 "2025-09-05T16:51:43Z")
I tried reading it a couple years ago and also gave up. I felt like I was missing a lot of subtext. I don’t even think I got to the first sandworm, which was the whole reason I was reading it, but I got to see one in the movie, so I guess it’s cool. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/42 "2025-09-05T16:56:41Z")
This is demonstrably false, says my partner the former teen librarian ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/43 "2025-09-05T17:01:54Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > forcing someone to read fiction that they are going to find old and stuffy is likely to backfire by making them dislike reading fiction Agree, completely. But the same is true of non-fiction. Of course the “answer” to that is, “we’ll test them and if they haven’t done the reading they’ll fail” but that is not a great way to encourage mastery of the subject. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/44 "2025-09-05T17:14:27Z")
Interestingly, in my son’s 10th grade English class they’re reading more modern and more multicultural works than I did as a kid. For example, right now they’re reading _Things Fall Apart_ by Chinua Achebe, and later they’ll be reading the play _Zoot Suit_ by Luis Valdez. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/45 "2025-09-05T17:22:13Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > OK, I stand corrected. But - forcing someone to read fiction that they are going to find old and stuffy is likely to backfire by making them dislike reading fiction. It’s like introducing someone to music but the first thing you make them hear is a dozen old boring Bach pieces. It could actually '“vaccinate” them against reading fiction in the future. I can’t agree with this. Shakespeare is great. I get it is inscrutable to many teens but some will get it. Maybe being made to read it turns many off. I still think it should be taught. Being taught the classics is worthwhile I think. (Except “Grapes of Wrath”…never got why that is an important book…it is a super boring book IMO.) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/46 "2025-09-05T18:24:00Z")
Yeah. And what about those of us who were turned _on_ to literature in school? Does that not count? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/47 "2025-09-05T18:35:43Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Thirded, Maus is a wonderful set of books. I disagree. It is bigoted as it shows Polish people as pigs. The poles suffered terribly due to Nazi persecution. > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I don’t understand why Huckleberry Finn is such a problem. A great work of literature, for later in High school, I think. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/48 "2025-09-05T18:38:30Z")
Nothing wrong with being a pig, really, other than they’re the nexus of smart and tasty. The Americans are represented as dogs. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/49 "2025-09-05T18:41:18Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Nothing wrong with being a pig, really, other than they’re the nexus of smart and tasty. That doesnt stop the term pig being an insult. It was a deliberate insult to the brave polish people, ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/50 "2025-09-05T19:23:31Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Being taught the classics is worthwhile I think. (Except “Grapes of Wrath”…never got why that is an important book…it is a super boring book IMO.) This is part of the problem of deciding what everyone should read. It is impossible,to know what will work for someone else–unless you ask them. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/51 "2025-09-05T19:34:38Z")
I get what you are saying. I just never met someone who liked that particular book (“Grapes of Wrath”). Yet it it is often touted as the “great American novel.” But sure, some will like it…probably. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/52 "2025-09-05T19:39:24Z")
Well, it was partly due to his _father’s_ low opinion of Poles, who’s perspective is being illustrated. The Poles he encountered at that time weren’t nice. Jews are shown as mice because they are often depicted by their oppressors as invading rodents, the French are shown as frogs, the Americans are dogs because they hate cats and are a mishmash of different races. Brits are depicted as fish for some unknown reason. The Poles are insulted in all of that? So it goes. Seems to me like a way to interest the class in a discussion of Speigelman’s use and choice of animals and masks to depict humans. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/53 "2025-09-05T19:45:06Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Brits are depicted as fish for some unknown reason. Something to do with fish and chips? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/54 "2025-09-05T19:51:19Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I get what you are saying. I just never met someone who liked that particular book (“Grapes of Wrath”). It’s one of my favorites mostly because my grandparents were Okie migrants to California. It explains a lot of my family’s attitudes to the present day. Even those of us who are quite well off have a healthy disdain for the rich. _Rich fellas come up an’ they die, an’ their kids ain’t no good an’ they die out. But we keep a’comin’. We’re the people that live. They can’t wipe us out; they can’t lick us. We’ll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we’re the people._ - Ma Joad ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/55 "2025-09-05T19:55:46Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > [@scabpicker](#): > > > > Brits are depicted as fish for some unknown reason. > > Something to do with fish and chips? I guess because they rule the sea, but traditionally the Brits (especially the sailors) are notoriously bad swimmers. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/56 "2025-09-05T19:57:16Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Well, it was partly due to his _father’s_ low opinion of Poles, who’s perspective is being illustrated. The Poles he encountered at that time weren’t nice. I’m currently reading _MetaMaus_, an interview/annotation about _Maus_ and Spiegelman talks about stumbling upon the pig model for the Poles just because he was already doing mice and cats and wanted something outside of that dynamic. He was looking at cartoon animals and landed on Porky Pig and depictions of Wilbur in _Charlotte’s Web_ and the pigs in _Animal Farm_. He later mentions how the Poles were essentially slaves to be worked to death under Hitler and, in his bestiary, pigs exist to provide meat and thought it was fitting but the initial “Let’s use pigs” was pretty accidental. He also expresses some bemusement at how the Jewish population was pretty much “We’re rodents in this book, sure, okay” but there were a number of Polish protests about the pig imagery. As an American person of Polish ethnicity, my own response in the 90s was “Yeah, we sure do eat a lot of pork” and it never occurred to me to be offended 😃 (This is probably getting off topic so I won’t respond on it further but the timing of my book purchase matched the thread) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/57 "2025-09-05T20:06:50Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > He also expresses some bemusement at how the Jewish population was pretty much “We’re rodents in this book, sure, okay” That’s easy pill to swallow because in comics and cartoons mice are coded as the good/clever guys as opposed to cats who are almost always bad or stupid. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/58 "2025-09-05T20:14:44Z")
I read _Maus_ for my college freshman writing class. It was a great class in general, but in my head I remember it principally because it introduced me to _Maus_, the book is that good. I told my kids they couldn’t read it until they were juniors in high school. I didn’t think they would be old enough to really understand it emotionally before then. But I may have my older one read it after she takes world history this year. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/59 "2025-09-05T20:24:22Z")
> [@raspberry\_hunter](#): > > I told my kids they couldn’t read it until they were juniors in high school. I let my son read it in 8th grade. He saw it in the book case and asked if he could take and read it. I figured if he was old enough to be playing WWII themed shooter video games, he was old enough to know what was actually happening before and during the war. He reacted very well to reading it and still speaks well of it. This isn’t to imply you should change your own decision, just my story about having a kid read it. I was ~20 when I read it just because that’s when it was published (well _Maus II_ was already out so around then) and I saw an article in the paper about it. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741/60 "2025-09-05T20:30:52Z")
Yeah, my older one is on the spectrum so what I was worried about was that her sense of empathy wouldn’t be developed enough to really understand how devastating it was. But she is probably old enough now. And my younger one tends to get exposed to things much earlier than she does because he’s a younger sibling and is more emotionally aware. And I’m watching/reading Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood with the kids right now, so… yeah. If they get through that, they should be able to handle Maus, and in fact FMA:B is probably not the worst fictional introduction to some of these concepts. (Speaking of something that would be really interesting to have read/seen in high school, actually…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-should-have-been-read-in-high-school/1022741.md?page=4)