seawasp | (Reply)

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When I was in tenth grade, we read The Pearl, The Good Earth, A Separate Peace, Flowers for Algernon (short story) and several more that I can't quite remember. I know that our extended reading list (for kids who read really fast or who had already read the books) included 1984 and some other dystopian society books.

I do recall that every single book we read (with the exception of extra credit reading To Kill A Mockingbird) ended on the note of "everyone sucks, and they're all going to betray you for money/sex/power." I mean, one book I can't even remember the title of had a rodeo rider who had such a tormented past that he RODE THE RODEO HORSES TO DEATH. Repeatedly.

I came out of tenth grade so demoralized and traumatized that I was afraid to read books provided by the school anymore. (Admittedly, I was a sensitive child, having not been exposed to daily watchings of the news or newspapers and having not had TV to get the childhood acclimation to violence or shocking material.)