<p>Ditto the novels of Jodi Picoult as very thought-provoking and likely engaging for a teen girl. Very accessible!</p>
<p>My daughter is into dance (private dance company and school drill team officer) and choir. She’s good at math but really doesn’t love any academic subjects for themselves. If she has a teacher she likes, she likes the subject; if she dislikes the teacher, she dislikes the subject. She’s a person who could really be strongly influenced by a dynamic teacher who paid attention to her.</p>
<p>Twyla Tharp wrote an really wonderful book about creativity called “The Creative Habit” and I can imagine it could be a great jumping off spot for either studying Twyla or someone she writes about, or your D could use the ideas in the book to interview some other creative people (and develop her own ideas).</p>
<p>Twyla Tharp made me think that Susan Sontag might be interesting. Just heard a piece about her on NPR and how her views on photography and war changed. (She was being interviewed about her experiences directing plays in Sarjevo.)</p>
<p>Does she have a practical interest in all the social intrigue of people who surround her (her family and friends)? I was thinking about reading some of the reader-friendly books by Rabbi Harold Kushner such as “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” followed by “WHen Everything You Have Isn’t Enough.” He weaves in a specific theological viewpoint and voices a philosophy about how evil can befall moral people.
The applications of his philosophy all relate to common human situations she’d recognize in her friendship circle.</p>
<p>If she’s romantic, she might go for Martin Buber, “I and Thou” but the love affair is between people and God, not boy and girl. </p>
<p>I’m looking for names that teacher might accept as being “a philosopher.”</p>
<p>Um, I’m drawing a blank on what to suggest for you daughter, but I am checking out some of the earlier suggestions for ME to read. Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>How about Woody Guthrie? I had some students really get into his life and work a few years ago, and they weren’t typically intellectual, either.</p>
<p>Some great books have been suggested here, but from your daughter’s interests I would agree with MidwestMom2kids suggestion of “The Feminine Mystique”. The “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel would also be good.</p>
<p>But my best idea is for her to start a book club with her friends…that’s what my daughter did and she’s been having a blast reading and discussing books with her friends. They got a teacher to sponsor their group and now they have an official club at school with other kids getting involved.</p>
<p>Does she like Harry Potter? I used Harry Potter in a Psychoanalysis and Lit class and the kids did an amazing job with it.</p>
<p>Maus is also a great suggestion. ALL my students (community college) have liked it. It’s a graphic (comic book) memoir of the Holocaust and a fable in that the people are represented by animals.</p>
<p>Kids like Chuck Palnichuck (sp?) I don’t, but they do.</p>
<p>Kids, even girls, like Vonnegut.</p>
<p>How about the Beatles? Watch movies, art, a lot of fill 70 pages. Paul McCartney’s new album is great. Could include Lennon’s writing too: In His Own Write.</p>
<p>Madelaine L’Engel – A Wrinkle in Time Tetralogy.</p>
<p>Charles Schultz – All the Peanuts Stuff.</p>
<p>Dr. Seuss including All the Places You’ll Go.</p>
<p>Disney animated movies – surprisingly feminist if you start with Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Mulan. And Pocohantas.</p>
<p>Tim Burton’s World. He has strong point of view.</p>
<p>Ayn Rand is often considered a philosopher - and her agenda is quite “transparent”…</p>
<p>Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle” is great.</p>
<p>Missy, If your daughter is seriously interested in fashion, then I’d suggest Ralph Lauren. Whether you love his stuff or hate it, you have to admit he has done more to impact American fashion retail than any other single personality – and has written and spoken reams on the topic. His accomplishements are not just clothing, either, but he pioneered the concept of “life style” consumerism. It’s everywhere now, so you don’t realize how revolutionary it was 20 years ago. </p>
<p>Coming from a middle-class Jewish background armed with talent, taste and drive, he’s managed to convince millions of consumers that that little polo player embroidered on their t-shirt lends an aura of British upperclass refinement and along the way built a multi-billion dollar global empire.</p>
<p>I would be remiss if I did not recommend Jorge Luis Borges, my all time favorite writer. He only wrote short stories, but you could probably write a 50 page paper on the philosophy contained in just one of them. His work contains many common philosophical themes like free will and determinism, the nature of time, the nature of knowledge, etc. I would start with the stories in <em>The Garden of Forking Paths</em>, such as “The Circular Ruins”, “The Library of Babel”, “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, “The Lottery in Babylon”, and “The Garden of Forking Paths” itself.</p>
<p>Especially if your daughter is not a reader, it will probably be easier to get her to read an 8 page short story than to plop down all 1000+ pages of Atlas Shrugged in front of her.</p>
<p>You could look at “A Clockwork Orange” in one of two ways- a book with heinous crimes and unnecessarily explicit illistrations, or a book that deals with the complex questions of loyalty, societal corruption and the good and evil of human kind. If the project is about a literary figure expressing his views, I believe Anthony Burgess does this quite clearly, but it is another question if the content can be considered in the second way instead of the first. Ayn Rand is quite complex (I wouldn’t suggest “Atlas Shrugged” to a sixteen-year-old), and “Sophie’s World”, though a superb book, can read a bit like a text book at times.</p>
<p>Mythmom- If I was writing the paper, I’d definitely pick something by Dr. Seuss.</p>
<p>She likes models and dance…any chance you could get her to read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden? </p>
<p>It’s a female coming of age story…and so much more! It could spark an interest in Eastern philosophy…there are certainly references in the book that indicate how some of the practices of Geisha are tied to aspects of Eastern (primarily Bhuddist) philosophy.</p>
<p>Wow! momrath! (#54)</p>
<p>momrath, we are on the same trail. Nice suggestion.</p>
<p>Well, I think the fashion biz is fascinating but it’s not exactly for deep thinkers.</p>
<p>Some other ideas on the theater tangent: Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Oscar Wilde. All have definite points of view.</p>
<p>I’m a current college student and though I didn’t really resemble your description of your daughter at age 15, I tutor several girls in that age range. One girl in particular seems similar to your daughter. Her parents were interested in getting her more “engaged” in intellectualism. I’m not sure if your daughter would be very interested in this, but I think Aldous Huxley might be a good place to go. He wrote Brave New World, which this girl really liked and it got her started on a whole path into ethics. Here’s a wikipedia description of him…interesting guy.</p>
<p>[Aldous</a> Huxley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley]Aldous”>Aldous Huxley - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>As a corollary, she might also be interested in George Orwell. Reading him isn’t that difficult, but the concepts are deep.</p>
<p>I just finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl for my book club. Its full of fashion and court intrigue. The narrator is the sweet,prettty, not too intellectual type, who doesn’t understand all the Court talk about “modern” philosophers, religious theologists. She does develop strong feelings about the role of women. </p>
<p>I enjoyed the TV series on The Tudors, and haven’t seen movie of book yet. I doubt the movie will focus on the philisophical thinkers of the time, but it may be a way to see if your D could find an interest in further exploration of that time.</p>