Well Wuthering Heights was so godawful it made me want to jump out the window. Does that count?

I guess my teachers understood the importance of not buttering up life.

1984 - 9th grade
Lord of the Flies/Hamlet - 10th grade
Heart of Darkness - 12th grade

I highly recommend Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad. I hear this book mentioned multiple times by different artists.

Didn't discover Atwood's Oryx and Crake until after college. I can't imagine it being a high school text. Seems like a (amazing) children's book...well middle school. I read it in one sitting.

Oryx and Crake is definitely one of the most accessible and engaging of them all, I think. I finally got my boyfriend to read on a regular basis and this was the book he started on, and he loved it

Hated Heart of Darkness. I was one of the only students who actually read it too, instead of just watching Apocalypse Now and bullshitting.

That's a shame, hopefully the teacher wasn't stupid enough to fall for that?

I feel a re-read of Heart of Darkness is in order. I delved so deep into the book, digging out all the tropes and meanings and unintended meanings I should hate it... but I don't, I love it. Similar to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Killed it, but still like it a lot.

We watched Apocalypse Now after we finished the book completely and tested past it. I remember the book more than the movie.

It was agonizingly dull to my 12th grade self. I wonder if I'd have the patience for it now.

Yeah, nothing screams "children's book" like the end of the world, child prostitution and people getting their throat slit.

My buddy had trouble with that too. You don't think that's what the future has in store? The writing style and my feelings on those topics go hand in hand. I brushed right through all that stuff with a shrug. And so did the author.

Your saying kids can't learn about dystopia before high school? All I meant by it was the reading skill level of the book was middle school worthy, but the story is great for anyone. No hard words, no difficult concepts, a fairly engaging premise, can sit down and read it in less than a day. 1984 took me a week to finish, for example.

I didn't have trouble with those things, I'm just saying they're hardly hallmarks of children's literature.

Nope, just saying it's not what I'd describe as a children's book. I myself read On the Beach and Johnny Got His Gun in junior high (on my own, not for class) and loved both of them. I still wouldn't describe either of them as children's literature.

To be honest I found Oryx and Crake kind of hard to get through. Not because it was difficult to read, just because most of it was kind of dull. I liked the premise but I thought it could have been better executed.

Have you read Year of the Flood? It's apparently the prequel, same kind of story but I found it much more compelling than Oryx and Crake.