Mama Byrd

I’m re-reading several classic novels (and reading a couple for the first time) in order to prepare for my 10th grade English class this fall. Sense and Sensibility and The Importance of Being Earnest are two of my favorites, and they are basically light and easy reading for me. I plan to begin reading Pygmalion and All Quiet on the Western Front next week.

The other two books that I just finished reading are I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Both books are what I would call “heavy reading” (especially compared to the lighter British novels). Both deal primarily with race relations in the South in the 1930s and 1940s, and both are heavily laden with sex and violence.

I’m torn between my desire to protect those 15 and 16-year-old students from such mature subject matter and my gut feeling that the subject matter is probably important for them to realize and discuss. Angelou’s book is particularly relevant– her autobiographical account of growing up in rural Southern Arkansas will ring true for a very mixed race of students (49% white, 37% black and 13% Hispanic) in Gurdon; however, the “coming-of-age” accounts of sexual exploration and rape are going to be particularly hard to discuss with 15-year-olds.

On an interesting note, this week’s Newsweek ran an article titled “A Life in Books” in which current authors pick what they believe are the five most important books to read. Among the list were Sense and Sensibility, All Quiet on the Western Front and the Invisible Man.

Filed under: Uncategorized on July 14th, 2007