What books did you have to read for school when you were a kid?

I had a bit of an unusual curricular schedule because after the 8th grade, we stopped being issued books to do reports and answer questions on. I had some classics to read, most of which I hated, like Around the World in 80 Days, Wurthering Heights, The Prince and the Pauper, and at the time I wasn't too fond of Robinson Crusoe either, but I liked Lorna Doone and David Copperfield.

But what I really remember enjoying the most were books that are not classics by any means and probably couldn't hardly even be found today. I can't remember the names of any of them but I know what they were about: one was about a bad little boy living with his aunt and uncle and he would dress the horses in the clothes on the line and he got into a fight and got a chunk of his hair ripped out, and he got drunk on root beer at the 4th of July, and met a smaller kid and made friends with him but then the other kid drowned. In another there was a pioneer boy who had to stay behind from the rest of his family for a whole year before going to be with them and during that time he made friends with a couple of Indians and taught the Indian's kid how to write, in exchange for saving his life when he was attacked by a swarm of bees.

What I've always found odd is that we were never given a lot of the classic stuff to read in school: there was no Animal Farm, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Sawyer, The Diary of Anne Frank, Frankenstein, Dracula, Fahrenheit 451, or anything like that. And NOW, people are saying schools need to quit teaching classic literature because it's too hard for kids to get...well Algebra's too hard for them too but (much as I hate it) they're not about to quit teaching that, are they?

Probably much of the same stuff my Grandparents did.

Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, 2 Shakespeare Plays, Pride and Prejudice(*screams in agony), A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, The Scarlet Pimpernel. A TON of stuff really. I've had at least 4 books a year from Grade 5 and up, sometimes six books. I had to have at least 40 books read when all was said and done. I enjoyed about 2-3.

Many, but two in particular stand out:
1. To Kill A Mocking Bird
2. The Good Earth.

Summer of My German Soldier
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch
Where the Red Fern Grows
To Kill a Mocking Bird
1984

To Kill a Mockingbird

A Tale of Two Cities

Prince and the Pauper

Grapes of Wrath

Catcher in the Rye

Oliver Twist

The Good Earth

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Wuthering Heights

Jane Eyre

Frankenstein

Huckleberry Finn

Sense and Sensibility

Pride and Prejudice

The Lord of the Flies

1984

Shakespeare


to name a few

my high school had what they called a "summer reading list". We had to pick 3 books from a particular list for our grade, then when september came, we had to take tests on the books that we had selected. The list was made from classics: Dracula, Fah 451, Wuthering Heights, The Awakening etc. The problem was that I am and have never been a fiction reader. There are authors that i enjoy such as james patterson, but even as a child I enjoyed non-fiction. So instead of reading the books, I would skim the Cliff Notes and hope for a decent grade on the tests--- which counted for half our grade for that marking period. however, the teachers expected this behavior and would question the tests in such detail that cliff notes didnt help. I seem to remember that I got a 38 out of 100 on Death of a Salesman, but I did fairly well on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

wants2laugh wrote:

my high school had what they called a "summer reading list". We had to pick 3 books from a particular list for our grade, then when september came, we had to take tests on the books that we had selected. The list was made from classics: Dracula, Fah 451, Wuthering Heights, The Awakening etc. The problem was that I am and have never been a fiction reader. There are authors that i enjoy such as james patterson, but even as a child I enjoyed non-fiction. So instead of reading the books, I would skim the Cliff Notes and hope for a decent grade on the tests--- which counted for half our grade for that marking period. however, the teachers expected this behavior and would question the tests in such detail that cliff notes didnt help. I seem to remember that I got a 38 out of 100 on Death of a Salesman, but I did fairly well on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Pardon me if I laugh. I haven't gotten around to reading Cat on a Hot Tin Roof yet, though I did read Suddenly Last Summer...and I probably wouldn't remember much from Death of a Salesman but I did read that one and it was of my own volition, never had that in school either.

I have recently found out the names of two of the non-classic books I read in school, The Story of a Bad Little Boy, and one about a Greek boy who was kidnapped, Theras and His Town. Now I only have to find out the names of the one with the pioneer boy and another one about a boy who was a silversmith until a 'friend' jokingly gave him a cracked cup to work with and it burnt his fingers together so he had to find another job.

Though that reminds me, is it me? Or has anybody else noticed that most books issued in school have male protagonists, it seems especially boys? Now I get that if you go far enough back they do make up a large majority of the classics and such, but still, even today they never seem to write ANY good stories with girls as the starring roles. It's like an ongoing discussion I have with people about the famous Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew series. The reason Nancy Drew was ever invented was because they found out in the 1920s a lot of girls were reading the Hardy Boys. So while I can get something for everybody, I also have to ask what the hell? As a kid I wouldn't touch Nancy Drew with a 10 foot pole, I hated girls' stories because they were boring, I read one of my father's Hardy Boys for a book report, but I found them a bit dull as well, but I'd still sooner read them as a kid than Nancy Drew. Now what if there had been a series with two girls who acted as the Hard boys did? What, nobody would've liked that? It wouldn't have worked? What? That's what I want to know.

Too long ago. One that stands out is Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

I had to read the Awakening and write an opinion paper on it. This woman in the Victorian Era feels confined and restricted by her gender role. Her husband treats her well but often travels for work. She has children, but has enough money to have a nanny/cook/servants. She feels incomplete and starts painting, has an affair with a decent man, and eventually walks into the ocean and kills herself.

My teachers raved about this book, that the woman was into self exploration and made a decision to release herself from the prison of her life. My examination of the book however saw a woman who was rich and spoiled and couldnt be satisfied. She wasnt starving, sick, a single mother raising her children. She wanted to paint and her husband said go ahead and bought supplies. He would bring her back gifts upon his return trips. Even her boyfriend was nice to her, so WHY was I supposed to feel sorry for her???? Her life seemed much better than mine! lol

Sounds a bit like Madam Bovary though I never read Awakening and never got more than a couple of chapters into Madam Bovary either so I really couldn't say.

From memory, with ratings!

COLLEGE:

Wozzeck - B+

Masse Mensch - F

Goodbye to Berlin - A+

Frühlings Erwachsene - B

Nathan der Weise - D

Dream Story - F

Honestly, most things in college, I didn't actually read.


HIGH SCHOOL:

Brave New World - A

The Tempest - D+

Romeo & Juliet - F

MacBeth - B

Fahrenheit 451 - C-

Martian Chronicles - F

The Scarlet Letter - F

The Red Badge of Courage - C+

The Crucible - A+

Crime and Punishment - C+

Great Expectations - F

Friedrich - A+

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I don't like being forced to read certain books. I can devour a good book in a day or two, but only if I can pick it and read it at my liesure. Because at the end of the day, I think books are way to relax.

I agree with you Rob. Books being forced upon you can be extremely difficult to get through

This is definitely true, I noticed that a couple years back when I was seriously starting to consider re-reading some of the books I had in school to see if I could get through them any better now that it's not mandatory.

I actually remember reading some of the classics in high school.

To Kill a Mocking Bird was Grade 10 and I think that was the year we also read Animal Farm.

All Quiet on the Western Front was grade 11 and we also read Huck Finn that year, though I'd read it previously.

Wuthering Heights was in Grade 12 and again in university.

There are others that I remember reading, too - The Chrysalids, Tho Outsiders, A Wrinkle in Time...

There are others but some I can't rememembr if I read them because I had to or because I wanted to. I LOVED reading and had devoured my school library by the end of grade 9.