Ginger's got the stuff. Dunno why I didn't come up with any of those.

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They do the Hunger Games in 6th grade and A Wrinkle in Time even earlier, to give you an idea of the reading level, but those are all great suggestions--thank you!

Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men

I've never heard of this. How is that possible? Must remedy instantly.

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Oh! And I wanted to share with all of you my final course design for that Senior Seminar I asked all of you for help planning earlier this year. Here 'tis:

Course Overview:
Poetry, Prose, and Passion, English 12: Nothing inspires writing like passion, and many of the greatest works of literature stem from the divide between our hearts and minds. This seminar will explore emotional extremes, from forbidden and obsessive love to the deepest hatred and desire for revenge. We will explore how gender, sexual orientation, race, class, and personality affect one's passions and ability to achieve them. Texts include Lolita, Hamlet, Angels in America, Pride and Prejudice, Wide Sargasso Sea, and a variety of poetry and short stories. Students will also have the opportunity for self-directed study to celebrate their own literary passions during the second semester, during which they will select a major literary work to study in a small group and teach to the class.

Summer Reading:
Choose two of the following three options: Cat's Eye (Atwood), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (See), or Les Liaisons Dangereuses (de Laclos translated by Dowson)

• Unit 1: Romantic Passion
  

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen). This unit will focus on the literature of romance and love. Students will read a variety of love poetry (including canonical sonnets) and explore the shifting literary paradigm of love in and out of marriage. We will then focus on Pride and Prejudice and examine its literary impact and place in the Western Canon.

• Unit 2: Forbidden Passion
  

“Humbert was perfectly capable of intercourse with Eve, but it was Lilith he longed for” (Nabokov). This unit will explore forbidden passion, which will build on our study of the more traditional romantic texts from first quarter. Students will examine obsession and forbidden love in Lolita and other short works (poetry, stories, essays).

• Unit 3: Mad Passion
  

“Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go” (Shakespeare). This unit will examine the causes and consequences of “madness” in literature, including Wide Sargasso Sea’s reimagining of Bertha from Jane Eyre (which all of the students read in tenth grade), which explores the impact of being “other,” and the quintessential passionate madman: Hamlet.

• Unit 4: Political Passion
  

“The great work begins!” (Kushner) Angels in America reflects the twentieth century political movement of the American gay community. We will explore this play in terms of its place in history following the discovery of HIV/AIDS as we examine the concept of literature as activism.

• Unit 5: Personal Passion
  

“The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly” (Hurston). The class will read Their Eyes Were Watching God together to examine a protagonist who follows her own passions and then echo her quest by selecting a text about which they feel passionately to read and later teach to the class. Honors students will do this independently; regular students will work in groups.

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What's an uncanonical sonnet? Or a canonical sonnet, for that matter?

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Off the top of her head, my friend at Writer on the Side who works on MG and YA recommends the following (and could give it more thought if you'd like):

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

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A sonnet that is typically considered part of the Western Canon; i.e. ones they might be expected to be familiar with in college.

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Pix, you make me wanna be a high schooler again! :)

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ones they might be expected to be familiar with in college.

For a given level of college, I imagine. Mine was a decent small school, but I don't know if there were many expectations about sonnet knowledge. Then again, I wasn't in the English department. Damn, I was way too lazy in college. My oldest sister paid for an extra semester herself so she could take classes she'd missed that weren't part of her major.

(goes to pull up the website of the local college, sees if there's anything challenging in the continuing education section)

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These are all great, but most seem geared more to the YA middle school reader, and since they will be reading the entire Odyssey and Macbeth (among other texts) freshmen year, I'd like to steer them more to a book that the more advanced readers won't turn their noses up at. (Believe me, I know that those books aren't worthy of scorn, but it's a perception thing. These girls just finished middle school and want to believe they are too old for that.)

Thanks, Java!

ETA: "Expected" isn't really what I meant, I guess, Connie. No, many students won't be familiar with sonnets, but some will. These are the type of sonnets that are typically taught in high school or undergrad.

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Pix, that looks great (well, except for WSS which I loathed, but the course sounds very interesting and I'm sure you would make me love it)!

Note:

de Laclos translated by Dowson

Generally when you use the last name alone you should drop the "de" so it would just be Laclos. Sorry, pet peeve of mine! (See also the use of "de Tocqueville" and "de Beauvoir" which drive me batty.)

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