So, most students, at some point, are handed that big, thick, old, classic novel and told to read it over the summer or read a few chapters by next Tuesday.

There's a long list of the really famous ones: Huckleberry Finn, Catch-22, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, several Toni Morrison novels, The Iliad, etcetera.

Now, sometimes you read a book, novella, or short story and think "Why didn't we read this in school?" So I want to ask: what literature do you think will make it into the classroom? More importantly, why? What makes it stand out from the crowd besides being just "really, really good?"

Again, think of writing that has the potential to be very instructive. Why should people read this? What can they gain from it?

The sad thing, in my opinion, so much of what this generation reads is either sparkling vampire drivel or concerning werewolves. There's no real classics in the sense of something on the caliber of Huck Finn, Canterbury Tales, Fahrenheit 451 or anything like that. If we're very lucky, Harry Potter will be assigned reading for kids to come.

I have to agree with you on the first part - truly good werewolf or vampire fiction is sadly lacking. The original Dracula is on my reading list.

Harry Potter, though? I can see where you're coming from, but I think something along the lines of The Book Thief would be a little more academic.

Harry Potter was the only one I could think of at present, I'm tired. (Damned time change.)

The Book Thief? Ironically, I've never read that. I must now.

Have a box of tissues handy. I could not put it down even once. Be warned: it takes place in Nazi Germany.

I agree Harry Potter is an excellent series. The only reason I wouldn't assign it is because it had a great deal of flaws, especially toward the end. It would still be good reading for a younger audience, though.

Those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it, to quote things. (Thanks for the warning though. Unnecessary but appreciated.)

Yes, it would, and if it sparks an interest to read in a younger audience, hopefully... they'd nourish that spark in later years and keep reading. c:

Honestly I don't think there are very many young adult books that are going to be considered classical, at least not anything past middle school level. I can see why people would say Harry Potter or even something like A Series of Unfortunate Events(hell, we even started reading this in elementary school as a group reading) but they're just not very historical which is a big factor imo.

Honestly I know they are more romantic than most people would like but I really loved Atonement and Cold Mountain. They both have a lot of historical context and they are fun for the YA level. By no means am I trying to say they're on the same level as Huck, Mockingbird, whatever but there's not really anything comparable to those soo. OH and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as well.

Also I really liked The Book Thief as well, that's another good one.

The Book Thief was the first thing that came to mind! It leaves a big impact on you. Oh and would you mind explaining the comment you made about Harry Potter, "a great deal of flaws, especially toward the end"? Just curious. :) (I haven't read the last book yet.) The first book would be a great read for younger kids - I myself never liked reading as a preteen, but I kept reading the first two Harry Potter books over and over again, because they were the only ones I really enjoyed at the time!

Well, a lot of my complaints are with the last book, actually. I think it undid a lot of the character development earlier in the series. Besides that, I think Rowling started adding characters with far less depth than average starting in about book 5. The characters really felt like they were there only to drive an increasingly complicated plot. The first two or three books were excellent - a fairly straightforward objective, with enough twists and turns to keep the mystery. A mysterious archvillain, with his dastardly henchmen, and mystical artifiacts, all wrapped in a beautifully constructed world that the reader discovers as Harry discovers it himself. But later? The entire magical government starting to crumble wasn't very believable to me. Or the complicated conspiracies.

tl;dr I just think the first few books kept it simple and fresh enough to entice readers of all ages, but past that it started to get bogged down in trying to be a fantasy epic rather than a coming-of-age story.

I see where you're coming from. I loved the first five books, but when I got through the sixth one, I lost interest. Now I'm re-reading the series and I've finished the fifth book and I've lost interest in it again. I could never put into words what was so different and off-putting about the last books, but it might well be that.

I just think the series could have ended after about four books, compressing more than one year into a single book. But I think I've strayed off my own topic now, haha. I still think they're worthwhile reading, and exponentially better than most of the pages turned out from modern-day authors.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, perhaps? Though not a long book, it poses questions that make you think. Unfortunately, I can't go into anymore details without spoilers. Have any of you heard of/read it?

I find The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon to be quite a good read. It was published back in 2001 and it has a great storyline. I find that it should be considered as reading material for the future. I also find that science based books should also be considered for they give you a better insight to certain topics.

Personally, I think people hold up certain books as "serious" and "worthy of academic attention" as if other books cannot be experienced in the same way. Harry Potter would be a great book to teach in something like middle school, as an introduction to thinking about literature critically. It has a clear moral stance, lots of themes, follows archetypal story structures, and is engaging and interesting to 7th graders. Sure, it's not "for adults", but that doesn't make it worthless. Books don't have to be "thick" and "old" to be teachable - yeah, Gatsby is a classic, but it's not particularly thick or old. (Or even challenging for that matter - that's why you read it in 9th or 10th grade English)

I dunno, I'm usually annoyed when people adopt a tone of moral superiority because they read books that are more "serious" and "adult" than others do. Books can be read simply for enjoyment - and you're not better than others because your books are intellectually superior. (DEFEND TWEENS FOREVER)

I agree, and that's why I made this topic. Everyone who's been through the public school system can probably recite off a dozen or so classics that they and their friends had to read. And there are many, many other books that are passed over that could be just as informative and well-written as many classics. I think more books should be rotated through school reading lists. Paradise Lost and American Gods would be a great combination.

It's interesting to see which newer books get onto reading lists, especially since the 'Western Canon' has been gradually slid from its pedestal - I would love to read American Gods or Sandman in school - although maybe not in high school.

The only book that immediately comes to mind is Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, because it was so uniquely written; every other chapter was in the second-person, and the story itself was pretty distinctive. It isn't particularly contemporary, though. Also maybe Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I like the idea of Neil Gaiman's novels and The Book Thief being taught too.

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