Top Ten Tuesday: Required Reading for Teens

I've been having a great time reading other people's posts for today's Top Ten Tuesday topic, sponsored each week by the good folks at The Broke and the Bookish.  I've been mulling it over all day while at work and over dinner tonight I asked my husband what his thoughts were.  He taught at the high school level for twenty years and he raised three daughters who all survived teenagerdom, so I figured he might have some good input, too.  In no particular order, here is what I've settled on, and why, with the caveat that asked the same question next week, the list might be largely different.

1. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.  Because it shows curiosity and high spirits in the face of an impossible situation, because of its frankness (pun intended), and because it shows, sadly, that life is deeply and bitterly unfair--and it doesn't always go on.

2.  The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.  Because on the scale of invented worlds complete with their own languages, mythologies and people it is an unparalleled monument to scholarship and imagination.  As a testament to friendship, loyalty, and living by your word, it has an important message.  And because it shows that war is hard for those who are called to battle, but also quite difficult for those left behind in the home guard.

3.  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Because it shows that human decency should know no barrier of race, class, age, gender.  And that treating people with dignity is important.

4.  Almost any novel by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Because she speaks to issues of interest to teens today in a way that they seem to relate to.

5.  13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher.  Because it teaches the important lesson that a person's actions don't  have to be overtly cruel to have a corroding effect on another person's spirit. 

6.  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling.  It's impractical to recommend a book in the middle of a series without recommending the others, but here's why (and you can apply the specifics here to real life examples)...it shows that not all evil people are Death Eaters and not all Death Eaters are evil.  That if you don't think through your options and choose your actions accordingly, impulsive decisions can lead to trouble.  That small-minded people in positions of power can be more dangerous that the more obvious bad guys.
7. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch.  Because after the holocaust of WWII, the world said "No more genocide. Not on our watch," and yet it keeps happening. (Edited to add: This is a book on the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. I could just as easily have chosen a book about Darfur or Sri Lanka or any of the innumerable instances of "ethnic cleansing" that take place while the rest of the world  just watches with detachment, tempered with both pity and revulsion.)

8.  Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel.  Because sometimes to understand the horror of something, you have to come at it from an oblique angle.  Martel does just that with the Holocaust in this fine novel that on the surface is about a taxidermist, a writer, and a play about a howler monkey and a donkey.

9.  The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.  Okay, a couple of these are on the dull side, but a good translation is everything.  I know teenage boys would respond to the Miller's Tale if they could get beyond the Middle English.  And in a world where technology might make the codex book obsolete, isn't it nice to have a reminder that written stories are not only important but can stand the test of time?  In this case, 600 years and going strong?

10.  As usual, I leave this one blank.  What book did I leave off that you would most want to include?

Literary Blog Hop: What one book would be your solace in the midst of war?

The literary blog hop is sponsored by the good folks at The Blue Bookcase, and this week's question (from Mel U) is: If you were going off to war (or some other similarly horrific situation) and could only take one book with you, which literary book would you take and why?

My first instinct for this question is to go with The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, which ties with Pride and Prejudice as the book I've read most often. It's got several things going for it, not least of which is length, and when you can only bring one book, it might as well be a big 'un. It offers history, philosophy, fellowship, songs, and laughter. Meditations on war and meditations on peace, and how war isn't really over even when the final battle is. It also doesn't neglect to mention how hard war is on the people left behind by those at front. Moreover, the characters have become my friends through the years, and in the darkness of war, who wouldn't want to be surrounded by comrades?

Some might object to this answer on grounds of its lack of literary merit, this being the literary blog hop after all. And if we're talking strictly the beauty of the prose, I might be inclined to agree. But I'm not sure there's a more monumental work of literature from the 20th century (certainly not in the English language, and I think it could go toe-to-toe with any work from any other language), considering its scope, its staying power, and the sheer amount of scholarship that went into creating multiple languages and mythologies and histories for Middle Earth. Frankly, I find it all a bit staggering. Plus it's thick enough to probably stop a bullet and thus save my life. So there.