Can any book be literature? And if not, what is literature? Or more specifically what is quality literature? These are questions writers, readers, editors, teachers and many others have spent a good deal of time discussing.
There are many books out there that are fun to read with engaging characters, but does that equal literature? Newberry Award winning books follow a strict set of criteria for what is considered "literary merit." But what does that mean for schools, and, more specifically, for student readers? Should schools only allow students to read books that have been determined as literary? Or do trade books have literary value too? In my opinion that is determined by how one defines literary merit. We have many books in our school library that I would not consider to be literature as the characters are flat and the plots are predictable and shallow. But before we begin banishing poor writers from our classrooms, we must remember that these books are many times fun to read for students, and they encourage the habit of reading.
Personally, I believe variety is the answer. We must have many genres and writing styles available to students. Yes, unfortunately, that means the silly little chick books, which I personally cannot stand. Thank goodness we can balance that out with books that contain well developed characters and beautifully crafted sentences and paragraphs. In my experience I've found that most students who adore those shallow books eventually gravitate toward novels with greater substance as they grow as individuals.
Below you will find a short list of some for my favorite books for middle school and high school students:
1. Harry Potter (series), J. K. Rowling
2. The Lightening Thief, Rick Riordan
3. Savvy, Ingrid Law
4. Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
5. The Giver, Lois Lowery
6. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
7. Night, Elie Wiesel
8. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
9. Found, Margaret Peterson Haddix
10. Ranger's Apprentice, Book One: The Ruins of Gorlan (Just finished it this past weekend. It was good!)
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