HIT:>High-school reading list

[Patti Rish <prish@BGNET.BGSU.EDU>]

  Finally I am ready to post a HIT of responses to my question a couple of
weeks ago:  I was looking for a good high school reading list that isn't
too "canonized"--one that included a good mix of multicultural authors,
women authors, etc.  Thank you to all who emailed suggestions, and
especially to those who took the time to snail-mail me packets of
information which will be enormously helpful to the English department here.
Below is a summary of ideas:

Write for a booklet from ALA Graphics entitled Outstanding Books for the
College-Bound (ALA, 50 E. Huron St. , Chicago, IL 60611 or call
1800-545-2433 , press 7.

Obtain book by Doug Estell, "Reading Lists for college Bound Students:
The Books Most Recommended by America's Top Colleges" Prentice-Hall,
1993, about $12.00, ISBN # 0-691-84712-0

Someone wrote to tell me this question sounds like a natural for the
NCTE listserv (I don't have the address)

Someone suggested I try the ALA gopher at gopher.uic.edu.  There you can
find the annual publication of "Outstanding" books for YAs (not exact
title).  They offer selections designed as must reads for the college
bound student.  If you don't find them on the gopher, call AASL at
312/944-6780 or 1/800/545-2433 Ext. 1395 (Pamela Kramer)

Patricia Clark-Erskine wrote: "When I was at the Sam Houston State Young
Adult Lit. conf. in the fall I got a list of books which motivate.  Also,
Dr. Richard F. Abrahamson spoke and his speech included a list of current
books which was his version of  the  BOOK OF VIRTUES.  Perhaps you could
access him, and this list.  Hope I have offered something of value."

Carol Croce sent me information about an article from English Journal,
Dec. 1994, which has a good article on this issue.  Included are the
following titles:
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
If Beale Street Could Talk and Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Donald Duk by Frank Chin
The house on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
Like Water for chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Their Eyes Were Watchin God by Zora Neale Hurston
Typical American by Gish Jen
Animal Dreams by Barbary Kingsolver
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
The Bluest Eye (and other works) by Toni Morrison
Turning Japanese by David Mura
for colored girls who contemplate suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by
Ntozake Shange
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
La Maravilla by Alfredo Vea
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Black Boy by Richard Wright

Geri Moulton sent me some lists from the book I mentioned earlier,
"Reading Lists for College-Bound Students" by Doug Estell:
Suggested Freshman Reading List for Spelman college:
James Baldwin--The fire Next Time
Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)--Blues Poeple
Johnnetta B. Cole--All-American Women
WEB DuBois--The Souls of Black Fold
John Hope Franklin--From Slavery to Freedom
Paula Giddings--When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on race
and Sex in America
Langston Hughes--The Best of Simple
Zora Neale Hurston--Their Eyes Were Watching God
Martin Luther King, Jr.--Why We Can't Wait
Olga Maynard--Judith Jamison: aspects of a Dancer
Ntosake Shange--for colored girls who have considered suicide when the
rainbow is enuf; a choreopoem
Alice Walker--Meridian
Mary Helen Washington--Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women 1860-1960
Carter Woodson--The Mis-Education of the Negro

From the OSU Freshman reading list:
Modern Literature

TS Eliot-"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Ralph Ellison--The Invisible Man
Louise Erdrich--Love Medicine
William Faulkner--The Sound and the Fury
F. Scott Fitzgerald--The Great Gatsby
Robert Frost--"Design", "Birches"
Alan Ginsburg--"Howl"
Toni Morrison--Sula or Beloved

In addition to these wonderful suggestions, four people snail-mailed me
packets of booklists.  Thanks to all who answered!  I hope this can help
someone else out there who wants an alternative to the traditional
literary canon.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Patti Rish
Library Media Specialist
Bowling Green High School
prish@bgnet.bgsu.edu