We did The Stranger and The Trial as part of an existentialism section of my senior year AP English class. Good stuff. Or maybe it was The Metamorphisis and I read The Trial on my own. Satre and No Exit had to wait until college.

Which reminds me of one of my favorite headlines - "Camus, dead? Absurd!"

I think senior year is fine--again, depending on your audience's interest and willingness to do the reading and thinking. I just think 10th is a bit early.

ION, I just finished Karen Moning's Fever series, and OMGGOODCRACK. The first book was somewhat annoying (I wanted to smack the protagonist most of the time), but it just got better and better. A really unique urban fantasy with a very satisfying ending. One word of warning--it's basically one long story broken into five books, and each one ends on a mega cliffhanger.

It's on my mind because both are currently on my school's 10th grade syllabus, and even at a college-prep private school there are plenty of kids who aren't ready for that combo at that age.

For my purposes, though, it totally works. I'm not going into detail at all, just mentioning them.

Pix,

the titles are really cheesy. can you tell me what genre this is? I'm willing to try something new (I am a bit burnt out on serial killer fiction and procedural murder mysteries) for a month or two.

I had World Lit in 9th grade, Brit lit in 10th, Amer Lit in 11th, and the "classics" in 12th.

Greek tragedies, Dante's inferno (which I really loved) - all 12th grade.

Dark urban fantasy, le nub.

If you were reading a classic for the first time, for instance: Penguin Classics: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, would you read the 40 page introduction? If you did read that introduction, would you be surprised to find it contains spoilers for several major plot points? Do we suppose the gang at Penguin assume anyone reading this edition already knows the story fairly well? (I knew about half the things I was spoiled for).

I loved the introduction for Moby Dick. It mostly focused on Melville's experiences with whaling and I don't recall if it spoiled me for anything I didn't already know.

I'm a bit pissed now that the few things I didn't alredy know about Frankenstein will no longer be surprises.

Always read the introduction after you've read the book if you don't want to be spoiled. I tell my kidlets that all the time. Think of them as critical essays about the book rather than an intro to the author, generally. I think most introductions should actually be Afterwords.

Laga, I do assume that intros or prefaces to a classic novel are going to be a form of lit crit for the novel.

Now, if an intro or preface for a newer novel contained spoilers, I'd be pissed -- general rule, if an intro is more than two pages, it's a critical essay and probably will contain spoilers.

(I LOVE prefaces, intros and footnotes. Especially footnotes for a biography. You can find the JUICIEST stuff there! I also always read a bibliography. I R GEEK.)

ETA -- English teacher x-post! Hee!