Anyway, the only stuff we read that I actually considered unpleasant to read was the Toni Morrison. I would appreciate 8675309 elaborating on his/her choice of Beloved, because we read that and Sula and I can’t say a single one of us (pretty bright, Englishy kids) either enjoyed them or even “got” them.
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Because I would want to do a unit on African-American lit and think this book would be perfect to incorporate into it. The themes, imagery, and language are incredibly powerful. I loved the book. Hated the movie, but loved the book.
I ran across The Catcher in the Rye in the paperback exchange bin at the local library as a teenager. It had one of those old school covers with the splash balloons “Shocking” “Scandalous” etc., so naturally I had to get it.
When I was a high school English teacher, the 11th graders read, among other works, somw Ursula K. LeGuin. The 12th grade curriculum focused on utopias and dystopias and featured a debate in which students representing Brave New World tried to convince the students representing 1984 that the society of 1984 was preferable, and vice versa. They also got to design and present on their own utopias.
