Top Ten Books

I found an article that asked some authors what top ten books should schoolchildren read before they leave school.

Here's poet laureate Andrew Motion's list:

The Odyssey Homer
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Hamlet William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost John Milton
Lyrical Ballads Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Portrait of a Lady Henry James
Ulysses James Joyce
The Waste Land TS Eliot

Motion says we shouldn't consider these books "elitist." Should all students read these before they graduate? Some, yes. However, I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to read Ulysses by James Joyce. I tried in college once and just was nowhere near ready, intellectually or developmentally. I don't know if I could do it now. And I am an English major getting a masters in English. One thing of note: there is only one American author in Henry James, and only two authors out of the United Kingdom with Homer and Cervantes. Are these really the books you want to represent humanity?

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, also came up with a list:

Finn Family Moomintroll Tove Jansson
Emil and the Detectives Erich Kästner
The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsay
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak
The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens (or other good anonymous ballads)
First Book of Samuel, Chapter 17 (the story of David and Goliath)
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
A good collection of myths and legends
A good collection of fairytales

His collection is a little more manageable. I like the fact that he chose Romeo and Juliet over Hamlet. Somehow, R&J is a little more accessible to the average person. Hamlet is a little intimidating for anyone. I really like his two choices of simply "a good collection" of myths, legends, and fairytales. You can't single stuff out sometimes and these are the stories that make us human. There are a couple of good kids's books, although I am not familiar with the first two on the list and am going to put them in my cart at Barnes&Noble.com. While I really like Where the Wild Things Are, how can you include that and not a good smattering of Dr. Seuss?

Then they also asked JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series:

Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Hamlet William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Animal Farm George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
Catch-22 Joseph Heller

Her list seems a little more accessible. Unfortunately, I don't understand why Robinson Crusoe is on the list. I understand that it is an adventure story and not necessarily anything earth-shattering. Wuthering Heights is a tough read because it is actually long and boring. I really do like her choice of Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Catch-22 (even though I haven't read that one yet--better put that in my cart too). I especially love her inclusion of The Catcher in the Rye. I wonder why that one Beatrix Potter tale gets rated so high with her?

So it comes down to me. That's what all this is about. What are the top ten books that every student should read before high school graduation? In no particular order:

The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
1984 George Orwell
The Lord of the Flies William Golding
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Bulfinch's Mythology
Grimm's Fairy Tales, Aesop's Fables, Hans Christian Andersen Fairytales (one choice here but they are short and sweet and should be analyzed and known)
Complete Mother Goose and a good smattering of Dr. Seuss


Those are the top ten. You can debate and pick apart any list. I chose these because of the cultural significance and analogy references that students will be exposed to in the world outside of school. Yeah, I kinda smeared the boundaries with the last two choices by including just a random assortment but these are tales that are being lost. People should know basic Mother Goose rhymes. The lessons learned in Aesop can be invaluable. Fairytales need to be read and known as they are in everything we see and read. Bulfinch's Mythology is an anthology of understanding all the stories and references in many many things. Do you know what a "Pyrrhic victory" is or why it was called that? This is the book that answers questions like that succinctly.

The Catcher in the Rye may be an individualistic book choice on my part, but I truly believe that there is a message that people should read, at least to understand that these thought that many feel need to be explored. Romeo and Juliet is an introduction to Shakespeare and should then advance into other stuff. (I remember we read Midsummer Night's Dream in middle school and that choice coulnd't be more wrong as the first Shakespeare that one could read.) 1984 is an absolute must to understand Big Brother and government control. The Lord of the Flies needs to be read to understand the basics of societal rules and the need for some rules. The Scarlet Letter needs to be read simply to understand the analogy that students will hear throughout their lives. Things Fall Apart is a great book from Africa that showcases that one culture's history book may not look like one from another culture. People need to know this stuff.

To Kill a Mockingbird is perhaps my most poetic of choices. It is the novel that may outshine all others. Not only is it written well, but the message it conveys is perhaps the most poignant and human of all things to understand.

I could include others. I think we would read to understand more Bible as literature if people weren't so worried about the First Amendment. The reason that almost all schools read The Outsiders is to get kids into reading, not because it is a good story or written well.

Maybe I will ask myself this question again next month. The original article is online at The Guardian Unlimited.

What would you choose?