Unconventional Books to Read in the Hs Classroom

Last year, the Duluth public school commune pulled "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from its listing of books loftier school students are required to read. Administrators said they had gotten complaints about racist language in the books, and questions about their cultural appropriateness.

The decision sparked fence and launched a larger conversation about whether more books written by newer and more diverse authors should exist included on the required reading lists.

MPR News asked readers what books they would recommend high schoolhouse students be required to read. Nosotros've compiled a reading list based on their suggestions.

Editor's notation: All of the book descriptions were written by the books' respective publisher.

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-twelvemonth-sometime Starr Carter moves betwixt ii worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy residuum between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood all-time friend, Khalil, at the hands of a law officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon later on, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gang-banger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: What really went downwards that night? And the simply person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does — or does not — say could upend her community. It could too endanger her life.

"Nineteen Lxxx-Iv" past George Orwell

Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell — "Nineteen eighty-iv" by George Orwell

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One of Britain's most popular novels, George Orwell'southward "Nineteen Lxxx-4" is set in a club terrorized by a totalitarian ideology propagated past The Party.

Winston Smith works for the Ministry building of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip Ane. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Idea Constabulary uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not take to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the law helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia brainstorm to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will non tolerate dissent — even in the listen. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101.

"The Admittedly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie — "The Admittedly Truthful Diary of a Part-Time Indian" past Sherman Alexie

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Bestselling writer Sherman Alexie tells the story of Inferior, a budding cartoonist growing upward on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to accept his futurity into his own hands, Inferior leaves his troubled school on the rez to nourish an all-white subcontract town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

"The Admittedly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings past Ellen Forney that reflect the character's fine art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of 1 Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

"The 2nd Sexual practice" by Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex by Simone DeBeauvoir — "The Second Sex" past Simone DeBeauvoir

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Simone de Beauvoir'due south masterpiece weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology and a host of other disciplines to analyze the Western notion of "adult female" and to explore the power of sexuality.

Drawing on extensive interviews with women of every age and station of life, masterfully synthesizing research about women's bodies and psyches as well as their historic and economical roles, "The Second Sex" is an encyclopedic and cogently argued document nigh inequality and enforced "otherness."

A vital and life-changing work that has dramatically revised the way women talk and recollect about themselves, Beauvoir'due south magisterial treatise continues to provoke and inspire.

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

This is the story of two sisters — one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South — who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other beyond time, distance and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration and an indomitable love of life.

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, 4 collections of short stories, 4 children'southward books and volumes of essays and poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award.

"Parable of the Sower" past Octavia Due east. Butler

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler — "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia East. Butler

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When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes total of dangers, from pervasive h2o shortage to masses of vagabonds who volition practice anything to live to run across another day.

15-year-erstwhile Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated customs with her preacher begetter, family and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where whatever vulnerability is a take chances, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her vox heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. Merely what begins as a fight for survival presently leads to something much more than: the birth of a new religion, and a startling vision of human destiny.

"My Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn

Winner of the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, Daniel Quinn'south "Ishmael" is a bestseller and a testament for a burgeoning spiritual motion.

When Ishmael places an advertising for pupils with "an earnest desire to salvage the world," he does non wait a child to answer him. But twelve-twelvemonth-onetime Julie Gerchak is undaunted past Ishmael's reluctance to teach someone so young, and convinces him to accept her on every bit his next educatee.

Ishmael knows he can't apply the same strategies with Julie that he used with his get-go pupil, Alan Lomax — nor tin he hope for the same outcome. But young Julie proves that she is ready to forge her ain spiritual path — and arrive at her own destination.

And when the time comes to choose a educatee to carry out his greatest mission yet, Ishmael makes a daring decision — a choice that just might change the world.

"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the almost intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for agreement our nation's history and current crisis: Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men — bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up and murdered out of all proportion.

What is it like to inhabit a blackness body and find a manner to alive within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and gratis ourselves from its burden?

"Between the World and Me" is Ta-Nehisi Coates' attempt to reply these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.

Coates shares with his son — and readers — the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the earth through a serial of revelatory experiences, from Howard Academy to Civil State of war battlefields, from the Southward Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood habitation to the living rooms of mothers whose children'due south lives were taken as American plunder.

"Between the World and Me" conspicuously illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a mode forward.

"Invisible Human" past Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison — "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

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A first novel by an unknown writer, "Invisible Man" remained on the bestseller list for 16 weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction and established Ralph Ellison as 1 of the key writers of the century.

The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing upwardly in a black community in the Southward; attention a higher from which he is expelled; moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood"; and retreating among violence and defoliation to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to exist.

The volume is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced past T.Southward. Eliot'south "The Waste State," Joyce and Dostoevsky.

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. — "Last Exit to Brooklyn" by Hubert Selby Jr.

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"Concluding Exit to Brooklyn" by Hubert Selby

"Final Exit to Brooklyn" remains undiminished in its crawly power and magnitude as the novel that first showed us the fierce, primal rage seething in America'due south cities.

Selby brings out the dope addicts, hoodlums, prostitutes, workers and thieves brawling in the back alleys of Brooklyn. This explosive bestseller has come to exist regarded as a classic of modern American writing.

"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

A national bestseller when information technology first appeared in 1963, "The Fire Next Time" galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement.

At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the volume is an intensely personal and provocative document.

It consists of two "messages," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both blackness and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.

Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, attestation, and chronicle, all presented in searing, brilliant prose," "The Fire Next Fourth dimension" stands as a archetype of our literature.

"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

Here is a volume as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" captures the longing of lone children, the brute insult of discrimination, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent past their female parent to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a pocket-size Southern town, Maya and her blood brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash."

At eight years onetime and back at her mother'south side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked past a man many times her historic period — and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.

Years subsequently, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her ain strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and cruel in love with William Shakespeare") volition allow her to be gratis instead of imprisoned.

"Stranger in a Foreign Land" by Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein — "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein

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A human raised on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith has just arrived on planet Earth. Among his people for the get-go fourth dimension, he struggles to sympathise the social mores and prejudices of man nature that are so alien to him, while his own "psi" powers — including telepathy, clairvoyance, telekenesis, and teleportation — make him a type of messiah effigy among humans.

"Stranger in a Foreign Land" grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a classic in a few brusque years. The story of the man from Mars who taught humankind grokking and water-sharing — and love — it is Robert A. Heinlein's masterpiece.

"Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi

In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages 6 to 14, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime; the triumph of the Islamic Revolution; and the devastating effects of war with Republic of iraq. The intelligent and outspoken but child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of ane of Islamic republic of iran's terminal emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her land.

"Persepolis" paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Islamic republic of iran and of the bewildering contradictions betwixt dwelling life and public life. Marjane'south child'due south-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings and heroes of the revolution allows united states of america to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family unit.

Intensely personal, greatly political and wholly original, "Persepolis" is at one time a story of growing upwardly and a reminder of the human being cost of state of war and political repression. It shows how we acquit on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible lilliputian girl with whom we cannot assistance but fall in honey.

"Bronx Masquerade" past Nikki Grimes

Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes — "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes

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When Wesley Boone writes a poem for his high school English class, some of his classmates clamor to read their poems aloud too. Soon they're having weekly poetry sessions and, 1 by ane, the eighteen students are opening upwards and taking on the risky claiming of self-revelation.

In that location'due south Lupe Alvarin, desperate to take a baby so she will feel loved.

Raynard Patterson, hiding a cloak-and-dagger behind his silence.

Porscha Johnson, needing an outlet for her acrimony after her mother OD's.

Through the poetry they share and narratives in which they reveal their most intimate thoughts about themselves and one another, their words and lives show what lies beneath the skin, behind the eyes, across the masquerade.

"The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy's modern classic is equal parts powerful family unit saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama.

The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel run across their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an consequence that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing "big things [that] lurk unsaid" in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.

Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, "The God of Small Things" is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.

"The Jungle" past Upton Sinclair

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair — "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair

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Jurgis Rudkus, a young Lithuanian immigrant in search of a better life, faces instead an epic struggle for survival. His story of manufacturing plant life in Chicago in the early 20th century is a saga of barbarous working weather condition, crushing poverty, criminal offense, disease and despair.

Upton Sinclair'due south vivid delineation of the horrors of Chicago'southward stockyards and slaughterhouses angry such public indignation that a government investigation was called, eventually resulting in the passage of pure food laws.

More a hundred years later, "The Jungle" continues to pack the same emotional power information technology did when it was first published.

"The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

It'due south the spring of 1944 and 15-twelvemonth-olds Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders have lived v blocks autonomously all their lives. But they've never met, non until the day an accident during a softball game sparks an unlikely friendship.

Before long these two boys — one expected to get a Hasidic rebbe, the other at ease with secular America — are drawn into one another'south worlds despite i father's strong opposition.

Set up against the backdrop of World War II and the creation of the state of Israel, "The Chosen" is a poignant novel about transformation and tradition, growing up and growing wise, and finding yourself — even if that might mean leaving your community.

"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

This modernistic classic is the story of intransigent immature architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite; of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy; and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed past an enraged society against a smashing creator.

Equally fresh today as it was so, Rand's provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction: That man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress.

"A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" edited by Dominicus Yung Shin

A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota edited by Sun Yung Shin — "A Good Fourth dimension for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" edited by Sun Yung Shin

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In this provocative book, xvi of Minnesota'due south best writers provide a range of perspectives on what information technology is like to live every bit a person of color in Minnesota. They give readers a splendid souvenir: the gift of touching another human's inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness.

They bring us generously into experiences that we must understand if we are to come together in existent relationships. Minnesota communities struggle with some of the nation'southward worst racial disparities.

As its authors face and consider the realities that prevarication beneath the numbers, this book provides an of import tool to those who want to be part of endmost those gaps.

"Honey" by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison — "Love" by Toni Morrison

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Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, only 18 years later she is notwithstanding not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is nevertheless held convict by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened.

Meanwhile, Sethe'southward house has long been troubled by the angry, subversive ghost of her babe, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Sethe works at beating back the by, but information technology makes itself heard and felt endlessly in her retention and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe's terrible cloak-and-dagger explodes into the present.

"Citizen" by Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine'south bold new volume recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in 21st century daily life and in the media.

Some of these encounters are slights, seemingly slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at abode, on the tennis courtroom with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on Telly — everywhere, all the time.

The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, equally are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship.

In essay, image, and poetry, "Citizen" is a powerful testament to the private and commonage effects of racism in our contemporary, often named "post-race" society.

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Source: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/08/custom-required-reading-list-for-high-schoolers