When you said depressing, I thought it was a list of only Robert "The Chocolate War" Cormier books.
Forget downbeat, that list is just banal and unfocussed, like someone went to an airport book store and grabbed things at random from the discount tables. At least the 3 young adult titles seem vaguely interesting. Who thinks a 10th grader is going to find Jodi Picoult compelling once, let alone twice? "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is to philosophical novels that Thomas Kinkade is to landscape painting.
I can think of hundreds of titles with age appropriate language that are better than those, depressing or not. Also, how hard is it to exclude books which have been made into movies? There's at least two on that list.
The problem isn't the depression, but the absurd banlity.
When you said depressing, I thought it was a list of only Robert "The Chocolate War" Cormier books.
Forget downbeat, that list is just banal and unfocussed, like someone went to an airport book store and grabbed things at random from the discount tables. At least the 3 young adult titles seem vaguely interesting. Who thinks a 10th grader is going to find Jodi Picoult compelling once, let alone twice? "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is to philosophical novels that Thomas Kinkade is to landscape painting.
I can think of hundreds of titles with age appropriate language that are better than those, depressing or not. Also, how hard is it to exclude books which have been made into movies? There's at least two on that list.