I think the English teachers just presume that everybody is miserable in high school and need literature that validates that. But Emmett is not by nature miserable.

Ouch.

I only teach nonfiction and I love it. (Not in AP lit obviously). We do mostly text sets and the occasional full length non fic. To prepare most kids for college non fiction is way more relevant. As part of class, kids read full length works of whatever outside of class, mostly fiction. I have less if an issue with nonfiction than with a strict adherence to the canon. But my course title is Expository Reading and Writing. It is the only 12th grade option other than AP Lit. Unlike Emmett's school we don't do a lot of issue novels. We just finished Pygmalion and The Importance of Being Ernest.

David, which books would you suggest instead? Where are these happy happy joyful books?

Pygmalion!

Handmaids tale has a relatively redemptive ending too.

For a dystopian novel that is.

I've never read it! Although I know the basic story. (Pygmalion, I mean.)

Where do you draw the line between an issue novel and a non-issue novel? I just can't think of a lot of books about generally content people that wouldn't be incredibly boring, but I also find books cathartic. Even something like Little Women has plenty of conflict and drama in it.

I don't think I would classify i A Handmaid's Tale as a *happy* read, though, despite the ending.

As long as we are talking about this-- did Archer actually have sex with Countess Olenska or were they just hangingout outside the bounds of convention.

I can't really think of many happy joyful novels that we would study in English lit, but maybe the canon should include genre fiction?

Enchanted April is a semi happy novel, now that I think about it.

In my reading, they're full of UST and angst, Sophia.