Banned books get a bad rap, but I say bring them on. This year when deciding what 10th Grade Homeschool Curriculum to purchase for Kenten I couldn’t find a great literature program to fit our needs, so I decided to make my own. Check out my booklist: 15 Banned Books Every High Schooler Must Read!
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1. Night by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel shares his experience in Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945 with his father. This tale of brutality and lost life with leave you heartbroken, but wanting to read more.
2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
In The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad and his family leave their far by force in the Depression-era Oklahoma Dust Bowl and set out for California along with thousands of others in search of jobs, land, and hope for a brighter future.
3. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
In this story two migrant ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States.
4. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
This tale begins with the Shelby family having to sell two of their slaves, Uncle Tom and Harry, because of economic troubles. The novel follows Uncle Tom and Harry’s journey after being sold, and the characters they meet. Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows the stark reality of slavery, and is regarded as one of the causes of the Civil War.
5. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hester Prynne, an adulteress, is forced to wear a scarlet A to mark her shame. Her lover remains unknown, but lives in constant guilt all while Hester’s husband seeks revenge. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterpiece is a classic example of the human conflict between emotion and intellect
6. 1984 by George Orwell
This novel is set in the year 1984 when most of the world population has become victims of war, government surveillance, and public manipulation. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a rank-and-file Party member, but he soon rebels and enters into a forbidden relationship with a fellow employee.
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm is based on Joseph Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution. This novel follows a group of animals who rebel against the humans who run the farm they live on and run it themselves with hopes of being equal, free, and happy. In the end, however, the new rule becomes a cruel tyranny of its own led by the pigs.
8. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth’s future, the novel presents an imperiled mankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species which they dub the “buggers”.
9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows Jay Gatsby, a young millionaire with an obsession for a former debutante, living in the fictional town of West and East Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922.
10. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, and firemen start fires rather than put them out!
11. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves.
12. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Captain John Yossarian, a World War II bombardier, is stationed on the island of Pianosa. Captain Yossarian seeks to protect his own life by fleeing to the hospital, but a “catch-22” in the Air Force regulations is preventing him from obtaining a leave.
13. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian state, which has overthrown the United States government. Due to dangerously low reproduction rates, fertile women are turned into Handmaids to bear children for elite families. This story follows Offred and her life at the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center and with the Commander.
14. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
In a fictional small there is an annual ritual known as “the lottery”, but this isn’t a lottery you would want to win. What could the prize be?
15. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
Thank you for checking out my booklist: 15 Banned Books Every High Schooler Must Read…
What is your high schooler reading this year? Feel free to leave a comment below with your booklists!
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