Many books I’ve read in school were so good that I went out and bought the book, or the rest of the series. School has opened my eyes to many different types of writing styles, genres, and authors. The books I loved the most were:
1. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton – Grade 7 I’ve read this one many times over, and seen the movie multiple times. It was exciting the way my teacher and my class read the story. We acted out almost every scene, did activities to do with the characters, and drew pictures of some of them. My teacher made the class look forward to reading The Outsiders every day during those few months. My favorite character has always been Sodapop because of his happy-go-lucky personality. The friends all had a rough life being Greasers, especially with the frequent fights breaking out between them and the Socs. The big fight near the end of the movie is the most exhilarating part. The actors matched the roles of the characters perfectly, adding to the story even more. By the end of that year, I felt like I had known each of the characters personally for years.
2. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare – Grade 9 I love romance, and I believe this play is extremely inspiring to everyone out there to fight for the one you love. Romeo and Juliet went to the ends of the earth to be together, but in the end the Montagues’ and Capulets’ rivalry caused the two tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet. This is an amazing story about the star-crossed lovers and the struggle they went through for one another. Young Leonardo DiCaprio did a far-beyond-amazing job in the movie; he is one of my favorite actors nowadays. I love Shakespeare plays in general, but this is by far my favorite. I own an anthology of all of his works, but have not gotten around to finishing it yet.
Some teachers have encouraged me to read books that were beyond the curriculum. This is what made me decide to buy the book of Shakespeare’s entire works. My second favorite Shakespeare play is Macbeth. There was a theater group that came to my elementary school and performed this play for us, which was the first time I had heard about it. Oddly enough, the same theater group performed Macbeth at my middle school, so I got to enjoy it for a second time. Then in high school, my class saw Macbeth in a theater in downtown Toronto, and later read the play. I have also read stories about the world wars, and stories about high school students with a variety of problems.
One book my 11th grade English teacher recommended was The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I’ve been looking into buying it for myself. Also, a friend of mine told me how she really loves the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, which I recently purchased.
In high school, the teachers that introduce the books to you in class have a great influence on your opinion of the story, since they go through each section with you. If you have a really awful teacher, you may end up disliking a book that you would normally love if you read it on your own. The teaching methods of my teachers have influenced my opinion of the stories for sure. It could even work the opposite way. My 6th grade class read a book about WWII that was terrible, but my teacher made it so fun to read that I actually ended up thinking it was alright.
Next time you read a book, ask yourself – if I read this with a different approach, would I still have the same opinion about it?
