Another vote for Harry Potter, unless this school is deeeply consrevative and won’t like it.
Anything ever by Asimov. He wrote a few dozen short stories centering an a guy named George with a demon Azazel whom he asks to perform tasks for his own (George’s) benefit, but it never works out. The stories are told from the point of view of a friend of George who is constantly lending him money and never repaid or named in the story. If you can get enough copies, I highly recommend it.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is incredibly awesome. There are three or four different settings, with 4-12 main characters in each,and every book is set in one of these, and around 40 or so books. They’re around 300 pages each, but the pages are fairly small, and there isn’t a great deal of text on each page.
There are some really complex jokes and character struggles, and some simple ones. The plots are also really good, and ideal for pretty much anyone. Some really good ones: Jingo, Small Gods, Guards, Guards (not a typo), Soul Music, Sourcery, The Truth, Mort, Lords and Ladies, Feet of Clay, The Light Fantastic, The Color of Magic, Night Watch, just off the top of my head as some of my favorites. (I’ve read Small Gods around 15 times, and the time is ripe to reread it.)
I dunno about S5 (especially for a church group), but as for W,O, yeah. I dug it, anyway. But then, I just found it as a ratty old paperback and started reading it. I thought the stories were funny and weird. Didn’t know until years later that it was actually “literature”.
War and Peace? Ha! That’s funny, but seriously…
Interesting choices so far. Animal Farm & 1984 have been done this year and, given the choice, the classes that read them would have rather had their upper intestines ripped out of their asses than to get near those books again.
I read Animal Farm in high school and I still hate it.
I would love to see them read Ender’s Game before it’s turned into a sucky movie.
Some ideas I’ve suggested to the wife:
*Ender’s Game * - Orson Scott Card
*The Harvest * - Robert Charles Wilson
*The Dead Zone * - Stephen King
*Skeleton Crew * - Stephen King (some of the stories)
*Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy * - Douglas Adams
Thanks for the ideas, so far. Keep 'em coming.
That’s the first suggestion that came to my mind when I saw the thread title. The Heinlein juveniles are exactly what the OP is looking for. They’re fairly easy, mostly uncontroversial (as far as I remember), and very, very fun to read.
I’ll second Paulsen’s books. Hatchet has always been a favorite of mine. It’s a man/boy against nature thing surviving in the wilderness type of book.
FB
I love how well read you all are, but these are boys who DONT LIKE TO READ.
Stephen King’s The Gunslinger is short, and captures the interest immediately. Also about a young man coming of age, and they may actually pick up the remainder of the series after they read the first one.
Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat is wonderful and funny. Only a little over a hundred pages.
A third for the Heinlein juvenile novels. And Ender’s Game. Wonderful stuff.
Good gravy, don’t force Steinbeck down their throats or you’ll lose them for life!
Same goes for George Orwell. This is NOT reading for kids that don’t like to read. Personally, I think it’s punishment for kids that do like to read, let alone kids who aren’t fond of the experience.
Of Mice & Men is one of only two books that has ever annoyed me to the extent that it got thrown across the room. For the record, Titus Groan (by Mervyn Peake) was the other. Titus Groan is, in my opinion, the most frellingly awful book ever written.
I’ve never read Ender’s Game but I’ve heard good things about it from people who’s opinions I respect, so it sounds like a good choice.
Oh, Maureen, Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steet Rat (and sequels) would be brilliant! What a great suggestion!
My husband introduced me to the Stainless Steel Rat when I was in my twenties, after saying how much he’d loved it in high school, and how was the book that got him interested in reading for fun (as opposed to ‘because I have to’).
The ‘Rat’ series is funny, clever and not written in a way that scares off people with limited reading experience. Good stuff.
Every young person loves The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Everyone.
Also, if non-fiction is invited, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is easy and short and informative and has definite teenage-boy-who-likes-gross-stuff appeal.
I vote for Hemingway, either the Sun Also Rises or Old Man and the Sea.
The latter is good because it’s short, and talks about Joe DiMaggio at points. The former because there’s lots of good stuff about drinking and lifestyles 16 year old boys dream of, and if any student grasps the whole penis getting shot off during the war thing without actually having the author write the words “THIS GUY’S PENIS GOT SHOT OFF DURING THE WAR,” they’re smart and actually reading. Otherwise, after you explain discreetly that a character’s penis got shot off, they’ll start paying attention after that.
Plus Hemingway writes in such an easy and punchy style, with short sentences.
(I was one of those students who never did homework in 10th and 11th grades, and the Sun Also Rises helped me get interested in literature.)
I’d like to suggest the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. Quick reads and rather fun. Colfer also goes into mythology (like with the Leprechaun) and the misperceptions that humans have about folklore.
**Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand ** by Jonathan Stroud is another good book. It’s fast paced and complex enough to keep them entertained.
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper are great books.
Oh and they’re a bit juvenile…but the Lemony Snicket Books A Series of Unfortunate Events starting with The Bad Beginning are also fans of the guys that come into the library.
I agree. That’s why short stories, porn, and rock-n-roll books would really grab them. You have to get them to open the books and absorb the words first!!!
Hitchhikers Guide the the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is the book that came to mind when I read the subject.
In addition to King Arthur stories, perhaps Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes would work.
To Kill a Mockingbird and maybe Oliver Twist are the only traditional “classic” type books that I can think of that they might like (not that “classic” type books are required for this sort of thing, but if you find one that they’d like, it can illustrate that “classic” books don’t have to be boring).
Oh, maybe Treasure Island or Kidnapped by RLS?
Or how about The Outsiders?
My nephew liked American Gods by Neil Gaiman, but that might be a bit too long.
Terry Pratchett is a good idea, or perhaps Steven Brust.
And there’s always The Westing Game, which I recommend for children and adults of all ages.
These kids are, um, normal, right? Because most of these books are ones we read - in class - when I was in elementary school. If they’re not “troubled” or special ed students, shouldn’t a tenth grade english class actually be teaching “literature”? No, it doesn’t have to be boring; there’s absolutely fascinating, wonderful books out there that also have real literary value. The children’s books mentioned are mostly very enjoyable reads but these kids ARE of an age where their teachers have probably coerced them into reading some Shakespeare, so something enjoyable like Vonnegut should be possible.
Too many of the suggestions are children’s books. I dunno if they would or wouldn’t feel condescended to by a teacher trying to make them read Harry Potter (that is, the ones don’t own all of them already. I’m in the already-own-them-all camp. :)) but their teacher should be trying for something age-appropriate. They ARE capable of reading “adult” books.
Seriously. Get out the Vonnegut - he’s wonderfully vulgar. I call again for Catch-22, also vulgar yet probably not too much for a Catholic school. And no, Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket are not going to teach these kids anything.
I’ll third Gary Paulsen. As a librarian, I see more junior-high age guys picking his books than any other type. They’re very independent and survival-oriented, especially stuff like Hatchet. They’re also short but gripping enough for reluctant readers. Tough to go wrong with Paulsen.
I’d pick Heinlein over Ender’s Game, but maybe that’s just me. The Redwall series is pretty popular with junior high guys, too.
I’d like to recommend Robert A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy. It’s a little more mature than some of his other ‘juveniles’, and it has large, important themes in it - freedom, slavery, economics, responsibility.
Another good Heinlein candidate would be The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or Double Star. All of these are a little more advanced than books like Between Planets. Or you could even try Starship Troopers and contrast the book with the movie.
