While I was at Barnes & Noble yesterday, I noticed that there was a table for the reading list for Alachua county’s public schools. I’m usually quite curious about what teenagers and kids are reading in school, largely because I think schools should spend more time fostering a love of reading than forcing students to learn about books they’ll never read again and that will likely ruin them as readers. I’ll be honest in saying that I expected the table to contain no genre titles except those that have been on reading lists for decades (1984 by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley). Boy was I surprised. Yes, a number of staples appear on the list of forty-eight books, but also a whole lot of newer titles. Of those forty-eight, nine are either science fiction, fantasy, or related in some way to either genre. Those titles are:
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- Alas Babylon by Pat Frank
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
6 Responses
Ah, I was hoping that you had followed up with an interview with the school's English teacher, reporter-style.
I could tell you about my reading list, but I think my reading list is atypical? Either way, I don't get to read recent genre publications.
Carr: Actually, I'd be very interested in your school reading list if you have the time to post it.
You know what this means? Instead of being geeks for reading sf, horror or fantasy in school, we were Ahead Of The Curve.
writtenwyrdd: That's one way of looking at it 😛
I can only hope that my girls get a reading list that is this freaking awesome.
I'm so jealous.
Loopdilou: Honestly, your kids have nothing to worry about. You and I both know that they read pretty much everything anyway…