Summer camp for book lovers
By the time most teens graduate from high school, they鈥檝e read a standard, if small, list of classics. If you or yours have graduated from high school, chances are you (or your children) have read most of the following 鈥� 鈥�To Kill a Mockingbird,鈥� 鈥�Of Mice and Men,鈥� 鈥�The Catcher in the Rye,鈥� 鈥淎nimal Farm,鈥� 鈥�Lord of the Flies,鈥� 鈥�The Great Gatsby,鈥� and 鈥淭he Scarlet Letter,鈥� among others.
But a lot of good books go unread, a lot of teens don鈥檛 read much outside the classroom, and a lot of them don鈥檛 read much at all after high school. Throw a lazy summer vacation into the mix and reading comes to a standstill in some homes.
Enter , a unique summer camp for book lovers. Created for middle- and high-school students, and held at Amherst College and Stanford University, the camp is designed to introduce less-frequently read literature to teens and help them discover critical reading and thinking skills over those long summer breaks.
鈥淕reat Books faculty not only stresses the importance of reading but introduces exceptional literature that students wouldn鈥檛 typically discover on their own,鈥� says co-founder and academic director Peter Temes.
Mr. Temes says teens aren鈥檛 always introduced to a variety of writing 鈥� just the same inventory of high school literature. A wider range of works 鈥� including more poetry, essays, and foreign works 鈥� can expand teens鈥� literary repertoire and introduce them to new ways of thinking, reading, and writing.
Below, he offers a list of 10 literary works your children probably aren鈥檛 reading in school.
鈥淭his list offers classic pieces of work that pose challenging questions and help hone students鈥� critical thinking skills beyond the classroom,鈥� Temes notes.
1. 鈥淟eaves of Grass鈥� by Walt Whitman
2. 鈥淎n American Childhood鈥� by Annie Dillard
3. 鈥淭he Metamorphosis鈥� by Franz Kafka
4. 鈥淎pology鈥� by Plato
5. 鈥淭he Iliad鈥� by Homer
6. The poems of Sappho
7. 鈥�Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood鈥� by Marjane Satrapi
8. The poetry of Pablo Neruda
9. 鈥淕impel the Fool鈥� by Isaac Baschevis Singer
10. The essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
-- Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
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