Classic novels of all time?

[Rach2008]

I am home educating my 12 1/2 year old (very intelligent) son.

I want to provide him with a solid grounding in English - my first thoughts are Animal Farm, Anne Frank, 1984.

What else should I consider?

[sara3]

to kill a mockingbird

[Pigletion]

We did To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, which most people seemed to like. What about Dickens?

[Jan1957]

Good choice sara. Also Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

[Pigletion]

I read a couple of Steinbeck too, which I quite liked, not sure how old I was though!

[Jan1957]

Lord Of The Flies by William Golding.

[Schutzengel]

1984 - George Orwell. It's the 60th anniversary of publication today.

Watership Down - Richard Adams
King Solomon's Mines - Rider Haggard
Westward Ho! - Charles Kingsley
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

[DrFilth]

at school we had to read the catcher in the rye by j.d.salinger
to be honest i could not get into it then but since leaving school have read it 3 times

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_th e_Rye



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[Pigletion]

My friend bought me Holes by Louis Sachar (she reads a lot and thought I would like it), which seems like a children's book, but is actually very good (I read it in my mid-late twenties). Not sure about studying it, but good for encouraging fun reading too! Do not judge it by the film of the book!

Also Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a great read.

Both are very easy to read, very engaging, which I think is important. I find the more you read, the more you want to read.

Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Brontes, DH Lawrence, Mary Shelley, James Joyce, HG Wells.

Think there was also something at school about Dracula, Frankenstein and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (have read this one, it's good!). I guess along the lines of being isolated from society.

Sherlock Holmes is always good for some lighter reading. Read Crime and Punishment, it's rubbish (does a crime, feels a bit guilty, finds love, gets punished, boring!), but could be studied based on the torment he goes through etc.

Obviously there's Shakepeare, but I'd have no idea how to go about that. I have never found it very readable.

Now think I'll go read a book.

[dot.haukes]

Gullivers Travels, try to use English Literature and then keep American/Canadian authors separate as they do this in school/college and it will help him identify the authors by cultural influence.

Try to find out what genre he really is enthusiastic about, he could certainly read many of the books listed above but they are all demanding and he probably needs something less weighty first. Black Beauty or The Silver Sword would be a good start and then progress from there.

[londonlove]

There is no way that you will be able to support your child with such a limited range of fiction and I would urge you not to put him through such a stringent regime.
For a start off, your own thoughts are based on political texts (even Anne Frank has been manipulated over the years). The sheer fact that you are having to ask on such a site means that you do not have the confidence in your own background reading to be able to give your child the enjoyment he deserves.
DH Lawrence for a 12 year old! Black Beauty for a boy!
I wouldn't even listen to half of the suggestions on this thread. The kids would be bored stiff.
Also, it is incorrect to say that US and UK writers are definitively separated by means of their place of the conception of the work. That would preclude half of the suggestions on this thread.
I think you are out of your depth and it would be better if you sent your child to school.

[tamborine]

not a classic but a book I enjoyed around similar age......pertinent I think for a lone educated child.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-One-End-Street- Adventures/dp/0141317167

[pinktwink]

great expectatipons
1. The Old Man And The Sea
Ernest Hemingway
2. Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally
3. Breakfast At Tiffany's
Truman Capote
4. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
5. Lord Of The Flies
William Golding
6. A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
7. The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
8. Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
9. The Human Factor
Graham Greene
10. The Ice Age
Margaret Drabble
11. A House For Mr Biswas
V.S. Naipaul
12. The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark
13. Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie
14. The Late Bourgeois World
Nadine Gordimer
15. Beloved
Toni Morrison
16. Friend Of My Youth
Alice Munro
17. Jeeves In The Offing
P.G. Wodehouse
18. The Talented Mr Ripley
Patricia Highsmith
19. Age Of Iron (Disgrace)
J.M. Coetzee
20. The Day Of The Jackal


alos some autobiographys to allow him appreciate the difficulties in life say dave peltzers books

[londonlove]

I am inclined to think that this is a wind-up thread or somebody working as a journalist and wanting some background research, as I can't imagine that any mother would take on home education for her child and not having a proper linear reading project in mind.

[EngTeach]

Of Mice and Men
The Pearl
Great Gatsby
The Crucible
A Street Car Named Desire(For when he's older)

[saxy_jag]

Here's a list of 101 Recommended Reads - all personally chosen by a specialist young people's librarian (and ex-teacher) whom I happen to work with.

I can't imagine that any mother would take on home education for her child and not having a proper linear reading project in mind.
I think many people home educate because the idea of such projects is anathema to them. I happen to believe that children and young people should, like adults, be allowed to choose their own reading matter and lead their own course of study around it.

Formalised reading systems/projects can produce kids who can read, but not at a fully functional level. They can spell, and can differentiate parts of speech and grammar, but have little appreciation of the book as a complete entity that they can discuss and question as a whole. It's why many primary schools are now abandoning formal reading schemes and, yes, allowing the kids to choose their own reading material.

Sadly, it's taking a little longer for secondary schools to get there.

[Naomicorlett]

The Silver Sword ... Ian Serailier

[dot.haukes]

well excuse me bnut both my sons read black beauty whjen they were about 11!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and if it is wrong to separate English litearture and american literature then you should contact 99% of the English faculties in the Uk!!!!!!!!

how annoyed am I on a scale of 1 - 10???????

[dot.haukes]

Naomi I said the silver sword in my list but apparently i know nowt and so i am off to cut up my 2,2 English degree and start me German for the careless course

[Naomicorlett]

Sorry Dot I was lazy and only skimmed the answers . It's a wonderfull book. It was the first book to make my son cry . Long time ago but it was the first book to really touch his heart.