<p>It’s a very disturbing nonfiction book. (You could say it has a “happy ending,” but along the way it has very graphic descriptions of unspeakable cruelty.) I wonder if any school would dare assign a book like that to elementary school pupils. I read it on my own. I read approximately 1,000 books for fun in my K-12 years, and still have a log recording most of what I read in those days.</p>
<p>My high-school junior daughter wishes she could read more. 3 AP’s plus one heavy e.c. (?15 hrs/wk) plus one 4-hr service commitment/week leave her with almost no time for pleasure reading. She asked for a copy of the new translation of War and Peace for a gift last December, but hasn’t finished it yet – maybe 2/3 done. On the other hand, she reads interesting literature for AP English, and mostly likes it (House of Mirth, Catch-22, Great Gatsby, Eyes Watching God, Turn of Screw, etc.) I think for kids like her, fewer homework hours and more time to read for pleasure would lead to improved educational outcomes. But I’m not willing to homeschool, and she’s not willing to cut back on her course selections. I keep thinking she’ll have more time in college.</p>
<p>I still keep a log of the books I read, and my kids have logs of all the books they’ve read. I’m sorry to say that my son, who is a junior in IB, really does not have a lot of time for pleasure reading, so the number of books he reads per year has dropped a lot since he was in elementary and middle school.
I remember in sixth grade I was reading a gruesome book called “Tortured for Christ,” and I think my teacher was concerned about it (she certainly didn’t assign it).</p>
<p>Owlice- The Outsiders was assigned reading this year for younger D in 8th grade, as is Romeo and Juliet. I remember The Outsiders being assigned when I was young.
present 8th grade assigned books- (from my memory)
Streetcar named Desire
Outsiders
Lord of the Flies
Romeo and Juliet
To Kill a Mockingbird
There are probably more but those are what I recall sitting around.</p>
<p>mom60, S had to read one book from a list of them over the summer, this for the school into which he was going. The first essay of the school year in English class (9th grade) was to be based on the summer reading. He read most of the books on the list, and didn’t like most of them! And I could understand why, as I read most of them, too. “The Outsiders” was from that list. </p>
<p>He’ll have a reading list this summer as well; I remember looking at the rising sophomore list last summer and not being impressed. It wasn’t until junior and especially senior years that the books were, IMHO, worthy of the time it takes to read them.</p>
<p>I think S is supposed to be reading Romeo and Juliet for class now; I know he had an assignment due recently that was based on the prologue. Earlier this year, required reading for English included “Animal Farm,” “The Communist Manifesto,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and various short stories.</p>